Turmeric Chicken Rice

I am sure everyone eats lots of meals with plain white rice as a side. Or are you looking to make some variety, but keep the rice as a side dish?

This turmeric rice and meat dish consists of fluffy rice layered over tender and succulent pieces of meat, accompanied with mesmerizing aromas of spices, herbs, and fried shallots. This bone-in chicken thighs are coated in a mix of turmeric, garlic, ginger, and coriander roots, and nestled into a pan of rice. As it cooks, the spiced chicken fat seasons the rice, which turns especially crisp where it meets the edges and bottom of the pan while staying soft and chewy on top.

Even though there are a lot of ingredients and processes involved, the outcome is worth the time if you divide the labour and marinate the chicken and/or fried the shallots the day before. You'll become an expert, and it won't feel like too much work after creating this a few times.

One of the marinade ingredients is buttermilk. What happens when you marinate chicken in buttermilk. In addition to giving the chicken a mild tangy and sweet flavour, its acidity will help to tenderize the chicken. You can use storebought buttermilk or you can make your own buttermilk. Add one tablespoon of lemon juice or vinegar for every cup of milk. Let the mixture stand for 10 minutes.  Depending on how much you need, you can adjust the recipe's scaling. I added half a tablespoon of vinegar to half a cup of milk for this recipe.

I am serving my chicken with my own made sweet chili sauce and green dipping sauce.

 

INGREDIENTS

2 cups of jasmine rice

8 bones in chicken pieces

2 tbsp cooking oil

1 onion, diced

2 tomatoes, cut into small pieces

1 cinnamon stick

2 bay leaves

Some fried shallots

2 cups water

 

Chicken marinade ingredients

1 tbsp slightly slice ginger

5 garlic cloves, roughly sliced

2 coriander roots

½ cup homemade buttermilk

½ tsp turmeric powder

1 tsp mild curry powder

2 tbsp light soy sauce   

 

Dipping sauce

1 bunch coriander 

1 birds’ eye chili

3 tbsp of vinegar

1 inch ginger, grated 

1 tsp sugar

 

 

METHOD

1. Pound the garlic, ginger, and coriander roots into a paste with a mortar and pestle with a little salt. Move the paste into a mixing bowl or a plate and blend in the light soy sauce, turmeric, curry powder, and buttermilk. Turn the chicken over to coat. To let the flavours mingle, cover and refrigerate for two hours or overnight.

2. In a large, deep-frying pan, heat up some cooking oil. Before putting the chicken in the heated oil, make sure to remove most of the marinade on each chicken piece, saving the marinade. Sear the chicken till golden brown, about 3–4 minutes. Once browned, turn and sear the other side; We are trying to add some colour to the chicken, not to cook it. Move the chicken onto a platter. With the same pan, set aside about 3 tablespoons of the chicken fat.

3. Sauté the onion with a pinch of salt and cook until the onion is soft. Then add the tomato and cook until the tomato is soft and pulpy. Add the rice and the fried shallots and stir to coat. Add the reserved marinade, water, cinnamon stick and bay leaves. Simmer while stirring. On top of the rice, arrange those sear chicken pieces. Turn down the heat to low and cover. Simmer until the rice is soft and the liquid has evaporated, about 25 to 30 minutes.

4. Once the chicken is done, remove the chicken and keep it covered with foil. Use a fork to fluff up the rice. There will always be a layer of rice that browns and sticks to the bottom of the pot. So, it's crucial to maintain LOW heat to avoid burning the stuck-on rice and giving burnt flavour to your rice.

5. For the dipping sauce, just combine all the ingredients in a bowl, blend it with immersion blender until smooth. Set it aside.

5. To serve, place the rice and chicken on a plate. Sprinkle with coriander and extra fried shallots. Serve with the green dipping sauce and the sweet chilli sauce on the side.