Chicken Pilaf

Ingredients:

• 1.5lb of boneless chicken meat
• 28 oz of rice
• 3 carrots
• 2 onions
• Garlic head
• About ½ cup of vegetable oil (sunflower or olive)
• Salt to taste
• Spices:
  • 1 tea spoon of cumin
  • ½ tea spoon of turmeric
  • 1 tea spoon of ground black pepper
  • 1 tea spoon of paprika
  
  

How to prepare, step-by-step:

1. Prepare ingredients: any part of chicken will work here, but I’ve used boneless skinless chicken thighs:

   

2. Pour rice to bowl or cooking pot, rinse it with cold water and leave in the water to soak:

   

3. Warm up about 1/2 cups of vegetable oil in cooking pot (if you have a cast-iron one use it for best results). Peel onions, slice them into quarter circles and add to the cooking pot. Fry onions over moderate-high heat until golden brown, stir from time to time:

   

4. Add chicken sliced into pieces about 1.5” inch big, fry chicken for about 5 mins:

   

5. Add mix of spices (cumin, turmeric, ground black pepper, paprika):

   

6. Add about 2 cups of water, bring to boil, reduce heat to it lightly simmers and let chicken cook for about 10 mins:

   

7. Meanwhile clean and slice carrots, add them to the cooking pot. Starting from this point it is important not to stir:

   

8. Season with salt (about 1 table spoon):

   

9. Carefully drain free water from the rice you were rinsing earlier and add it to the cooking pot:

   

10. Level rice so it is evenly distributed:

    

11. Carefully add water until rice is fully covered with about 0.8 inch. Cover pot with a lid, reduce heat and cook for about 20 mins:

    

12. Separate garlic head into cloves (you can also peel them, but I prefer to keep inner layer of skin on):

    

13. Press garlic cloves vertically to rice, cover pot with a lid and continue cooking until rice is soft (depends on rice and cooking pot it can be 10-15 mins more):

    

14. Then turn heat off, mix everything:

    

15. And serve: