Baked Chicken Dolma Recipe
Chicken dolma is a traditional festive dish generally cooked for new year's eve or for family dinners. In case you haven't realised yet, Turkish people heva the tendency of fill everything with rice. And today we have a really good example of it; chicken dolma.
This year, I cooked and ate the best baked whole chicken I've ever eaten in my life. It was so soft and so delicious that it was as if it had not been cooked in the oven for two hours and not released all its juices. I made the stuffing pilaf with almonds, which I have been making for years. Pine nuts are so expensive that my hands tremble when using them even in my favorite recipes. Instead of using pine nuts reluctantly, I use alternatives in recipes with good alternatives.
For example, almonds and chestnuts are very good alternatives for stuffing pilaf. Of course, chestnuts are not always available at home, but almonds are always at hand.
Hundreds, maybe thousands, of people have tried and liked my roasted whole chicken recipe that I have shared before. In that recipe, yoghurt, tomato paste, etc. are used to grease the chicken. It is also a wonderful recipe, by the way, if you are going to make roasted chicken without rice, follow that recipe.
In the chicken dolma recipe, I didn't bother with the sauce and only greased the chicken with butter. I buttered not only the outside, but also under the skin as far as I could reach. In this way, the skin on the chest part became crispy. In the photos, you can understand how applying butter under the skin makes a difference from the color difference between the chest and legs. I didn't force it not to spoil the image, but if you find a way to get under the skin of the legs, you can also grease that area under the skin.
The whole chicken looks very elegant and very appetizing in the middle of the table, but it is a handicap for me that it is not possible to distribute it equally to everyone at crowded tables. Especially if you are planning to make it for a large group of guests, you can also make an extra baked chicken thigh with rosemary so that everyone can be fed evenly. As silly as it sounds, in practice you can be sure that it will be a move that everyone will like.
Enjoy the recipe...
Baked Chicken Dolma Recipe with Video
Ingredients
- 1 whole chicken,
- 1 tablespoon of butter,
- Salt.
For the stuffing pilaf;
- 1 onion,
- 1 cup of rice,
- 1 teaspoon of tomato paste,
- 1/3 cup of shelled almonds,
- 2 tablespoons of currants,
- 1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon,
- 1/4 teaspoon of black pepper,
- 1/4 teaspoon of allspice,
- Salt,
- 4-5 tablespoons of olive oil,
- A handful of chopped parsley
- 2 cups of boiling water.
Preparation
- Chop the onion, heat oil in a large pan, add into the onion and stir fry until translucent,
- Add the tomato paste and stir fry until it starts to smell good,
- Add the almonds and the washed and drained rice and stir-fry for a few minutes,
- Add the spices, salt, currants and parsley and mix,
- Add water and mix,
- Close the lid and cook until the water is absorbed and remove from heat, set aside for 10 minutes,
- Fill the chicken with the rice as much as it takes and tuck the legs into the skin,
- Place the chicken in a medium-sized baking dish,
- To grease the chicken, add salt to the butter and mix,
- Rub the butter on the outside of the chicken and under the skin as much as you can,
- After crumpling a piece of greaseproof paper and making it malleable, cover the chicken with greaseproof paper,
- Place it in a preheated oven at 200 C degrees and bake for 2 hours,
- Remove from the oven and remove the greaseproof paper,
- Drizzle the oil accumulated in the baking dish over the chicken,
- Return it to the oven for 10-15 minutes more,
- Prepare fried or baked potatoes and spread them on a tray,
- Place the chicken in the middle of the tray,
- For seasoning, take 1/4 cup of the oil accumulated in the baking dish into a pan and heat it on the stove,
- Put lemon slices, tomato slices and 6-7 cloves of garlic in the peel and cook with the lid closed, stirring occasionally,
- Take it from the oil and place it on the potatoes,
- You can take the remaining pilaf to the table in a separate bowl.
Bon appetit...
- Ahmedullah: Good 👍 March 13, 2022 3:14 pm