The debate about which pilaf recipe is the most “correct,” like all similar ones, has no solution.
It is much wiser to try all possible options and choose the ones you like best.
All national cuisines have their own characteristics and advantages, Azerbaijani is no exception.
For most housewives, Azerbaijani pilaf is preferable due to the specifics of preparing rice; in this case, it is easier to cook it to the required condition.
The variety of products served with rice is such that any gourmet will find a recipe to suit their taste.
Azerbaijani pilaf - general principles of preparation
The peculiarity of Azerbaijani pilafs is that the rice for them is prepared separately from the other ingredients and is not mixed with them even when served.
The taste of the finished dish largely depends on properly cooked rice, since it is the main part of the pilaf, occupying more than half of its volume.
Boiled rice should not become soggy during cooking and become sticky like porridge. It should be well cooked while remaining crumbly at the same time.
To achieve this result, rice should be steamed. When boiling rice in water, the cereal is placed only in boiling water and boiled only until half cooked. The rice is brought to full readiness in a cauldron, simmering on the lowest heat under the lid for up to half an hour.
Before cooking, rice cereals must be rinsed well with cold water until they become transparent, and then soaked in lukewarm water for twenty minutes.
Boiled rice must be washed with hot water, and part of it is separated in order to color it.
Rice is colored with saffron tincture, which is added to melted butter mixed with a teaspoon of boiling water.
To prevent the rice from burning while the bottom of the dish is being cooked, lay pita bread on the bottom, greased with butter that has been dissolved to a liquid state, and only after that do you place the rice on it.
You can prepare pita bread yourself, but to save time, store-bought is also suitable.
Azerbaijani pilafs are prepared with meat, fish, and chicken. There is also a recipe for children - with raisins and milk.
The meat for pilaf is fried and then stewed with herbs, spices and fruits, or meatballs are prepared from it, which are served with pilaf with sauce.
Azerbaijani pilaf with lamb
Ingredients:
240 grams of rice;
400 grams of young lamb, brisket;
Three large onions;
160 grams of cherry plum (yellow);
Seedless raisins – 35 grams;
150 ml pomegranate juice;
50 grams of butter;
0.8 ml saffron tincture.
Cooking method:
1. Pour boiling water up to halfway into a large, fairly deep saucepan. Cover the top of the pan with gauze folded in two layers and tie the pan with the free ends of the gauze so that it does not fall into the water under the weight of the rice. The gauze should not be too tight, but rather bend a little. Place the well-washed rice on cheesecloth and knead it with your hands so that there are no lumps left. Place a piece of butter on top of the rice and cook, covered, until fully cooked.
2. Cut the lamb brisket along with the bones into small portions and fry them in a frying pan in their own fat with the addition of butter. You need to fry over high heat so that the meat quickly becomes golden brown and does not lose juice during further cooking.
3. In a thick-walled cauldron, place onion cut into small pieces, add washed and slightly dried raisins, pitted cherry plum, pour in pomegranate juice and, adding a little less than a quarter glass of water, simmer, covering the cauldron with a lid, for forty minutes over low heat.
4. Boiled rice and stewed meat are served separately in different dishes. Along with the pilaf, greens are placed on a separate plate on the table: young garlic, green onions, mint and watercress.
Azerbaijani pilaf with chicken
Ingredients:
Chilled chicken carcass – 900 grams;
300 grams of coarse grain rice;
15 grams of almond kernels;
Cherry plum – 150 grams;
Medium sized bulb;
Three cloves of garlic, young;
Half a liter of milk;
100 grams of butter;
Ground cinnamon – 5 grams;
100 grams of horse chestnut;
Pomegranate juice – 250 ml;
Half a teaspoon of saffron tincture;
Ground black pepper to taste.
For lavash:
White wheat flour – 350 grams;
One egg;
A tablespoon of boiled water;
25 grams of butter, 65% butter;
Fine salt.
Cooking method:
1. Whisk the egg with water and salt. Add to the flour and knead a fairly thick dough, as for noodles, and roll it out into a layer, one to one and a half millimeters thick. Fry the pita bread on both sides in a dry frying pan.
2. Boil the rice until half cooked in slightly salted boiling water. While the rice is cooking, remove any foam from the surface of the broth. When the surface of the grains becomes soft, but at the same time they are slightly hard inside, discard the rice in a colander and rinse it with cold boiled water. Color the rice with saffron.
3. Brush the pita bread with butter melted over the fire and place it in the cauldron, oiled side up. Place one and a half cups of uncolored rice mixed with 50 grams of melted butter on the pita bread and smooth it out. Sprinkle the saffron-dyed rice on top, put the remaining oil on it and let it simmer under a tightly covered lid for half an hour.
4. Heat the chestnuts well in a dry frying pan, pour boiling water over them, remove the skins and bring to readiness by boiling them over low heat in milk.
5. In heated oil, fry finely chopped onion with chopped garlic until slightly transparent, add almonds and fry a little more. Add chestnuts, cherry plum, lightly salt and simmer for seven minutes over low heat.
6. Rinse the chicken carcass thoroughly and rub the inside well with salt mixed with cinnamon and ground black pepper. There is no need to cut the belly.
7. Stuff the carcass with chestnut mixture and sew tightly with kitchen thread.
8. Place the stuffed bird on a baking sheet and bake until done in the oven at 200 degrees, systematically pouring pomegranate juice over it.
9. Divide the finished chicken into portions and place them in the center of a flat dish, and place the filling around it and pour pomegranate juice over everything.
10. Serve the rice separately from the meat, garnishing it with herbs.
Azerbaijani pilaf with beef
Ingredients:
Beef (tenderloin) – 600 grams;
Two and a half glasses of rice;
120 grams of melted butter;
Two large onions;
Ground cloves - a small pinch;
Cinnamon - on the tip of the knife.
Store-bought thin pita bread.
Cooking method:
1. Cut the onion into small cubes and fry it until golden brown in a frying pan in melted butter, seasoning with cinnamon and cloves.
2. In a separate frying pan, also in oil, fry small pieces of washed and slightly dried beef.
3. Place the meat in a cauldron or a small thick-walled pan, topping each layer with fried onions. Pour in a third of a glass of water, add salt to your taste and simmer until done.
4. Boil well-washed rice in slightly salted water until half cooked. Do not use cold water to cook rice; use only boiling water. Place the grains in a colander and rinse. When all the moisture has gone, place the rice in a cauldron, the bottom and sides of which are lined with thin oiled pita bread, pour the remaining melted butter on top and bring to readiness.
5. Place the cooked rice in a heap on a plate, place the stewed meat on top, and pour the juice released during stewing over the meat.
Azerbaijani pilaf, milk
Ingredients:
Short grain rice – 0.5 cups;
60 grams of dark raisins;
70 grams of butter “Peasant” butter;
250 ml milk;
Boiled water – 400 ml;
Saffron, tincture - half a teaspoon;
Thin lavash.
Cooking method:
1. Dilute milk in water and bring to a boil. Add salt to the still not boiling milk mixture and add the water-washed rice, stir well. Bring to a boil quickly and, reducing the heat to medium, cook the rice until fully cooked.
2. Rinse the finished rice in a colander with hot water. When all the water has drained, transfer the rice to a large sieve lined with gauze and leave to dry for a quarter of an hour.
3. Grease the bottom and walls of the cauldron generously with oil, line them with pita bread, which you also oil.
4. Mix the rice with the washed, soaked raisins, place everything in a cauldron and simmer for half an hour, turning the heat to low. The lid of the cauldron must be closed tightly.
5. Melt the butter well over low heat, mix it with saffron tincture and pour this mixture over the top of the rice.
Azerbaijani fish pilaf
Ingredients:
Half a kilo of fresh sea fish;
One and a half glasses of Khazar rice;
100 grams of “Traditional” butter;
Raisins – 60 grams;
Two large onions;
Ground black pepper;
Fine salt;
Saffron tincture – 1 ml;
Lavash is store-bought, thin.
Cooking method:
1. Clean the fish from scales and entrails, remove all fins and cut into small pieces. Place the fish in a small bowl, sprinkle with salt and black pepper, mix well and leave for ten minutes.
2. Roll fish pieces in flour and quickly fry in hot oil on both sides until lightly browned. Add the onion, sautéed until transparent, raisins soaked in water, saffron and cook the fish over medium heat until cooked.
3. Boil rice in slightly salted water until tender, rinse and dry lightly. Color a third of the rice with saffron and transfer all the rice to a cauldron lined with buttered pita bread. There is regular rice on the bottom of the cauldron, and colored rice on top.
4. Make a small depression in the center of the saffron-colored rice, into which place the fish poached with fruit. Cover the container tightly with a lid and cook the pilaf until cooked on the lowest heat possible for 8 minutes.
Azerbaijani lamb pilaf with beans
Ingredients:
Thin store-bought lavash – 1 sheet;
600 grams of lamb (loin);
1 cup Basmati rice;
Bitter white onion – 1 large head;
80 grams of dry white beans;
70 grams of “Kishmish” raisins;
65% butter – 100 grams;
A small pinch of cinnamon and black pepper;
1 ml saffron tincture;
Cooking method:
1. In well-melted butter, fry the chopped onion until light amber in color. Add pieces of lamb fried until golden brown to the onion, add a third of a glass of boiled cold water, and add salt. Add saffron diluted with two tablespoons of water and simmer the meat until fully cooked.
2. Rinse the rice, cooked until half cooked, in hot water and dry in a colander.
3. Boil beans soaked in water in advance until soft, strain off the water and mix with drained rice.
4. Rinse the “raisins”, cover with hot water for ten minutes, then drain the water, and slightly simmer the raisins over low heat.
5. Place thin pita bread on the bottom of a thick-walled saucepan or cauldron, add butter, add saffron tincture and quickly bring to a crispy crust on the stove. Add rice mixed with beans and cook under closed lid until cooked.
6. Place the prepared rice in a heap on a large flat dish. On one side, place the meat stewed with spices, and on the other side, poached raisins and lavash laid out from the cauldron.
Azerbaijani pilaf with meatballs
Ingredients:
700 grams of brisket (lamb, beef);
Five small onions;
One and a half cups of long grain rice;
120 grams of “Traditional” butter;
15 ml 3% vinegar;
1 tbsp. l. tomato paste;
0.5 tsp. granulated sugar;
One milliliter of saffron tincture;
Ground black pepper, fine table salt.
Cooking method:
1. Remove excess films from the meat, rinse it with cold water and, cutting it into small pieces, twist it twice in a meat grinder, installing a large rack in it. While twisting the meat a second time, pass two peeled onions through a meat grinder along with it.
2. Add a little salt to the minced meat, lightly pepper, knead well and refrigerate for half an hour.
3. Form small balls from the chilled minced meat with wet hands and fry them in melted butter until golden brown.
4. In a separate frying pan, fry chopped onion, add tomato paste, a tablespoon of boiled water, vinegar, granulated sugar, a little salt and a pinch of ground black pepper. Stir thoroughly and continue to fry, stirring constantly for two minutes.
5. Pour the prepared tomato sauce over the meat balls and simmer them in the sauce over low heat for 8 minutes.
6. Pour boiling water over the washed, soaked rice and cook until fully cooked. Drain the water, rinse the cooked rice with hot water and discard in a colander.
7. When all the water has disappeared, color a third of the rice with saffron, and place the remaining white rice in a heap on a dish and pour the dissolved hot oil over it.
8. Place the colored part on top of the white rice, and place the meatballs and sauce around the pilaf.
If you don't have saffron tincture, you can replace it with a small pinch of turmeric.
Rice, if possible, choose the Osman or Khazar varieties. However, if you don’t find one on sale, stick to simple rules: the rice grains should be large, whole, and “pot-bellied.” The color is white, perhaps with a slightly pinkish tint.
Boiled rice in Azerbaijani pilaf is never served hot; the temperature should be sufficient for the butter to melt, but no more.
Those who cook pilaf with ghee should definitely take into account that there is a risk of over-softening the rice grains, please do not forget about this.
You can prepare saffron tincture yourself. To do this, pour a tablespoon of ground saffron into 200 ml. vodka and leave for a month. After this, shake well and leave again for a week. Carefully pour the finished tincture into a dark, well-closed container so that no sediment gets into it. Seal tightly and store in the refrigerator only. This tincture can be used not only for preparing Azerbaijani pilaf, it can also be used to tint dough or cream.
I like to cook pilaf, but I don’t quite like traditional recipes with lamb - I want something lighter. Therefore, the Azerbaijani-style pilaf with chicken and dried fruits turned out to be exactly what was needed. And the children liked it, although they are often skeptical about pilaf. This pilaf is quite simple to prepare; you don’t need to be a super-cook to pamper your family with this wonderful dish.
For pilaf, you can use chicken fillet or other parts of the chicken carcass. The main thing is that the pieces are not too large.
For pilaf, peel the onions and carrots, wash them, and then finely chop them. Carrots can be chopped into cubes or strips, and onions into small pieces.
Pour boiling water over some ground saffron.
Fry the chicken pieces in vegetable oil, stirring, for 8-10 minutes, while turning the heat to low.
Now fry the carrots and onions in vegetable oil for 4-5 minutes over low heat, while stirring with a spatula.
Place the fried chicken in the pan with the vegetables and stir.
Now pour the rice for pilaf into a frying pan or saucepan.
Add salt and spices, pour in the steamed saffron.
Don’t forget about dried fruits - raisins, of course, should be seedless. In general, you need to go through it, as you may come across spoiled raisins and tails.
Add water to the frying pan (saucepan) in a ratio of 1:2 (1 part rice to 2 parts water), plus another 200 ml. Cover with a lid and simmer over low heat for 30-40 minutes. Be sure to monitor the process, as more water may be needed.
Azerbaijani-style pilaf with chicken and dried fruits is ready. You can serve immediately, or you can let it brew under a closed lid for half an hour.
Bon appetit!
To prepare pilaf with chicken, kazmag and dried fruits According to the recipe of Azerbaijani cuisine, pour the washed rice into boiling salted water and boil until half cooked. When the rice is cooked, place it in a sieve and let the water drain.
Break the chicken into portions. Cut the onion into half rings and lightly fry in butter. Place the chopped chicken on the onion, add salt and pepper and fry over medium heat until cooked.
In a separate frying pan, fry the dried fruits in butter. Dried fruits must be fried over very low heat, stirring occasionally, so as not to burn.
While the rice is cooking, you need to prepare the kazmag. Lightly beat the eggs with water, salt and melted butter. Add flour little by little and knead the dough. Roll out the prepared dough into a layer of 1-1.5 mm. Heat the frying pan, grease it well with butter, and lay out the kazmag.
Grease the kazmag with oil and place some of the rice on top, sprinkle with melted butter and saffron diluted in it, and cover with the rest of the rice. Drizzle the remaining saffron oil on top of the rice. Cover the roasting pan tightly with a lid and place over low heat or a divider until the liquid has completely evaporated (15-20 minutes). When the rice is completely cooked, you can assemble it. Place rice on a large plate or tray, place fried dried fruits around it, cut the kazmag into segments or diamonds and also place on the rice. Also beautifully place pieces of chicken with onions on rice and serve. In addition to dried apricots and raisins, you can add dates and chestnuts to this pilaf, and the taste of the meat can be complemented by adding sumac.
Rinse the rice in plenty of water, changing it periodically. The last water should be absolutely clear. Soak rice in bottled water for 30 minutes. Then boil 1.5 liters of fresh water, lightly add salt, add rice and cook, removing the foam, until half cooked, 7 minutes.
Prepare the dough for the flatbread. Sift flour with salt, add egg, 1 tbsp. l. water and melted butter. Knead into a smooth elastic dough. Roll it into a thin layer and cover the bottom and walls of the cauldron with it.
Drain the rice in a colander. Melt the butter. Place half the rice on the dough, smooth the surface and pour half the oil on top. Add the remaining rice, pour in the other half of the oil, cover and cook over low heat for 30 minutes. Leave the finished rice in a warm place (wrap it in a blanket).
Boil chestnuts in a small amount of boiling water for 7 minutes. Coarsely chop the onion. Rinse dried fruits in warm water. Squeeze the juice out of the pomegranates. Cut the chicken into small pieces and fry in 2 tbsp. l. ghee over high heat for 5 minutes. Place in a thick-bottomed saucepan. In the skillet where the chicken was fried, fry the onion until soft, 5 minutes. Add onion, pomegranate juice and 1/2 cup boiling water to pan with chicken. Cook covered over low heat for 30 minutes. Add chestnuts and dried fruits, salt, stir and cook for another 10 minutes.
Dissolve saffron in 1 tbsp. l. boiling water Mix with 1 tbsp. l. butter. Remove the finished rice from the cauldron and divide into 2 parts. Pour the saffron mixture into half the rice and stir. Place white and saffron rice in strips on a large shallow dish. Place the chicken with chestnuts and dried fruits in the center or on the side. Serve immediately. Tear the flatbread with your hands and also serve it to the table on a separate dish.
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