Mandi is a popular dish in the Arabian Peninsula. It is made of rice and meat. The specialty of the recipe is the cooking process. In the traditional method, the rice and meat are slowly cooked in a tandoor pit. In this article, we are going to discuss “how to prepare saffron chicken mandi?” Yemen is the origin of the mandi recipe. We can use chicken or lamb meat for preparing this recipe.
The important ingredient of this recipe is ‘Hawaij powder’. It is a special spice powder to marinate the chicken or meat. The combination of saffron and the hawaij powder enhances the flavor and aroma of the food.
Saffron Chicken Mandi Recipe
Hawaij Powder Preparation:
Ingredients:
- Cumin seeds – 1 tablespoon
- Coriander seeds – 2 tablespoon
- Cardamom – 1 tablespoon
- Black pepper – 2 tablespoon
- Cinnamon – 2-inch slice
- Cloves – 1 tablespoon
Preparation:
- Add all the above ingredients into a pan and roast it at low flame for 1 -2 minutes or till you get an aromatic smell. Then remove the pan from the stove and allow the spices to cool.
- Move the roasted spices to a mixture jar and grind it coarsely.
- Now the hawaij powder is ready.
Take 5 -7 tablespoon of warm water and soak the saffron threads into it. Leave it for 30 minutes. You will an aromatic, golden yellow color saffron essence.
Marinating Procedure:
- Chicken – 1.5 Kg or you can use a whole chicken
- Hawaij spice – 2 tablespoon
- Pepper Powder – 0.5 to 1 tablespoon
- Turmeric powder – 0.5 tablespoon
- Butter – 3 tablespoon
- Salt – As required
Mix all the above ingredients and make it a nice paste. Rub all the paste to the chicken. Make sure all the parts of the chicken are well coated with the spice paste. And refrigerate the marinated chicken for 4 hours or overnight.
Saffron Chicken Mandi Cooking Procedure
- Roast the onion in a saucepan with some salt until it gets golden brown color. Remove the pan from the stove.
- Now in a big vessel add bay leaves, pepper, cardamom, cloves, 2 green chili, turmeric powder, 2 cups of rice, salt and required water.
- Preheat the oven to 425 F.
- Place a wire rack at the top of the big vessel in which we added rice and all other ingredients. Keep the marinated chicken at the top of the wire rack.
- Cook the rice and chicken for 14 minutes in the oven in the same heat.
- Then reduce the temperature to 325 F and cook the rice and chicken for1 hour.
- After that turn the chicken to the other side and again heat the both at the same temperature.
- Now you can find the chicken cooked well. And it will be very nice and tender.
- Add the saffron essence to the cooked rice and mix well.
- Garnish with some fried onion.
- Finally, you get the traditional style saffron chicken mandi recipe.
