Tahchin is a popular Iranian rice dish known for its saffron aroma and delicious taste. This food is cooked with rice, chicken with different spices, and saffron. Tahchin is a popular dish in Iran, enjoyed by many Iranians as part of their monthly diet.
What is the difference between Tahchin and Tahdig?
Tahchin is a food and Tahdig is a delicious part of a food. In Iranian cooking, chefs put bread or other various ingredients on the bottom of the pot and pour rice on it, after that cook the rice. It is called ‘Tahdig’, which is made of bread or other ingredients like lettuce. Tahdig in Farsi means, the bottom of the pot, which refers to the crispy ingredients (bread or…) when cooking rice. Now, I want to tell you the recipe for Tahchin.
Ingredients:
. 2 cups rice
. 3 eggs
. 2 cups thick and creamy yogurt
. 1 chicken thigh piece
. 2.3 onions
. 2.3 garlic
. Half a bell pepper
. Saffron
. Salt and pepper
. Cinnamon powder
. Cardamom powder
. Golab
First, in a pot cook chicken with onions, salt, bell pepper, and garlic. One point of cooking chicken for Tahchin is adding bell pepper, for that cut the half bell pepper into two pieces. When the chicken is cooked, shred the chicken and put it aside. Next, in a separate pot, cook rice.
To cook rice, pour the appropriate amount of water into a pot with the rice and salt, and cook the rice. ((For Tahchin, only pour half the amount of water you would normally use. For example, if you are cooking 2 cups of rice, you would typically use 3 or 4 cups of water, but for Tahchin, use only 2 cups of water.))
Be careful about adding salt to rice because we want to add salt to rice and yogurt and eggs separately and after that, we mix them. So, pour a pinch of salt in each step.
When you want to brew the rice (half-cooked) wait and don’t brew that. In a bowl, pour yogurt and a pinch of salt, and stir it a little. In addition, in a separate bowl pour eggs and a pinch of salt and again stir that well. Brew the saffron, saffron is very important in this dish as a result the more saffron we use, the tastier the dish will be. Now, pour eggs and saffron into the yogurt. Add salt and pepper to the mixture, then add cardamom powder, cinnamon powder, and Golab (pour a little Golab, so much so that only our Tahchin has a better aroma).
Now, we have a mixture of yogurt and eggs with spices, add this mixture to the half-cooked rice and also add the shredded chicken to the mixture. Mix all ingredients, add olive oil into the pot, and pour the mixture onto the bottom of the pot. Cover the pot, increase the flame for 20-30 secs, then reduce and let Tahchin cook.
For serving Tahchin you have to take it out of the pot properly. Turn the pot upside down (when the pot becomes cooler!) on a large plate (a plate larger than your pot) so that the beautiful and crispy Tahchin comes out of the pot completely.
Side Dishes:
Salad Shirazi
A specific salad from Shiraz an Iranian city
Torshi
Different types of pickles. Hafte bijar Pickle is one of the best accompaniments for Tahchin.
Zeytoon parvardeh (Persian marinated olives)
Marinated olives with walnuts and pomegranate paste
