Zereshk Polo
Zereshk Polo is one of the most popular dishes of Iranians, who mostly use it in their special and important events such as weddings.
Ingredients
- Rice
- Chicken
- chopped onion
- Turmeric
- Salt
- Tomato paste
- Brewed saffron
- Lemon juice
- Rose water
- Barberry
- Sugar
- Pistachio slices
- Butter
Instructions
The first stage:
To prepare simple Zereshk Polo, first, wash and clean the chicken well, then make three fine cuts on the chicken with the help of a knife.
The second stage:
Wash a large onion and chop it into small pieces, put it in a suitable pot and fry it with some oil.
The third stage:
Next, the spices such as turmeric, salt, and black pepper shall be added to the onion.
The fourth stage:
Add the chicken to the onions and fry until they are completely fried and tasty.
The fifth stage:
After the chicken is flavored, add about 4 glasses of water to the chicken. Avoid filling the surface of the chicken with water.
The sixth stage:
When the chicken has been roasted for about 20 minutes, some of the cooking steps have been completed, add water to the chicken and let it cook until about half of the water evaporates.
The seventh stage:
After ensuring that the chicken is cooked, pour a tablespoon of oil into an appropriate pan, then add tomato paste to the pan and fry until the paste loses its rawness.
The eighth stage:
After roasting the paste and oil, we add lemon, rose and one of the 4 spoons of saffron we have prepared to lighten the color and remove the raw smell.
The ninth stage:
After roasting these ingredients together, add the sauce to the cooked chicken and stir until the ingredients are absorbed by the chicken.
The tenth stage:
From this point on, the heat of the gas must be very mild and we let the ingredients thicken and settle for 10 minutes without stirring.
The eleventh stage:
While the chicken is cooking, pour 1 spoonful of butter and 1 spoonful of liquid oil into a suitable pan. This can make the rice shiny.
The twelfth stage:
Pour the prepared barberries, sugar, 1 tablespoon of saffron and 1 tablespoon of rose water that you have prepared in advance into the pan that you have poured oil and butter and fry.
The thirteenth stage:
In this stage, add a spoonful of rice that you have already added saffron to it, to the roasted barberry and stir until the rice gets colored. Then the pistachio slices must be added to the saffron rice.
The fourteenth stage:
And finally, after mixing these ingredients, pour them on the cooked rice and serve the chicken and the sauce that has been cooked in a gentle heat with it.
Preserving the good color of barberry in the food
In order for the barberry color to remain beautiful and shiny and stop from spreading its color, you should turn off the heat as soon as the sugar grains are dissolved and also be careful not to add the pistachio slices to it on the heat because the color of the pistachio changes completely when it is heated and loses its original color.
It is worth mentioning that when we add saffron to our ingredients separately and help barberry preserve its color, each of the ingredients takes on a special and beautiful color in its place.
Important points in cooking Zereshk Polo
It is better to fry the chicken pieces before cooking and add onions, spices and water to them so that your Zereshk Polo has a better taste.
You can make use of turkey meat instead of chicken.
To make Zereshk Polo more delicious, you can use zereshk polo spice, which gives a unique taste to the food.
To cook chicken, use only turmeric and salt, and the chicken used for this dish must be yellow, for this reason, the use of tomato paste and saffron will change the taste of the food.
If you like, remove the skin when cleaning the chicken. But it is better not to remove the skin of the chicken because it makes it taste better.
For a better color of saffron, before the butter melts completely, put it in a pan with barberry and sugar and heat it a little. Then add half a glass of water to it and heat it for a few minutes and then remove it.
Do not put saffron on high heat because its aroma will decrease.
The chicken broth should be thick and served in a separate bowl from the chicken.
If you want, you can add some sour plum to the chicken sauce.
It is better to use fresh butter or oil to fry barberry.
When roasting barberry, sprinkle sugar on it because it makes the barberry stick to the rice and gives the food a sweet and sour taste. You should also roast the barberry on a very low heat because high heat makes it dry and when used it sticks to the teeth.
To get the best color of saffron, you should grind it in a stone or wooden mortar so that it does not lose its aroma.
When serving food, pour a tablespoon of pistachio slices on the barberries so that their green color along with the red color of the barberry makes the appearance of the food more beautiful.