Recipe for cooking pot-bottom crust with chicken

Recipes from the Middle East and North Africa :: Middle Eastern Main Dish Poultry

This is a Persian recipe which delights everyone!

Tahcheen
1 lb. long grain rice.
1/2 c. (4 ounce) cooking oil.
1 c. (8 oz.) plain yogurt
2 tsp. saffron
1 lb. various chicken pieces.
6 egg yolks

Zereshk
1 c. red currents (zereshk), presoaked and washed.
1 tsp. dried saffron
1 Tbsp. lemon juice or 1 fresh lemon, squeezed
1 Tbsp. sugar
A touch of turmeric

Presoak the rice in hot water and salt for approx. an hour before cooking. Cut up the onion in large pieces. Wash and devein the chicken pieces, put them in a pot with some water, add the onion, turmeric, salt and a touch of saffron and let it cook until the meat softens. Take it out, drain it and set aside.

In a med. size pot, half filled with water, boil the rice for a few mins., until the rice is half crunchy half soft when you chew on it. Take it out, drain it and set aside. You may want to wash off the rice in a stringer, if you used excessive amounts of salt to soak the rice.

In a bowl, mix the egg yokes and yogurt and beat it until it has a smooth and even texture. Mix in about a c. full of cooked rice.

In a med. size pot, pour half of the cooking oil in the bottom of the pot, in an even way pour in the egg-yolk/yogurt mixture in the bottom, place the chicken pieces on top of it and top it up loosely with the remainder of the boiled rice. Sprinkle and distribute the remainder of the oil on top of it, close the lid, put the heat setting at high for a minute or so until the rice starts steaming.

Change the heat setting to low and let it cook for approx. an hour and a half to two hours. The lower the heat and the longer the cooking time, the crustier and darker the bottom layer becomes. Careful not to burn it :-)

In a c. containing two oz. of boiling water, pour the saffron, cover the c. and let it sit for a while (until it forms a rich color). In a pan, pour one Tbsp. of oil; put the heat setting at med.-low, pour in the red currants, saffron liquid, sugar, turmeric and lemon juice and stir fry it for a few mins. until the sugar dissolves fully and completely.

The zereshk is spread over the rice at serving time.