Pakistani Chicken and Rice

"So how is the cooking project going?" My friendly librarian asks. "I need an immigrant," I respond. "My deadline is coming and I haven't met anyone."And then she says, "Well let me introduce you to..." and she points to a young woman right behind her desk, "Savita. She's an exchange student from Pakistan. She's been volunteering here at the library." And so the project goes. Another day, another opportunity to meet someone from around the world and cook! See below for this month's story, recipe, and how-to photos.

The Recipe

Pakistani Chicken and Rice

As Savita Nooreen from Gilgit, Pakistan, taught Lindsay Sterling in Freeport, Maine, March 2014

Serves 4-6
Cooking Time: 40 minutes

1 onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
4 chicken breasts, cut into 1 inch chunks
1 tsp chili powder
2 tsp turmeric
1/2 + 1/2 tsp salt (preferably Himalayan!)
14 oz. chopped tomatoes
1 Tbsp water
2 cups rice
2 Tbsp butter
1 tsp green cardamom powder
1 tsp ground cumin
1" ginger root, peeled and chopped, then mashed in a mortar and pestle
1/4 + 1/4 cup fresh cilantro, rough chopped

In  large, deep saute pan on medium heat, fry onions and garlic in 2 Tbsp oil until soft. Mix in chicken, chili powder, turmeric, and 1/2 tsp salt. When chicken is cooked on the outside, add chopped tomatoes and 1 Tbsp water and cover. Cook for 15-20 minutes.

While that is cooking, cook rice. (Bring rice and 4 cups water to a boil. Add 1 tsp salt. Once boiling, turn heat to simmer and cover. Turn off heat after 20 minutes.)

After chicken has cooked for 15 minutes, remove lid. Let juices evaporate for a couple minutes, stirring occasionally to prevent burning. Mix in butter, cardamom, cumin, ginger and 1/4 cup chopped cilantro. Turn off heat and let sit for 5 minutes.

Add remaining 1/4 cup cilantro. Serve rice and chicken with raita, and roti if you like.

Here are roti and raita recipes I've learned from other cooking teachers from nearby northern India.

Flatbread 
roti

4 cups chapati or roti flour (it is super finely ground durham semolina wheat)
some water
3 Tbsp olive oil

Put flour in a large mixing bowl. Add 1 1/2 Tbsp olive oil. Add water a little bit at a time, mixing, squeezing, then kneading with hands until all dry flour disappears and you have a smooth dough and a clean bowl, about 5 minutes by hand. Add another 1 1/2 Tbsp oil, knead to incorporate, and let rest for an hour.

Break off a piece (about the diameter of a quarter). Squeeze the piece in between the palms of your hand. Do this four or five times, turning your hands so they get a slightly different angle on the dough in your palms. When you have what looks like a smooth flat river stone, then use a rolling pin and roll it out on a counter into a a circle, about 1/8th inch thick. (Indians use a special round board (ahdni) and rolling stick (vhelan) to roll out the roti. These can be found at Indian markets. You can also use a rolling pin on a smooth counter.

Place raw roti in a hot dry pan, about 1 minute each side. Then use tongs to hold it directly over the gas flame. If the stars align (your roti is thin enough, and a perfectly round circle) roti will likely puff up like a pufferfish. Flip so other side gets a little spots of toasted tan color. Repeat process to make many roti out of all the dough.

Yogurt Sauce (raita)

1 small handful cilantro, chopped
2 cups plain yogurt
1/2 cup water
1 tsp salt
1 green hot chili pepper, sliced into thin circles (optional)

Mix all ingredients in a medium bowl.

Copyright Lindsay Sterling 2014

The Story

Twist of Goodness in Pakistan:

Chicken with tomatoes, turmeric, and fresh ginger.

By Lindsay Sterling

A fifteen-year-old young woman from Pakistan recently taught me how to cook her favorite dish from home. The town of Gilgit, where she is from in the Himalayas, is in her words, “a 4-hour drive to China. There are mountain peaks covered with snow throughout the year. And K2 is nearby.” It’s about a 24-hour drive from there to the Arabian Sea, but she’s never been. “This [living in Maine] is my first time with the ocean. I love it. My host mom loves the ocean, too. On Saturday or Sunday, when we’re wondering what to do, we just drive to the ocean.”

            The day Savita Nooreen and I spent cooking together was March 21^st, a holiday called Novruz in her part of the world. On this day Azerbaijanis, Indians, Pakistanis, Turks, Uzbeks, and others celebrate spring, as well as peace, neighborliness, and reconciliation. Savita began to teach me how to make jalfrezi, a dish her family at home would be eating together on that day.

First you sauté onions, turmeric, and bite-sized pieces of chicken breast in oil. Then once the chicken is cooked on the outside and the onions are soft, you add tomato, chili powder, cumin, and a little water. You put the lid on and let that cook for fifteen minutes until the onions melt into an orange-brown sauce.  In a mortar and pestle, you mash fresh ginger into a paste. At the end of the cooking process, you mix it into the chicken along with chopped cilantro leaves and cardamom powder. 

 As we cooked, we talked. “Someone on the school bus asked me if we have houses or we live in caves,” she said in disbelief. “It [Pakistan] is the same as here,” she asserted. “It is a developing country,” she clarified, “Fifty to sixty years ago there was no connection with the rest of the world. The northern part had no schools. But now it’s just like Freeport [Maine]. We have schools, colleges, universities…”

As uncomfortable as it made me, I had to bring up the t-word. After all, most Americans associate Pakistan with the workings of Osama bin Laden. My question, embarrassingly, came out this way. “Have you ever seen a terrorist?” She responded, “My place is peaceful. I haven’t seen a terrorist (or at least I haven’t known it) or any sort of distraction or any sort of tension.” She indicated that a small percentage of the people in Pakistan are causing the trouble. It reminded me of a conversation I once had with an Afghani woman who said something along these lines: there are bad people everywhere. Let’s not let them ruin what the rest of us think of each other.

 Savita then shared a concern from her community at home with me. “Some worried that I might get spoiled [here]. There is the stereotype that all American kids party a lot, bad kind of activities. She’s been Facebooking with her friends from home, sharing the news. “It’s just the same [here as home]. Parents keep an eye on you and your friends. We go to school. We study.”

Jalfrezi tasted a lot like Indian food: bites of meat in a zippy sauce, served with rice. I’m actually not sure whether to call it Indian or Pakistani because my Indian friend also knows jalfrezi as her native food, and it was voted the most popular Indian dish in the UK. Certain things are just beyond borders, like Novrus, chicken jalfrezi, and – now I think about it – peace.

Copyright 2014 Lindsay Sterling

See How To Do It