Chicken Thighs with Caramelized Onions & Cardamom Rice

One-pot chicken and rice dish flavored with Middle Eastern spices, dried fruit, and herbs

This recipe from Yotam Ottolenghi's Jerusalem is a flavorful one-pot meal of chicken and rice with sautéed onions, currants, spices, and herbs. Everything cooks in a single skillet in batches: first the onions, then the chicken and rice, and can go straight to stove to tabletop with no need for extra serveware (and less dishes to clean up). The Middle Eastern spices of cardamom, cinnamon, and cloves add an exotic flavor to an otherwise familiar dish. Combined with the sweet onions, tart currants, juicy chicken, and fresh herbs, it's a well-balanced meal that has great mix of richness, brightness, sweet, and salt. Leftovers hold up well for a few days and taste just as good as they do on day one.


Related Recipes:
- Roasted Lemon Chicken with Sunchokes
- Moroccan Chicken Tagine with Olives and Preserved Lemons
- Crispy Lemon-Rosemary Chicken Thighs


One-Pot Chicken with Caramelized Onions, Cardamom Rice, and Currants:
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 lb. bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs
- 1 3/4 c. basmati rice
- 2 onions, thinly sliced
- 2 1/2 c. boiling water
- 1/4 c. olive oil
- 1/4 c. currants
- 8 whole cardamom pods
- 3 cinnamon sticks
- 1/4 tsp. whole cloves
- 1/4 c. fresh dill, chopped
- 1/4 c. fresh cilantro, chopped
- 1/2 lemon
- 1 c. greek yogurt
- kosher salt
- black pepper

Recipe

• Heat 2 tbsp. olive oil in a large pot over medium heat.
• Add in the onions and cook, stirring occasionally, for 15 minutes, or until caramelized.
• Meanwhile, toss remaining 2 tbsp. olive oil with the chicken, cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, 1 tsp. salt, and a few grinds of black pepper.
• Scrape out the onions onto a plate and increase the heat in the pan to high.
• Add in the chicken and spices, skin-side down, and cook for 5 minutes. Then flip and cook for another five minutes.
• Remove the chicken to a plate. It's ok to leave the spices in the pan.
• Add in the rice, onions, currants, and season with salt and pepper. Nestle in the chicken, skin-side up.
• Pour the boiling water over everything, cover with a lid, and lower heat to a very low simmer.
• Cook for thirty minutes, then fluff the rice with a fork and check that it's done. All the liquid should be absorbed.
• Squeeze the juice of the lemon on top and sprinkle with the chopped herbs.
• Divide onto plates and dollop with yogurt.

Serves four