Roasted Chicken with Vegetable & Jeweled Rice

Tags

Chicken, jeweled rice, middle eastern recipes, oven recipes, oven roasted chicken, Raisin, rice, roasted chicken, spice rub

For festive dinners I like to roast a whole chicken, with little trouble they become an impressive entree.

There are many recipes for the roasted chicken that is so good as this recipe. What makes this recipe unique is the middle eastern way on roasting the bird. Using a blend of spice seasoning mix that is massaged on the outside of the chicken, makes even the most finicky eaters being enthusiastic about the chicken’s intense, appetizing aroma, succulent meat, and beautifully browned skin.

A whole meal in one dish, with the addition of the vegetables that surrounds the chicken and has the whole flavors. Plus, to make it an easy to make recipe, by using the oven bag, just you need to wipe the inside of the bag with oil then flour to make sure the chicken skin will not stick with the bag.

The rice pilaf is one of the classics that you find in all middle east countries, it goes particularly well as an accompaniment with roasted chicken and it also often forms a stuffing for the bird.

Roast Chicken

2 whole game hen (1 1/2- 2 pounds), rinsed and patted dry
Salt and ground pepper
1/2 teaspoon of each of cardamom, dried coriander, turmeric, whole spice, cumin, and paprika
fresh thyme leaves
2 medium onions, cut quarters or smaller
3 medium carrots, cut into 3-inch lengths
3 medium red potatoes, cut quarters
1 table spoon extra-virgin olive oil, plus extra

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Clean the chicken then pat dry with kitchen wipes.

Mix the salt and pepper with the other spices. Season chicken inside and out with spice mix, pour some olive oil and massage the chicken. make sure to reach under the skin so the chicken will absorb and have all the flavor and aroma of the spices.

Place the chicken in the oven bag in a roasting pan.

In a large bowl, toss onions, carrots, and potatoes with oil; season with salt and pepper.

Scatter vegetables around chicken, arranging it at the edge and underneath. close the bag and tuck the knot underneath, make a small slut in the bag.

Put the pan in the oven with 450 degree for 20 minutes then lower the temperature to 400 for another 40 minutes until chicken is golden brown and juices run clear when pierced between breast and leg (an instant-read thermometer inserted in thickest part of a thigh, avoiding bone, should read 165 degrees).

Jeweled Rice

2 cups basmati rice, rinsed
Cinnamon stick, bay leaves
1/3 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/3 teaspoon ground coriander
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
Salt & pepper
about 2 3/4 cup hot water
4 tablespoon canola oil
1 medium onion, peeled, thinly sliced
1/2 teaspoon sumac, for the onion
1/2 cup slivered almonds
1/2 cup pine nuts
1/2 cup raisins
1/4 cup dried of each black cherries, cranberries
Olive oil

In a bowl, soak the raisins, cranberries, and black cherried in hot boiling water. set aside while you make the rice.

In a large pot, heat 2 tablespoon canola oil, add the bay leafs, cinnamon, and the washed and drained rice.

Add the ground cardamom, the coriander, the turmeric, salt and pepper. Toast for 1 min under low heat with stirring occasionally.

Add the boiling water and magi chicken broth cubes. Bring it to boil. Taste and adjust the seasoning.

Lower the heat, cover, and simmer for about 10-15 minutes or until the rice grains expand in length. Don’t open the lid before the rice is done cooking.

Add 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a large skillet, sauté onions until golden brown, add turmeric and sumac, stir and put on a seive or kitchen papper to get rid of the eccess oil.

In the same skillet, add raisins, cranberries and black cherries, toast a little until the raisins puffed, transfer immediatly to kitchen papper to soak the eccess oil.

Finally, with the same skillet, add the pine nuts and toast until gold in color, add some oil if it needed.

Add 3/4 of the amount of onions, raisins, cherries, and nuts to the rice. Save the rest to add it to the top while serving. Stir gently with large spatula, make sure not to break the rice grains.

To serve, mound rice on a serving platter. Garnish with the browned onion, toasted raisins, cherries, cranberries, and pine nuts. Serve warm. Jeweled rice may be served with salad and yogurt.

Easy Chicken and Vegetable Rice

Tags

boneless chicken, chicken breast, chicken cubes, easy biryani, rice dish, vegetable rice

 

A satisfying family style vegetables rice loaded with chicken cubes for easy weeknight meals.

When it comes to weekdays meal, I always try to make the fast and most convenient ones. Since there is no time to make any fancy meals, that is now limited to a big celebration or in a special occasions. It’s no surprise that as the school year progresses, with lots of my kids homeworks and activities, so do the daily challenges of everyday life, and from my own schedule that I’m preparing to take the GRE test, which is my first step into earning my graduate degree. So what’s a busy mom like me to do?

The simplified version of the well-known indian or Khaleeji dish “Biryani” which mostly features chicken and vegetables and rice.

The ingredients are simple, but chicken-and-rice combination take on a world of exotic flavors. some cubed chicken, frozen peas, carrots, potato all pound up with aromatic blend of spices, and in just about 40 minutes you’ll have a kicked-up chicken and vegetable rice dinner that’s both savory and satisfying.

 

Easy Chicken and Vegetable Rice

1 cup green peas, frozen
3 medium carrots,cut into small cubes
2 medium potato, cut into small cubes
1 lb boneless skinless chicken breast, cut into small cubes
1 large onion cuted in half and sliced thinly
1 1\2 cup basmatti rice, washed
2 tablespoon mixed ground spices (cardamom, cloves, coriander, all spice, black pepper, cumin)
1\4 teaspoon ground dill seeds
1\2 teaspoon turmeric
1 Maggi chicken stock cube
vegetable oil
2 1\4 cup chicken stock or water

In a large sauce pan, add 1-2 tablespoon vegetable oil, add the potato, stir and cover in medium heat until golden brown and almost cooked, put it a side. on the same pot, add the carrots, stir and let cook for 1 min before adding the peas, cook for more 2-3 min, put it a side.

Add the onion, add some more oil, stir and toast until browned, put it a side. on the same put add the chicken cubes with 1 teaspoon of the mixed spices, stir and let cooked halfway.

Add all the vegetables, the onion, the washed rice, 2 tablespoon mixed spices, the Maggi cube, the turmeric, salt and the dill, mix all together, add the stock or water, let boil, cover and simmer for about 15 min.

serve with your favourite salad or yogurt on the side.

A Brief Look at Stillwater Farmers Market and The Luffa Stew

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eggplant, farmers market, healthy, kabsa, luffa, middle eastern, rice dish, seafood, stew, Vegetables, vegetarian, zucchini

My favourite things to do while visiting our friends in Oklahoma, is to come around their local farmers market with my friend Raeda.
Located in a small town of Stillwater; ” OSU Home Town “.Hey, Where’s the fans…? Stillwater, where my husband spent about 12 years of his college life, also I have plenty of happy memories every time I visited this charming, beautiful, and quiet little town.

The Sunflowers, part of the market, bread and cheese section.

I admit it, I’m madly in love with their farmers market, as much as it reminded me with our middle eastern markets and streets venders.
Well, actually, we have plenty of farmer markets in Wichita, but they don’t have that variety of produces like the Stillwater’ farmers have.
A lot of farmers bring their produce and goodies to share it with the locals, all with tremendous variety of vegetables I always adore to look for and actually not available in grocery stores near us, those kinds were used to find it all the yearlong in Middle eastern ‘ markets.

The bakery section in the market have the fresh bread loaf, the cheese woman makes the cheese fresh and yummy.

Different kinds of winter and summer zucchini and squash.

I’m always looking for the Ishtar Squash, it’s similar to Zucchini Squash, only sweeter. Plenty of vegetable you can see in the market; the small eggplants, small Okra, Jews Mallow (Molokhia), the small fresh cucumber, the Fava beans, the long beans (Lubia), even sometime figs which is hard to find it here with the cold weather in kansas.

The snaky snake gourd, the long beans, the luffa, and the bottle gourd

Plus you can find some strange vegetables like the snake gourd (it’s an asian vegetables, it’s really seems like a snake shape, used also in crafting and it’s the same one that used for scrubing in bath, or the one they making sandals but this when the plant get too much big), it’s my first time I see like this vegetable or even know a bout it. The bottle gourd, or even some shapes of bowl zucchini squash, the luffa (also known as okra squash, it looks like the okra but in bigger shape)and plenty of winter squash and summer squash.
the indian section also have the Naan bread and Gollab Jamon and different kinds of chutney and stews.

The herb section, some kinds of pepper, the indian section, the luffa and the stew.

My friend ‘ daughter. Don’t you think the Bumpkin looks bigger…???
Well, it’s for $36. I mean the bumpkin.
Our lovely farmer;Rita and her husband, she always know what kind of vege we like and grow them, she even knows the sizes we wants.

Among the various kinds of produces, there was always a chance to try some of the farmers adorable recipes from their fresh produce and some cooking tips.

For my today recipe, some winter vegetable stew where the luffa is the star and the rice added to complete the meal, the recipe (not completely) from the farmer we met in the market, she offered to me and my friend a plate to try the luffa stew, and mentioned some of the ingredients and tips on how to cook it, with promises that the complete recipe will be on Stillwater newspaper in a couple of weeks may be, but who wants to wait, not me…

so I took some luffa to try it at home, I added the flavors according to my taste bud, that was almost nearly to the one I tasted at the market, but I didn’t add rice to it, the one we tasted at the market, there was a delicious after taste, we figured that it might be the soya sauce so I add some plus some teriyaki sauce which adds a depth to the final taste, I could not imagine how good and delicious that was. Plus don’t forgot how healthy it is with these fresh vegetables and plenty of fibers, that make it a very good vegetarian dish.

Luffa and Winter Vegetable Stew

1\2 cup chopped onions finely chopped
2-3 gloves of garlic minced
1 small green zucchini
1 small eggplants chopped
1 snake gourd
3 luffa squash, trimed, cleaned, and chopped
1 yellow or orange sweet bell pepper
1 cup chopped fresh mushroom, shiitake is preferable
3 Roma tomatoes chopped fine
1\2 cup chicken or vegetable stock
salt and pepper
2 tablespoon soya sauce
1 tablespoon teriyaki sauce

Start with chopping the vegetables, peel the edges that apear on the side of luffa.
In a small sauce pan, add 3 tablespoon oil, the chopped onion and the garlic, sauté and stir in the vegetables one by one, stir after each add, add the salt and pepper, the stock and the soya and teriyaki sauce, stir and cover the pan and let the vegetable cook on medium low heat until tender and cooked.

Serve it either with rice on the side or some your favourite bread.

________________________________________________________

As for a bonus recipe, I asked my friend Raeda to share her delicious recipe of seafood kabsa, (the one she cooked for us while visiting her), and she was very welcome. Wishing her God’ blessings and her family. By the way she’s a good cooker, I really feel my self eating from five-star chef.Thank sister for the good times we always spent in your home.

Seafood kabsa with Herbed Baked Fish

It’s a well-known middle eastern rice dish, where the spices is the star in it.
sauté a 1\2 cup chopped onion with 2-3 tablespoon olive oil.

In the food processor, chop 6-7 garlic cloves and 1 cup fresh cilantro leaves,add it to the onion keep stirring. Add about 4-5 chopped fresh Roma tomato, stir, then add a small pieces of tilapia fish (cubes cutted), shrimp, crab legs, or any kind of fish you like.

Add all the spices that you could imagine( that’s what she’s doing, and dam, it’s so delicious) salt and pepper, cardamom,cumin and coriander, special kabsa spices (you can find it at any Pakistani or Middle Eastern grocery store), dried basil and oregano. Stir in the rice (she used uncle pins, but you can use also basmatti rice or any long grain rice), soak some saffron thread in water and add it, add water or chicken stock, cover and let it cook on low heat until the rice fluffy tender and cooked.

Sprinkle some toasted pine nuts or slices silvered almond and fresh chopped parsely on top.

Serve with fresh middle eastern vegetable salad.

For the fish, season with lemon and spices, cumin, dried coriander, pepper,and salt, fresh chopped cillantro and garlic paste, let soak for at least an hour, put in the preheated oven for 1\2 an hour at 400 f.

Roasted Turkey Legs with Vegetable Rice

Tags

elegant meals, roasted turkey, turkey legs, vegetable rice, weekend menu

Pan roasted turkey legs with herbs and onion, colorful vegetable rice with toasted pine nuts on the side, adds an elegant weekend meal that you don’t want to miss on your table.

At first, I would like to thank the sweet Jamie for her gift. Yes, I won the giveaway she offered with her whole wheat banana bread. Thank you so much Jamie, I can’t wait to receive it. And duds don’t forget to say hello to Jamie here in her deliteful blog”A Dash of Domestic”. Yes, she likes the giveaway things, so stick around you will be happy.

For the turkey lovers, this recipe is so easy and elegant, the slow braising of the turkey legs makes it tender from the inside crisp from outside, with the roasted onions and a touch of fresh herbs: sage, oregano, and thyme, will be perfect for a family elegant weakend meal. Try to cover the pan so it keep the turkey lean and tender. unlike frozen turkey , the fresh bird release a lot of juice as they cook, so be prepared to use it as a gravy if you wish.

As for a side, I did the vegetable rice, that make it complimentary the meal with the turkey, try to toast the vegetable first then add the rice and toast it a little, I like to toast the rice before adding the water or stock, this will give the rice the texture to stay holding itself and don’t become soggy.

Roasted Turkey Legs with Vegetable Rice

4 turkey leg
salt and freshly ground pepper
1\2 teaspoon ground cardamom
1\2 teaspoon ground coriander
1\2 teaspoon paprika
1\4 teaspoon ground cumin
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 large onion sliced cross-wide
3 sprigs fresh thyme
2 sprigs fresh sage
2 spring fresh oregano
1 cup homemade chicken broth or water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Rinse and dry turkey legs; season on all sides with salt, pepper, cardamom, coriander, paprika, cumin and some chopped fresh thyme. Set aside.

On medium high heat, add olive oil to the pan. Add turkey legs, working in batches if necessary. Cook, turning, until turkey is browned on all sides, about 5 minutes per side. Transfer legs to a plate and keep the fats in the pan.

Add the onions, stirring, until golden brown, about 5 minute.

Add the water or stock, reduce heat, cook until it begins to bubble. Add thyme, sage and oregano stir, then cover. Return turkey legs to the pan, cover and transfer to oven.

Cook for 40 -60 minutes, turn turkey legs, uncover, and continue cooking, 10 minutes more.
Transfer turkey legs to a serving platter. Skim fat from top of braising liquid and discard; keep the liquids with the roasted onions, spoon over turkey legs. Serve.

Vegetable Rice

1 cup frozen peas
1 cup chopped fresh carrots
1 1\2 cups basmati rice
1\4 teaspoon ground cardamom
1\4 teaspoon ground coriander
2 tablespoon oil
salt and ground black pepper
2 1\4 cup chicken stock
toasted pine nuts for garnish

On medium heat, add the oil to the pan, add the peas and carrot, a dash of salt and spices, stir, about 2 minutes.

Add the washed and cleaned rice, toast it with the vegetable and keep stirring, until lightly toasted, about 2-3 minutes.

Add the cardamom, coriander, salt and pepper, stir, then add the chicken stock, so the liquids is 1 inch above the rice, cover and lower the heat on low, let it simmer for about 10-15 minutes. Don’t cook the rice more, it will become soggy. get the heat off, and let the rice sit covered for 5 minutes before serving, fluf with the fork and serve.

serve with pine nuts on top.