Chicken Mandi Recipe
Learn to cook Chicken Mandi- Chicken Mandi is a Yemeni traditional dish. It is a combination of meat, in this case chicken, rice and mandi masala. A very popular meal throughout the middle eastern countries.
Ingredients
- 4 Pieces Full Chicken leg
- 1 cup Basmati rice
- 1.5 cups Water
- Salt to taste
- 1/4 cup Oil Refer Instructions
- 2 Onions Chopped
- 4 Green chilis Vertically slit
- Cashews For garnish
- Raisins For garnish
Mandi masala
- 2 tbsp Black pepper
- 2 tbsp Cumin
- 1/4 tsp Nutmeg
- 2 tbsp Coriander
- 3 inch Cinnamon
- 2 Mace Javitri
Marination
- 1 tbsp Oil
- Mandi masala
- 1 tbsp Red chili powder
- Salt to taste
- 1 Lemon juice
- 2 tbsp Ginger garlic paste
- 4-5 strands Saffron soaked in water
Instructions
- Heat 1tbsp ghee in a pan and fry cashews and raisins for 2 minutes. Set aside.
- Wash and soak basmati rice for 30 minutes.
- Add all ingredients mentioned under Mandi masala to a mixer and grind to a fine powder.
- In a bowl add Mandi masala powder (set aside 1 tbsp for later), salt, oil, lemon juice, chili powder, ginger garlic paste, coriander powder, saffron strands mixed in water. Mix well and set aside.
- Wash and dry chicken leg pieces. Make 3-4 slits on both sides of the chicken pieces.
- Marinate chicken pieces with the masala paste and refrigerate for atleast 30 minutes.
Method 1
- Steam the chicken pieces for 10 minutes on each side.
- Then, heat 2tbsp oil in a pan, add steamed chicken pieces and fry for 5-10 minutes on each side.
Method 2
- Heat 3tbsp oil in a pan and fry chicken pieces for 5-8 minutes on medium to high flame on both sides.
- Then turn the flame to low and cook for 15-20 minutes till it is perfectly cooked on the inside.
Continuation of recipe
- Heat 1tbsp ghee or oil in a heavy bottomed pan, add chopped onion, green chilis and fry for 3-4 minutes.
- Add mandi masala, salt, water and bring it to a boil.
- Add soaked basmati rice and cook till it's almost done (8 minutes on low medium flame).
- When rice is almost cooked, turn off the flame.
- Add cooked chicken pieces on top of the rice. In a small bowl, place a burning charcoal, add some ghee on it and close the lid of the pan for 10-15 minutes.
- Once the smoke is completely absorbed into rice and chicken, garnish with cashews, raisins, fried onions.
- Serve Chicken mandi with tomato gravy or as it is.
Notes
- Make fresh mandi masala to retain the flavors.
- Marinating chicken is a mandatory step to let chicken absorb the flavors.
- I prefer method 1 of steaming the chicken first and then frying it. It helps cook the chicken well.
- Smoking chicken and rice with burnt charcoal is necessary for that traditional Arabian Mandi flavor.