Reshteh polo | Persian Noodle Rice
Fancy learning a one-pot rice dish that’s ideal for midweek meals too? Reshte polo is a suitable choice! Try it and you’ll love it for sure!
Reshteh polo is a fragrant mixture of rice and toasted noodles dish often served at Nowruz (Iranian New Year) and Chaharshanbe Suri (an Iranian festival celebrated on the eve of the last Wednesday before Nowruz) for lunch or dinner. It is said that the noodles are the symbol of wishes for the New Year. Also you would detect your path of life! The other dishes served in Nowruz are Baghali Polo Ba Mahiche and Sabzi Polo Ba Mahi.
Reshteh polo is served up in various ways like “Reshte Polo and Saffron Chicken” and “Reshte Polo and Meatballs”. The first recipe we provided is with chicken. You can make this traditional pilaf with crispy, saffron-tinged potato tahdig.
Reshteh polo | Persian Noodle Rice
In this recipe, you steam the parcooked rice and toasted noodles layered with flavored meat properly and a tasteful polo will be born!Reshteh Polo is one of the dishes you will learn right ahead and you will be able to make it with no energy consuming! The dish is cheap and easy to prepare. But the point is buying the noodles as they might not be able in every shop. Persian shops might have it and you will enjoy the taste and fragrance of the noodles. If you are bored and tired of steaming or straining the white rice and the simple result, you can go for this recipe. The noodles give a desirable shape and façade to the rice, which is appetizing.
Ingredients
- 500 grams rice
- 200 grams reshteh noodles
- 400 grams chicken breasts optional. you can make the simple reshte polo without any meat.
- brewed saffron as much as required
- 100 grams butter
- 3 tbsp Piaz Dagh (fried onions)
- water as much as required
- oil as much as required
- salt, pepper and turmeric as much as required
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 unit raisins or barberries used for garnish, as much as desired
Instructions
- For making Reshteh polo with chicken, you need to cook the chicken breasts first. To do so, fry the onions with a mixture of oil and butter. Roast the chicken with 2 tablespoon of onions and condiments like pepper, turmeric and salt. When the chicken changes color to white and a bit golden, add some (about a glass) water to it, bring to a boil, then reduce heat to medium-low, cover and simmer.
- When the chicken is cooked finely, almost 5 millimeters of the liquid is left in the pot. Rest the chickens of the pot and let them cool a bit. Then shred the flesh and return the meat to the previous pot. Add some butter, brewed saffron and roast them a bit.
- Add the cinnamon to the roasting shredded chicken breasts. Let the particles absorb the remaining water then remove the meat and put aside. The chickens should not be too dry.
- Clean out the pot you cooked the meat in and pick another one. Pour water in both and bring to the boil. Add some salt and oil to the water, put Reshteh noodles and rice separately in the bowls. Better to break the noodles beforehand. Parcook noodles (as in Macaroni) and rice. Rinse the Reshteh noodles and add them to the parboiling rice and stir. Rinse them all and put aside.
- Pick a pot and grease with oil. Cover the surface of the pot bottom with the potato rounds to have potato tahdig, or pieces of bread instead. Pour half of the rice and noodles into the pot and spread it evenly over the bottom. Spread the meat mixture evenly over the layer of rice. Then spread the remaining rice evenly over the meat. Top the rice mixture with a little butter and turmeric then steam the polo. Pour the brewed saffron on top of the content. In order not to have dried noodles, add half a cup water to the pot. (Traditional Reshte Polo itself does not contain chicken breast. Adding shredded meat is optional.)
- Place the pot on high heat for 5 minutes, then reduce to low and steam for about 45 minutes. Then remove the pot from the heat.
- Meanwhile polo is steaming, prepare the raisins. Grease a pan with some butter and roast the raisins in it. If you want, sprinkle some cinnamon on raisins while roasting. If you do not like raisins, replace it with barberries. Soak the barberries for 15minutes and rinse afterward. Heat some butter or oil in a pan and roast them. If sour taste of barberries bothers you, add ½ of teaspoon sugar to them and stir. Use them for a garnish. Your polo is ready.
Notes
- The traditional Reshteh polo is made with rice and noodles. If you prefer you can replace raisins and barberries with dates too. To do so, peel the dates and dispatch the pit. Roast the dates’ flesh for a bit and sprinkle cinnamons too.
- The fundamental condiment of Reshte polo is turmeric.
- You’d rather use chicken untouched. Then you serve the chicken beside Reshteh Polo, not mixed evenly in the rice.
- As mentioned above, Reshte Polo can be served with meat balls, smoked fish, turkey or without meat.
- Reshteh Polo Kermanshahi is made as above, just garnished using Kermanshahi extra virgin oil. Reshteh Polo Tabrizi contains raisins, ground beef and sometimes dried apricots. Reshteh Polo Mashhadi is made with chicken thigh, cinnamon, sumac, onions, saffron, etc. In some regions polo is served with fried chicken and eggplants.
When you are wondering what to make, Reshteh Polo is a gift from god knows where!
I read the post and it just throw me back to when I was like 5 or 6 years old. I do remember that my mum used to make reshte polow and the smell of it just is as alive as I am breathing right now. I do miss her and the cuisine she used to make when it was nowruz. thanks for reminding me the lovely memories.
good old days
reshte polo is really delicious. I love this recipe. making it is so easy and as a vegetarian I should say that it can be really satisfying and will make you happy. the noodles however are not that easy to find… you need to go to Iranian shops. but it is worth is. I will go and buy some and make this dish again after years
that’s right dear azam.
I should mention that the recipe seemed so normal and repetitive. I was expecting to have an ordinary pilaf just like many other pilafs I have tasted before. but this one was yummy it was really different. like the taste was strengthened by the noddles in it and the way it was prepared.
noodles make it fantastic
this dish reminds me of nowruz. though the ceremony was just a month ago we didn’t make the dish. it is so bad that we are getting away from the traditions we have…. I promise I will make this dish next year and the feeling is so pure and different that you would not forget the new year has already come.
you are right dear roksana
oh I loved the recipe. It was really appetizing. the really good point of reshteh polo is that you do not need another side dish to serve it up with. the only thing you need is concentrating on making a good reshte polo. and that will be all enough. thank you for the detailed recipe. It was a huge help.
there are other pilafs like estamboli and kalam polo too.