At a restaurant in Dilijan we ate roast chicken that had, to me, a distinctly Georgian flavour given the wine and walnut sauce. To serve with it, I suggest keeping it simple with a green salad, a plate of sliced tomatoes or a cucumber and herb salad.  

(Editor’s note: Caroline uses blue fenugreek in her ingredients. You can find it online and in some Continental grocers but if you do not have it you can substitute with fenugreek leaves or a smaller amount of regular fenugreek — a couple of seeds only.)

Method:

• Preheat the oven to 200°C/400°F. Remove any fat around the cavity of the chicken.
• Squeeze over the lemon juice, drizzle with the oil, season the chicken inside and out and sprinkle over the spices. Put the squeezed lemon half into the cavity.
• Place in a roasting tin, breast side down, and roast the chicken for 1 hour, or until the juices run clear after piercing the thigh and there is no pink meat. Cover and leave in a warm place to rest while you make the sauce.
• Toast the walnuts in a small, dry frying pan then put all the ingredients, except the stock and wine, in a food processor and whizz until you have a wet sand texture. Transfer it to a saucepan and add the hot stock and any juices from the resting chicken. Simmer for 10 minutes, stirring often until thickened, then add the wine, and cook down again for a couple of minutes until you have a hummus- like sauce.
• Remove from the heat, leave to cool to room temperature and check the seasoning.
• Serve the chicken hot or cold with the walnut sauce.

Recipe extracted from Green Mountains: Walking the Caucasus with recipes (Quadrille Publishing)