Not everyone knows how to cook tasty pilaf. That dish turns out like porridge, then it is too dry, then liquid! The secrets of delicious pilaf plus the step-by-step preparation of this dish with lamb, chicken, pork, presented in this review, will help to avoid these mistakes. The information provided will help to make a delicious rice dish using any meat that you have in the refrigerator.
First, let's talk about the secrets of delicious pilaf, and then get acquainted with the recipes.
The basics of cooking delicious pilaf
It is not enough to have all the necessary ingredients and seasonings to prepare this dish. The main thing is to know how to use them correctly. If you know the secrets of delicious pilaf, then the dish will be amazing! It is the nuances that matter, and we will talk about them first.
- When cooking a delicious pilaf, remove the grater! Carrots can not be strongly chopped, it must be cut into strips. And do not worry that the straw is too long or wide.
- The main secret of a delicious pilaf is the dishes in which you cook it. Ideally, you need to cook a dish in a cast-iron cauldron. If not, then a deep thick-walled pan or a cast-iron pan is suitable. In any case, the dishes should have a lid that fits snugly against it.
- You need to salt and add spices in the process of preparing meat pilaf dressing, which consists of meat, onions and carrots. The best option is to add salt and seasoning in the middle of cooking this dressing. By the way, this gas station is correctly called zirvak.
- During cooking, you can’t open the lid of the cauldron, no matter how you want to look under it to check how things are going.
- In the process of cooking, in no case should you mix rice with zirvac. The ingredients should be mixed just before serving.
- Another secret of delicious pilaf is endurance. It is advisable to cook the dish not close to dinner, but a little ahead of time. When ready, wrap the cauldron in a thick blanket and keep the dish under it for an hour. Thus, pilaf will become even more delicious.
Next, we offer to learn how to cook a real Uzbek pilaf. Then we will consider methods for preparing a delicious pilaf from chicken, pork. And also you will learn how you can cook pilaf in a pan popular today - in a slow cooker.
Uzbek pilaf
Like it or not, the most delicious pilaf is Uzbek. To cook it, you need lamb. It is advisable to buy meat not at the supermarket, but at the market, where you can definitely find a young and fresh lamb, because it is from this that you will definitely get a tasty and fragrant dish!
Ingredients:
- 600 grams of lamb meat;
- 200 grams of pork fat or sunflower oil;
- three large onions;
- three large carrots (it is desirable to find yellow Uzbek, but if there is none, then take any);
- five cloves of garlic;
- barberry;
- two glasses of long-grain rice;
- caraway;
- black and yellow ground pepper;
- salt;
- zira.
Cooking Uzbek pilaf
The first step is to prepare lamb in order to rid the meat of a specific smell. To do this, cut off all the fat, remove the films, cut the meat into pieces and soak for several hours in salt water or milk. This procedure is necessary if the meat is sheep. If it is lamb or bright, then just cut off the fat and remove the film.
- Onions must be cut into rings, but not thin, which during cooking will turn into porridge. Cut into large pieces, so it will be tastier.
- Chop the carrots into strips, but in no case rub on a grater.
- The meat needs to be cut into small pieces.
- Put pork fat in a cauldron or other suitable saucepan, melt it. If you use oil, you need to heat it well.
- Put onion in hot oil, fry over high heat until gold.
- Pieces of meat to the onion, fry, without reducing the heat, so that the juice comes out of them to a minimum. The secret to cooking delicious pilaf is also in the order of frying. Some put meat first, and then onions, or they put everything together. It is not right. Onions from the juice of meat become boiled and decay into porridge with further cooking. It must be precisely fried, the notes of taste depend on this, so first you need to fry it.
- Next, lay the carrots, lightly fry.
- Add salt to the seasonings.
- Pour boiling water over the zirvak so that it is covered with water for 3 centimeters. Reduce heat, simmer for about 40 minutes, longer. The longer the zirvak stews, the tastier the pilaf will turn out.
- Try zirvak to taste - salt should be a bit much, because rice absorbs it. If you undersalt pilaf, then it will turn out to be fresh.
- Rinse the rice, lay it evenly on top of the zirvak. Pour boiling water two centimeters above the level of rice.
- When the water is absorbed a little, reduce the fire, pierce the holes in the contents to the bottom so that the zirvak does not burn. Unpeeled garlic cloves in rice.
- Collect the rice with a slide, close the cauldron with a lid, simmer for 20 minutes over low heat.
- Wrap a cauldron with a bedspread and let it brew for about an hour.
When serving pilaf mix, remove the cloves of garlic.
Chicken pilaf
This is a very tasty dish that cooks quickly. Of the ingredients you will need:
- a pound of chicken;
- three onions;
- three carrots;
- two glasses of rice;
- three cloves of garlic;
- seasonings for pilaf;
- salt;
- half a glass of sunflower oil;
- four glasses of water.
It will be very tasty if you add black raisins to the pilaf! But this is an individual matter. At what time to add this ingredient, denote in the recipe.
Cooking Chicken Pilaf
From chicken, you also get a hearty and tasty pilaf. Recipe and photo will help to prepare such a dish correctly.
- In a cauldron, heat up sunflower oil, put onion sliced in rings or half rings in it. Sauté.
- Cut the fillet into pieces for pilaf, send to fry to the onion - over high heat.
- When the chicken is browned, add the carrot sliced into slices. Sauté for 2-3 minutes. Salt, add seasonings, pour 2 cups of water. Cover, simmer for 10 minutes.
- Rinse the rice, put on top of the zirvak in an even layer. Pour in water - 2 cups. After a couple of minutes, pierce the holes to the bottom in several places.
- Without peeling garlic, stick in rice. Cover, simmer over low heat for 20 minutes.
If you want to add raisins, but you need to soak it first. Then rinse, mix with washed rice and put in a zirvak.
Pork pilaf
Pork is the most popular meat in Russia. It is universal, it is possible to cook completely different dishes from it. Someone loves meat fatter, someone - lean, there is anyone! But the secret of delicious pork pilaf is precisely in the chosen meat. It should be without pieces of fat, but not lean. Choose a piece of pink, juicy.
Ingredients:
- a pound of pork;
- two glasses of rice;
- three carrots;
- three large onions;
- seasonings: zira, caraway seeds, yellow and black pepper, barberry, suneli hops, ground paprika;
- five cloves of garlic;
- parsley and dill;
- four glasses of water;
- salt.
Cooking Pilaf Pork
- In a cauldron, heat half a cup of sunflower oil, fry the onions first, then add the meat, last but not least the carrots.
- Salt, add seasonings to taste, fill with water (2 cups) and simmer for 40 minutes under the lid.
- Wash the rice, put it in a zirvak, pour in two glasses of water, reduce the heat to a minimum. Puncture the holes to the bottom, optionally stick the garlic in the rice. Cover and cook for 20 minutes.
As in all other recipes, it is advisable to let the pilaf infuse.
Pilaf in a slow cooker
The secret of a delicious multicooker pilaf is in the amount of ingredients and in the method of preparation. What products and in what quantity will be required:
- 500 grams of any meat;
- two onions and carrots;
- a glass of rice;
- glass of water;
- seasoning to taste;
- salt.
Cooking is simpler than in a cauldron:
- Fry onions, meat and carrots. Put in a slow cooker, salt and season, pour half a glass of water, set the "Extinguishing" mode.
- At the end of the time, lay out the washed rice without stirring, add another half a glass of water, close the lid, set to "Quick", "Pilaf" or "Rice" mode - it depends on the model of the multicooker.
When ready, mix the pilaf and serve to the table.