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Turkish Rice Pilaf

January 14, 2022 by Carine Clary 2 Comments

Turkish Rice Pilaf

So what’s special about Turkish Rice Pilaf?

Turkish Rice Pilaf is all about the flavor of the rice and the variety of added ingredients. Those come from coating the rice in oil and steaming it in a rich broth as I do in this version. This is just the simplest version with chicken stock, orzo, onion, and toasted almonds on top but you can go with saffron, garbanzo beans, green peas, or even thin sauteed strips of eggplant. Be creative!

A little history

As much as we link the far east with rice I’d have to give the nod to the Turks who have perfected rice pilaf as a stand-alone dish. It has specific varieties stretching from Kazakhstan to Kirkareli on the Bulgarian border. Wherever there are Turks (and Persians!) there is Turkish Rice or “Pilaf.”

In 1539, Sultan Süleyman the Magnificent even made a “feast record” to commemorate the circumcisions of his sons Bayezid and Cihangir. He notes plain Pilaf, along with noodle pilaf, saffron pilaf, green pilaf (cooked in spinach juice), red pilaf (with grape molasses), şehriye (thin vermicelli) pilaf, and pilaf with pomegranate molasses. Others mention mulberries, barberries, pomegranate seeds, ambergris, and raisins as delicious additions.

But for now, we’ll start simple.

What you need:

  • Rice (any kind, but usually long-grain)
  • Orzo (a pasta that looks like rice)
  • onion or shallot
  • butter
  • chicken stock.

Turkish Rice Pilaf

Turkish Rice Pilaf

The Stock

This gets its own category because it’s crucial. To be clear you may make a delicious Turkish rice dish with good old Swanson’s chicken broth or whatever canned version is your fav. However, if you want something amazing make your own stock and let it bubble away until it’s gelatinous. And I mean thick. If you can’t swing that, try the bone broth that’s sold in the grocery store. You won’t be sorry.

Assembly and Cooking

Once you have the ingredients lined up do the following:

  • Rinse and drain the rice.
  • Measure out the orzo.
  • Chop the onion.
  • Melt the butter in a pot with a lid (or your rice cooker) & brown the orzo and onion, adding the rice last.
  • Add the stock, cover and cook until done then fluff the rice and add some toasted almonds and parsley.

To Serve

Best in a covered dish especially if you end up with leftovers.

Other Similar Rice Dishes to try

Here on the Gulf Coast, we have Louisiana Dirty Rice which is one of our riffs on rice, and on the west coast of Africa, they have Jollof Rice.

 

5.0 from 1 reviews
Turkish Rice
 
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Author: Carine Clary
Ingredients
  • 1 cup long-grain white rice (basmati or jasmine is fine)
  • ¼ cup orzo
  • 3 tablespoons shallot, minced
  • 2 tablespoons butter
  • 2 cups chicken stock (or bone broth)
  • Salt and pepper to taste
  • 1 bay leaf
Instructions
  1. Melt butter over medium heat, add orzo & shallot & stir until brown.
  2. Add rice and stir in to coat with oil
  3. Add broth, bay leaf, cover, and cook over low heat until the stock is absorbed and soft.
  4. Remove bay leaf and fluff with a fork.
3.4.3177

5.0 from 1 reviews
 
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3.4.3177

Filed Under: Middle Eastern, Rice & Noodle Dishes, Turkish Tagged With: pilav, rice and chicken broth, rice and orzo, turkish rice

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Hello, I'm Carine Clary and I'm the FrangloSaxon.

And is that a word? In a word - Yes! It reflects my French connections in the south part of the state and the Anglo Saxon ones on the Arkansas state line. I grew up eating & loving all the foods of Louisiana and the idea is to collect lots of them right here on this website.

What you'll find here is food that reflects everybody's cooking. Creole we know. Cajun we know. But how about Croatian or Vietnamese....or Italian or German....or the underestimated plain Southern food they do so well in the upstate parishes?

They're all part of who we are so pull up your chair and join me for some good eats!

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