Persian Chicken - Tah Cheen

Total Time: 4 hrs 40 mins Preparation Time: 2 hrs 10 mins Cook Time: 2 hrs 30 mins

Ingredients

• Servings: 4
• 1 (2 1/4 lb) whole chicken
• 1 lb basmati rice
• 10 ounces plain nonfat yogurt
• 1/2 teaspoon saffron
• 2 large onions
• 3 egg yolks
• cooking oil
• salt (to taste)
• black pepper (to taste)

Recipe

• 1 wash rice and soak it in warm water (with added salt) for 2 hours, then filter out the water.
• 2 chop onions thinly and fry in oil until slightly golden.
• 3 wash and cut chicken, remove skin, and fry in onions until color changes.
• 4 add some water and bring to boil.
• 5 reduce heat and simmer slowly until cooked, adding more water if needed, then remove the bones.
• 6 while chicken is cooking, beat the yogurt until it is smooth.
• 7 dissolve saffron in half a cup of hot water.
• 8 add saffron, salt, pepper and egg yolks to the yogurt and mix very well.
• 9 pour a few glasses of water in a large pot and bring to boil.
• 10 pour in rice and cook while stirring occasionally until rice grows longer and slightly softens (take care not to overcook the rice, it should still be too hard for eating); again filter out the water.
• 11 pour several spoons of oil and several spoons of the yogurt mix into a non-stick pot.
• 12 add a thin layer of rice and flatten using the back of a spoon; add a layer of chicken on top followed by another layer of rice, then flatten the rice.
• 13 spread several more spoons of the yogurt mix on the rice.
• 14 continue in this fashion until chicken, rice and the yogurt mix have been used up, then add some more oil on top.
• 15 put the lid on and cook for about 5 minutes over medium heat.
• 16 place the pot in an oven (preheated to 250 f) and cook for 1.
• 17 5 to 2 hours (note that the longer tah chin is cooked, the thicker the tah dig- delicious crispy layer of rice at the bottom- will be).
• 18 when cooked, remove the lid and let cool for a few minutes.
• 19 place an inverted large dish over the pot and turn it over.
• 20 tap the pot in order to loosen the contents inside (the contents should fall on the dish in one piece with the tah dig on the outside).