Chicken Pulao One Pot Recipe
Chicken Pulao One pot is Basmati rice cooked with Chicken in its own spiced broth Pure comfort food!
What is Chicken Pulao?
The beauty of this Chicken Pulao recipe is, that not only as the clue in the title states! It’s made in One Pot so less washing up! Which is always a winning recipe for me! It’s still full of flavour and rich as any other Chicken Pulao recipe. I’ve never eaten a Chicken Pulao which is as juicy and comforting. Many of the traditional recipes seem to have a 3 step process. This involves transferring from one pot to another and filling the sink with too much washing up!
Chicken Pulao Vs Biryani!
Chicken Pulao is a dish favourite with Punjabis the main rival of the famous Chicken Biryani. A favourite of the Karachiites! Arguably a topic to wage war on North and south province on the pakistani region! If Punjabis were to wage war on anything Food would be it! We like to feed people. Food is a centre of all hospitality and boy do we love to eat!
Meat on the bone or boneless?
For Chicken Pulao I like to use meat which is juicy this tends to be the leg or thigh meat. Only recommend using meat on the bone as this will result in a richer broth. Save the boneless thighs for the Chicken Biryani’s!
You can use whole chicken cut up into pieces. Usually buying your meat at a butchers allows you to tailor your meat for the dish. For example if I am using a whole chicken, but need about half a chicken more. I would ask for 2 extra leg pieces and thighs. More juicy pieces means juicier Chicken Pulao!
Which Basmati rice?
Over the years iv cooked with many types of rice grown and used in different parts of the world.
When it comes to Basmati rice there are many variations and brands. It can be super overwhelming for an amateur cook. Some rice types of Basmati are easier to cook with than others and some take an experienced hand. If you already have a favourite you feel confident with then brilliant stick with that one.
For Chicken Pulao iv used both Basmati and Sella Basmati. There is not much of a difference in result if cooked with the correct amount of stock. How long you soak your rice for will dictate how much water you need to add to your broth.
The Sella Basmati option is better for beginners as this rice is usually is a foolproof ‘can’t go wrong’ method. Your local Asian grocery store will stock both versions. Here are the brands I prefer to use ; https://www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/products/296601199 https://www.souschef.co.uk/products/anjoman-basmati-rice-5kg
My ratio is usually 1:1 Meat to Rice. This results in the perfect meat rice dish, whether it be Pulao or Biryani. I recommend using a good quality basmati rice, and soaking the rice for at least 30mins/1hour prior to cooking. Even soaking for a few hours is ok you just adjust the water in the stock accordingly. As the rice will absorb less stock if soaked for longer.
Chicken Pulao Prep
Thinly Slice one medium/large white onion and roughly chop one ripe tomato, here im using frozen garlic and ginger cubes.
Keep the dry spices ready as they all go into the pot in one go. Specific spice details in recipe card You can see the difference between Shahi Jeera and white jeera here.
Chicken Pulao Broth cooking method
In a pot that you know will accomodate the cooked rice heat up oil and add the sliced onions.
Once onions have softened, keep the pot on a medium high flame and stir continuously for the browning process.
Browning to perfection…
This part is crucial for the output! The richness of the broth resulting in the rice. Make sure the onions brown evenly and darken but not burn!
In Pakistani cuisine terms we call this the ‘ bhun ‘ This ensures colour and flavour.
Turn the flame down at the mid browning point or even switch the flame off if you feel the onions may be darkening too fast. Have the garlic & ginger ready to throw in to stop the browning process furthering. In this case I used frozen cubes.
At this point throw in the dry spices (ingredients in recipe card) give this a stir and the aroma from the cooked ginger garlic will tell you its had good heat and not raw. Now put in the meat and give this a good stir, mashing the tomatoes with the spoon will help soften the onions and the colour will no start to take up on your meat.
Keep stirring to coat the meat and you will see the onion brown colour coating all the meat and oil start to seperate at the bottom of the pan. At this point no tomatoes should be visible. If needed you can add a splash of water to help melt the browned onions and tomatoes and get the colour onto the meat.
Once you feel the the meat is fully coated and browned and the masala at the bottom of the pan is separated from its oil. to make the broth add boiled water from kettle and measuring one cup more than the measured cups of rice. We will place the lid and let this simmer for about 10 mins on a low/medium heat.
Now your broth is ready to either be cooled and stored in fridge for later or even frozen.
Rice cooking Method
When cooking the Chicken Pulao make sure the Yakhni/broth is boiling. Simmer the heat and add the washed soaked rice once drained. Normally I would add to the middle of the pot and check the level of water according to how long the rice was soaked for. if not soaked for longer than an hour keep some boiled water on standby to add if a little is needed. A this point I like to add a 2/3 fresh green chillies whole which will add flavour but not heat. Alos adjust the salt seasoning bearing in mind the rice will soak up some salt.
Before placing the lid onto the rice allow the rice to come to boil in the broth and make sure enough moisture has either evaporated so the rice doesn’t go soggy, but enough broth/moisture is still there to steam the rice to a nice end result, where the rice grain will grow to its full potential! ie the length. The moisture level will dictate this!
Steaming Rice Tips & Tricks
For the steaming of the rice if you feel there is a little too much moisture and rice could end up soggy add a dry tea towel wrapped onto lid as this helps to soak up excess moisture when steaming.
If you feel you have the risk of the rice becoming dry/undercooking or not enough moisture you can wrap a damp tea cloth wrapped onto the lid this helps keep moisture in and minimises moisture escaping from the steaming process.
Leaving the lid closed on a low heat place the pot onto a diffuser or tawa. leave lid closed for 15 mins. Here is an example of what i use ; https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/335019017083?chn=ps&norover=1&mkevt=1&mkrid=710-153316-527457-8&mkcid=2&itemid=335019017083&targetid=4584619899083045&device=c&mktype=&googleloc=&poi=&campaignid=554609234&mkgroupid=1296325313557553&rlsatarget=pla-4584619899083045&abcId=9320693&merchantid=87779&msclkid=075eff484f7b10299c419a21a22030b6
After steaming, fluff up rice using a flatter large metal spoon from the sides of the pan and this will help not break you beautiful lng grains! Hopefully! The action to use is slide the spoon/spatula down the side of the pan to the bottom and lift the rice to release steam and separate grains. This helps the rice not to clump and stick once cooked
Chicken Pulao Serving Suggestions
Enjoy your Chicken Pulao with raita yoghurt and a simple salad. Chicken Pulao can also be served with Chapli kebabs or Shami kebabs, or a traditional accompanying curry would be either Palak Gosht or Aloo Gosht salan.
Substitutions for Chicken Pulao
Instead of Chicken you could use lamb and use the same recipe & cooking method. If you wished to make this vegetarian, use mixed vegetables or jackfruit or any vegetable of your choice this method can be used for. Adjusting the cooking time after to either shorter or longer to make sure the veg doesn’t overcook or meat is fully cooked.
Prep for later
You can cook this stock ahead of time. like a day or two & refrigerate or even freeze the stock and cook the rice into it at a dinner. This makes less effort on the day of hosting so you can be less tired and free to enjoy your guests! The quality of the output is never compromised doing this believe me! Tried and tested for many years now!
Chicken Pulao Recipe
Chicken Pulao One Pot Recipe
Rice cooked in a rich chicken broth.
Ingredients
- 1kg Chicken With Bone Skin off
- 1kg Basmati Rice washed and soaked for at least 1 hour
- 6 Tbsp Oil of choice
- 1 White Onion thinly sliced
- 1 Tomato roughly chopped
- 1 Tbsp garlic crushed
- 1 Tbsp of ginger chopped
- 1 Tbsp White Jeera
- 1 Tsp Shahi/Black jeera
- 3/4 Black Cardamon
- 4/5 Cloves
- 1 Cinnamon stick
- 6/8 Black peppercorns
- 2 Bay leaves
- 1 Tbsp Coriander powder
- 2/3 whole dried small round/long red chillies
- 1 Tbsp Pink Salt
- Optional 2/3 Whole fresh green chillies
- Fresh coriander for garnishing
Instructions
- In a Large pot heat oil and add sliced onions, keep stirring until evenly golden brown in colour. The richer the golden colour the deeper the colour of the rice. To prevent burning turn down heat when browning starts.
- to the browned onions add the garlic and ginger and fry until aroma changes to a more cooked garlic, this will take 3-5 mins depending on heat. make sure to keep stirring constantly.
- Add chicken along with the dry spices and chopped fresh tomatoes leaving aside the whole red chillies.
- Now properly coat and brown the chicken, the trick here is to keep stirring also mashing the tomatoes as they heat up with a wooden spoon/spatula.
- Add a splash of water here if necessary if you feel the onions are sticking however the tomatoes should give enough moisture to melt the fried ingredients and help coat the meat.
- Once you see the chicken is nicely browned to the colour of the onions and tomatoes are not visible pieces and oil has separated from the masal around the meat, Add as many cups of water as of rice+1 and bring to the boil. Then simmer for 10/15 minutes with lid on to allow chicken to cook through.
- At this point you can cool down the stock and use day after or freeze for another day. Alternatively carry on to cook rice into stock.
- Strain the rice and add to the stock whilst its slowly simmering. when settled the rice should be fully covered by the stock, give it one stir and take spoon out, check for salt in stock now to add more if needed its is important to recognise the rice will soak up salt so stock should taste slightly saltier than expected.
- Cover to bring the rice and stock to the boul on a medium to high flame then turn down to prevent water evaporating too quickly.
- Simmer for 10 minutes and then turn heat right down and place a diffuser underneath pan to allow rice to steam.
- Once steaming is over open pan to check rice is cooked and water has eveaporated you can slide a flat metal spoon down the side of the pan to check for moisture and if rice at top is cooked the your Pulao is ready.
- Using the flat metal spoon fluff your rice from different angles and from edge of pan to prevent rice breaking too much.
Notes
Serve this with a Raita or Salad/Kachumber or with a Gravy like Aloo Gosht or with just plain old yoghurt and Kebabs!