Everything you need to know about barberry pilaf with chicken: ZERESHK POLO

Get to know how to prepare zarshak pilaf with chicken, one of the most popular and delicious Iranian dishes, and by cooking it at home, throw a proper party

Iranian dishes with their unique taste and aroma and unique color and glaze are world famous and can be considered as one of the most delicious dishes in the world. Barshak pilaf with chicken is one of those dishes that in the past until now, has been a staple food on the tables. Many people have made this dish many times or eaten it at parties and events; But they still don't know what steps are involved in preparing barberry rice with delicious chicken.

Barberry is one of the fruits that is cultivated in two parts of Iran more than anywhere else; ,

With where Come along to learn how to prepare barberry rice with chicken step by step in this article. Zarshak Plou is one of the Iranian pilafs made with rice, barberry, saffron and sometimes sugar and usually served with chicken, turkey and lamb or mutton offal. This delicious traditional Iranian food can be eaten as lunch, dinner or breakfast. 

• Barshak pilaf with chicken and how to prepare it
• Important tips for cooking barberry rice with chicken
• The benefits of barberry pilaf with chicken
• The taste of barberry rice with chicken

Barshak pilaf with chicken and how to prepare it

Ingredients for two people

Ingredients for chicken

• 2 pieces of chicken (thigh or breast)
• A small peeled and sliced ​​onion
• A clove of peeled and chopped garlic
• A small onion, peeled and grated
• One medium potato, peeled and sliced
• A tablespoon of tomato paste
• 40 grams of butter
• bay leaf, salt, black pepper, cinnamon sticks as needed
• Frying oil as needed
• Brewed saffron as desired

Necessary ingredients for barberry pilaf

• 2 cups of rice
• 4 tablespoons of barberry
• Two teaspoons of sugar
• Salt as needed
• Brewed saffron as desired
• Butter or oil as needed
• Sliced ​​pistachios and almonds as desired (for decoration)

first stage: 

Preparing the chicken: season  the chicken with chopped onion, garlic, salt, black pepper and saffron the night before and mix all the ingredients well. Then cover the dish containing the chicken with cellophane and put it in the refrigerator until they are fully seasoned. 

second stage:

Preparation of chicken sauce: pour some oil in a frying pan and put it on medium heat until the oil is hot. Then put the grated onions in it and fry until they become light and caramelized. Add the tomato paste to the onions and fry until the raw smell of the paste is removed.

third level:

Melt the butter in another pan and then fry the seasoned chicken pieces in the butter until they are fried on both sides.

Fourth step:

Put the roasted chickens in a glass of boiling water, bay leaf and cinnamon sticks in the onion sauce and tomato paste and let the chickens cook with the lid closed on a low flame. After half an hour, open the lid of the pan, add salt to the chickens and turn them over until both sides are cooked completely.

The fifth step:

Preparation of rice: soak the rice in lukewarm water and two teaspoons of salt for at least 3 hours before. Put a pot of water on medium heat until it boils. Then discard the rice water and add it to the pot of boiling water. When the brunch is slightly soft, drain it. Pour a little oil on the bottom of the rice pot to heat it up. Then put your desired dish (potatoes or bread) on its bottom. Pour the drained rice into the pot and make it into a cone. Make a few holes on the rice and add water and oil or put a few pieces of butter on it. First, increase the gas flame to steam the rice. Then reduce the gas flame, put on a steamer and let the rice brew.

The sixth step:

Preparation of fried potatoes: Meanwhile, fry the sliced ​​potatoes in hot oil and at the end of frying, add a little turmeric and salt. Place the potatoes on parchment paper or a kitchen towel to drain the excess oil. It is better to fry the potatoes close to serving the food so that they do not lose their crispness and roastiness and do not get cold.

The seventh step:

After about 90 minutes, the chickens are fully cooked and their sauce has thickened. Check the taste of the chickens and add more salt if needed. Add some brewed saffron to the chickens in the final minutes of cooking.

Eighth step:

Preparation of barberries: Clean the barberries beforehand and soak them in water for an hour. Then put them in a frying pan with some oil and fry them for 30 seconds on low heat. Next, add sugar and remove from heat after another 30 seconds. Add sliced ​​almonds and pistachios to the barberries so that they are slightly warmed by their heat.

Ninth step: 

Mix some rice with brewed saffron. Put the rice in a dish and decorate it with saffron pilaf, roasted barberry and, if desired, pistachio and almond slices. 

Tenth step: 

Remove the cinnamon stick and bay leaves from the chicken sauce. Put the chicken in a serving dish and garnish it with fried potatoes. Don't forget the chicken broth and put it in a small bowl on the table. Enjoy your meal!

Important tips for cooking barberry rice with chicken

Tips for cooking chicken

• It is better to season the chicken in advance; because the smell of its smell is removed and it acquires a better texture; Of course, if you don't have enough time, don't worry. You can cook the chicken without seasoning and still have a delicious and wonderful barberry pilaf.
• There are two general methods for cooking barberry chicken pilaf; First, boil the chicken and then fry it, or first fry the chicken with butter or oil and then cook it in a special sauce. We suggest the second method in this article.
• Another method of cooking chicken is to boil the chicken with onions, boiled saffron and salt. Then make a sauce with onion, salt, turmeric, garlic and roasted tomato paste, brewed saffron and chicken stock and put the boiled chickens in it so that the chickens cook for another 10 minutes.
• In some recipes, the chicken is cooked in a completely different way without water. To cook chicken in this way, you should sprinkle your favorite spices, turmeric and black pepper on both sides of the chicken pieces so that they are fully flavored. Then put them together with oil at a suitable distance in a pan. Add bay leaf, cinnamon stick and quartered onion to the chickens and close the lid of the pan so that the chicken cooks on low heat by evaporating its own water and preserves its taste. After half an hour, turn the chickens over so that the other side is also fried and cooked. Meanwhile, in another pan, fry the grated onion and add a little tomato paste and chopped garlic to it. After the onion and paste are fried, pour a glass of chicken stock and let the sauce thicken. Next, put the cooked and fried chickens in the sauce and add salt and infused saffron to them so that they cook for another 10 to 15 minutes on low heat.
• Many people believe that not adding water to the chicken for cooking makes the final taste of the chicken much better.
• Do not forget to roast the paste; Because  frying the paste, in addition to getting its raw taste and smell, makes you have a more colorful food at the end.
• If you like the taste of pickles, you can add a little lemon juice or watercress to the sauce in the final minutes of cooking the chickens. In some recipes, sour plum is also used when cooking chicken.
• Chicken stock tablets are also used to make chicken sauce tastier. Note that if you use stock, add less salt to the food; Because the stock is salty and often, if you use it, there is no need for salt. 
• Cardamom, red pepper, cinnamon powder and ginger powder are other spices that can be used to cook chicken.
• Do not forget to remove bay leaves and cinnamon sticks from the chicken sauce before serving.
• It is better not to remove the skin of the chicken to cook barberry pilaf with chicken; Because it makes it delicious.
• If you want to serve a barberry pilaf, divide the whole chicken into four parts so that you have two whole chicken breasts and two thighs; But if your party is casual, you can divide each whole chicken into eight parts.
• Note that most of the properties of chicken are in the chicken breast; Because  it has very little fat and ultimately, it will not make your food greasy. 

Notes on rice

• While the rice is boiling in the water, take the foam on the rice so that the rice rises well.
• When the rice grain is soft and the kernel is a little hard, it is time to drain the rice.
• Do not close the lid of the pot while the rice is boiling.
• The gas flame while boiling the rice should be medium-high; Because as soon as rice is added to the pot, the water boils.
• When draining the rice, wash it with a little lukewarm water so that the excess starch is washed away and the rice grains do not stick together when steamed.
• You can also make rice in the form of kate.
• The longer the rice is soaked, the more resistant it will be during cooking and the less likely it will break.
• Lavash bread is more suitable for cooking blackberry pilaf

Barberry tips

• Barberry cannot be washed and cleaned once under water. To wash barberry, first clean the barberry and put it in a colander. Then put the strainer on a bowl and take it under the tap. After a few minutes, the inside of the bowl will be filled with sand. You should continue this until the water that remains in the bowl is completely clean and free of sand.
• If you fry the barberry for more than a minute or on a high gas flame, it will burn and get a bad taste and color; So, be careful when frying barberry.
• The secret to having a perfect barberry pilaf is to use fresh and colorful barberry.
• You can fry barberry with butter to get a more unique flavor. To do this, put blackberry and butter together in a pan and then add sugar to them.
• Adding sugar to barberry makes  the barberry stick to the rice and gives the food a sour and sweet taste. In addition, sugar makes the color of the barberry more shiny.
•  So that the sugar does not lump in the barberry, mix it  well with the barberry before it dissolves and caramelizes, and remove it from the heat immediately.
• You can also add a little rose water and brewed saffron to it while roasting barberry.

Tips about saffron

• To prepare brewed saffron, mix ground saffron with boiling water and a piece of ice and put it on steam for 15 minutes to infuse.
• Grind saffron in a stone or wooden mortar so that it does not lose its aroma. At the same time, note that saffron should not be too hot; Because it loses its aroma.

How to make barberry rice in other ways

• Some people add carrots to the chicken. The way to prepare Barshak Pilu with chicken and carrots is very simple, and it is enough for you to add the sliced ​​carrots while cooking the chickens in the water so that they cook together with the chicken. Of course, you can fry carrots with onions in the first steps and then cook them with the chickens.
• Celery, sweet pepper,  grated orange and lemon peel, parsley are other vegetables that can be added to chicken in addition to carrots.
• How to prepare barberry rice with orange chicken is also one of the different and popular options of this dish. To cook this dish, it is enough to use orange juice instead of water so that the orange taste will be eaten by the chickens.
• The way to prepare barberry rice with chicken in the oven is that after roasting onions, salt, garlic and tomato paste, in addition to the chickens, they can be cooked in the oven with water at a temperature of 150 degrees Celsius for one hour. Of course, some people also cook the chicken in a pot with sauce for an hour and put it in the oven for about 20 minutes before serving, so that it becomes nice and golden.

Tips for serving barberry rice with chicken

• You can also prepare a blackberry pilaf for restaurant and banquet. For this, mix 3 or 4 tablespoons of condensed yogurt with two spoons of drained rice and thick brewed saffron until the rice and yogurt are completely colored. Pour a little oil on the bottom of the pot and pour the mixed rice on the bottom of the pot. Press the rice and yogurt mixture well with the back of a spoon. Then pour the rest of the drained rice on it and let it simmer for a few hours on a low flame. To serve, put the rice in a plate and turn it back in another container and cut it. 
• In addition to fried potatoes, you can also serve fried eggplant with barberry rice with chicken.
• Yoghurt and cucumber, various pickles, Shirazi salad, vegetable salad, lettuce salad and grown olives are among the popular side dishes along with Barshak Pilu with Chicken. Along with this delicious food, you can serve buttermilk, soft drinks or Iranian syrups such as gulab syrup or bahar naranjan as a drink.
• When serving, the chicken broth should be thick and served in a separate bowl.
• Using sliced ​​almonds and pistachios to serve barberry pilaf with chicken gives it an attractive and colorful look. Pre-soak almond slices with water or rose water, but it is not necessary for pistachio slices.
• The way to prepare barberry pilaf with mixed chicken is that after the rice is ready, the chicken is placed between the rice in a serving dish, and barberry and saffron pilaf are poured on the food to decorate.
• How to prepare barberry rice with Rish Rish chicken is popular among many people. To prepare it, after cooking, shave the chicken and mix it with saffron and barberry rice. Then pour it on white rice in a dish and serve.

The benefits of barberry pilaf with chicken

Properties of barberry

Barberry is a shrub with thorny stems, oval leaves and clustered yellow flowers. The main origin of barberry is temperate and subtropical regions of Europe, Asia, Africa, North America and South America. It is interesting to know that Iran is known as the largest barberry producer among the countries that produce barberry in the world. The most important areas of barberry cultivation are Khorasan province and Qaenat city, which produces about 95% of Iran's barberry. 

In addition to food use, barberry is considered one of the best medicinal plants, and all its components such as roots, stems, leaves and fruits have medicinal uses. Among the countless benefits of this food, the following can be mentioned:

• Preventing colds and increasing iron absorption in the body due to the presence of vitamin B
• Lower blood pressure
• Heart and liver booster
• Calm the nerves
• Treatment of type 2 diabetes and obesity by reducing blood sugar, increasing insulin and reducing body weight
• treatment for diarrhea
• Treatment of arthritis and rheumatic disorders
• Shortness of breath treatment
• Useful for uterine bleeding inflammation, bilious problems and hemorrhoids
• Eliminating ringworms

Properties of chicken

• Chicken is a rich source of vitamin B3 and B2 and is a good substitute for red meat. This food item has many properties, some of which are mentioned below.
• Providing energy for the body's metabolism by converting the body's proteins, fats and carbohydrates into energy
• Blood sugar control and regulation of insulin hormone activity 
• Breakdown and composition of body carbohydrates (sugar and starch)
• Preventing cardiovascular diseases
• Preventing cancer and Alzheimer's

The taste of barberry rice with chicken

The taste of Barsherk Pilau with Nazri Chicken,  Barsherk Pilaus during the night of the holy month of Ramadan, Barsherk Pilau on the night of Eid and all the Barsherk Pilaus we have eaten on wedding nights is a taste that we will never forget.

The aroma of saffron and chicken, along with the beautiful contrast of the dark red color of the barberry on the yellow saffron pilaf, have turned the barberry pilaf with chicken into an authentic and traditional Iranian dish, which, from ancient times to the present day, has taken its place well next to all kinds of kebabs and Baghali has preserved rice.