Pilaf with chicken in a cauldron

Description

A well-cooked pilaf with chicken in a cauldron is a dish that really deserves a stormy and prolonged applause. The requirements for it are quite serious: rice should be crumbly, the meat part should be soft and juicy, there should not be a lot of fat, but not a little. A cast-iron cauldron helps to fulfill them, which perfectly maintains a constant temperature inside, contributing to the perfect, uniform preparation of all ingredients. Traditionally, pilaf is cooked with lamb, and the invention of the chicken version, oddly enough, is attributed to the French. Like it or not, we do not undertake to say, but it is definitely worth adopting it: after all, it is easier to buy this bird from us than good lamb. Therefore, we take a cauldron and cook pilaf with chicken, trying to comply with all the requirements of the recipe as accurately as possible!

Cooking

Step 1

Prepare the chicken for pilaf. To do this, the carcass should be cut into 9-10 pieces. Cut legs off hips. Divide them into thigh and leg at the joint. Separate the wings and neck. Cut the carcass into fragments of meat and bones.

Step 2

Peel carrots for pilaf in a cauldron, cut into plates half a centimeter thick. Cut the plates into strips.

Step 3

Cut the peeled onions for pilaf into halves and chop into half rings.

Step 4

Quince for pilaf cut into four slices and remove the core.

Step 5

Peel the garlic for pilaf with chicken from the top layer of the husk and cut the rhizome. The head must remain intact.

Step 6

Heat an empty cauldron over a fire. Pour in oil. Heat it up until smoke appears. Add the onion to the pot and sauté, stirring occasionally, until the onion turns yellow-brown in color.

Step 7

Add the chicken pieces to the onion, and stir-fry again until the chicken is browned. Add a teaspoon of salt while frying. Lay carrots on top of meat and onions. Let the carrots sweat dry for about three minutes. Pour a liter of drinking water into the cauldron. Add half of the prepared spices, except for the turmeric. Salt. One teaspoon of salt was already there, add four more. What is currently being cooked in a cauldron is the basis of pilaf, which is called “zirvak”. As soon as the water under the carrots boils, reduce the heat so that a slight boil occurs. Cook 20 minutes.

Step 8

Rinse rice for pilaf. Transfer it to a large bowl. Pour cold water into it repeatedly, stir the rice in the water with your hand, and drain the water. Repeat the procedure until the water becomes clear. Pour water over rice and set aside.

Step 9

Return to the cauldron. Spread the layer of carrots in the zirvak and dip the heads of garlic and pepper into it. Add the rest of the spices, except for the turmeric. Add washed raisins. And again simmer zirvak for half an hour on low heat.

Step 10

After half an hour, add turmeric. Boil water in a kettle. Lay quince slices cut side down on the zirvak. Drain water from rice and put on zirvak. Flatten the rice. Increase the fire to the maximum. Pour hot boiled water into the cauldron so that it barely covers the top layer of rice.

Step 11

Zirvak will boil over high heat and the water will evaporate, passing through the rice. If the rice is processed unevenly, you should mix the layers of rice from the walls to the center, where the steam comes out more strongly. As soon as the water boils away so that it is at the level of zirvak, close the pilaf. To check the water level, move the layer of rice away from the wall. Gather a layer of rice into a hemisphere. Sprinkle rice with mashed cumin. Close the cauldron with a tight lid. Reduce the fire under the cauldron to the very, very minimum. In this mode, keep pilaf for 30 minutes.

Step 12

Open plov. Move the rice layer aside and start stirring the pilaf from the bottom up. Along the way, remove pieces of meat, pepper, quince and garlic heads into the prepared plate. Clean the garlic from the husk. While stirring the rice, shake it on a cappir to make it crumbly. On a large dish - lay out a slide of rice. Spread the quince in a circle. Put the meat on top, in between - peeled garlic cloves. Pilaf with chicken is ready!