Comfort food

The other night I made chicken and rice pilaf. The Boss likes it, the Diva thinks it's OK, and the Little Prince whines about it. I compromise with him...he can eat just the rice and nuts. I figure he's getting some protein from the chicken broth it's cooked in so it's a fair compromise. If I don't make an issue of it then he'll probably be more likely to come around. He's not crazy about chicken but the chicken he does like he can inhale. The recipe calls for half a chicken so I cooked all of it for the broth for the chicken and rice and saved the bones and half the meat I de-boned for later. Tonight I made chicken soup. The recipe calls for rice, but since we'd just had the pilaf the other night I thought I'd do something different. The other day I bought alphabet pasta and tonight I replaced the rice with the ABCs. The kids should enjoy it if they ever get their papers cleared off the table and get it cleaned off to eat.

Here are the recipes. I may have posted the pilaf recipe before. If so, just scroll down to the soup.

Chicken-Rice Pilaf (Djaj mah Ruz M'falfal)

1/2 chicken
5 cups water
1/2 cups almonds (blanched)
1/4 cup pine nuts
3 Tbsp butter
2 cups rice (soaked for 30 minutes...vital if using brown rice)
3 cups chicken broth (use at least 4 if you're using brown rice since it takes longer to cook)
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
cinnamon to taste

Cook chicken in the water until tender. (BTW, if you don't want to mess with a whole chicken, just use bone-in chicken parts. I used the equivalent of a whole chicken and stored the remaining cooked chicken in the frig with the bones to use for stock.) Remove from liquid, debone and set aside. Save the liquid.

Brown almonds and pine nuts in butter in a saucepan. Turn heat to low. Stir until a golden color. Drain rice and add to the nuts. Saute on low heat for 1 minute and add chicken pieces, salt, pepper, and cinnamon. Bring to boil on high heat, cover, and simmer for about 20-30 minutes. (Brown rice takes longer, especially if you forgot to soak the recommended time.)

Chicken Soup (Shourabit Djaj)

1/2 chicken (cut up)
10 cups water
1 cup rice (washed and drained)
salt, pepper, and cinnamon to taste

Wash and clean chicken pieces and place in large saucepan with the water. Bring to a boil over high heat. Skim off the foam, cover and cook over medium heat for 60 minutes. Or, if you're using chicken leftover from the pilaf (or something else) place the bones in the water and cook until you have broth.

Remove the chicken (or bones) from liquid. If using chicken pieces, debone. Return chicken to liquid or add leftover chicken. Add rice, salt, and pepper and cook for 25 minutes.

Serve with crisp pita bread pieces (pita bread toasted in oven for a few minutes and then broken up) dropped into the soup.

All I did differently tonight from the above was replace the rice with the ABCs. Seasonings and other ingredients stayed the same.

Sahtayn!