not quite maqloobeh (upside down rice)
This is a traditional Jordanian dish (Palestinian?) that got bob's attention when Isgouhi had
a fantasy moment and expanded the pine nut contribution to include pistachios
and sliced almonds as well. These nuts and the cinnamon provide the hook for
this chicken and rice combo dish, "upside down" since it is traditionally served
by inverting the contents of the pot in which it is cooked onto a serving plate.
Yumm. Sounds a little trite to use such an unsophisticated word here but it
seems deliciously appropriate. Bob planned to get Isgouhi to teach him the
tricks in his own kitchen, but the teacher failed to show leaving the team no
recourse but to go ahead after a phone chat for the particulars. Of course when
she does it, she makes a family size recipe (twice this one) which has enough
bulk to nicely invert on a plate to make an attractive bit of food art, dressed
up with delicate placement of the nuts onto the resulting mound.
ingredients
- chikun base
- 1 lb chicken breasts
- water to cover
- 3 c water
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 5 peppercorns
- nut prep
- 1 c total of sliced almonds, pistachio halves and pieces, pine nuts
- 2 T butter
- rice
- 1 c Uncle Ben's long grained rice (we used brown rice for this
nontraditional experiment)
- spice mix
- 1/4 t allspice
- 1/4 t ground cloves
- 1/4 t cinnamon
- 1/4 t pepper
- 1/4 t salt
instructions
- Cover the chicken breasts with water, bring to a boil, boil 2
minutes and then remove from the heat and dump the water. [This cleans up
the chicken.]
- Add the 3 c water, cinnamon and peppercorns. Bring to a boil and boil 15
minutes.
- Remove chicken and cut up into small pieces and set aside, leaving the
liquid and spices in the pot until later.
- Brown the nuts in a nonstick rounded chef's pan about 10 minutes and
then remove and set aside. We used our 5 quart chef's pan.
- Next brown the chicken in the remaining butter (browned) briefly (after
all it is pretty cooked by this point).
- Return the chicken water to the chef's pan and add the rice and spices
and bring to a simmer and cook covered for 45 minutes for brown rice, 20
minutes for ordinary rice. Let sit for 10-15 minutes with the heat turned
off. Sprinkle the nuts over the mound after inverting on a serving plate so
the chicken ends up on top.
notes
- Why don't our recreations look as good as the original?
- Illustrations available.