Anissa Helou’s roast chicken with rice and nuts recipe

“This was one of our most festive dishes, at a time when chickens were still considered precious,” says chef Anissa Helou. “That said, we still prepare this dish for large family gatherings, special occasions, and even Christmas or Eid, depending on the communities.

“There are slight regional variations, but the dish is pretty universal. In Marja’yun, a charming southern town, they use roosters (also known as capons and often their own) because they are bigger than chickens and less dry than turkey. They also cook the stuffed chicken together with stuffed vegetables or they roast it like in the recipe below. The same meat and nut rice is also served with roast lamb.”

Djej bil-furn ma rezz wa mukassara – roast chicken with rice and nuts

Ingredients:
(Serves 4)

Extra virgin olive oil
Sea salt
1 medium free-range organic chicken (about 1½kg)
Ground allspice
2tbsp (30ml) pomegranate molasses (optional)

For the rice:
300g Egyptian, Calasparra, or bomba rice, soaked in cold water for 30 minutes
4tbsp (60g) unsalted butter
75g Mediterranean pine nuts
75g blanched almonds
150g lean ground lamb
½tsp ground cinnamon
½tsp ground allspice
¼ tsp finely ground black pepper
Sea salt
450ml chicken stock or water
500g plain Greek-style yogurt to serve on the side

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 220ºC/200°C fan/gas mark seven. Brush a baking dish with a little olive oil and add 80ml water and a little salt.

2. To prepare the stuffing, drain the rice and put it in a large mixing bowl. Melt the butter in a large saucepan over medium heat and saute the pine nuts, stirring constantly, until golden brown. Remove with a slotted spoon onto a double layer of paper towel. Saute the almonds in the same butter, also until golden brown, and remove onto paper towels.

3. Cook the meat in the same butter until it loses all traces of pink, breaking up any lumps. Add to the rice and mix well. Add three-quarters of the toasted nuts, the cinnamon, allspice, pepper, and salt to taste and mix again until all the ingredients are well blended.

4. Rub the chicken with allspice and half fill with the rice mixture. Place in the baking dish and put to roast for about one hour, until the chicken is golden all over and done. Start basting the chicken after the first 20 minutes with the water in the dish, and continue to do so at 20-minute intervals, adding a little water if it’s drying up. This should keep the chicken moist and give you a light sauce to serve with the rice. Fifteen minutes before the chicken is ready, dilute the pomegranate molasses (if you are using it) with a little water and add to the basting juices to give the sauce an intriguing sweet and sour flavour.

5. Halfway through roasting the chicken, start cooking the remaining rice stuffing. Put in a medium pot and add one-and-a-half times the volume in water. Add more salt if needed and place over medium heat. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to low and cover the pan. Simmer for 10 to 15 minutes, until the liquid is absorbed and the rice is done. Wrap the lid with a clean kitchen towel and cover the pot. Let sit until the chicken is ready.

6. Take the chicken out of the oven and let it sit for five to 10 minutes, then transfer to a large serving platter – you will carve it at the table and serve the meat with a little of the stuffing and a little of the cooked rice, which you will be serving in another platter, garnished with the reserved nuts. Serve immediately with yogurt on the side.

Lebanon by Anissa Helou is published in hardback by Bloomsbury Publishing, priced £30. Photography by Kristin Perers and Dalia Khamissy. Available now.