Boneless Chicken Pulao

Did you guys notice the url? YES, it's now sunshineandsmile.com 🙂 Isn't that cool ? I wanted to do that for a while now. But then, life got busy and I wanted to be sure if I was enjoying blogging. Finally, Arvind realized that I am not only enjoying blogging, but kind of getting addicted to it. So, he spent his entire evening yesterday working on my site and changed it to the new url 🙂 The other url is still active and it will redirect you to this site, but eventually it will stop.

 
As for today's recipe, let me start by sharing an interesting fact that I recently learned. 'It is believed that proper preparation of pilaf/ pulao was first documented by the tenth century Persian scholar Abu Ali Ibn Sina, who in his books on medical sciences dedicated a whole section to preparing various meals, including several types of pulao, and described advantages and disadvantages of every item used for preparing it. Accordingly, some Tajiks consider Ibn Sina to be the "father" of modern pilaf'. What is Pulao? It's a rice dish that is cooked in a seasoned broth with either meat or vegetables. If you Google, you will find so many different varieties of pulao that you may start to wonder!
 

 
Today, it was just one of those lazy days when I just don't want to move from my couch or bed. I just want to lie down and either read a book or watch a movie. It's nice to let your bones go lazy in a while! So, I watched 2 movies back to back.. Phew !! Felt NICE 🙂 Did you guys see this TV Commercial which says that 'a body at rest tends to stay at rest..' and it goes on.. It's about some medicine. Well, my body denied to move even after relaxing like a lazy bum for so many hours, but my tummy was scolding me, asking for food.. cooked food, no junk!
 

 
Finally, I got up and had a cup of coffee. I was still feeling lazy and so, I took the easy way out - I decided to make the pulao. It's not too complicated to make this pulao, but like I said, there are tons of variety and this is just one of them. An easy breezy Chicken Pulao.
 

Boneless Chicken Pulao

Kankana Saxena

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Ingredients

 

• ½ pound boneless chicken (cut in bite size)
• 1 cup basmati rice (soaked in water for 30 minutes)
• 2 eggs (hard boiled (optional))
• 1 medium red onion finely sliced (plus extra for garnishing.)
• 1 cup finely chopped parsley. I would have preferred cilantro (but parsley was all I had)
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 1 tablespoon cumin seed
• 1 tablespoon carom seed/ ajwain
• 1 tablespoon fennel seeds
• 2 red chillies
• 1 star anise
• 2 bay leaves
• ¼ tablespoon sugar
• 3 cloves garlic (finely chopped)
• 1 tablespoon ginger (finely chopped)
• salt and pepper
• oil

Instructions

 

• In a pan, dry roast the whole spices (fennel seeds, carom seeds, cumin seeds and red chillies). Do not add any oil.
• Grind the roasted spices to fine dust and rub it on the chicken with some salt and pepper. Let it marinate for about 20 minutes.
• In a pan, heat some oil and add bay leaf, cinnamon stick, star anise, garlic and ginger.
• Next, add the onions and saute in medium heat till they are golden brown.
• Now, add the chicken and fry the chicken on both the sides, till they are slightly brown in color.
• Take the chicken out and keep it aside.
• In the same pan, put the rice and fry for about 5 minutes . Keep sauteing to avoid the rice from getting burnt.
• Add parsley to the rice and saute for another minute.
• Finally, add the chicken, salt and pepper to the rice. Also, add enough hot water to boil the rice. Start by pouring water to cover the rice completely, and if required, you can add a little more later. The entire idea is not to add too much water or else, it will become soggy.
• In a separate pan, fry the extra thinly sliced onions (about ½ cup) till they are golden brown.
• Slice the boiled egg in half.
• Garnish your plate with the fried onion and boiled egg.
• Serve it hot!

Nutrition

Serving: 1Servings