Mandi, a one-pot rice and meat dish originally from Yemen, is now a popular pan-Arab dish. The dish is comprised of rice, pieces of lamb or chicken, and an assortment of aromatic spice pods. The most iconic feature of the dish is the final smoking process, carried through by placing a source of smoke in the sealed pot for a few minutes. The smoke source is usually a piece of hot charcoal, splashed with oil to generate smoke. Presented here is a method I devised to cook the dish in oven. To initially separate the rice from chicken, I suspend skewered chicken above the rice pot and simultaneously roast both the chicken and rice. The drippings form chicken fall on the rice, enriching the overall flavor of the dish with the infused chicken taste.
Ingredients:
4 large chicken thighs
1 white onion,
grated
1 lemon or sour
orange
3 cloves of
garlic
2 cups Basmati
rice
4 cups water
2 TSP salt
1 green hot
peppers
1 dried chili of choice (I used Kashmiri)
2 bay leaves
1 cinnamon
stick
10 peppercorns
4 clove pods
¼ TSP allspice
Pinch of
saffron and pistachio slivers to garnish (optional)
Marinate the chicken In grated onion, 1 TSP of salt, and lemon juice. In a heavy pot, mix all the ingredients (including the marinade), except for the chicken. Thread the chicken thighs onto skewers.
Suspend the skewers on top of the rice pot.
Cook in preheated 425 F (~220 C) oven for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, fluff up the rice. Pull off the chickens from skewers and place them on top of the rice (which now should be a firm enough bed to hold the chicken). Cook for a further 20 minutes.
To smoke use a piece of natural charcoal. Set the charcoal on gas flame and wait until it starts to smolder. Put the glowing charcoal in a small vessel (or a piece of aluminum foil). Drizzle with a few drops of oil. The oil should generate a significant amount of smoke. Transfer the smoke source to the pot, cover tightly, and let smoke for 10 minutes.
Sprinkle with saffron and pistachio slivers.
The smokiness of this dish is mind-blowing.
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