I grew up enjoying this simple but tasty rice dish which my mom used to make now and then when she was in a good mood. This is a very simple dish to impress your guests instead of plain rice with some side dishes or relish. It is a very wholesome and tasty dish which you can easily enjoy on its own as your simple dinner.
Ingredients
- 4 chicken legs (whole chicken cut into 6-8 pieces) on the bone and de-skinned
- 2 cloves of garlic, peeled
- 0.5 tsp salt
- 0.25 tsp turmeric powder
- 2-3 bay leaves (optional)
- 1 cup or about 300g of basmati rice, washed and soaked for about 10 minutes
- 1 tblsp ghee or vegetable oil
- 1 tblsp cumin seeds
- 1 green chilli halved (optional)
- 1 large or 2 small red onions, finely sliced
- 1 tsp peeled and crushed garlic
- 1 tsp peeled and finely chopped ginger
- 4 tblsp green peas (frozen is fine)
- 1 tsp salt or to your taste
- 0.5 tsp garam masala *
- 2 handfuls of chopped coriander or mint
Method
I grew up enjoying this simple but tasty rice dish which my mom used to make now and then when she was in a good mood. This is a very simple dish to impress your guests instead of plain rice with some side dishes or relish. It is a very wholesome and tasty dish which you can easily enjoy on its own as your simple dinner.
- First add chicken, garlic, turmeric powder, salt, bay leaves to a heavy pot with 2 cups of water, cover and cook for about 45 minutes to 1 hour or until chicken is well cooked.
- Drain the stock from the chicken and put it aside. When chicken is cool enough to handle take the meat from from the bone and leave it aside.
- Now heat the ghee or oil in a pot. When it's smoking hot add cumin seeds and fry for about 5 seconds then add green chilli (if using), garlic , ginger, onion, peas and salt. Cook for about 1-2 minutes.
- Add soaked and drained rice, stir and cook for about a minute. Then add 1½ cups of stock which we put aside earlier in the pot and let it boil. Cover and cook on a low to medium heat for about 5-8 minutes or until all water evaporates and rice is all cooked.
- Turn the heat off, stir in the chicken pieces with garam masala and fresh coriander. Let the rice rest for about 4-5 minutes and serve hot with some chutney or any side.
- * Garam masala – 1 pepper cone, 1 clove, 1cm cinnamon stick, 4 green cardamom pods de-skinned, ground in a pestle and mortar.
