Chicken Peas Pulao

Peas Pulao is not new for any of us!! It’s light and requires very few ingredients. There was a time when peas pulao existed only in winters, but in the age of frozen vegetables...there is scarcely anything particularly season specific. So a bag of frozen green peas always finds a place in my freezer and I generously add them in almost every dish, where I found them to be suitably fit.

This particular recipe of Peas Pulao comes from a close friend of mine, with which she has very fond memories of her childhood. She remembers it as “Peas Pass”, where her mother used to cook this very particular Pulao in her early days of recovering from fever. With butter and crushed black peppercorns...this pulao had a very rich yet mild and soothing taste...which calmed her senses and gave her tasteless buds something to hold on. I found her story really alluring, and after a few days I got my bags of frozen peas and chicken and cooked this beautiful pulao.

Melt butter and temper with the whole spices. Then add the sliced onions.

Saute the onions until they become translucent and their edges start to become golden.

Add the chicken and ginger - garlic and chilli paste.

Sprinkle some salt and pepper, and cook the chicken pieces until they change their colour,

Add water and cook until the chicken pieces are almost cooked.

Add green peas and cashew nuts.

Add rice and mix well.

Add water, lime juice, garam masala powder and cook until the rice is cooked.

She was right....this Chicken Peas Pulao is very calming and it tastes different because of the substitution of butter to ghee. I loved this. This is not rich or decadent but in every way soothing and satisfying!!! Do not pair this pulao with any spicy curry, as this Pulao goes well alone or just with a chilled bowl of raita or pickled onions!! Go on...enjoy...this lovely buttery Peas Pulao with Chicken.

Chicken and Peas Pulao

Serves 4

Ingredients:

1 cup fine Basmati rice

1 cup shelled green peas

2 onions – sliced

4-5 medium large pieces of chicken, preferably leg and breast pieces

6 fat cloves of garlic – paste

1 inch ginger – paste

2-3 green chillies – paste

A handful of untoasted – unsalted cashew nuts

4 tbsp softened butter

2 medium cinnamon stick

4 green cardamoms

4 cloves

6-8 black peppercorns

2 bay leaves

1 and ½ cups of chicken stock / plain water to cook the pulao

1 tsp garam masala powder

1 tsp ground black peppercorns

Juice of 1 lime 

Salt

Method:

Wash and soak the rice in water for 30 minutes.

Heat the butter in a heavy bottomed pan / dutch oven.

When it starts to melt add in the cinnamon sticks, green cardamoms, cloves and black peppercorns.

Sauté them for half a minute and then add the sliced onions to them.

Sprinkle some salt over them and let the onions sweat.

Stir and cook the onions until they become translucent and the edges have started to become golden.

Add the chicken pieces and also add in salt, ground black pepper and ginger-garlic and chilli paste.

Mix them well and let the chicken cook.

After 3-4 minutes on medium flame give them a good stir so that the chicken pieces can be cooked from the other sides as well.

After another 3-4 minutes give them another stir and put cover. The chicken pieces will ooze out lots of water during that time. Make sure to stir them every 3 minutes so they don’t stick to the bottom of the pan.

When all the moisture has evaporated add in 1 and ½ cup of water and put cover again. Since the rice is soaked for half an hour, it will take only 10 minutes to cook up nicely, and we have to make sure that the chicken pieces are nicely cooked and soft from inside by then.

Cook the chicken covered for 15 minutes and then cook uncovered for another 5 minutes or until the chicken pieces are almost cooked and the added water has evaporated completely.

Now add the cashew nuts, green peas and rice.

Give them a good mix and add in the chicken stock or water and lime juice.

Taste and adjust the salt.

Give a final mix and finally sprinkle the garam masala powder.

Put cover and cook the rice for 10-12 minutes.

After that, put off the flame and let the rice stay like that for another 10 minutes.

Finally open the cover and lightly fluff the rice with a fork.

Serve hot with chilled raita.