White Chicken Pulao / White Rice Pilaf with Chicken

My cats are eating dates. We have got a big batch of dates as gifts during Ramadan and today I gave some of them to my husband in the evening. One of my cats came near, started sniffing as usual and then with his paw he tried to snatch it. At first we thought he was just playing and moved away the plate from him. He came around that way too and continued snatching. This time I rose up the plate and he started climbing over me. Meowing continuously and rubbing his head against my arms...he almost pleaded for the dates. Plump, big, and dark brown...those dates surely were gorgeous!! May be he fell in love with their looks!!

So I gave him one, thinking that he will soon loose his interest. But to my surprise he munched all of it and became too eager to taste another one. He ate 4 dates one by one in that way. After finishing the last one he stared at me in expectance....with his big, watery, innocent and hypnotizing eyes...but I resisted and packed the dates to the fridge again. I feared that some more dates will affect his stomach!!:p

This is the same cat which gets into fight very frequently. Actually he does not get into fight on his own....rather another cat drags him into it. I have no idea on which ground they have cleared their enmity...but it must a rough one, as the fighting is continuing for over 3-4 months.

 I have undertaken many strategies, which I have come across in many cat websites. But none of them is being of any help now. It has happened many times that we had to wake up in the middle of the night hearing sudden large scale meows...and had to intervene so that they don’t end up hurting each other.

I made this white chicken pulao on Eid and it came out fantastic. It’s like a mini Biriyani. A little mild but bursting with taste. I do not like mutton in Pulao. I think they are meant for some richer category...whereas pulao is not that rich. It’s aromatic, flavourful and hearty. So if you want to go non-veg with pulao, then tender and juicy chicken is always the best option. I have not used any major powder spices in it as of course the pulao had to be white. So I ground the whole spices and marinated the chicken with them. Curd also plays a big role in making this pulao. Curd gives this chicken pulao a richness in taste, makes the chicken tender and at the same time it  makes the rice fluffy. Using ghee in Pulao is must. But if you are restraining too much, then just add a drizzle of melted ghee in the last step of making pulao. Ghee imparts an aroma, so distinct that it is almost irreplaceable.

White Chicken Pulao

Serves 4-5

Ingredients:

2 cups of fine Basmati rice

600gm chicken on bone

2 large onions – thinly sliced

6-8 cloves of garlic – paste

2, 1 inch stick of ginger – paste

2 green chillies

1 and ½ cup of thick curd

2 potatoes – peeled and halved (totally optional)

¼ cup of cashew - lightly sautéed in oil

Salt

1 and ½ tbsp ghee (you can use half oil and half ghee)

2 tsp rose water

1 tsp kewra water / screw pine water (optional)

½ tsp mitha attar (optional)

Marinating Spices:

1 tsp cumin seeds

1 tsp coriander seeds

3 green cardamoms

3 cloves

1 medium cinnamon stick

6-7 black peppercorns

4-5 white peppercorns

½ star anise

1 mace

¼ of a nutmeg

Spices for tempering:

3-4 green cardamom

3-4 cloves

1 large cinnamon stick

2-3 medium bay leaves

Method:

Dry roast the ingredients listed under the marinating spices for 1 minute, or until you start to get their pungent aroma. Do not roast for long and make them black. The spices should be a little brownish after roasting.

Let them come to room temperature and then grind them to a fine powder.

Take the chicken pieces in a bowl. Add in the thick curd, ginger –garlic paste, salt and all of the ground spices. Let the chicken marinate for 30 minutes to 1 hour.

Wash the rice with water until clear water runs out and then soak the rice in water for 30 minutes.

Once the marination is done, take a heavy bottomed pan / dutch oven / dechki for cooking.

Heat 1 tbsp ghee / oil in it. Once the ghee is completely melted, put the tempering spices into it.

Sauté for some seconds or until the oil becomes aromatic.

Then add in all the sliced onions. Stir and cook till the onions become golden brown.

Now add the marinated chickens with all the marinating paste.

Mix well and let the chicken cook until they start to change colour from both the sides. Add whole green chillies and cook for more 3-5 minutes or until the marinating paste is cooked and becomes thick and sticky.

Add the potatoes and sautéed cashews. Give a good stir to mix well.

Drain water from the rice and add the rice to the chicken. Mix well and add in 2 and ½ cups of water. Generally we need almost 4 cups of water to cook 2 cups of rice, but we already have enough moisture in curd, chicken and onions. Also we will add rose and screw pine water, so reducing water at this stage is necessary.

Pour the rose water, screw pine water, mitha attar and the rest of the ghee. Mix again.

Put cover and cook till the rice is all cooked. Cooking should be done entirely on low flame. Cooking the rice will take somewhat 15-20 minutes depending on your quality of rice.  

Once the rice is all done, fluff the rice with a fork and serve hot with some raita.