Azerbaijan Rice Plov with Herbs
Soak Your Rice
Soaking your rice is key to this recipe to maintain a fluffy, light basmati rice texture. This technique also reduces the cook time significantly, down to 2-3 minutes tops. If you’re used to making rice in a rice cooker, it might feel kind of blasphemous to strain your rice but for this application it produces literally perfect rice. Trust me.
Layer Rice with Herbs
For the herbs I used a mix of dill, parsley, cilantro and chives. Chop these herbs up finely and get ready to layer. This rice plov is made extra delicious by a layer of crispy rice at the bottom of the dish, so start by pouring hot oil on the base of the pot then layering rice, herbs, rice, herbs, and finishing with a clean layer of rice.
Herb Rice Polow with Stuffed Azerbaijan Chicken
To finish this rice dish, melt together some butter and saffron water (a good pinch of saffron soaked in a couple tablespoons of hot water). Pour the butter/saffron over the rice and serve alongside your choice of protein. For the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, I paired this herby plov with a Stuffed Sour Fruit Roast Chicken and a side dish dolmas.
Dill & Herb Polow
Perfect herb & saffron Azerbaijan style rice plov
Ingredients
- 300 gram basmati rice
- 2 tbsp salt
- 1 large pinch safflower threads
- 2 tbsp water
- 2 tbsp vegetable oil
- 1 handful dill, chopped
- 1 handful coriander, chopped
- 1 handful parsley, chopped
- 1 handful chives, chopped
- 1 handful mint, chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, gratted
- 2 tbsp butter
Instructions
Prepping the Rice
- Place the rice in a medium saucepan and rinse the rice by covering the rice with washer, swishing it around with your hand, draining and repeating. Do this about 5-6 times until the water runs clear. Cover the rice with water one more time and set aside to soak for 4 hours or more.
- While the rice is soaking, in a small bowl add the saffron threads to 2 tbsp. of water and let soak.
- Once the rice has finished soaking, drain the rice and cover again with fresh water. Season with 2 tbsp. of salt and bring to a boil. Once boiling the rice doesn't need very long to cook, so check it after 2 minutes or so. The rice should be cooked but still a bit firm. Immediately drain the rice and set aside.
- Finely chop the herbs and grated garlic and mix together in a small bowl.
- To setup your plov, choose a heatproof dish and set it up on the stove and heat your oil. The goal is to have a crusty rice layer at the bottom, followed by layers of herbs & rice. To the oil sprinkle about a 3rd of the rice, then 1/2 of the herb mix, 1/3 of rice, the other 1/2 of herbs, and top with rice. Top with melted butter and the saffron water. Serve with a main dish like roasted chicken.
Azerbaijan Sour Fruit Stuffed Chicken | Grand Prix Eats
June 20, 2021 @ 5:50 pm
[…] This chicken recipe is best served with sweet rice with raisins or my Dill & Herb Rice Plov. […]
June 11, 2022 @ 8:13 am
I love this website!! We started eating our way around the world with F1 at the start of this season, and I just found your page. Hope you’ll be back for more great content and inspiration 🥳