Almond and Dried Fruit Pilaf With Rotisserie Chicken

Updated Jan. 5, 2024

Almond and Dried Fruit Pilaf With Rotisserie Chicken
David Malosh for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews. Prop Stylist: Paige Hicks.
Rating
4(165)
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This is a no-recipe recipe, a recipe without an ingredients list or steps. It invites you to improvise in the kitchen.

Here's a free-form rice pilaf, made with onions, dried fruit and slivered almonds. First, melt a knob of butter in a pot, then sauté a sliced onion in it until translucent. Add rice, as much as you want to cook, and stir it around, then add water in its usual ratio to the rice, and cook as you always do. At the end, add some chopped prunes, or currants, or raisins, or all three, along with a handful of slivered almonds and salt and pepper. Fluff the rice to mix everything together. Put the top back on the pot, and let the rice and mix-ins mellow out for a few minutes. Serve alongside a store-bought roast chicken, the legs and thighs separated and the breasts cut on the bias and fanned out for show.

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Comments

The dried fruits and almonds are normally sauteed briefly before being mixed into the cooked rice so that the dish is not dry.

When I make this, I add a couple of teabags—chai or your favorite spiced tea—to the water when I add the rice. This perfumes everything without the grit of adding ground spices and you can pull them out easily at the end.

Sam, are you cooking with aluminum pots and pans?

This is my go-to recipe for leftover rotisserie chicken. We usually eat a half Costco chicken one night, and then the other half is refrigerated, then meat is shredded/chopped and added to rice mixture when (apricots slices) fruit and almonds added. Also sometimes use sautéed mushrooms with the onions, and add baby spinach later on so it wilts when the whole shebang comes together. VERY good.

This is also nice with chopped dried apricots and dried cherries as a substitution. For the almonds I like to use Trader Joe’s toasted slivered almonds.

Used some garam masala asking with the onion, apricots and some unsweetened coconut (soaked in a little bit of water while the rice cooks) plus toasted slivered almonds to stir in. Delicious!

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