Pilaf with chicken. The recipe for this pilaf

The mention of pilaf is first encountered in Eastern literature, in ancient chronicles dating from the 10th-11th century. They describe the traditions of the peoples of the East, holidays, weddings, funeral ceremonies, solemn events at which guests were served dishes of rice and meat. It was a pilaf.

At present, it is a national dish of many peoples, including Uzbeks, Tajiks, Armenians, Kazakhs, Afghans. Each type of this dish has its own nuances and features of cooking, but the main ingredient is always rice. Pilaf can be cooked with chicken and lamb, pork and beef, vegetables and dried apricots, prunes and raisins. In a word, there is meat, sweet and vegetable pilaf. The recipe is different for each cook, and there are a myriad of types of pilaf. But the most popular and famous, perhaps, is the gelak palav, which is cooked with meatballs; Pilaf with chicken, the recipe of which depends on the presence of certain spices; Pilaf in Dushanbe, pilaf "Ugro", traditional Tajik pilaf.

Recipe of this pilaf every cook keeps a secret, but, as experts say, real Uzbek pilaf can cook only a real Uzbek. After all, in addition to the availability of a set of source products, you still need skill, a special attitude to the products that are put into the casserole, as well as a definite state of the cook's soul. This, perhaps, is the most important condition for preparing a real dish.

For those who are seriously fond of cooking, it is known that it is possible to make a fruit pilaf, with goose, Baku with dried fruits, stuffed with quail, with prunes and pilaf with chicken. The recipe of the original pilaf with the fish will be an opening even for gourmets, because an amazing combination of vegetables, rice and fish cooked in a cauldron on an open fire can surprise anyone.

Traditionally, any pilaf, including pilaf with chicken, whose recipe has recently been so widely used, is being prepared in a large cauldron. To ensure that the meat is well fried, but does not become dry, the oil is heated to a temperature of 300 degrees. The main sign of the high temperature of the oil in the cauldron is a light smoke above it: this means that it is already possible to lower finely chopped onions, carrots, spices and spices into boiling oil. In the east, this is called a zirvak: overcooked vegetables in a strongly overfilled oil. Traditionally, pilaf can be cooked on barium and fatty fat, as well as mixtures of vegetable and animal fats. After the vegetables are fried in boiling oil, you can dip the meat into the cauldron. Depending on what kind of pilaf cook cooks, pieces of meat can be from 20 grams to 1 kg. But if pilaf with chicken is cooked, the recipe of which presupposes the use of 1 kg of rice and 1 kg of carrots, portions can be made weighing up to 50 grams.

As a rule, before cooking pilaf rice is washed well and left to soak in warm, slightly salted water for 3-4 hours. For pilau choose the yellow varieties of carrots and shred it with small straws. In order for the pilaf to acquire a soft yellow color, add saffron. In addition, black and red ground peppers, anise, cumin seeds, zira, barberry, garlic are used. For lovers of sweet and original taste in meat pilaf, you can add dried fruits, schnapps, quince and grape leaves.

In addition to the traditional dishes in the form of kazan, pilaf can be cooked in ... pumpkin. To do this, washed and soaked rice, along with the fruit, is pressed in a pumpkin, peeled from the inside of the seeds and pulp, and covered with a lid from the cut off top.

In addition to meat, vegetable, fish, fruit pilaf, there is also a pilaf with mussels and rapans. You can also cook pilaf with chestnuts, lentils, shrimps, egg pilaf, pilaf with chickpeas, pilaf with chicken giblets.