Description
Golden, aromatic saffron brings these crispy saffron chicken thighs with barberries and pigeon peas to life. Easy to make – all in one pan!
Ingredients
Units
Scale
- 1/4 cup saffron water (1/2 teaspoon saffron threads, 1/4 cup warm water)
- 6 large chicken thighs (bone-in, skin on, fat trimmed)
- 1 1/2 teaspoons garlic, finely diced (1 medium/large clove)
- 1 cup onion, finely diced (approx. 1 medium onion)
- 1 can pigeon peas (15-ounce can)
- 4-5 tablespoons barberries or currants
- 2 teaspoons sugar
- Olive oil
- Salt
- Pepper
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 2 cups basmati rice
- 2 1/2 cups water (boiled)
- Fresh chopped parsley, optional garnish
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Instructions
- Rinse the rice at the beginning of the process so it’s ready to go when you need it. I usually wash it 3-4 times until the water runs clear. Drain water and set aside.
- Add 2 ½ cups water to a small pot. Plan your time here with bringing it to a boil. You’ll need it boiling by the time you’re putting the pan in the oven to cook everything. Add salt to the water (about 1 ½ teaspoons) and let dissolve before adding water to the pan.
- Measure the saffron and add to a mortar or small ramekin if you don’t have a mortar and pestle. Grind the saffron with the pestle or back of a spoon if that’s what you have. Add warm water and mix a couple times with a spoon. Let the saffron steep in the water for 15-20 minutes.
- Trim fat from chicken thighs. If you need help with this, I have a great tutorial video on how to trim the fat from chicken thighs. Video posted above in blog post as well. Start with the obvious flaps of fat around the edges. We are leaving the skin covering the outside, but trimming the excess fat. Trim any fat underneath the thighs as well. There’s a lot of fat under there.
- Once all the fat is trimmed, season both sides with salt and pepper and set aside for a few minutes. I like to let the salt absorb into the chicken a bit.
- After the saffron water has steeped, transfer chicken to a large bowl, skin side down, and fork the thighs (poking little holes in them). Then add 3-4 tablespoons of the saffron water to the chicken. Rub the thighs around the bowl to coat in the saffron. Then turn them so they are skin-side up. Let marinate for 10-15 minutes while you finish the prep.
- Finely dice one large clove of garlic. Should get about 1 ½ teaspoons of garlic from that.
- Dice one medium onion – a smaller dice works better for this.
- Open the can of pigeon peas, add water to rinse the peas a bit then drain water.
- If you are using the barberries for this, put them in a small sauté pan with a few tablespoons of water and 2 teaspoons of sugar. Barberries are naturally very tart. Heat on low until the barberries soften a little and taste them for sweetness. If you want them a little sweeter add a little more sugar. Should take maybe 5 minutes. You can do this while the chicken is cooking. If you are not using the barberries, you can skip this step and just add the currants to the rice when it comes out of the oven.
- Heat olive oil in a large pan (big enough to fit 6 chicken thighs) until it’s hot and cook chicken thighs in pan SKIN SIDE DOWN for 7 minutes on medium to high heat. Don’t touch them. Turn and cook one more minute then remove from pan briefly. Skin should be crispy.
- There should be enough olive oil and a little chicken fat in the pan to cook the onions. Add them to the pan and stir a couple of minutes, then add the pigeon peas and garlic. Stir a couple of minutes on medium heat.
- Water should be boiling by now.
- Add the raw basmati rice to the pan with pigeon peas and cook for a minute or two. Spread evenly across the pan.
- Add five pieces of chicken to the top of the rice, leave center open to add the boiling water right before going in the oven. Add the last chicken thigh to the center. Add butter and a few pinches of saffron.
- Cook in preheated oven at 425 degrees for about 35-40 minutes uncovered. Yes, uncovered. We want to keep the skin crispy this needs to be cooked uncovered.
- Once out of the oven, I removed the chicken and transferred the rice to a large mixing bowl. Add the barberries here and toss to mix. With the extra saffron water, you can transfer a couple of cups of the cooked rice to a smaller bowl, toss with extra saffron water – a tablespoon or so. This will give you a slightly brighter yellow layer of rice you can add to the top of the remaining rice.
- Place the rice on a serving plate or platter, then spoon the additional brighter yellow rice on top. Place chicken pieces on top of the rice and serve immediately.
