Chicken with Caramalized Onions & Cardamom Rice

Chicken with caramelized onion & cardamom rice is a total comfort food. Aromatic and delicious one pot meal, a sheer bliss!!

Now the summer season is here, that time of the year when it is hot like hell and when I want to spend less time in kitchen do up some quick meals yet the food has to be delicious. One pot meals come in very handy here. I keep talking about A & A more often and now you know that they are growing from tiny babies and have started to understand spices, the flavors. Since they see me in the kitchen more often their expectations from me are high, so the food cooked has to be seriously good. And all this wouldn’t have been possible without the word of praise and encouragement without you lovelies. I sincerely want to thank each one of you for your beautiful words of appreciation.

Very recently while working on a blog post I realized that our favorite Chicken Dum Biryani has still not made appearance on my blog. Have you tried chicken dum biryani yet?? Well if haven’t then you must as it will surely take your heart away, will surely share my recipe soon. Since it is too hot to cook biryani, after a lot of brainstorming came into picture so very fragrant and extremely delicious Chicken with caramelized onion and cardamom rice.

“Some foods are so comforting, so nourishing of body and soul, that to eat them is to be home again after a long journey.– Eli Brown”

Yes, today I’m serving a Middle Eastern delicacy. Beautiful and aromatic basmati rice, that subtle flavor of chicken and those spices and fresh herbs is a sure show stopper dish. We Indians love our rice dishes so much and when I first saw this recipe I just couldn’t stop me from cooking this and make an appearance on Fingers Are For Burning. This rice dish is so light, flavorful and well seasoned that you would not need anything else to go with it. I am serving this dish with delicately spiced yogurt.

The chicken and rice dish is absolutely delicious one pot meal and all it needs is an hour to whip this up. Perfect for your Saturday dinner and great for entertaining as well. The actual dish requires barberries but replaced them with cranberries as here in India can’t find them. The process of making is pretty simple, start by caramelizing the onions once done remove from the pan. While the onions are being caramelized marinate the chicken in salt, pepper, whole spices and olive oil. You now have to pan fry the chicken both sides till cooked. And please use the same pan and same oil for maximum flavor. Once the chicken is cooked remove, add the rice, fried onions, cranberries, cooked chicken in the same pan. Add boiling water and let it simmer away for good 30 – 35 minutes. Once done allow resting time for 10 min before you fluff up. Once you remove the lid it is so aromatic from the spices that went in the making and cranberries lend that perfect sweetness occasionally. Served it up with some spiced yogurt and fresh salad. We loved this recipe so much, it is just so amazing.

The recipe for Chicken with caramelized onion and cardamom rice has been adapted from “Jerusalem” by Yotam Ottolenghi, Israeli born British Chef. A few days back I was browsing for a recipe and I happened to find him and got to know about this book Jerusalem. Simply couldn’t resist and ordered a copy for me which was received last week. I have to say this cookbook has so many interesting, flavorful recipes and gorgeous pictures which will make you start cooking. Now I have so many of them on my to do list and now I’m off to preparing the grocery list. What are waiting for dear friends, I’m sure after reading the recipe you are heading straight to your kitchen to play with your pots and pans and serve your family this delicious and aromatic Chicken with caramelized onions and cardamom rice.

Recipe below.

Ingredients

· 30 grams cranberries

· 5 tbsp olive oil

· 2 large red onions, sliced fine

· 1 kg chicken thighs with bone

· 10 cardamom pods

· ½ tsp whole cloves

· 2 long cinnamon sticks

· 300 grams basmati rice

· 550 ml boiling water

· 5 grams parsley chopped

· 5 grams fresh coriander chopped

Instructions

· Take a large pan with lid, heat half the olive oil add onions and cook over medium heat for 10 – 15 minutes, stirring occasionally until the onions are deep golden brown. Remove the onions and set aside.

· While the onions are caramelizing, place the chicken in a large mixing bowl and season with 1 ½ tsp salt and black pepper.Add the remaining olive oil, cardamom, cloves and cinnamon and mix everything well.

· Once the onions are caramelized remove from the pan and set aside. In the same pan add the chicken and sear on each sides for 5 minutes till 70% cooked. Remove the chicken from the pan and set aside. There will be oil and few spices sticking to the pan its perfectly ok.

· In the same pan, add the rice, caramelized onions, 1 tsp salt and plenty of crushed black pepper, add the dried cranberries, mix well. Return the seared chicken into the pan and push into the rice.

· Pour the boiling water over the rice and chicken, cover the pan and cook on very low heat for 30 minutes. Take the pan off the heat after 30 minutes, remove the lid and quickly place aluminum foil
over the pan and seal with the lid. Leave undisturbed for 10 minutes. Finally add the herbs, and using a fork stir them in and fluff up the rice. Serve with yogurt raita of your choice.

Bon Appétit!!

Thanks so much,