Persian Stuffed Chicken
Stuffed Chicken (Morghe Shekam Por) is a type of Iranian dish, mostly suitable for parties and feasts! It is commonly eaten all over Iran at the long night of Yalda (Yalda Night) and it is as famous as Stuffed Eggplants. It is often served with Cholo.
Stuffed Chicken
As it can be understood from its name, Stuffed Chicken (Morghe Shekam Por) is actually a chicken which has been stuffed with different ingredients (mostly vegetables) because of this, we can say that this dish holds a lot of properties and nutrients. This is one of the reasons of its popularity. Since this dish is cooked in a lot of different places with different ingredients, there are different recipes for cooking this dish.Remember that it can be cooked using a pot on the flame of the gas burner and also in an oven. Go on and read one of the most general recipes.
Ingredients
- 1 chicken (the size of the chicken is really important. Its weight should be between 1.5 kg to 2 kg. if bigger, the ingredients inside it, won’t cook properly during the recommended time and more time is required)
- 3 onions
- 6 prunes
- 6 plums
- 1 potato
- 1 carrot
- 5 cloves of garlic
- 200 grams aromatic vegetables (coriander, parsley, fenugreek, pennyroyal)
- 100 grams powder of walnuts
- ½ cup barberries
- ½ cup raisins
- 4 tablespoons pomegranate molasses
- 1 tablespoon tomato paste
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- Salt, pepper, turmeric, as much as required
- Fresh lemon juice, as much as required
- Oil, as much as required
- Butter, as much as required
- Brewed saffron, as much as required
Preparing and filling the chicken
(no matter how you want to cook the chicken, either in a pot or in an oven, the following steps must be followed)
Instructions
- First of all, you need to clean and remove the dirt from the chicken. Wash it carefully and pay extra attention when washing the rib cage, because if not washed properly, it can smell bad later. This must be done about 12 hours before you want to cook the dish.
- Add the following ingredients to a dish and mix them completely: brewed saffron, cinnamon, lemon juice, salt, pepper and some oil. Use the combination to dress the chicken. Cover the chicken’s skin and its inner parts with the combination.
- Peel two cloves of garlic and one onion and chop them. Place them inside the chicken’s skin and its inner parts. Put the chicken in a bowl, cover the bowl with plastic wrap and put it in a fridge. The chicken must be there for 12 to 24 hours. by doing this, the tastes of the onion, garlic and chicken will be blended and the unpleasant smell the chicken might have, will be gone. After enough time, remove the garlic and onion from the chicken and keep them in a separate dish. They are going to be needed soon for making the sauce.
- Peel, wash and dice the 3 remaining onions, use some oil and butter to fry the chopped onions in a pan until they look golden. Add the powder of onions and stir fry the combination for a short while add the following items: barberries, raisins, plums and prunes. Mix the combination and stir fry it for a while.
- Wash and dry the aromatic vegetables (coriander, parsley, fenugreek, pennyroyal). Dice them and in a separate pan, use some oil to stir fry them. Next, add the vegetables to the combination and mix the combination again, properly. Add some salt and pepper to the combination and mix it. Finally add two tablespoons pomegranate molasses and once again, mix and stir the combination. It is really necessary to mix and stir the combination in different stages.
- At this stage, the sauce must be cooked. Use a pan and add some oil. Stir fry 1 tablespoon tomato paste and 2 tablespoons pomegranate molasses in the pot. Some brewed saffron, 2 cups water, salt and pepper must be added to the pan. Do not forget to add the garlic and onions which were used for dressing the chicken, also add them and cover the pan with it slid for about 5 minutes. After this time, the sauce must have boiled and become more consistent and thick.
- In the next step, the chicken must be filled with the ingredients so mix the ingredients one more time and fill the chicken with the ingredients. Once the chicken is filed, use some cooking thread to truss the chicken and its feet. If you can find any vacant spots, fill them with carrots and potatoes. Now the chicken is ready to be cooked.
Cooking the chicken
in an over
- The best way to do this, is to use a suitable Pyrex dish. Add some oil to it and cover the bottom of the dish with peeled and chopped potatoes and carrots. Place the chicken on them and add the sauce on the chicken and around it. Cover the dish with its lid and bake the chicken fir more than 3 hours in the oven.
- If you cannot use a Pyrex dish, use the tray of the oven. Note that if you want to do this, the chicken must be covered with a layer of aluminum foil. By following this method, the chicken might be too dry to be eaten. In order to prevent this, after an hour, separate the layer of foil and, at least, every 30 minutes, add some sauce and butter on the chicken.
- The overall time to cook the chicken in an oven, depends on the size of the chicken.
in a pot
- To do this, choose a big pot and put the chicken in it. Add some water to the pot. The amount of the water should be ½ size of the chicken. Cover the pot with its lid and leave the pot on the flame of the gas burner and the chicken will cook gradually. Since both sides of the chicken must be cooked, make sure to turn the chicken around every 30 minutes. It can take up to 5 hours for the chicken to cook.
Serving and Topping Stuffed Chicken
- Once the chicken is cooked, put it in a tray and top it with some vegetables and even French fries as you do the topping with persian stuffed peppers . It can be served both with and without rice, as you wish. Some people might find the outer layer of the chicken tasteless, in this case you can use different types of homemade sauce to top the chicken. When serving this dish, do not forget Sabzi Khordan.
Tips for cooking Stuffed Chicken
- The ingredients used for the inside the chicken completely depend on your taste. If you prefer sweet things, you can use more sweet ingredients and if you prefer sour things, simply use more sour ingredients such as plum molasses. For a more sweet taste, dissolve some sugar in a glass of water and add it to the ingredients
- The potatoes and carrots have been used at the bottom of the dish in order for the chicken not to stick to the dish. If you want to, you can also use some bell peppers as well.
- One important point is that the chicken must have its skin because when cooking the chicken, some oil will emerge out of the skin and won’t let the chicken be too dry to eat.
This was a very fancy and appetizing dish. thank you
the saffron really changes the smell and taste
I do not have a pyrex dish. what can I use instead?
You can use the oven tray.
I grease the chicken with butter before putting it into the oven.
this dish is really cool. just make it and you will love ir
the aromatic vegetables are very fragrant.
the sauce is amazing. it turns the taste of the chicken to heavenly taste.
the chicken can be very good looking if you pour saffron to it in the end
should I peel the skin of the chicken?
No. The skin keeps the chicken proper and prevents it from becoming too dry.
this dish can be a very good choice for fancy parties.