PILAV WITH CHICKEN (Tavuklu Pilav)

This pilav is a perfect accompaniment for arabasi soup and also a very functional one, to use the leftover chicken pieces from the soup. Once you boil the whole chicken and use the breast and drumsticks, you can use the other parts for this pilav. It is essentially the same pilav, we only add the chicken pieces at the last minute and let it rest together.

Ingredients:

• 200 g Rice
• 200 g Chicken (boiled)
• Butter, a tablespoon
• Olive oil, a teaspoon
• Salt, pepper
• 400 mL hot water

Preparation:

• Soak rice in warm water for 20 minutes.
• Drain rice and wash it throughly to get rid of the excess starch coating around the rice. Drain completely.
• Add butter to a rather large pan. (The pan is ideally a nonstick pan with a lid closing perfectly. But if you don't have a lid for your pan, you can use a flat dish to cover.)
• Melt the butter and add olive oil to prevent butter from burning.
• Add rice and fry for a couple of minutes by mixing with a wooden spoon.
• Add hot water, salt and pepper, mix briefly, and allow it to bubble with a medium heat.
• When almost all water is finished but not all of it -this is a stage hard to explain but there should be some little amount of water, still bubbling though not forming a visible level of water-, turn off the heat.
• Add chicken pieces and mix briefly.
• Close the lid on and wait for 20 minutes. At this stage rice continues cooking by itself, so do not open the lid.
• Mix pilav briefly and serve.

Enjoy!