A chicken mandi, if properly made, is one of the best dishes one can enjoy in the Middle East. What more can you ask for really? Nice delicious chicken on a big tray of rice garnished with lots of spices and herbs — it’s a real explosion of flavours in your mouth.
If you have not locked down yet your own recipe for a good chicken mandi, our friends at JW Marriott Muscat is sharing this restaurant-quality dish made by their Chef de Partie who specialises in Arabic Cuisines. We hope you enjoy preparing this for your iftar dinner or better yet, you can master this dish while you are stashed away in your homes during the Eid holiday.
Ingredients
250 gm Basmati Rice
200 gm Chicken Cube
50 gm Onion Chop
50 gm Tomato Small Cube
45 gm Ginger-Garlic Paste
2 gm Arabic Spice Powder
2 gm Red Chili Powder
1 gm Turmeric Powder
2 gm Coriander Powder
60 gm Olive Oil
50 gm Yoghurt
60 gm Ghee
Salt to taste
3 gm Cashew
20 gr Dry Lemon
5 gm Coriander Leaves Chop
5 gm Mint Leaves Chop
2 gm Whole Cloves
5 gm Whole Cardamom
5 gm Whole Cinnamon
5 gm Bay Leaf
0.05 gm Saffron
75 gr Charcoal
20 gr Green Chili Chop
Preparation
Marinate the chicken with all the spices and ginger garlic paste and keep it in the chiller for 4 hours.
Wash and soak the rice for half an hour.
While soaking the rice, heat the ghee in a pot. Once the ghee gets hot, add all the spices then add the chopped onion, garlic, ginger and sauté until the onion gets golden brown in colour.
Add all powder spices to the pot and stir for a minute and a half, then add water.
Once the water boils, add washed rice then cook for 10 minutes, once the water is at the same level as the rice, turn the fire to low heat.
Cover the pot tightly with aluminium foil, cook for another 17 minutes then turn off the heat. Keep the rice in the pot for 20 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 185 degree Celsius and cook marinated chicken for 19 minutes.
For a smokier flavour: Fire up the charcoal and keep it in a deep container then put the cooked chicken and cooked rice in the strainer and place it on top of the charcoal container then cover for 20 minutes.
ABOUT THE CHEF
Starting his journey as Commis ll in Amman — Jordan, Chef Mahmoud has come a long way by sharpening his skills under experts Executive Chefs at Marriott International. To explore his culinary dreams, he worked in Amman and Dubai for over a year before joining JW Marriott Muscat as Chef De Partie, specialising in Arabic cuisine as the opening culinary team for the hotel.
He believes every dish should have soulfulness as that is when the ingredient’s flavours truly shine and awe the guests. Between helping his mom in the kitchen as a child, while cooking for family over weekends and growing up under the shadow of his uncle who taught him the skills of knife, he found his passion for cooking.
The turning point in his career was choosing his speciality, which was during the early time of his career while working for Marriott Dead Sea — Amman, it is there he was taught the essence of working with spices and the intricate delicacies the Arabic cuisine’s hold, while he worked in the main kitchen preparing an array of Arabic dishes for weddings and events.
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