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| Prep Time | 40 minutes |
| Cook Time | 100 minutes |
| Servings |
Servings
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Ingredients
- 2 Eggplant sliced into 1/4" thick rounds
- 1 2/3 cups Basmati Rice
- 8 Skinless Boneless Chicken Thighs
- 1 Onion Peeled and Quartered Lengthwise
- 10 Peppercorns
- 2 Bay Leaves
- 4 cups Water
- 2 cups Sunflower Oil (approximately)
- 1 Cauliflower cut into florets
- 1 tbsp Butter melted
- 4 Tomatoes Sliced 1/4" Thick
- 8 cloves garlic peeled and sliced in half
- 1 tsp Ground Tumeric
- 1 tsp Ground Cinnamon
- 1 tsp Allspice
- 1/4 tsp Fresh Ground Pepper
- 1/2 tsp Crushed Red Pepper
- 1 tsp Baharat
- 1/4 cups Pine Nuts Slivered Almonds or Pistachios
- Lemon Wedges
Ingredients
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Rate this recipe!
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Instructions
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Salt both sides of the eggplant slices and layout on paper towels for about 30 minutes. The eggplant will literally bead up with water.
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Rinse rice until the rinse water is clear. Put rice in a bowl and cover with water to soak for about half an hour.
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Pound the chicken thighs with a tenderizing mallet. Season with salt and pepper on both sides. Put a teaspoon of sunflower oil in a large medium hot sauce pan. Sear chicken for 3-4 minutes on both sides. Add onion, pepper corns, bay leaves and 4 cups water and bring to a boil. Cover, turn down heat and simmer for 20 minutes. Remove chicken and set aside. Strain broth and reserve.
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In a dutch oven that is about 10" in diameter and 5" deep, add remaining sunflower oil. The oil should be about 3/4" deep. Heat oil over a medium hot burner. Working in batches, cook cauliflower florets in the hot oil until they begin to brown, about 4 - 5 minutes, turning with tongs as they brown. Remove to paper towels and season with salt and pepper.
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Dry the eggplant slices and fry them in batches in the same oil until they begin to brown, about 5-6 minutes. Let drain on paper towels.
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Discard the oil and wipe clean. Cut a parchment circle the size of the pan and lay it in the bottom. Brush the parchment and the sides of the pan with melted butter.
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Begin layering the maqluba, starting with the tomatoes. Arrange the tomatoes in an overlapping circular pattern. Then layer the eggplant on top of the tomatoes. Next scatter the cauliflower over the eggplant. Place the cooked chicken thighs on top of the cauliflower. Scatter the rice and garlic over the top. Using your hands press the rice evenly.
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Skim any residual fat off the chicken broth. Put 3 cups of broth into a bowl. Whisk in the spices and 1 t salt. Pour the seasoned broth over the rice. Using your hands press down on the rice until the broth covers the rice. At first it may seem too dry, but if you keep pressing the broth will surface to the top. If there is not enough broth to cover the rice you can add a bit more liquid, but just enough to cover.
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Now you are ready to cook the maqluba. Put the pot on a medium burner and heat until the liquid just begins to boil. Reduce heat to low, cover and cook for 30 minutes. Keep the lid on as the steam is necessary to cook the rice through. Don't peek! After 30 minutes, turn off the heat and remove the lid briefly. Place a clean kitchen cloth over the top of the pot. Quickly put the lid back on and allow the maqluba to sit for 10 minutes.
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When you are ready to serve, remove the lid and place a serving dish over the top. Invert the pan and let the maqluba sit for three minutes before removing the pan.
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Scatter pine nuts over the top of the maqluba and serve with the cold herbed yogurt and cucumber sauce. Serve with a wedge of lemon.
Recipe Notes
1) I used skin on thighs, and cut each thigh in half. Don't know if you need to do that though, but it made each half almost bite size, once cooked.. I also got 2 breasts (each cut in thirds), but I thought the  thighs were MUCH more moist. By the way, I got the butcher at Whole Foods to take the bones out.
2)  I heavily seasoned both sides of the chicken with a mixture of about 1 tablespoons of the Bharat and powdered chicken broth mix (mixed these two together), and salt and pepper, and browned quickly, over high flame on both sides (longer on skin side, so it was crispy).  I couldn't fit it all in a single layer in the pot, so probably left out 6 pieces. IN retrospect, I could/should have overlapped it and put all the chicken in.
3) I skipped do the whole step of cooking the chicken in water with the peppercorns and bay leaves. When the time came to add liquid, I simply used regular water, with all the seasonings mentioned in the recipe to add to the "broth".
4) I roasted the eggplant instead of frying it. I  brush both sides very well with olive oil and sprinkling with salt/pepper at 450 degrees until browned. Note that I usually microwave olive oil with sliced garlic, so that the oil is nicely garlicky scented, and then used the garlicky oil   I used 3 italian eggplant (don't know why) but I could/should have used more. I had enough to make a single layer on the dish, but not enough to overlap, as they suggested.
5) I also roasted the cauliflower same was as above, and added a tad of numeric for color.
NOTE that I did step 4 and 5 earlier in the week.
6) As to the tomatoes, again, I sliced them and salted them and left them in a colander to drain, but you don't have to do that. Again, I probably could have used more - I had enough for a single layer, but not overlapped.
7) Â I always rinse basmati rice well before using it (most basmati recipes recommend doing such, but this one didn't - I wonder if the starch (that was rinsed off) would have been useful in the dish? Â I used 2 cups instead of 1 2/3 and added about an extra 1/2 cup water.
8) When done, I tasted the rice and thought it needed to be softer, and added another 1/2 cup water for about 5-10 more minutes.
8) I used a high sided sauce pan (11 inches) instead of a dutch oven. Be careful with your choices, as you have to turn it all upside down onto a plate when you are done, and the heavier the pot, the harder it is. This step needs 2 sets of hands, for sure.
