Chicken, date and lentil brown rice pilaf with saffron butter
I can’t tell you how often I make a pilaf using this recipe as a blueprint. When I don’t have that much chicken, I sauté an aubergine to extend the ‘meatiness’. If I’m being careful about carbs, I leave out the dates. If I don’t feel like saffron, I add shredded bits of preserved lemon to the pilaf and eat it with plain yogurt. Whatever you do, it always ends up greater than the sum of its parts. Pretty luxurious for a dish based on leftovers.
Ingrediënten
- 15 g ½oz unsalted butter, plus 30g (1oz) more for the saffron butter
- 1 onion finely chopped
- 2 garlic cloves finely chopped
- 300 g 10½oz brown basmati rice, washed until the water runs clear
- 700 ml 1¼ pints chicken stock
- 12 dates pitted and cut into thin slices, lengthways
- finely grated zest of 1 orange and juice of ½
- 200 g 7oz Puy lentils, rinsed
- salt and pepper
- good squeeze of lemon juice
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 350 g 12oz cooked chicken, torn into pieces
- 25 g scant 1oz chopped, unsalted pistachios or toasted flaked almonds
- 4 tbsp roughly chopped coriander leaves
- generous pinch of saffron strands
- 300 g 10½oz Greek yogurt
Instructies
- Heat the 15g (½oz) of butter in a heavy-based saucepan and sauté the onion until soft and pale gold.
- Add the garlic and cook for another couple of minutes.
- Now add the rice and stir it around until it is well coated in the butter and just beginning to toast.
- Add the chicken stock, dates and orange zest and bring to the boil.
- Reduce the heat, cover the pan and cook for about 30 minutes.
- The stock will become absorbed in this time; if the rice gets too dry, add a little boiling water.
- At the same time, cook the lentils in plenty of boiling water until tender (the lentils are cooked separately because the cooking time can be different from that of the rice, also the lentils make their cooking liquid murky, which doesn’t look so good).
- The lentils can take anything from 15–30 minutes to become tender, depending on their age, but be very careful not to overcook them.
- They need to retain their shape and can very quickly turn to mush.
- Once the lentils are cooked, drain, rinse in hot water and add to the rice.
- Fork through, season with salt and pepper and add a good squeeze of lemon juice.
- Heat the olive oil in a frying pan and quickly reheat the cooked chicken.
- Season.
- Gently fork the chicken into the cooked rice and lentils along with the nuts, coriander and orange juice.
- The dish should be moist but not ‘wet’.
- Taste the dish for seasoning.
- Quickly make the saffron butter: melt the 30g (1oz) butter in a pan, add the saffron and stir to help it colour the butter.
- Put the rice into a broad shallow bowl, spoon on some yogurt (serve the rest on the side) then pour on the saffron butter.
- Serve immediately.
- You don’t want anything complicated on the side (there’s enough going on in this dish).
- A spinach or watercress salad (add cucumber for crunch) would be perfect.
