Tahchin Morgh in the Oven and on the Stove

Ingredients

• 2 medium sized chickens or 1 large one
• 4 cloves of garlic sliced thinly
• 1 tspn tumeric
• small tspn of salt
• ground black pepper to taate
• 3 medium yellow onion, peeled and cut into several pieces
• 2 cups of cold water

Rice

• 3 cups of basmati rice
• 1 cup of full fat yogurt
• 1 large egg
• 1 tspn of powdered safran (grind the safran to a powder with a morsel, a litte sugar to a powder
• 5 Tbspn of canola oil
• 6 Tbpsn full fat non salted butter
• 100 grams of butter cut in cubes

Optional

• 100 grams of barberries, 75 grams of pistacios without skin and sliced almonds, 50 grams of butter and sugar/honey

Preparation

1To cook the chicken: Add the chicken to a pot, fill with water, add salt, pepper, the cut onion and 1 liter of water. Bring it to a boil, then reduce the heat to medium low and cook for about 1 hour, or until the chicken falls apart very easily with a fork. Add 50 cl of chicken stock and some tumeric Remove the chicken from the pot and set aside to cool. If there is more than 1 cup of broth in the stockpot, bring it to a boil and let it boil and reduce to approx 1 cup.. Pour the reduced broth into a medium bowl, smash the cooked onions with a fork and set aside.

2Take all the meat of the bones form the chicken. Mix the meat with broth until it is well coated. Chill the meat and broth mixture in the refrigerator for at least 30-40 minutes, or until the broth solidifies. This can be good to prepare in advance.

3Wash the rice until no more starch fogs up the water. LEafve the rice in the water for at least 3 - 4 hours. Cook the rice to the point where it is partly cooked and has a light bite. Drain and drain with cold water to stop it from cooking further.

4Tahchin time: In a bowl add the eggs, yoghurtm saffron and 2 cops of rice and mix gently.

5Coating the pan some butter, oil and a little water to the pot. Ensure all is melted. Now add the Tachin mixture to the bottom. Spread it out evenly

6Add the rest of rice mix in some of the safran sugar water mixture. Mix gently and layer the shape with chicken, rice untill al ingredients are used. Do not make it too high.

7Poke little holes in the top of the shape to the last layer but not the Tahchin layer. Add the butter cubes on top. Cover the baking dish with a sheet of heavy duty aluminum foil and seal the sides by pressing the aluminum foil to the dish. Use a sharp knife to cut one slit on each corner and then a few in the center of the dish for the oven only. For the stove use a cover and wrap it on a cloth to ensure it seals very good.

8 On the stove on low heat cook for at least 1 hour and 10 minutes. In the oven heat the oven to 190 degrees and if you use a glass oven shape check that he bottom is golden brown. Bake for 1 hour 20 minutes.

9Remove from the stove, free the edges with a knife. Remove from the oven and free the edges with a knife. Wait 5 minutes and remove from the shape. Service with barberries, pistachio nuts and almonds.

10Optional extra: Decorate with barberries, pistachios, almonds...Put 100 grams of dried barberries in water and wait 2 hours. Remove the water. Add to a pan add 3 Tbpns of sugar or honey and 50 grams of butter. Gently heat this mixture. For the almonds and pistachios put them both in water and simmer gently for 10 minutes. Add to the barberry mixture. Add some of the chicken stock around 10 Tbspn and simmer till liquid is mostly reduced. Decorate with this colorful mixture. Roast some of the almonds and pistacios in a pan until golden brown and use as additional decoration.

And to top it all off: Serve with Sabzi Khordan, Torshi Sir.

Idea make small ones in smaller shapes. Adjust the cooking time a little for the smaller shapes. Enjoy!