Hi everyone ,Sometimes the simplest recipes turn out to be the most delicious. You don’t always need lots of spices, tomatoes, or complicated ingredients to make a tasty meal. Today I’m sharing one of my favorite simple chicken pulao recipes. It is light, flavorful, and perfect for those who don’t like very spicy food.
This pulao is made without tomatoes, and we don’t use onions while cooking the chicken and rice. I only use fried onions later for garnishing. The combination of soft chicken, fragrant basmati rice, raisins, and crispy golden onions gives this simple pulao a really delicious taste.
So let’s start with the recipe.
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Preparing the Chicken
First, wash the chicken properly and put it into a cooking pot or degchi.Add some cooking oil and start frying the chicken on medium heat. Cover the pot with a lid while the chicken is frying. The chicken will release its own water, and this will help the chicken become soft and tender while it cooks.
Keep cooking until the chicken is nicely fried and most of its water has reduced.
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Adding the Spices
Once the chicken is nicely fried, it’s time to add the spices.
For this simple pulao, I use:
Salt
Black pepper
Turmeric
Mixed spice
Add all the spices to the chicken and mix everything very well.
Now sauté the chicken with the spices for a few minutes. This step is important because frying the spices with the chicken brings out their aroma and gives the pulao a much better flavor.Since this is a very simple pulao, I also add two chicken cubes. They give the chicken and rice a really nice chicken flavor. You can adjust this according to your taste.
Keep sautéing everything until you can smell the beautiful aroma of the spices and chicken.
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Cooking the Chicken
Now add water to the chicken.
Add enough water so that the chicken can cook properly and become soft. Cover the pot again and let it cook for a few minutes.After about 5 to 10 minutes, you will notice that the water has become thicker and the chicken is soft and tender.
At this point, our chicken is ready for the rice.
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Adding the Rice
For this pulao, I recommend using basmati rice because it has a beautiful aroma and gives you long, separate, and fluffy rice grains.I soaked my basmati rice about one hour before cooking. Soaking the rice helps the grains become longer and gives the pulao a much nicer texture.Now add the soaked and drained rice to the chicken.Mix it gently and check the water. Make sure the amount of water is enough for the rice to cook properly. The rice should cook nicely in the flavorful chicken stock.Let the rice cook until it becomes tender and most of the water has dried up.
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Putting the Pulao on Dum
Once the rice is cooked and the water has completely reduced, lower the heat and put the pulao on dum.
Cover the pot properly and let it cook on very low heat for about 30 minutes.This slow cooking allows the rice to absorb all the delicious flavors from the chicken and spices. It also helps the rice become fluffy and gives the pulao a beautiful aroma.
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Preparing the Garnishing
While the pulao is cooking, prepare the garnishing.
For the topping, I used raisins and fried onions.
Fry the sliced onions until they become light golden brown.Mine became a little darker than I wanted because I got busy with something else while they were frying. I would recommend keeping an eye on them and taking them off the heat when they become light golden brown.You don’t want the onions to become too dark because they can taste bitter.
For the raisins, you can place them on one side of the rice when you put the pulao on dum. They will become soft and slightly sweet from the steam while the rice is cooking.
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Time to Serve
After the pulao has finished cooking, gently fluff the rice with a spoon.Now serve the chicken pulao on a beautiful plate and sprinkle the soft raisins and golden fried onions over the top.
And that’s it! Our simple and delicious chicken pulao is ready.
I really love recipes like this because they are simple but still full of flavor. There are no tomatoes, no complicated ingredients, and no need to make the pulao very spicy. The chicken cubes, spices, chicken stock, fragrant basmati rice, sweet raisins, and fried onions all come together beautifully.
If you try this simple chicken pulao at home, I hope you enjoy it as much as my family does. It is a perfect meal for lunch or dinner, especially when you want something delicious without spending too much time in the kitchen.
Thank you so much for reading, and I hope you enjoy this simple and flavorful chicken pulao with your family.