Chicken Pulao Recipes

Steps:

• Heat oil in a heavy bottomed pot. To this, add bay leaves, cloves, cardamom pods and cinnamon. Sauté until fragrant.
• Add cashews and sauté until light golden brown.
• Next, add onion slices, green chilies, curry leaves, salt and turmeric and fry on medium heat until onions turn golden brown.
• Add minced garlic and minced ginger. Fry until the raw smell goes off.
• Add chicken and mix well. Cover and cook on medium-low flame until chicken is almost cooked through.
• Then add cumin powder, coriander powder, red chili powder, garam masala powder, mint and cilantro. Mix well.
• Add water and mix well. Adjust the seasoning as needed. Once water is boiling, add soaked rice and gently stir to combine.
• Cook on high flame for 6 to 8 min. Then, cover and cook on low flame until all the water evaporates and the rice is cooked through, stirring gently.
• Serve hot with cucumber or onion raita.

Steps:

• Place chicken pieces, onions and hot water in a large pot.
• Cover and simmer for about 1 hour.
• Add salt to taste.
• Remove chicken, reserving stock & discard cooked onions.
• Preheat oven to 325°F.
• Heat 2 tbs of the butter over medium high heat and fry chicken pieces containing bones, salting as needed.
• Boil a large amount of water with sea salt and cook the rice in it for exactly 8 minutes. Set aside in a pot until ready to assemble.
• Make stock sauce:
• Brown onions in butter and remove from heat.
• Add cardamom cumin, freshly ground black pepper & saffron liquid and mash with onion to form a paste.
• Add about 1/2 pt of the chicken stock; simmer for 5 minutes and taste for seasoning.
• Combine cooked rice, stock sauce as needed (I don't find it became a sauce so I added the onion paste with some broth as needed to finish cooking the rice) and chicken; place in a buttered casserole. Cover.
• Fry carrot matchsticks in 1/2 tbs butter and add dark raisins to them at the very end.
• Sprinkle partially cooked carrot matchsticks and raisins on top of chicken and rice and cover tightly with aluminum foil or cover.
• Place in oven for 35 minutes.
• Chopped toasted pistachios or slivered almonds may be added over the dish just before serving if so wished.
• There most probably will be left over stock that is very good even as a soup on it's own and probably served that way in an Afghani household.
• Enjoy!