Print This Recipe

Sephardi Spiced Chicken Rice

Sundays with Marlena Spieler

How is everyone doing after Thanksgiving?  We had a great time with family. We cooked both traditional and non traditional dishes, but it is the quality time you spend with family that counts right? When we get together, of course food plays a vital role and we always look for festive dishes to make. This is one such recipe from Marlena.

This is our adapted version of the recipe. We added Cayenne and mint to the recipe. If you wanted to make it vegetarian, use vegetable stock and add cauliflower and zucchini to the rice.

Chicken- 1 cup, diced
Garlic Cloves – 3 to 4, finely chopped
Turmeric- 1 tsp
Cayenne- 1 tsp, optional
Olive Oil- 4 T
Carrots – 2, diced or chopped
Cardamom pods- 6 to 8 (whole)
Long grain rice – 2 1/2 cups
Tomatoes – 9 oz, chopped
Chicken Stock-  4.5 cups
Mint – 3 T, finely chopped

For the lemon and mint relish:
tomatoes – 3 diced
Fresh mint- 1 small bunch, chopped
Scallions – 5 to 8, thinly sliced
lemons juice – 1 T
salt & pepper to taste

For the relish: Put all the ingredients in a bowl and mix together. Chill until ready to serve.

• Mix the diced chicken with half the garlic, cayenne and the turmeric.
• Heat a little of the oil in a pan, add the chicken, and fry briefly until the chicken has changed color and is almost cooked. Remove from the pan and set aside.
• Add the carrots to the pan with the remaining oil, and then stir in the remaining garlic, the cardamom seeds and the rice. Cook for 1 to 2 minutes.
• Add the tomatoes, chicken stock and mint to the pan and bring to a boil. Cover and simmer for about 10 minutes, until the rice is tender.
• A few minutes before the rice is cooked, fork in the chicken, Serve with the relish.

Be sure to check Eileen & Mel’s blog!