Ok, this is much more than just chicken with rice.  It’s aromatic, it’s crispy, it’s exotic!  It’s Ottolenghi… another favourite chef.  I’m not a fan of chicken.  I avoided both eating and cooking it for years… too many dinners of hard, tasteless, overcooked chicken breasts smothered in BBQ sauce… like, really?!?!  I just started cooking chicken again a couple years ago, but only whole chickens (where I hoard the dark meat for myself) or thighs.  Thighs are the perfect solution to dry chicken.  When not overcooked, the meat is moist, silky, and tastes more chicken-y than any chicken breast I’ve ever eaten.

My version of the recipe below has been slightly altered from the original http://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1014925-chicken-with-caramelized-onion-and-cardamom-rice, especially in terms of technique at the end.  I like my chicken skin crispy so instead of simply serving the dish from the stovetop, I put it under the broiler for about 10 minutes until the skin is crispy and the rice is a little bit crunchy.  That’s just the way I roll. :)  Serves 4.

Here’s what I used:

3 tablespoons currants
4 tablespoons olive oil
1 large onion, halved and thinly sliced
8 pieces (approximately 2 pounds) skin-on, bone-in chicken thighs
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
10 green cardamom pods
1 teaspoon whole cloves
1 cinnamon stick, broken in half
1 2/3 cups basmati rice
2 1/4 cups boiling water
1/4 cup cilantro leaves, chopped

Heat half the olive oil in a large sauté pan (which has a lid that you will need later) over medium heat. Add the onion, and cook for 10 to 15 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the onion has turned a deep golden brown. Remove onion and set aside.

Place the chicken in a large mixing bowl (I like to trim the extra fat and skin but leave enough on the chicken to protect the meat and brown up crispy) and season with 1 teaspoon each salt and black pepper. Add the remaining olive oil, cardamom pods, cloves and cinnamon and mix everything together well (you can use your hands). Heat the frying pan again and place the chicken and spices in it. Sear chicken for 5 minutes on each side and remove from the pan. The spices can stay in the pan, but don’t worry if they stick to the chicken. Remove most of the remaining oil, leaving just a thin film at the bottom. Add the rice, caramelized onion, currants, 1 teaspoon salt and black pepper to taste. Stir well and return the seared chicken to the pan, skin-side up, pushing it into the rice.
Pour the boiling water over the rice around the chicken, cover the pan, and cook over low heat for 30 minutes.

Ottolenghi’s instructions: Take the pan off the heat, quickly place a clean tea towel over the pan, and seal again with the lid. Leave the dish undisturbed for another 10 minutes. Finally, add the herbs and use a fork to stir them in and fluff up the rice. Taste and add more salt and pepper if needed. Serve hot or warm with yogurt mixture if you like.

OR (my preference)

Take the pan off the heat, remove the lid, and use a spoon to lift the chicken up out of the rice a little bit.  Place on middle rack of oven under a hot broiler until chicken skin is crispy and some of the rice is a little bit crunchy (about 10 minutes).  Sprinkle chopped cilantro over dish and serve.