Chicken With Cardamom Rice From ‘Jerusalem’

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/23/dining/chicken-with-cardamom-rice-from-jerusalem.html

Version 0 of 1.

Recipe Lab, a monthly feature, invites you to cook with the Dining section. We’ll publish a recipe from a cookbook for you to try; the following week, the book’s author will join Julia Moskin and readers in a live video chat. You can watch this month’s chat on Wednesday, July 31, at 2 p.m. Eastern time, at nytimes.com/dining.

For this month’s Recipe Lab, we’re discussing “Jerusalem: A Cookbook” by Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi (Ten Speed Press), a cookbook that has become a surprise hit with a near cult following (and 200,000 copies in print) since it was published last fall.

What’s surprising is that “Jerusalem” doesn’t have any of the features that successful cookbooks are supposed to have: the authors, chefs in London, aren’t particularly famous in the United States; they haven’t had guest spots on “Top Chef” or sold cookware on QVC; they don’t have a blog with dedicated fans. The book’s recipes have long lists of ingredients and unfamiliar spices, and the very subject – the modern and traditional cooking of the city of Jerusalem – would seem likely to turn some readers off.

And yet, from Twitter, Instagram and Facebook, as well as from foodie friends, I saw that readers were really using the book: having all-"Jerusalem” dinner parties, starting Google+ circles devoted to it, passing around tips on the best cuts for chicken with clementines and arak, or where to buy fresh tahini in Minneapolis.

It’s so rare that a new book breaks into the company of classics that cooks turn to again and again – like “The Silver Palate,” or Julia Child’s “Mastering the Art of French Cooking,” or Marcella Hazan’s “Classic Italian Cookbook.” “Jerusalem” might be the first book that has done it via social media, in addition to using old-school word of mouth.

So I decided that we should crowdsource an answer to the question of what makes “Jerusalem” so appealing. Instead of choosing a recipe to feature myself, I asked for your suggestions — and hundreds flooded in. In our tally, the runner-up dishes, which each got several votes, were: turkey and zucchini burgers with green onion and cumin; stuffed eggplant with lamb and pine nuts; baby spinach salad with dates and almonds; and roasted chicken with clementines and arak.

The winner, and our featured Recipe Lab dish, is chicken with caramelized onion and cardamom rice.

Even if you’ve already made this stunningly fragrant one-pot meal, try it again, making whatever variations you think might work, then post your results, thoughts or questions in the comments section. (The next time I make the dish, I plan to broil the top for a few minutes before serving, to recrisp the chicken skin.)

And then I hope you’ll show up to meet me, Mr. Ottolenghi and Mr. Tamimi in a live video chat on Wednesday, July 31, at 2 p.m. Eastern time, at nytimes.com/dining. If you’re free at that time and want to be one of our three reader participants in the video, indicate that in your comment or fill out this form.

Chicken With Caramelized Onion and Cardamom Rice

Time: 1 hour, plus 30 minutes’ cooking and 10 minutes’ resting

Yield: 4 servings

3 tablespoons sugar (40 grams)

2 1/2 tablespoons barberries, or use currants (25 grams)

4 tablespoons olive oil

2 medium onions, thinly sliced (2 cups/250 grams)

2 1/4 pounds skin-on, bone-in chicken thighs (1 kilogram), or 1 whole chicken, quartered

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

10 cardamom pods

Rounded 1/4 teaspoon whole cloves

2 long cinnamon sticks, broken in two

1 2/3 cups basmati rice (300 grams)

2 1/4 cups boiling water (550 milliliters)

1 1/2 tablespoons flat-leaf parsley leaves (5 grams), chopped

1/2 cup dill leaves (5 grams), chopped

1/4 cup cilantro leaves (5 grams), chopped

1/3 cup Greek yogurt (100 grams), mixed with 2 tablespoons olive oil (optional)

1. Put the sugar and scant 3 tablespoons water in a small saucepan and heat until the sugar dissolves. Remove from the heat, add the barberries, and set aside to soak. If using currants, you do not need to soak them in this way.

2. Meanwhile, heat half the olive oil in a large sauté pan for which you have a lid over medium heat. Add the onion, and cook for 10 to 15 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the onion has turned a deep golden brown. Transfer the onion to a small bowl and wipe the pan clean.

3. Place the chicken in a large mixing bowl and season with 1½ teaspoons each salt and black pepper. Add the remaining olive oil, cardamom, cloves and cinnamon and use your hands to mix everything together well. Heat the frying pan again and place the chicken and spices in it. Sear chicken for 5 minutes on each side and remove from the pan (this is important as it part-cooks the chicken). The spices can stay in the pan, but don’t worry if they stick to the chicken. Remove most of the remaining oil as well, leaving just a thin film at the bottom. Add the rice, caramelized onion, 1 teaspoon salt and plenty of black pepper. Drain the barberries and add them as well. Stir well and return the seared chicken to the pan, pushing it into the rice.

4. Pour the boiling water over the rice and chicken, cover the pan, and cook over very low heat for 30 minutes. Take the pan off the heat, remove the lid, quickly place a clean tea towel over the pan, and seal again with the lid. Leave the dish undisturbed for another 10 minutes. Finally, add the herbs and use a fork to stir them in and fluff up the rice. Taste and add more salt and pepper if needed. Serve hot or warm with yogurt mixture if you like.