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Turkey Chili
Eric Kim
1564 ratings with an average rating of 4 out of 5 stars
1,564
45 minutes
Updated Jan. 8, 2024
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Rinse and soak the rice: Place the rice in a medium bowl. Cover with cool tap water, use your hand to gently agitate the grains, then drain. Repeat at least two more times or until the water runs clear enough for you to see your hand through it. Cover with cool water and let soak for at least 15 minutes and up to 2 hours.
Drain the rice. Add the butter to a heavy-bottomed medium saucepan with a tight-fitting lid. Melt over medium heat until foamy. Add the rice and cook, stirring frequently, until the grains look shiny, smell nutty, and sizzle and sputter in the butter, 5 to 7 minutes.
Add the water and ½ teaspoon salt and stir to combine: For short-grain rice, add 2 cups water. For medium-grain rice, add 3 cups water. For long-grain rice, add 4 cups water.
Cover with a tight-fitting lid and increase the heat to high. Once you hear the water actively bubbling, reduce the heat to the lowest setting. Cook, without disturbing or lifting the lid, for 18 minutes.
Uncover the pilaf, fluff with a fork, and evaluate: The grains should be tender and moist (they will become more distinct and firm after resting). The water should all be absorbed. If so, cover and rest for 15 minutes, taste and add more salt if desired then serve. If not, troubleshoot: If the grains aren’t tender and there is no more water, drizzle over 2 tablespoons of hot tap water, cover, and steam on medium-low for another 10 minutes. If the grains are cooked, and there is still water left in the pot, uncover and cook on medium-low until it’s simmered off. Then fluff again, cover and rest for 15 minutes, taste and add more salt if desired then serve.
I'm Armenian and all of my grandparents were from Turkey. We made it like this: First, lightly brown very thin egg noodles with butter in a saucepan (my grandmother and mother used to use an entire stick of butter, but of course, that was the 60s. Three tablespoons works just fine) - just don't let them get too dark. Add the rice, thoroughly coat in the butter and then add chicken broth to cover. Simmer covered until liquid has been absorbed. Season to taste. Fluff. Perfect. Every. Time.
The repeated rinsing , soaking and discarding of the water in this recipe will effectively extract much of the B vitamins remaining in the white rice or that have been added to it via enrichment. My practice with white rice is to limit the rinsing, live with the starch and keep the B vitamins.
Parching brown rice until aromatic and colored causes it to open and be fluffier, more like white rice in texture. A neat trick for the brown rice adverse. Cook as you would normally after the toasting.
@BJ. The recipe here doesn’t call for enriched rice. In most cases, normal rice grains such as aren’t enriched and should always be rinsed before cooking. There is light traces of arsenic from the soil found in rice even in organic rice and should be rinsed off. Rinsing the rice also reduces the excessive starch in rice making the resulting cooked rice lighter and fluffier.
Can this be adapted to a rice cooker?
This is the best rice I’ve ever made. I followed the recipe exactly. Thank you.
I am assuming that after step 2, all ingredients can be transferred to a rice cooker. Step 5 has detailed instructions, it seems, for those uninitiated in rice cooking. Any thoughts on why this might not transfer to a rice cooker successfully?
I’m Indian born in Kolkata, India. My family members cooked this dish on all the religious occasions. And we loved it all the time cause It’s great. And it’s one of the most tasty foods that you’ll ever taste. Try it and feel the smell of heaven in your nostrils. Good luck….
Thanks for this useful recipe but would like to point out it is never advisable to use water from the hot tap for consumption as this water contains containments (even 2 Tbs from the step to take if your rice has not cooked sufficiently after 18 min).
My Mother, from Northern Illinois, learned to make rice this way while working in Brazil. Back in the States, American cooks were astonished to see her “fry the rice before boiling it”. And all the more astonished about the fluffy outcome. (“It’s not even the instant rice!”) As suggested in the recipe, she also added chopped onions and minced garlic. The rice was ready to be steamed when it had become opaque.
Ever since I left my mother's house (she relied on Uncle Ben's Instant Rice, which I hated) and began cooking for myself, I have always cooked rice like this. I just thought this was how rice was cooked. Now I am going to make myself sound fancy and say I am cooking pilaf!
I do a cheater parching where I spread the dry rice on a toaster over tray and toast it then proceed as for regular stove top rice.
You will likely get something closer to a risotto than a pilaf by using arborio rice. Creamy as opposed to fluffy.
Living g in San Antonio TX rice is a major part of Tex Mex cooking. I received a tip from someone to place a tea towel between the pan and lid during the steaming process at the end. I get fluffy rice every time whether I toast it first or not. Have also used this technique with other grains.
Hi, John It states in the description that this Pilaf can be made with almost any grain, fat, or liquid, it is supremely versatile. So I think Arborio rice would work, but this is only my assumption based on how versatile the recipe is claimed to be.
This recipe is the first time that a NYT recipe was a bust! For me, at least. I followed the instructions for rinsing and letting sit covered in water, just 15 minutes. Then sauteed in the butter per the instructions and added only 3 cups of chicken broth for 2 cups rice. Even with less water, this turned into a mushy concoction. I can't imagine what another cup of liquid would have done. Probably turned it into a porridge. Next time, no soaking.
I use a container, cup or glass filled with long-stem rice. The liquid I add is just about twice the size of the rice container. Ex: If I use one cup rice, I will add one cup water and one cup broth. I add a Tbsp. butter and a few squirts of olive oil, to the pan plus salt. I put a lid on the pan and cook on high until rice comes to a full, long boil. Then I turn off the heat, leave the lid on the pan and let it set until liquid is absorbed. Fluff with a fork. Works perfectly every time!
I just love these vids, Sohla! Love love love.
My rice was soggy. Even after resting. And it needed much more salt.
Turn up the heat with the lid on the pan until liquid is absorbed - add salt before or after to your liking.
Step 3 "add the water". Is it me or am I missing how much water to add?
I love this recipe -- it's similar to how I cook rice, except that (I can hear the horrified intake of breath already) I don't soak. I just measure it out, plunk it in a pot, add 1 tsp of Diamond Crystal Kosher salt per cup, 1 tablespoon of good butter per cup of rice, & 1 1/2 cups boiling water per cup. I cover it & peek in at about 15 minutes, when it's usually done, & then I turn off the heat, fluff it, cover it with a tea towel & then the pot lid. 5 minutes later it's gorgeous perfection.
I prefer adding olive oil to the water instead of butter. I bring the covered water to a boil, & add the rice. I recover & drop heat to low & cook until all the water is evaporated. Never had a problem with watery rice or it being undercooked.
managed to be both gluggy and undercooked!
Go back, cook some more until rice is just the way you like it. Always helps to keep the lid on the pan.
Living g in San Antonio TX rice is a major part of Tex Mex cooking. I received a tip from someone to place a tea towel between the pan and lid during the steaming process at the end. I get fluffy rice every time whether I toast it first or not. Have also used this technique with other grains.
Yes! I do the tea towel for steaming/resting at the end, EVERY time I cook any kind of rice, and it never fails. People always want more of the fluffy, perfect rice, whether it's a pilaf or just plain rice.
For those who want to know the amount of water, try reading step 3 from start to finish. It says it right there
Liquid needs to be just about twice the amt. of rice - maybe a tad less. I use the same container to measure the liquid after filling it with rice.
For the dairy averse, would olive oil work?
This is a lovely, but hardly foolproof, recipe. I find that baked rice is easier, more forgiving, and always turns out beautifully.
We made this with Carnaroli rice (an Arborio-type Italian rice often used in risottos), and it didn't turn out creamy, as some have suggested; the grains were softer, but separate and only very slightly sticky. Very delicious with the addition of shallots with the rice while parching, coriander stems laid on top while cooking, and chicken broth as the cooking liquid.
Re: amount of water. Read the recipe!
"Add the water". How much water?
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