Chicken tahchin is one of the popular Iranian dishes, which is also known as an ceremonial dish for important events. To see the complete cooking tutorial and step by step how to prepare the delicious and special Chicken tahchin, stay with us.
Necessary ingredients for chicken tahchin for 4 people
3 cups of Iranian rice
1 whole chicken breast
Abstracted Yogurt (Maast chekideh) 1 cup
1 medium onion
2 egg yolks
Rose water 1 tablespoon
50 grams of butter
Barberry 100 grams
Powdered sugar 1 teaspoon
4 tablespoons of brewed saffron
Enough salt and black pepper
enough cinnamon and pistachio slices
Turmeric and enough oil
Powdered sugar (Poudre Qand) is powder very similar to sugar. It is qand (sugar cube) which has been ground and it is very frequently used in Persian cuisine but if you haven’t it you can use ordinary sugar.
Rice should be soaked in water for a while, roughly 2 hours
How to prepare chicken tahchin
first stage
To prepare the chicken tahchin, we first put the chicken meat together with two glasses of water, some turmeric, cinnamon and an onion into a suitable pot, then we put the pot on medium heat until the chicken is boiled.
second stage
In order to make the chicken taste better, it is better to let all the water in the pot evaporate completely, this will make the flavor of all the spices absorb into the chicken meat. After removing the chicken from the heat and letting it cool down a bit, we cut it into small pieces.
third level
After making the chicken into delicate fibers (in farsi, rish-rish), put it in a pan with a little liquid oil and fry it a little, then add some turmeric, cinnamon and black pepper to the chicken and continue roasting until the chicken is cooked with spices. It becomes uniform, then we put the chicken aside.
The fourth stage: barberries for tahchin
At this stage, we rinse the barberries, which we have soaked for 20 minutes, then fry them with powdered sugar and some butter or liquid oil in a suitable pan until the color of the barberries shines, then we set the barberries aside.
The fifth stage
Now, depending on its type, we soak the rice for 30 minutes to 3 hours with 1 teaspoon of salt and lukewarm water. Next, we put a suitable pot on the heat and fill it halfway with water and let the water boil.
The sixth stage
After the water boils, add 1 teaspoon of salt and 1 tablespoon of liquid oil to the pot. Next, we add the soaked rice to the boiling water and let it cook for 7 to 10 minutes.
The seventh stage: make colander rice
When the rice grains are completely soft, but their kernels are hard and felt hard under the teeth, we should rinse the rice. After draining the rice with colander, we set it aside. Next, pour the egg yolks into a large bowl.
The eighth stage
At this stage, we mix the egg yolks until they come out of the lumpy state, then we add the condensed or abstracted yogurt along with the rose water and brewed saffron to the bowl and mix well until the ingredients are completely mixed and uniform.
The ninth stage
At this stage, we add the drained rice to the bowl containing the egg and yogurt mixture and mix slowly until they are uniform. Next, we grease the pot that we have planned for cooking tahchin with a little oil.
tenth stage
At this stage, we pour half of the mixture on the bottom of the pot and press it well with the back of a spoon, then pour the fried chicken on the rice along with barberry. Next, we add the rest of the rice mixture to the pot.
The eleventh stage: adding butter
Now we press the rice again with the back of a spoon so that the tahchin does not fall apart after cooking and molding-out. Next, we divide the butter into small pieces and spread it on the rice. Now we put the pot on a very gentle heat.
The twelfth stage
It takes about 45 minutes to an hour to brew tahchin. At the end, after the cooking of tahchin is finished, we slowly turn it on a suitable dish like a molding-out of a cake, then we decorate it with pistachio slices and barberry.
Tips on how to prepare chicken tahchin
Cooking the chicken tahchin in the oven
First, turn on the oven with a temperature of 180 degrees Celsius so that you don’t wait for the oven to heat up when the tahchin is ready. Instead of using a pot, it is better to use a can or pot which is appropriate for oven to cook the chicken in the oven.
After greasing the pot container with liquid oil, place the ingredients for the bottom layer in the container as described above and press it, then put the butter on the different parts of the last layer of bottom layer. At the end, put a thin aluminum foil on the container and place it in the oven for an hour until it is ready.
Egg for tahchin
It is better to always use egg yolk to make the tahchin because it makes the tahchin softer and more tender at the end of cooking. If you use a whole egg, the possibility of tahchin becoming hard and dry increases.
Another thing about egg of tahchin is that using too much egg makes the tahchin dry and using less than the recommended amount makes your tahchin loose, which increases the possibility of the material falling apart and opening.
In order to have a tastier chicken in the tahchin, it is better to cook the chicken meat with the right amount of water, not too much water, and at the end of cooking the chicken, let the water in the pot be completely absorbed by the chicken meat.
To remove away the undesirable taste and smell of uncooked chicken meat, it is better to remove away the foam on the boiling water completely and use spices like cinnamon to make the chicken meat tastier. After the chicken is cooked, it is better to fry it a little.
For this purpose, we chop an onion into small pieces, then fry it with 1 tablespoon of butter. After the onion becomes light-weight, we chop the chicken meat and fry it with butter and onion to make it more delicious.
Chicken tahchin with eggplant
If you want to add eggplant to your dish, cut 2 eggplants in half for 4 people and after frying, mash them and add them to the other ingredients. Eggplant gives a good taste to tahchin, although some people do not like its taste in tahchin.
Saffron tahchin
Saffron is one of the most important food ingredients that gives a better color and aroma to the tahchin. Be sure to use quality saffron to make tahchin. Another point, be sure to brew the saffron well until all its color comes out, then add it to the tahchin.
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