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Tahcheen-e morgh

Baked yoghurt rice with chicken

Ingredients

For the marinade:

  • 250 g thick natural yoghurt
  • 3 egg yolks
  • 3 tbsp saffron liquid (see notes)
  • 1 tsp orange flower water (see notes)
  • finely grated zest of 1 orange
  • 1 tsp sea salt
  • ½ tsp freshly ground black pepper

For the dish:

  • 500 g boneless free-range chicken breast and thighs, skin removed and cut into 2 cm cubes
  • 400 g basmati rice
  • 2 tbsp sea salt
  • 80 g butter, plus extra for greasing

Instructions

  • Beat all the marinade ingredients together in a shallow dish.
  • Add the chicken to the yoghurt mixture. Cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours or up to 12 hours ahead of time.
  • Wash the rice thoroughly, then leave it to soak in a generous amount of lukewarm water for 30 minutes. Swish it around with your fingers every now and then to loosen the starch. Strain the rice, rinsing it again with warm water.
  • Bring 2.5 litres of water to the boil in a large saucepan. Add the salt and stir in the strained rice. Return the water to a roiling boil and cook, uncovered, for 5 minutes. Test the rice by pinching a grain between your fingers or by biting it. It should be soft on the outside, but still hard in the centre.
  • Strain the rice and rinse again with warm water. Toss it several times to drain away as much of the water as you can.
  • Preheat the oven to 190 C and butter a 2 litre ovenproof dish.
  • Remove the chicken pieces from the yoghurt marinade. Mix half of the parboiled rice with the marinade and spoon it into the base of the ovenproof dish. Spread the rice over the bottom and up the sides of the dish.
  • Arrange the chicken on top of the rice, then spoon the rest of the rice to cover, and smooth the surface. Cover tightly with a sheet of lightly buttered foil and bake for 1.5 hours.
  • Remove the dish from the oven and dot the surface of the rice with bits of butter. Replace the foil and leave to rest for 10 minutes. 
  • Turn the rice out onto a warm serving platter.
  • Serve with a bowl of creamy yoghurt and a selection of fresh herbs – tarragon, basil, chives and parsley would be lovely.

Notes

Even with the pan buttered liberally, it can be difficult to turn the rice cake out of the pan in one piece. Thanks to reader recommendations, we now add a circular sheet of baking parchment at the base of the pan, along with even more liberal amounts of butter. 
The recipe for saffron liquid specifies 20 strands of saffron to 2 tablespoons of boiling water, instructing that they be lightly, briefly and carefully toasted in a dry pan over medium heat, ground in a mortar and infused in boiling water for at least 1 hour. I dislike the strong earthy taste that comes from too much saffron so I used approximately 10 strands in 3 tablespoons of boiling water and didn’t bother to toast them before infusing.
I didn’t have any orange-flower water (also known as orange blossom water) so used just 2 tiny drops of (the much stronger) natural orange extract that I had in stock. This worked well.