Recipe from Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi
Adapted by Julia Moskin
- Total Time
- 1 hour, plus 30 minutes’ cooking and 10 minutes’ resting
- Rating
- 5(2,060)
- Notes
- Read community notes
A stunningly fragrant one-pot meal, this chicken and rice dish came to The Times from Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi’s smash hit "Jerusalem: A Cookbook." Spiced with cinnamon, cardamom and whole cloves, its aromatic earthiness is balanced by plenty of herbs — dill, parsley and cilantro — for freshness and tang. And caramelized onions and dried barberries (or currants) contribute a gentle sweetness. This is dinner party food that is at once elegant and supremely comforting. —Julia Moskin
Featured in: ‘Jerusalem’ Has All the Right Ingredients
Learn: How to Make Rice
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Ingredients
Yield:4 servings
- 3tablespoons sugar (40 grams)
- 2½tablespoons barberries, or use currants (25 grams)
- 4tablespoons olive oil
- 2medium onions, thinly sliced (2 cups, or 250 grams)
- 2¼pounds skin-on, bone-in chicken thighs (1 kilogram), or 1 whole chicken, quartered
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 10cardamom pods
- Rounded ¼ teaspoon whole cloves
- 2long cinnamon sticks, broken in two
- 1⅔cups basmati rice (300 grams)
- 2¼cups boiling water (550 milliliters)
- 1½tablespoons flat-leaf parsley leaves (5 grams), chopped
- ½cup dill leaves (5 grams), chopped
- ¼cup cilantro leaves (5 grams), chopped
- ⅓cup Greek yogurt (100 grams), mixed with 2 tablespoons olive oil (optional)
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Nutritional analysis per serving (4 servings)
1192 calories; 74 grams fat; 16 grams saturated fat; 0 grams trans fat; 41 grams monounsaturated fat; 12 grams polyunsaturated fat; 83 grams carbohydrates; 4 grams dietary fiber; 16 grams sugars; 48 grams protein; 1332 milligrams sodium
Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
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Step
1
Put the sugar and scant 3 tablespoons water in a small saucepan and heat until the sugar dissolves. Remove from the heat, add the barberries, and set aside to soak. If using currants, you do not need to soak them in this way.
Step
2
Meanwhile, heat half the olive oil in a large sauté pan for which you have a lid over medium heat. Add the onion, and cook for 10 to 15 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the onion has turned a deep golden brown. Transfer the onion to a small bowl and wipe the pan clean.
Step
3
Place the chicken in a large mixing bowl and season with 1½ teaspoons each salt and black pepper. Add the remaining olive oil, cardamom, cloves and cinnamon and use your hands to mix everything together well. Heat the frying pan again and place the chicken and spices in it. Sear chicken for 5 minutes on each side and remove from the pan (this is important as it part-cooks the chicken). The spices can stay in the pan, but don’t worry if they stick to the chicken. Remove most of the remaining oil as well, leaving just a thin film at the bottom. Add the rice, caramelized onion, 1 teaspoon salt and plenty of black pepper. Drain the barberries and add them as well. Stir well and return the seared chicken to the pan, pushing it into the rice.
Step
4
Pour the boiling water over the rice and chicken, cover the pan, and cook over very low heat for 30 minutes. Take the pan off the heat, remove the lid, quickly place a clean tea towel over the pan, and seal again with the lid. Leave the dish undisturbed for another 10 minutes. Finally, add the herbs and use a fork to stir them in and fluff up the rice. Taste and add more salt and pepper if needed. Serve hot or warm with yogurt mixture if you like.
Ratings
5
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2,060
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Cooking Notes
Bri
I was disappointed by this dish--it was OK but flavour needs to be amped up. In a roasting pan, cook sliced onions until caramelized and remove too a bowl. In 1-2 tbsp oil, toast spices a few minutes then add rice and sauté. Add in onions and double the amounts of currants, then sub chicken stock for water (add just to level of rice in pan). Pop chicken parts on top of rice and bake, 375F until rice is cooked, chicken skin is crispy and meat is done. Add herbs and serve.
Ellen Nenner
Note: the cardamon pods should be removed before serving this dish. Neither this recipe nor the Ottolenghi recipe calls for it. My guests found eating the whole cardamon pods very unpleasant. I have since removed them just before I serve the dish, retaining the cardamon flavor through the cooking process. I also put in lots more fried onions which give the dish even more flavor.
Christina
Very flavorful dish! Gets much easier to make after the first time. I substituted barberries with currants and used boneless skinless thighs. Also not a huge fan of dill, so I used more cilantro and a touch of mint and parsley. This was even better than I imagined it would be. Highly recommend having yogurt on the side as it elevates the flavors.
Marta
You aren't supposed to eat the cardamom pods, just as you wouldn't eat the cinnamon sticks....
Meryl Soto-Schwartz
This was one of the best chicken dinners of all time! I used brown basmati rice, and while I allowed extra cooking time the increased time was significantly more than I expected. This might also be due to my having doubled the recipe. I used more currants than called for, and I'm glad I did.
hermsoven
Very good and not difficult. The cardamom pods disintegrated and were not a problem to our diners. The few cloves that were discovered were easily removed to the side with any cinnamon shards. Even chewing on a clove turned out not to be life threatening. Light brown rice works well in place of Basmati. The small quantity of dill is an important flavor.
Suggestion: before messing around with a recipe, try it on your diners first as written, especially if the author is a respected professional.
Theresa
I substituted 2 teaspooons of ground cardamom and 1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon - perfect! I also started cooking brown basmati rice in separate pot while the chicken was searing and then added it to the chicken when the searing was done. This helped cut down on the overall cooking time caused by using brown rice. Also perfect! A new family favorite!
Jmk
Similar to a mild Indian Palao. I made it with barberries the first time, but they're very expensive these days, and they do not provide an essential flavor. The currants are just as good if not better IMO.
Lily
Also, I approached this dish as if I were making a tahdig and so I also used my dutch oven to form a great crust on the bottom. I minimized the number of times I'd have to pop open the lid (and release the steam!). To make sure the crust was crisping up, I just listened for a sizzling noise.
Note: putting the whole pot + with the lid on on a cold/wet towel is SO ESSENTIAL. It contracts the rice and helps the crust release from the bottom of the pot.
Figaro
Wonderfully flavorful recipe-used currants & cranberries, soaked them & used juice as part of rice liquid; omitted sugar. Crushed the cardamom pods & added the seeds. Suggestion: cloves can be nasty when bitten into-maybe toast and grind in mortar pestle; also cinnamon sticks can break into sharp little shards-tie them first? Left out the dill; it didn't compute with my taster. Husband hates yogurt, so that went too. Will make this again one day-so many recipes, so few days.
Janet
This is a really wonderful dish--perfect for a dinner party--though you can't do much ahead of time. Next time, I might try browning the onions ahead of time to minimize the the fussy part of the prep when guests are expected. I used thighs. My only suggestion is to remove the skin before returning them to the pan; the skin gets flabby and rather unpleasant. I used raisins in place of currants--and would even know where to look for barberries.
JM
I have made this dozens of times, though using the original in the "Jerusalem" cookbook. I serve it with braised greens usually, or a salad. It does help to warn guests that there are cardamom pods and cinnamon sticks lurking.
Coralia
This was perfect for these Holidays!! Fragrant, tasty. Although, instead adding altogether, I cooked first the chicken adding some home-made broth, then I took away the chicken and I added the basmati rice with the onions and barberries, then the chicken was put back almost at the end of the cooking process. The rice looked fluffy, light with a fully grain that it didn't stick. Finally, to give some "color" the dish, some tiny sliced of sweet red pepper worked nice. :D
gary
Since a lot of folks have complained that the chicken skin gets pretty soggy after it cooks in the broth, rice, etc., has anyone tried reversing the order of steps in the recipe? That is, why not sear the chicken AFTER it has been braised fully with the seasonings, rice, etc.? We do this when we make Chicken Adobo and it works very well. Haven't tried it yet on this recipe, but I don't see why it would not work here as well.
Jennie
This was fabulous. I used barberries for the first time and found them nice and tart and used whole spices. I was a little worried about the cooking process due to the reviews, so I poured the boiling water over all of the ingredients in the pan except the chicken, scraped up all of the good bits, put the chicken on top of that mixture so the it didn't get submerged, brought it to a boil, covered it and stuck it in a 350 oven for about 40 minutes, it was perfectly cooked and not soggy.
Jessica
Made a double batch as written, except using homemade chicken stock in place of the water. Such a comforting dish on a winter night.
Carol
Are we supposed to use green or black cardamom?
Michelle
Marinade chicken beforehand in ground cloves, cardamom and cinnamonWould add lemon and plenty of salt- was a little plain this timeChopped up whole chickenOkay to cook with water and not chicken stockAdded fresh dill and parsley at least 1/3 cup eachCurrant 1/3 cupHalf a lemonConsider adding garlic next time
Pasha
I similarly doubled the amount of barberries and used chicken stock instead. I also added some saffron for color and cooked the rice with a tea towel the whole time, to help made a tahdig situation. Overall the rice was a 10/10; the chicken was okayyy but could use a bit more flavour. Might try marinating for longer next time.
irene
Loved the flavors and the fact that the spices are not too strong. Delicious and comforting but I am not sure it’s dinner party food when your guests have to fish out cardamom pods and cloves from their mouths. Will make again for our family though!!
Jen JW
Season chicken firstSoak basmati rice
Db
Five minutes finish under the broiler gives the rice and skin a nice crunch.
mcrgrrl
Delicious! More like 1h15m than that 1h40 it suggests. Used dried cherries, otherwise followed exactly.
babs
This is one of my favorite all-time recipes. The ease of cooking and the lovely rice makes it a winner.
Dorothy
I've made this dish a couple of times and I think it's delicious. Now I want to make it for 10 people. Has anyone doubled this recipe? I was thinking I would just cook the same recipe in two separate pans rather than trying to put it all in one. It would be too much, I think.
Larry Walter
Very good, but not as tasty as I would have expected. Some of the rice was underdone, maybe because of bad Dutch oven lid seal - next time use layer of aluminum?
Andi
Wonderful! My only alterations were to remove the skin from the chicken pieces (since it inevitably ends up soft), and pick out the spices in Step 3, bundle them up in cheesecloth, and them return them to the pot. (I don't like picking out stray cloves from my rice.). That said, always a favourite in my house.
Tennille
Wooooo- my new favorite dish! Sooo flavorful!
Josh K
have made this many times - it's basically the same thing as a biryani. change around the spices if you want a variation with more flavor
jennifer
Delicious, I used brown basmati rice and added a big more water and 5 more minutes of cooking time to ensure it was cooked properly. I thought about using stock but found it was plenty flavorful with water (a good hit of flakey sea salt added before cooking and lots of pepper).
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