Chicken Cauliflower Maglobeh

One of the best things about blogging about what you eat is reading about (and drooling over) what fellow bloggers eat. The other day Procrastinator Cook posted her recipe for Cauliflower Chicken Maglobeh. It was perfect timing for me to read the blog as I had just purchased cauliflower and had just pulled a whole chicken from my freezer to thaw.

ingredients.

• 1 whole chicken cut into 4 pieces, washed, rinsed and patted dry
• 4 c. short grain rice (per Procrastinator Cook, you gotta use short grain – I used sushi rice).
• 2 medium size cauliflower cut into big florets
• 1 medium size onion
• 4 cloves of garlic
• 2 bay leaves
• 4 cardamom pods
• Rosemary (optional)
• 2 T. Bharat (per Procrastinator Cook, you can use all spice or black pepper instead – I used black pepper).
• 1 tsp. cinnamon (Don’t skip even if tempted. Trust me.)
• 1 tsp. Turmeric
• salt
• Vegetable or Peanut oil (an oil with a high smoking point)
• Pine nuts or Almonds (optional)

directions.

1. Wash the rice, until the water is semi clear and soak in hot water for 20 to 30 minutes, drain and set aside. While the rice is soaking, start frying your chicken.
2. Heat oil in a stock pot and add chicken pieces. Saute until they are golden brown making sure not to overcrowd the pot. After the chicken turns golden on both sides, remove and set aside.
3. In the same pot add the cardamom pods, toast them lightly, then add the garlic, and rosemary, making sure not to burn anything. Then add the onion and cook until the onion softens.
4. Add the chicken back into the pot. Add your spices and cook on medium heat for 15 minutes. This is where the chicken and onions release their juice creating a rich base for your broth.
5. While the chicken is cooking, start frying the cauliflower. I actually started this first thing on a lower heat because I was afraid to over-fry them. It took me a really long time to get them fried to a golden brown. I would not recommend using a lower heat during this step!
6. After 15 minutes of cooking the chicken and onion mixture, add water to cover the chicken and bring to a boil.  Cook until the chicken is done, half way through you can salt the broth and taste it for more seasoning. (Actually, I pretty much skipped this step because my chicken was very small and I was pretty sure at this point the chicken was mostly done. So I didn’t boil it for more than a minute or two. I then skipped down to the part where you arrange the layers of food in the pot.) Once your chicken is done, you can drain the broth through a sieve into another pot. I skipped this step.
7. Layer the ingredients in a big pot as follows: chicken, cauliflower and rice. Add the hot chicken broth, making sure that the broth is slightly above the rice level.
8. Place the pot on high heat covered until it bubbles and the broth reduces to the level of the rice, 10 to 15 minutes, then lower the heat and cook on low heat for 20-25 minutes or until the rice is cooked and fluffy. At this point, I wrapped the pot in a towel, as this is similar to what Procrastinator Cook’s mom does when preparing the dish. Let it rest for 15 to 20 minutes. While it’s resting, toast some almonds or pine nuts in a pan for garnish.
9. Invert on a big platter, and garnish with almonds or pine nuts. Be careful. The dish will still be very hot!

I was excited to try this recipe for a few reasons. I just successfully made Arroz Congri, which takes beans and rice and cooks them together in a bean broth. It was fabulous. So the idea of cooking chicken and cauliflower with rice in a chicken broth sounded fabulous as well.

Also, I’ve never cooked with Turmeric, but always wanted to. Plus, the way Procrastinator Cook described the dish made me want cook it immediately. Even though I’m not a huge fan of cauliflower, which is another thing. I thought this might be the perfect dish to hide some cauliflower.

This dish actually exceeded my expectations. I can’t really describe to you how delicious it is. You just have to trust me. My dad and began digging in commenting on how flavorful the dish was – even the cauliflower, much to our surprise.

I’ve never before added cinnamon to a meat dish. That I can recall, anyway. I’m not a fan of sweet meat. Never have been. So I was nervous to add the cinnamon to the dish. But I did anyway because Procrastinator Cook was very specific that you must add cinnamon. I can’t say I even noticed cinnamon all that much in the recipe but it may be because it married so well with the other flavors.

Thanks, Procrastinator Cook! This dish was fab!

Recipe rating: 