Chicken madfoon

Before you start

• an oven, and a deep pot or tin with a tight lid
• about 2h, most of it in the oven
• a lump of natural charcoal if you want the smoke — held over a gas ring with tongs, then dropped into a cup inside the covered pot

Ingredients

Serves 4 · dimmer marks are storecupboard

• 800gchicken thighs — legs and thighs, bone in and skin on
• 360gbasmati rice
• 1½ tbspghee
• 2onions
• 30graisins and flaked almonds
• 2 tspbaharat and turmeric
• 700mlstock
• 1lemon

Method

8 steps

1. fold · 7m

   Chicken rubbed hard with the baharat, turmeric, salt and half the ghee, worked under the skin as well as over it.

2. rest · 1 hour walk away

   An hour in the fridge, or overnight if the day allows it.

3. fry · 14m

   Onions sliced and cooked in the rest of the ghee in a deep pot until gold, then the rinsed rice turned through until every grain is coated and glossy.

4. finish · 4m

   Stock in, a rack or a folded sheet of foil laid over the rice, and the chicken set on that so it drips into the rice rather than sitting in it. Lid on tight.

5. roast · 1h 15m walk away

   Into the oven at 180°C and left completely alone. This is the buried part, and lifting the lid to check is exactly what stops it working.

6. grill · 9m

   Lid off, chicken lifted onto a tray and put under a hot grill until the skin crisps and browns. Cooked right through — the juices at the thigh bone must run clear with no pink in them.

7. rest · 10m walk away

   Rice covered again while that happens, so it does not dry out.

8. finish · 5m

   Nuts and raisins turned in a dry pan until the almonds colour and the raisins swell, scattered over the rice, chicken back on top, lemon at the table.