Pilaf with Chicken Giblets

Name: Pilaf with Chicken Giblets, Pine Nuts and Raisins
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 30 min
Total time: 1 h
Cuisine: Middle Eastern
Ingredients: Rice (Egyptian Camolino) 200 g; Hot water and salt for soaking the rice as needed; Hot water or chicken stock 1.5 cups (300 ml); Chicken giblets (liver, hearts) 200 g; Carrots 1; Onion 1; Garlic 1 head; Olive oil 50 ml; Pine nuts 1-2 tbsp (11–21 g); Black raisins (soaked) 2-3 tbsp (21–32 g); Parsley 3-4 sprigs; Spices: salt, red pepper, black pepper to taste

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60 mins

The pilaf tradition, so widespread in the East and in the rest of the world, goes back to the days of the ancient Chinese dynasties. History doesn’t say when rice dishes began to spread around the world. For many cultures, pilaf is something that connects people with the gods. “Pilaf cleanses the heavens,” as connoisseurs of this dish say.

Incidentally, rice is not the only grain for this dish. Bulgur (cracked wheat) is often used, the base of delicious tabbouleh salad, as well as barley, and even pasta-like dough products. Pilaf is made from whatever you have on hand. Chicken pilaf, mussel pilaf, pork, beef, lamb… or just sweet pilaf made with butter.

The popularity of the dish in Central Asia, the Middle East and Turkey is unrivaled. Each country has given pilaf its own character. Literally, from Turkish, the word “plov”, or “pilav”, means “thick rice porridge”. Strictly speaking, pilav and plov are two very different things. All they share is rice, and not always even that, plus partly the cooking method.

Many people are used to a perfectly fluffy pilaf, like the Uzbek one, which you won’t always find in Turkey or Egypt. In Turkey they often say “iç pilav” (İç Pilav), the local (inner) pilaf, which most often means the original recipe typical of only that region.

When choosing a version of the recipe, we relied largely on the ingredients available. The result is an excellent dish that combines traditional Turkish and Egyptian recipes with a few special touches.

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Ingredients

2 servings

Rice (Egyptian Camolino) 200 g
Hot water and salt for soaking the rice as needed
Hot water or chicken stock 1.5 cups (300 ml)
Chicken giblets (liver, hearts) 200 g
Carrots 1
Onion 1
Garlic 1 head
Olive oil 50 ml
Pine nuts 1-2 tbsp (11–21 g)
Black raisins (soaked) 2-3 tbsp (21–32 g)
Parsley 3-4 sprigs
Spices: salt, red pepper, black pepper to taste

Step-by-step recipe

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Preparing the rice and ingredients

For this dish, medium-grain round rice is used, less often long-grain. The rice should be slightly sticky, but not clump together. There are quite a few such varieties, but it’s always worth cooking a test batch first. In my opinion, the Egyptian “camolino”, called the pearl of rice, suits this dish best. It is slightly sticky but doesn’t clump, and it is very aromatic. If you buy real camolino, you can be sure the pilaf will turn out excellent.
While analyzing recipes for Egyptian pilaf, Turkish pilaf and similar dishes, I noticed some inconsistencies that simply can’t be real. For example, recipes for Egyptian-style pilaf recommend adding diced ham. Egypt is a country with strong Muslim traditions, so eating pork there is highly unlikely. I understand that almost one in ten Egyptians is a Coptic Orthodox Christian, but I haven’t seen any pig farming in Egypt.
Turkish recipes everywhere call for Çam fıstığı, which means pine nuts. In Italy these are the seeds of the stone pine, the tree Pinocchio was carved from. Not pistachios. Apparently “cham fisty” (or something like it) is what causes the confusion. Pistachios in Turkish sound quite similar: antep fıstığı. I confess I bought pistachios and ate them with beer while watching the opening of Euro 2012. Then I bought pine nuts.
Chicken giblets are usually the gizzards, liver and hearts. I don’t use the gizzards, since they take a long time to cook. Original recipes use lamb liver, although they always add in brackets “(or chicken)”. Chicken liver makes a very tasty salad, which is simply called chicken liver salad.
Rinse and soak the rice. Rinse the rice under running water until the water runs clear. Then, as Turkish cooks recommend, cover the rice with slightly salted hot water for 30 minutes.

Frying the nuts, vegetables and giblets

Fry the pine nuts. Heat the olive oil in a deep saucepan. Strictly speaking, butter is recommended, but real butter these days is a thing in itself. It’s better to take good-quality olive oil than suspicious butter, and there’s less cholesterol too. Quickly fry the nuts in the hot oil. They fry very fast, almost instantly, turning pinkish golden, and a barely perceptible pine aroma spreads.
Immediately add the onion, cut into thin strips, and fry over medium heat, stirring. The onion should become soft and lightly browned.
Add the soaked black, sweet raisins: the sweeter they are, the better the pilaf. You can often find wonderful black raisins with a strong smell and a price tag that says “good for the heart”. That is the right kind of raisin.
Add the carrot and garlic. Separate the garlic, preferably young, into cloves without peeling them. Peel and chop one clove, and leave the rest as they are. About 2-3 minutes after the raisins, add the sliced carrot and the unpeeled garlic.
Stir and keep frying for 4-5 minutes.
Fry the giblets with the spices. Add the chicken giblets, cut into large pieces.
Add salt and ground black pepper. Add the chopped garlic clove. Add coarsely chopped red pepper. It can be sweet or hot: the dish should suit your taste.
Fry everything for 10 minutes over medium heat, stirring.

Cooking the rice

Fry the rice. Drain all the water from the rice and add it to the saucepan. Fry the rice with the vegetables and giblets for another 10 minutes over the same heat, stirring. During this time the rice will absorb the liquid, and the chicken giblets will be almost done.
Pour 1.5 cups of hot chicken stock (300 ml) or plain water into the saucepan. Stir, bring to a boil, then cook covered over the lowest heat: it should barely simmer, so the liver turns out tender. The rice must absorb all the liquid completely.
Let the pilaf steam. After 15-20 minutes, when the liquid has been absorbed, gently stir, working from the edge to the center, and heap the dish into a mound right in the saucepan. Then leave the pilaf under the lid, possibly over very low heat, so that it “soaks up” the steam. This is an important step. Let it stand for at least 20 minutes, or better, half an hour.