This is a lovely one-pot full meal made frequently by our family in Pakistan, it’s an easier version of pilao/pulao as you don’t need to make any yukhni (stock) before beginning the cooking process. Its a bit like bhuna chicken, with rice all in one-pot. Enough said!
Ingredients
- 150 ml (3/4 cup) cooking oil
- 250 g (1 large) onion sliced
- 1 tbs crushed ginger
- 1 tbs crushed garlic
- 250 g (3 medium sized) fresh/tinned tomatoes crushed
- 1kg chicken with bones cut into pieces
- 3.5 tsp salt (1tsp for the chicken and 1 tsp per mug of rice)
- 2 tsp crushed black pepper
- 1 tsp red chillies (optional)
- 2 tbs whole cumin
- 2 tbs crushed dry coriander
- 4 sticks whole cinnamon
- 6 cloves
- 500 g (2 mugs) rice
Method
- Wash the rice and soak in cold water for 30 mins to an hour.
- Add the oil to a large pan, throw in the sliced onions, fry until brown, add ginger and garlic, fry together for 2 mins and add the tomatoes. Bhun until all the liquids dry up.
- Switch on oven to 135 C.
- Add the chicken pieces to the masala mixture in the pot, add salt, pepper, cumin, dry coriander, cinnamon, cloves and chillies if using and cook on medium heat for 5 minutes stirring from time to time. Cook off the liquids until the oil separates – bhun. Chicken should be half-cooked at this stage. (this is UK centric, chicken cooking time may differ in other countries).
- Carefully add 1litre (slightly under 4 mugs) of boiling water to this mixture, add the drained rice.
- Using a wooden/plastic spoon, carefully stir the whole mixture once from ‘bottom to top’ to mix in the rice with the chicken, bring to a boil and cook uncovered on medium heat.
- When ‘holes’ appear on the top and excess water has been absorbed, tightly cover with a lid/foil and place in the pre-heated oven for 10-12 minutes.
- Switch off the oven and leave the pan in the oven for another 10 minutes. Dhum! (steam cooking) – a very important stage for perfect rice!
- If not using an oven, move the tightly covered pan to the lowest setting on your stove top, and cook covered for 7-10 minutes, then switch off and leave as is for 10 minutes. Dhum!
- Open the pan carefully as it will be full of steam, gently fluff up the rice using a wooden/plastic spoon, and serve on a platter with nothing but plain natural yogurt. It’s delicious!
