murgh ki tahiri | a one pot chicken and rice dish

Murgh ki tahiri or chicken tahiri is one of the comfort foods we love, sometimes more than Biryani because of the simpler flavours and the fact that the chicken tahiri is more moist than a chicken biryani.

One pot meals are a norm on my table. I love such meals because one gets the comfort of a good meal in just one dish, not much because it involves lesser work in the kitchen but the taste and warm comfort such meal bring. Our tahiris and khichdis are not so simple to cook as they sound most of the times but we love such meals for many reasons other than that.

In fact if you think of it, most one pot meals involves as much work as any other meal if you are including all major nutrient groups in one pot, especially the vegetables. You do all the chopping, you do some sauteing, tempering and whatever needed, only the ingredients are cooked in one pot. And most of the times our tahiris and khichdis are served with an appropriate raita that needs additional work but no one minds that.

ingredients
(2 servings and may be some leftover)

2 legs of chicken cut in 3 pieces each
1/4 cup of rice
1 cup of fine diced onions
1/2 cup of chopped coriander leaves (dhaniya patta) along with the stems
1/2 cup of finely chopped fenugreek (methi) leaves or a handful of crushed dry kasoori methi (optional)
1 tbsp minced ginger
1 tsp minced garlic
chopped green chilies as per taste
everyday curry powder 1 tbsp
special garam masala 1/2 tsp
turmeric powder 1/2 tsp or lesser
salt to taste
2 tbsp ghee
1 tsp cumin seeds
2-3 tejpatta (Indian bay leaves)
1 tsp lemon juice mixed with 1/4 cup water 

procedure 

Rinse the rice, drain water and keep for 10-15 minutes till you proceed with the chicken and spices.

Heat ghee in a thick base handi or stockpot. Add the cumin seeds and wait till it gets fried and aromatic. Tip in the onion, ginger and garlic and fry on low heat till it starts getting pinkish brown.

Add the fenugreek leaves or crushed dry kasoori methi if using and the chicken pieces. Keep bhunoeing (sauteing) for about 5 minutes on medium heat. Add the powder spices and salt, stir and cook some more till the spices become aromatic and the chicken looks a little glazed. Add the chopped dhaniya patta and stir to mix.

Now add a cup of water and let the chicken cook covered for 10 minutes. Heat a griddle on the other side of gas stove in the meanwhile.

Add the rice and the lemon juice mixed with water, mix well and cover the pot tightly. Place the hot griddle under the tahiri pot and let it cook on very low flame for 10-12 minutes. Switch off the flame and let the pot sit for another 10 minutes before you open and serve the chicken tahiri steaming hot.

It tastes best with raw onion and pomegranate raita but you can make cucumber raita or any other raita you like. We like it even with a kachumber salad of tomatoes and onions and may be some flame roasted papad too. In fact the chicken tahiri can have many side dishes on the table, have it as simple as you wish or make it elaborate with as many side dishes you wish to have with it.

Chicken tahiri or murgh tahiri will never fail to comfort you warmly and softly like a grandmother. Trust me.

We had it for dinner last month sometime between our back to back travels and the pictures were taken in a hurry to document it. Otherwise I have rarely been able to click pictures of our tahiri meals although we have tahiri quite often.

fasting recipes | sama ke chawal ki tahiri | vrat wali tahiri

 Sama ka chawal or Samak chawal is actually a millet called Barnyard millet that is mostly consumed during Navratri fasting. Barnyard millet cooks really fast when soaked and can be made into sama ka Jeera rice, Sama ka Upma, Sama ki Idli and Sama ka Dhokla easily. Making sama ka Dosa is also easy once you know how to use this millet. We love sama ki kheer too.

Sama ki tehri or tahiri cooks quickly once you have soaked sama in the fridge. Yes it is advisable to soak sama overnight either in water or thin buttermilk and refrigerate so it can be used to cook meals quickly as the soaked sama ke chawal lasts about 3-4 days. It is particularly convenient in Navratras if you are fasting.

ingredients 
(2 servings)

1/3 cup sama ke chawal (Barnyard millet) soaked in 1.5 cup thin buttermilk overnight
2 cups mixed vegetables chopped into small cubes
1 tomato pureed
one small potato chopped in small cubes
1 tbsp ghee
1 tsp cumin seeds
pink salt (sendha namak) to taste
pepper to taste
chopped green chilies and chopped ginger if required
chopped dhaniya patta to garnish

preparation 

Heat the ghee in a wide stockpot (or pan) and tip in cumin seeds. Let the cumin splutter a bit.

Add the potatoes and stir and cook for 2 minutes. Now add the pureed tomatoes and all the chopped vegetables, salt and pepper. It will be better to add the other vegetables one by one according to the time they take to cook. I added carrots first and then zucchini after the potatoes and carrots were done. Toss and cook them all together.

Now add the soaked sama ke chawal, mix everything well and cook covered on low flame. No need to add any additional water as there is enough water in the ingredients to get cooked. It takes about 5 minutes for this quantity to get cooked after adding the soaked sama ke chawal.

Fluff up once cooked, sprinkle with chopped dhaniya patta and chopped green chilies and ginger if using. Serve with cucumber raita.

Green chilies and fine julienne of ginger taste really good in this tahiri but you can avoid if you like it a little plain. You can always add some roasted nuts or paneer cubes on top to add some proteins. I normally like it lighter but it also depends on how hungry you are for the meal or whether you are serving this sama ke chawal ki tahiri for lunch or dinner.

hari tahiri : green rice pilaf with spinach and green peas

Tahiri or tehri is a vegetable pilaf that can accommodate any amount of vegetables, green peas, paneer and leafy greens to make the rice meals a perfect one pot meal. Tahiri is a popular one pot meal with singletons as it saves a lot of effort in the kitchen. Tahiris made in larger families can be elaborate and can accompany a variety of side dishes as well. Raita, chutney, kachumber salad, pickle and papad with a winter vegetables tahiri can be a festive weekend meal for some. It used to be for us in the past.

We grew up eating loads of greens every winter. Ours was a household where greens were considered gold (well, almost) and everyone liked it too. I don't remember shrinking nose for spinach or other greens that were cooked, throughout the year as we get different types of leafy greens in summers as well.  But it was winter time when our dining table was dominated by the colour green.

Heaps of spinach, fenugreek greens (methi), mustard greens , bathua will be brought home, sometimes we would contribute to the collective ritual of cleaning and packing the greens for refrigeration and mounds of saag would adorn the plates for each meal. Sometimes the saag was pureed and a curry like palak paneer, palak ka nimona or palak alu dum will be made, sometimes our rice would turn a deep shade of green. That was harey chawal for us if made plain, or hari tahiri when some green peas, paneer, lotus stem slices or soy nuggets were added to the rice pilaf. Raitas of different hues and kachumber salads (salsa like salads) would be made in large quantities as we all loved or salads too.

Grated radish salad with chopped green chillies, chopped coriander greens and grated ginger with a generous squeeze of lime used to be a staple along with a tomato salsa type salad with mustard oil dressing. I associate this salad with winters as the radish have this taste only in winters. There are more reasons to eat seasonal foods, taste is one of them. We used t call it mooli ka salaad.

This salad is a perfect foil to such tahiris, some spicier biryanis and most parathas that we make only during winters. Some raita or buttermilk rounds up the meal perfectly. I made a roasted beets raita this time with hari tahiri and it was such a soul satisfying meal for a Saturday brunch, sitting outside amongst greens and the sun.

ingredients for the hari tahiri
(2-3 large meal servings)
a generous 1/2 cup rice (roughly 100-120 gm)
green peas 200 gm
cubed paneer 100 gm or more if you like
steamed and pureed spinach (without any water) 600 gm
finely minced fenugreek greens (methi) 1/2 cup packed
finely minced dill leaves 1/2 cup packed (optional, if not using methi)
everyday curry powder 1 tbsp
special garam masala (or freshly powdered mix of cloves, cardamoms and cinnamon) 1/2 tsp
red chilly powder 1 tsp or to taste
turmeric powder 1 tsp
cumin seeds 2 tsp
finely minced ginger 1 tbsp
tejpatta 2-3
ghee 2 tbsp
salt to taste

procedure

Rinse the rice, drain and keep aside.

Heat the ghee in a large wide pan or kadhai (wider pan works better to cook the rice evenly) and tip in the cumin seeds and wait till the crackle. Add the minced ginger, green peas and tejpatta and methi leaves one after the other. Add salt, turmeric powder and the spice powders and cook covered for about 2-3 minutes.

Add the spinach puree and cook uncovered till the puree starts bubbling up like puffs. Add the cubed paneer, water (double the volume of rice being used, ie, one cup) and let it come to bubbles once again.

Add the washed rice, mix everything till you see very little trace of rice in the sea of green.

Cover the pan with a tight lid and let the tahiri cook at low flame for about 15 minutes. Check if the rice is done and then take the pan off the flame. Let it rest for about 5 minutes and then turn the rice using a flat spatula.

Serve immediately with the choice of accompaniments.

You can add shrimps or chicken instead of paneer if you want a non vegetarian version. But I like the plain version better as the freshness of winter spinach and green peas is something I wont like to compromise with fish or chicken flavours.

To make the roasted beets raita, or chukandar ka raita, I just roasted a large beetroot along with 3 fat cloves of garlic. Peeled them both after cooling and then liquidized in a blender. The puree was then mixed with whipped dahi along with salt and pepper. It made such a lovely meal with all the colours and flavours.

Healthy filling meals can be fun, easy and free from unnecessary grease and processed ingredients. Try this hari tahiri this winter and let me know if it becomes your winter favorite meal too.

bhuni khichri

Khichri has been a mundane kind of a meal for me , a meal cooked in a hurry or a student's sunday lunch when the mess is off , or a bachelor's way of life , food for the sick, a poor man's concoction .... it has always been a dish which we were embarrassed to acknowledge ..........it sounded so boring when everybody used to rave about maggi  and it was khichri that i preferred............i used to love it secretly.

You know a well spread full course meal is not only a meal for most of us , it is more like a statement of our well being , financially........i am talking about the great Indian middle class which some believe has vanished under the heights of super specialty malls n multiplexes......for me , it is very much there , it is just that the middle class can afford a lot more now.....the mind set hasn't change.......khichri was a poor man's food n not fit to be in your favorite food list.

Pardon me for straying from the humble subject , the khichri........which , i recently came to know that , is not a humble dish actually ..........it has traveled to far away places ...........

Kedgeree is the new name ( for me) ........some say the original name ( i disagree that it came to India from Scotland first and then traveled back to Britain to become popular ) .......British were so enthralled by this simple dish that they adopted it for their breakfast , garnishing it with fish , bacon or egg and many more things alien to Indians in the time of Raj ( British empire).....i was even unaware of the fact that it is popular breakfast dish in the good old south  of India), by the lovely name of pongal........i saw all these things only after i started writing my blogs n was introduced to so many blogs on traditional foods .......... kedgeree and pongal both as breakfast was very new for me and to the disgust of any north Indian i'd love to have khichri for my breakfast any day....... it's yet to happen though i have adopted my multigrain soup as a breakfast ( only mine , not the husband's ....he likes sweet breakfasts or stuffed parathas )......

I have some very fond memories of khichri from my childhood when i used to make a thinner khichri sometimes n temper it 3-4 times with different set of tempering to make it super flavorful ........ all of us 3 sisters used to hog like mad on khichri , the brothers still hate khichri and so does the husband.....to my utter dismay..........

But i am clever.....don't you know ?

He loves tahiri and i make khichri n tell him it is tahiri..........and he loves it.......do you have a kid?

This khichri i pass off as tahiri is actually a dressed up version of khichri , the bhuni khichri .......which is prepared more like a pulao and is spicier and drier looking like a biryani.........yes biryani ......to do away with the embarrassing part....:)

This is a tomato masala bhuni khichri or a daal wali tahiri .whatever you like to call it ..........as per your convenience.

Arvind carries a lunch box sometimes and one day i asked if he wants tahiri for lunch , he said yes n i made this khichri........in the evening i was reported that he couldn't get enough of it as the friends raided the lunchbox n he had to make do with other things.........

With a sealed pack of plain curds and any kind of raw salad it is a very good balanced meal and a very good option for lunch box.........i have been getting requests for lunch box suggestions n i hope i am able to post a few more.

ingredients...

rice 3/4 cup ( i used brown basmati rice )
whole mung beans with skin 1 cup
tomatoes chopped 2 cups
ginger garlic paste 1 tbsp
chopped green chillies 1 tbsp ( and /or red chilly powder according to taste)
curry patta 4-5 springs
asafoetida powder a pinch
cumin seeds 2 tsp
black peppercorns 2 tsp
coriander , cumin , black pepper n bay leaf powder made using 2:1:1:1 ratio of the ingredients
( this is my everyday subzi masala  but any curry powder will be good )
salt to taste
ghee 2 tbsp

procedure...

Soak the mung beans overnight or for 3-4 hours at least , it will become almost double in volume.

Wash the rice and drain , keep aside.

Heat ghee in a wide thick base pan with tight fitting lid ........throw in the asafoetida and cumin seeds n black peppercorns .let them sputter.

Add the ginger garlic paste, green chillies and the curry patta and stir for a minute , throw in the powder masala mix , fry for a while till the masala gets aromatic , preventing burning .

Add the chopped tomatoes and salt and cook till the tomatoes are mushy .

Add the soaked rice n daal and bhuno , that is , stir fry the mixture for a couple of minutes till you see a slight change in the color of dal n rice......a bit translucent .

Pour 3.5 cups of water and let it come to a soft boil , adjust the flame to the minimum , cover the lid and cook for about 10 minutes........check after 5 minutes to adjust cooking time.....the grains of rice should be firm and the daal should get mushed when pressed , but should retain their shape.

Keep it covered after the cooking for 5 minutes , you get a nice aroma when you open the lid finally......

It's usually a one pot lunch for the two of us , it is a good choice for a filling n non messy lunch box too....dahi ( plain curds) is a must with it and some sliced cucumber , onions and carrots make a perfect accompaniment.

The UP version of bhuni khichri is spicier and laden with ghee , it has bay leaf instead of curry patta and a few cubed potatoes are sometimes thrown in........it is actually a very forgiving dish , very very customizable .........according to your mood , convenience and off course your imagination......not to mention your pocket.......add bacon , anchovies, prawns, boiled eggs or even nuts and be merry with khichri........or kedgeree.

Enjoy...be it Khichri or kedgeree.........

hari tahiri akhrot ki chutny ke saath

Tahiri or teheri is a rice preparation cooked along with vegetables, a perfect one pot meal which is usually served with raita. It is cooked like a pulav but addition of a lot of vegetables makes it healthier. I remember I used to cook tahiri quite often in my hostel too and girls used to take a dabba for their boyfriends much to my annoyance :-)

It has been a childhood favorite for me and my husband both but the flavors we like in a tahiri are different unfortunately. He likes his tahiri little bland, with potatoes and peas essentially and aromatic with loads of ghee. While I like it very spicy with lots of vegetables into it, no potatoes, mostly greens like spinach, sowa, methi etc.

Needless to say I have to make it somewhat in between, not too spicy not to bland and  I find it very easy to sneak in a lot of veggies into it by adding vegetables of different types, like here the potatoes and cauliflower pieces retain their shape while the spinach and dill greens get wilted and mixed up with rice to give it a nice green color. This kind of a preparation is a good way to make one eat a lot of vegetables without even realizing.

I would emphasize that It is actually a great way of eating a lot of vegetables with small quantity of rice. Sometimes I add paneer or soy nuggets when there is no other source of protein in the meal. But here the akhrot ki chutney fills that gap.

This time we enjoyed it with akhrot ki chutney which is a kashmiri specialty. I used to love it at one of my aunt's place where it was served with biryanis and elaborate Kashmiri meals. Later on I made many versions of this akhrot ki chutny adding ginger and green chillies to it because I did not remember exactly how my aunt used to make it. I had apparently lost the recipe.

But recently I found this recipe by Gaurav and it tasted exactly like that one I had been craving for and it's much simpler too. It is a regular chutnyy at my place this season (we eat more walnuts in winters out of habit ).........

ingredients for the tahiri ...

basmati rice 1/2 cup
cauliflower florets 10-12 nos.
potatoes cubed 2 nos.
green chillies chopped 2 tbsp
ginger julienne 2 tbsp
spinach leaves chopped finely ( or processed ) 3 cups
dill leaves chopped 1 cup
shahi jeera 1/2 tsp
cumin seeds 1 tsp
black pepper corns crushed coarsely 1 tbsp
star anise 1 flower
cinnamon stick 1 no.
cloves 4 nos.
black cardamom crushed lightly 1 no.
salt to taste
ghee 1 tbsp
everyday curry powder ( or a mix of coriander, cumin, black pepper n bay leaf  in 4:2:2:1 ratio powdered together ) 2 tsp

procedure for tahiri...

Heat oil in a pan, preferably a stock pot or a thick flat base pan. Throw in all the whole spices and the cut vegetables together and stir fry till the aroma of whole spices comes through and the veggies look slightly translucent ..

Add the green chillies, ginger julienne and the rice and stir fry till the rice gets fragrant, about 2-3 minutes, add the powder spices  mix well and turn a couple of times and then tip in the chopped greens. Mix well and let the greens wilt and mixed up...

Add salt and a cup of boiling water (double the quantity of rice), mix well and cover, let it cook on lowest possible heat for 10 minutes or till cooked. Let it rest for another 5 minutes and serve hot with a raita or salad and chutney...

ingredients for akhrot ki chutny...
walnuts 100 gm
curds 150 gm
salt to taste
red chilly powder 1-2 tsp as per taste 
water if required to adjust the consistency

to make the chutny... just powder the walnuts in a mixie first , them mix all the other ingredients and give it a quick mix...it's ready to be savored with a tahiri , a biryani or any kind of tandoori tikka etc...addition of grated radish to this chutny tastes yummy but it should be added at the time of serving as it can not be stored in the fridge....without adding radish the chutny can stay fresh for a couple of days in fridge.....

Enjoy a simple and healthy tahiri with a nutty hot chutney that can be used like a dip for crackers or vegetable crudites too.

With this hari tahiri this chutney feels like a perfect companion, much better than the hostel wali tahiri.