Jeweled rice is long grain rice, cooked with onions, spices, and stock, with nuts and dried fruit stirred through at the end. Persian chicken is traditionally served with jeweled rice pilaf. The chicken breast will start to open up like a book and if you continue to cut through you will be left with two fillets. Take a long sharp knife and carefully cut horizontally through the chicken breast, trying to keep your knife parallel to the chopping board at all times. To fillet a chicken breast, lay the chicken breast flat on a chopping board with the smooth side facing up. Roast in the oven for 30 minutes or until cooked through. This ensures that the whole fillet stays juicy and tender when cooked and makes the time needed to cook less. Put the chicken in a roasting tin, drizzle with the olive oil and scatter the sesame seeds over.
The beauty of chicken fillets is that they cook quickly and are usually more even in thickness. You can buy chicken fillets or escallops from the butcher if you prefer. The recipe calls for two large chicken breasts and these are going to be cut into 4 fillets. (This is because we are using chicken breast fillets - see below)īe sure to cook it over high heat so you get some wonderful color on the outside of the breast. The chicken needs just 3 minutes on each side and it will be juicy and tender. The chicken can then be cooked on a grill or in a heavy skillet/frying pan. Once the chicken has had its time in the marinade, you want to bring it out of the refrigerator for 10-15 minutes to take off the chill from the meat and allow the olive oil to soften. We usually add it to the marinade in the morning and cook it for dinner, so it gets around 10 hours. The chicken can then be covered and left to marinate for an hour or up to 24 hours. These are all mixed together with some olive oil and a crushed garlic clove. In a small mixing bowl, mix the spices with the olive oil, honey, lemon zest and juice and some salt and pepper. Serve with the harissa yogurt, sprinkled with the coriander leaves and pomegranate seeds.The seasonings used to marinade the chicken breasts are all common spices that you probably already have in your pantry/cupboard. Method Heat the oven to 200C/180C fan/gas 6. Return the chicken to sit on top of the rice and tuck the strips of orange peel and the cinnamon sticks into the rice. Tip the rice mix into the tin, season with salt and mix it well with the roasting juices. In a bowl, mix the cooked rice, chickpeas, almonds, apricots and preserved lemon, breaking up larger clumps of rice.įor the harissa yogurt, mix the yogurt in a bowl with the herbs and a pinch of salt, add the harissa and gently stir to marble it through.Īfter the 20 minutes' cooking time, remove the tin from the oven and, using tongs, transfer the chicken to a plate. If you don't have a pestle and mortar, crush the cardamom with the back of a spoon and mix with the spices and oil in a bowl.Īfter the 30 minutes, baste the chicken and onion with the juices in the tin and brush the chicken with the spiced oil. Meanwhile, remove the cardamom from the pods and crush in a pestle and mortar, add the other spices and the oil and mix together. Scatter the onion among the chicken roast for 30 minutes. Season them with crushed sea salt and pepper. Persian Roasted Chicken with Dried Cherry-Saffron Rice Recipe Meat. Arrange the thighs in a large roasting tin, about 25 x 35 x 7cm deep.
Cut any excess fat and skin off the chicken thighs – using scissors is the easiest way to do this. Preheat the oven to 200☌, fan 180☌, gas 6. Make the spiced oil, the rice mix and the harissa yogurt several hours ahead.