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Chicken With Caramelized Onion and Cardamom Rice
![Chicken With Caramelized Onion and Cardamom Rice](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/12/21/dining/21COOKING_CHICKENnONION2/21COOKING_CHICKENnONION2-articleLarge.jpg?width=1280&quality=75&auto=webp)
- Total Time
- 1 hour, plus 30 minutes’ cooking and 10 minutes’ resting
- Rating
- Notes
- Read community notes
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Ingredients
- 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)
Preparation
- 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.
Private Notes
Cooking Notes
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.
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.
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.
You aren't supposed to eat the cardamom pods, just as you wouldn't eat the cinnamon sticks....
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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
Followed mostly bri’s suggestions. Really delicious and great umami flavor. Next time ad less liquid. Caramelized onions (takes 1hr!). Seared skinless seasoned chicken. Removed, toasted spices (add extra), smoked paprika and cumin. Added rice, onions, chopped chard for greens, extra currants. Added chicken, salt, and better than bouillon stock. Covered on low for 30mins. added more chard, cover on low for 5-10. Added spring onions, dill, chives. Serve with mint yoghurt and pickled red onions
Made a double batch as written, except using homemade chicken stock in place of the water. Such a comforting dish on a winter night.
Are we supposed to use green or black cardamom?
Marinade chicken beforehand in ground cloves, cardamom and cinnamon Would add lemon and plenty of salt- was a little plain this time Chopped up whole chicken Okay to cook with water and not chicken stock Added fresh dill and parsley at least 1/3 cup each Currant 1/3 cup Half a lemon Consider adding garlic next time
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.
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!!
Season chicken first Soak basmati rice
Five minutes finish under the broiler gives the rice and skin a nice crunch.
Delicious! More like 1h15m than that 1h40 it suggests. Used dried cherries, otherwise followed exactly.
This is one of my favorite all-time recipes. The ease of cooking and the lovely rice makes it a winner.
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.
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?
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.
Wooooo- my new favorite dish! Sooo flavorful!
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
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