Serves: 4-6 | Prep time: 10 minutes | Cook time: 1 hour - 1 hour 10 minutes | Difficulty: Easy
When it comes to meat and rice, you will not find many countries with a better reputation than Turkey. Continuing our celebration of National Rice Week, we’re delighted to share with you an exclusive Meliz Cooks recipe for Turkish Chicken Bake, known as ‘Tavuk Kapama’ in its homeland. Packed full of flavour, it is easy to cook and guaranteed to impress your foodie friends and family!
Ingredients:
250g Tropical Sun USA Easy Cook Rice
3 tablespoons olive oil
3/4 teaspoon Tropical Sun Whole Black Pepper, ground
1 teaspoon sea salt flakes
1/2 teaspoon Turkish red pepper flakes (pul biber) or 1/4 tsp Tropical Sun Crushed Red Chillies
1/2 teaspoon Tropical Sun Smoked Paprika
1 teaspoon Tropical Sun Dried Oregano
1/4 teaspoon Tropical Sun Ground Cumin
2 tablespoon Turkish sweet red pepper paste or tomato puree
2 onions, peeled and quartered
6 garlic cloves, peeled and bashed
8 chicken thighs
2 tomatoes, halved and thickly sliced
1/2 lemon, thinly sliced
1 Tropical Sun Chicken Stock Cube
600ml boiling water
1 sprinkle of chopped fresh parsley
Method:
- Preheat your oven to 210C Fan / 230C conventional / 450F / Gas Mark 8
- Wash the rice under cold running water until the water runs clear, then leave to one side to drain
- In a small bowl, mix together the olive oil, black pepper, sea salt flakes, Turkish red pepper flakes/ crushed red chillies, smoked paprika, oregano, cumin and just 1 tbsp of the Turkish sweet red pepper paste or tomato puree and leave to one side.
- Add the peeled, quartered onions into your roasting tray.
- Peel and bash the garlic cloves and add them to the tray also.
- Coat the onion and garlic in 1 tablespoon of the spice paste.
- Coat the chicken thighs in the remaining spice paste and add to the tray - evenly spreading out the chicken, onions and garlic for optimal cooking.
- Pop the tray in the preheated oven on the middle shelf for 30-35 minutes so that the chicken really starts to brown and crisp up.
- While the chicken thighs are roasting in the oven, prepare the rest of the ingredients. Halve and thickly slice the tomatoes and thinly slice the half lemon.
- Dissolve the stock cube in the boiling water and stir t,he remaining 1 tbsp of red pepper paste through the stock mixture. Make sure the stock cube and red pepper paste both fully dissolve.
- Once the chicken has browned and crisped up take the tray out of the oven, give the chicken thighs a little turn in all of the juices then remove them to a separate dish.
- Add the washed and drained Tropical Sun USA Easy Cook Rice to the tray and stir it into all the juices. Add the chicken thighs back to the tray, on top of the rice, skin side up. Carefully pour the 600ml stock mixture into the tray. Add in the bay leaves, lemon and tomato slices and chicken juices that collected from the dish into the tray, and pop the tray back into the oven, on the middle shelf, until the rice has cooked through, for roughly another 30-35 minutes.
- The dish should remain juicy and not be allowed to dry out. Once the dish is cooked to perfection, remove from the oven and rest for 10 minutes or so, so that the rice can soak up the remaining juices.
- Sprinkle with finely chopped fresh parsley and serve!