Tahchin

The rice is bound with yogurt and egg so the base sets into a slab you can cut.

Chicken, Lamb, Egg. Not vegetarian — contains chicken, lamb.

Ingredients

600 g long-grain white rice
3 tablespoons salt, for the soaking and parboiling water
300 g thick yogurt
3 eggs
1 teaspoon saffron threads, ground and steeped in 5 tablespoons hot water
6 chicken thighs, boned, or 700 g lamb shoulder
1 onion, quartered
1 carrot, halved
1 teaspoon turmeric
2 bay leaves
a few sprigs each parsley, celery leaf and tarragon
120 ml sunflower oil

Method

THE RICE IS BOUND WITH YOGURT AND EGG SO THE BASE SETS INTO A SLAB YOU CAN CUT. This is what separates it from every other Iranian rice. Its own article gives the mixture exactly: eggs beaten with yogurt, a little water and salt, with a saffron solution added, and about half the drained rice stirred into it. That coated rice goes into hot oil at the base of the pot, the meat is laid on it, and the remaining plain rice is poured over and steamed. The egg and yogurt set as they cook, so what comes out is not a crust but a dense saffron-yellow layer two or three fingers thick that is cut into pieces and laid on top of the serving dish.
THE NAME IS AN INSTRUCTION. Tahchin means arranged on the bottom, and that is the method in two words: the good part is built at the base of the pot and the dish is assembled upside down.
THICK YOGURT ONLY, AND IT IS STRAINED IF IT IS NOT. Three hundred grams of set, thick yogurt. Thin yogurt carries too much water, the mixture never sets, and the base comes out as wet rice rather than a slab. If yours is loose, hang it in muslin for an hour first.
HALF THE RICE IS COATED AND HALF STAYS PLAIN. Mixing all of it gives you a solid egg-and-rice cake with no loose grains anywhere, which is not the dish -- its article describes plain rice layered on top of the saffron crust. The only exception it allows is deliberately leaving the plain layer out to make a moulded tahchin.
THE MEAT IS COOKED BEFORE IT GOES IN, WITH A LOT OF AROMATICS. Its article names onion, carrot, turmeric, bay, parsley, celery and tarragon. Simmer the chicken or lamb with all of it and water to cover for forty minutes (chicken) or two hours (lamb), then lift it out, drain it well and tear it into large pieces. Wet meat ruins the set.
THE OIL IS HOT BEFORE THE COATED RICE TOUCHES IT. A hundred and twenty millilitres, heated until it shimmers, then the coated rice spread over it and levelled with the back of a spoon. Into cool oil it soaks instead of sealing and the base will stick.
IT STEAMS FOR AN HOUR AND TEN MINUTES, LONGER THAN A POLO. Meat in a layer, plain rice over the top, the rest of the saffron water poured on, cloth-wrapped lid, ten minutes on medium and an hour on the lowest heat. The egg needs time to set all the way through; at polo timings the middle of the slab is still soft.
IT IS RICHER IN OIL THAN THE OTHERS AND THE OIL SETTLES. Its article says so plainly. Rest the pot off the heat for ten minutes before turning out and pour off what has collected.
IT IS ASSEMBLED IN THREE LAYERS ON THE PLATE. Its article describes the order: plain rice first, then the meat, then more plain rice, then the cut slabs of crust laid on top. So it is turned out, taken apart and rebuilt -- the crust ends up on the top of the dish, not the bottom.
AUBERGINE, SPINACH AND GREEN BEAN VERSIONS EXIST AND ARE MADE THE SAME WAY. Its article records a spinach version from a Qajar court chef, with dried plums, barberries or ground sour grapes set under the crust, and bean and game versions from several regions. The binding method does not change; only what is laid in the middle.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Iran · All recipes