Recipe
🥙 LUNCH
Lavangi
Chicken stuffed with a tangy walnut, onion, and sour-plum paste and roasted, a specialty of Azerbaijan's Caspian south.
Azerbaijani · medium · serves 4
prep 30 min · cook 75 min
~1483 cal · 104g protein · 27g carbs · 109g fat · 10g fiber · 8g sugars · 14g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Lavangi is a treasured dish of southern Azerbaijan, especially the Talysh region along the Caspian, where it is made with both chicken and fish. It is celebration food, its rich walnut stuffing a hallmark of the country's love of nuts and sour-fruit flavours.
A whole chicken, or a fish, is packed with a dense paste of ground walnuts, fried onion, and alcha, tart dried plum or sour-fruit leather, sometimes with a hit of pomegranate. Roasted or baked until the skin crisps and the stuffing turns fragrant and moist, it is served in slices with the savoury-sour filling. The combination of rich meat, buttery walnuts, and sharp fruit is quintessentially Azerbaijani.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally gluten-, dairy-, egg- and pork-free. No swaps needed.
Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
🥕 Vegetarian
🌱 Vegan
🌾 Gluten-Free
🥛 Dairy-Free
🥜 Nut-Free
🥚 Egg-Free
🐖 Pork-Free
Dietary labels are a cooking guide, not allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish; we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, read the label on every product you use, and note that a kitchen can cross-contaminate in ways a recipe cannot control.
Ingredients
US
Metric
Serves 4
3 lb whole chicken (or thighs)
2 cups walnuts, ground
3 onions, finely chopped
1/2 cup sour plum paste (alcha) or
2 tbsp
Hard to find? pomegranate juice boiled down hard with a squeeze of lemon - reduce it until it coats a spoon and tastes more sour than sweet; the bottled kind keeps for a year and is cheap, so this is a stopgap rather than a plan
3 tbsp oil
Instructions
1
Fry the onion until soft, then mix with the ground walnuts, sour plum paste, and pomegranate molasses into a thick stuffing.
2
Pack the stuffing into the chicken cavity (or the mushrooms/eggplant).
✎ Chef’s note
Pack the stuffing in firmly; it should be dense and moist, as its tangy richness is the whole point of lavangi.
3
Roast at 375F (190C) until the chicken is cooked through and the skin crisp, basting once.
4
Rest, then carve and serve with the walnut stuffing.
Azerbaijani Talysh tradition.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Baku. Baku cooks on the Caspian, layering saffron rice into plov with a crisp bottom crust and pinching thumbnail-sized dushbara dumplings for broth. Azerbaijani cooking loves sour fruit: pomegranate, quince, and dried plum in savoury stews.
🗺️
Azerbaijan. Azerbaijani cuisine sits on the old Silk Road, famous for saffron plov, herb-stuffed kutab, and an abundance of fresh herbs eaten by the handful. Pomegranate, quince, and tea served in pear-shaped glasses define the table.
🌍
Asia. Fermentation is the thread that runs the whole way across: soy sauce and miso, Korean doenjang and kimchi, Southeast Asian fish sauces, the soured batter behind an idli. Chilli is the newcomer among them, arriving only after 1500 with Portuguese and Spanish traders, which makes the heat in Sichuan, Thai and Korean cooking far younger than the fermenting underneath it.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Azerbaijan
PitiA slow-baked crock stew of lamb, chickpeas, and chestnuts scented with saffron and dried plum.
QutabThin, half-moon griddle breads stuffed with greens and herbs, folded and cooked until charred.
ŞəkərburaCrimped half-moon pastries filled with sweet ground nuts and cardamom, the pride of the Azerbaijani Novruz table.
Browse all Azerbaijan recipes →
Good to know
You’ll need: Oven.
Storing it: Best straight off the heat. Leftovers keep 2 to 3 days refrigerated and reheat well in a hot oven rather than the microwave.
Make it a Azerbaijan meal
Azerbaijani ChayDrink
ŞəkərburaDessert
PitiDinner
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Cuisine
Diet
Frequently asked questions
What is Lavangi?
Chicken stuffed with a tangy walnut, onion, and sour-plum paste and roasted, a specialty of Azerbaijan's Caspian south.
Where does Lavangi come from?
Lavangi is a Azerbaijani dish from Baku, Azerbaijan.
Can Lavangi be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Lavangi recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions, including several at once such as gluten-free and dairy-free together. Treat them as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Lavangi safe for people with food allergies?
Our dietary labels and substitutions are a cooking guide, not medical or allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish, but we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, always read the label on every product you use, and remember a home or commercial kitchen can cross-contaminate ingredients in ways a recipe cannot control.
How long does Lavangi take to make?
About 105 minutes total (30 minutes prep, 75 minutes cooking), serving 4.
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