Mulukhiyah

It is never allowed to boil once the leaves are in, or it turns to slime.

Chicken. Not vegetarian — contains chicken.

Ingredients

the chicken and stock

• 1 chicken, about 1.6 kg, jointed
• 1 onion, halved
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 4 cardamom pods
• 2 bay leaves
• 2 litres water
• 2 teaspoons salt

the leaves

• 800 g mulukhiyah leaves, fresh or frozen, chopped

the taqliya

• 8 cloves garlic, crushed
• 2 tablespoons ground coriander
• 3 tablespoons ghee or butter

to serve

• rice
• 1 onion, finely chopped and soaked in vinegar
• lemon wedges
• flatbread, toasted

Method

1. IT IS NEVER ALLOWED TO BOIL ONCE THE LEAVES ARE IN, OR IT TURNS TO SLIME. This is the whole difficulty of the dish. Jute leaves are full of mucilage, and handled gently it thickens the stock into something silky and faintly viscous that is exactly the point; taken to a rolling boil, that same mucilage breaks down into long ropes and the pot becomes genuinely unpleasant -- stringy, slippery and past saving. The leaves go into stock that is at a bare tremble, and the surface must barely move for the ten or twelve minutes they need.
2. THEY ARE NOT STIRRED HARD EITHER. A gentle fold once or twice with a wooden spoon. Beating the pot does the same damage as boiling it.
3. THE TAQLIYA IS FRIED SEPARATELY AND POURED IN AT THE END, AND IT IS WHAT THE DISH TASTES OF. Eight cloves of crushed garlic and two tablespoons of ground coriander fried in ghee for barely a minute, until the smell turns sharp and nutty and the garlic is just blond. That goes into the pot and sizzles. It is not a garnish: the leaves themselves are mild and slightly grassy, and the garlic and coriander are the flavour. Stirred in raw, or boiled with the stock from the start, it tastes of nothing much.
4. THE CORIANDER IS GROUND AND THERE IS A LOT OF IT. Two tablespoons, which looks like far too much. With eight cloves of garlic it forms a thick fragrant paste in the ghee. This proportion is the difference between a good pot and a dull one.
5. THE GARLIC MUST NOT BROWN. Blond, forty seconds, then into the pot. Browned garlic turns the whole dish bitter and the bitterness sits on top of everything.
6. IT IS SERVED OVER RICE WITH VINEGARED ONION AND TOASTED BREAD, AND THOSE ARE PART OF IT. The onion soaked in vinegar cuts the richness and the toasted bread is crumbled in for texture against the silkiness. Without them the bowl is soft and one-note.
7. The chicken simmered with the onion, cinnamon, cardamom, bay and salt in the water 1 HOUR. SKIMMED.
8. The chicken lifted out, the meat pulled from the bones, and the stock STRAINED back into the pot.
9. The stock brought to a BARE TREMBLE -- the surface barely moving.
10. The chopped leaves added and folded through GENTLY, once.
11. Held at that bare tremble 10 to 12 MINUTES. IT MUST NOT BOIL.
12. SEPARATELY, the ghee heated and the crushed garlic and ground coriander fried 40 SECONDS, until fragrant and the garlic is BLOND, not browned.
13. The taqliya poured into the pot and folded in once.
14. The pulled chicken returned and warmed through.
15. TESTED: it should be silky and faintly thick. Stringy or ropey means it boiled.
16. Served over rice with vinegared onion, toasted bread and lemon.

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 Lebanon · All recipes