afoona
Saffron Chicken
Chicken

Saffron Chicken

Whole chicken cooked with saffron, turmeric and Persian spices — colorful, fragrant and impressive

⏱ 1 hr 10 min🍽 4 servings 🌍 Persian👩‍🍳 Afoona🧩 2 parts

👨‍🍳 Method

For the Fried onion

  1. 1
    Heat the olive oil in a wide pot over medium heat.
    ⚙ Pan-fryingStoveWide, shallow pot
  2. 2
    Add the onion and fry for 8–10 minutes, stirring, until the onion is soft and deep golden.
    ⚙ Adding to the hot fat and fryingStove
    💡Add by cooking time: what needs long (onion, carrot, meat) goes in first, and what burns fast (garlic, dry spices) goes in last, only until fragrant.
  3. 3
    Add the garlic and fry about 30 seconds to 1 minute, just until fragrant. Don't let the garlic brown.
    ⚙ Adding to the hot fat and fryingStove
    💡Garlic burns quickly and turns bitter. Add it only after the onion has softened, over medium heat, and add the next ingredient as soon as it smells fragrant.

To assemble

  1. 4
    Add the chicken pieces and fry 5 minutes, until browned on all sides.
    ⚙ Adding to the hot fat and fryingStove
  2. 5
    Add the turmeric, paprika, cinnamon, salt and black pepper and stir.
  3. 6
    Add the stock and saffron with its soaking water and bring to a boil.
    Stove
  4. 7
    Turn down the heat, cover and simmer 45 minutes.
    ⚙ SimmeringStoveLid
    💡A gentle simmer, not a boil: a hard boil dries the food out and clouds it, a slow simmer cooks it evenly.
  5. 8
    Add the lemon juice and stir.
  6. 9
    Sprinkle the parsley on top.
  7. 10
    Serve the stew with basmati rice.
592calories
41 gprotein
8 gcarbs
43 gfat
● protein 28%● carbs 5%● fat 66%

Per serving (450 g), of 4 servings

For the Fried onion · To assemble ·

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⚖ About the ingredients

🔧 Tools needed (3) · 🍳 One cooking vessel

  • Stove · 💡 Workaround, changes the dish: Portable hot plate (one weaker burner) · Camping gas stove (One burner, outdoors) · Electric pressure cooker (multicooker) (One pot, no real shallow frying)
  • Lid · Also works: Aluminum foil (tight aluminum foil) · Plate (an upside-down plate)
  • Wide, shallow pot · Also works: Deep skillet (sauté pan) (None) · 💡 Workaround, changes the dish: Pot (Layers instead of a single layer)

By the steps, as the recipe is built now: another version or addition can change the list.

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