Savory Saffron Chicken...

       

Before I moved to Brazil, the only experiences I ever had with saffron were in a few Indian dishes I've tried here and there. I never knew just how easy I could prepare a delicious dish with saffron as the main ingredient until I tried my mother in law's Saffron Chicken. Wow.

         In Brazil, saffron is cheap and the most commonly used type is the kind that is a dark yellow-orange color. It has a very strong aroma, so it's not something you can just throw into any ol dish. In Portuguese, saffron is called "açafrão (ah-sah-frown)" and the dish I am about to show you is actually called "Frango ao molho de açafrão," or "Chicken in Saffron Sauce." I just call it Saffron Chicken.

        The ingredients are very simple, and there are only a few important steps that must be followed to ensure it turns out right. There are 3 key ingredients that you cannot skimp out on: Saffron, Garlic, and Green Onion (chive). You can make this as more of a soup by cooking it with more water, or you can start with a little less water and let it cook down into it's own sauce. Up to you, but I highly recommend making this along with Brazilian style rice and beans. If nothing else, just the rice. Slice up some tomatoes to serve with it, and you are SET!

          Your house will smell awesome. The food will taste like something you can buy in a restaurant, and you will make many bellies very happy. If you would like to give this one a go, here's how ya do it:

What you will need:

• Whole bone in  chicken breast or entire chicken cut into chunks - unseasoned at this point.
• large frying pan
• medium to large pressure cooker or soup pot (if you are not using a pressure cooker, fine, but this will take much longer.
• Large cooking spoon
• fork, spoon, knife
• enough oil to submerge chicken 75%
• 2-3 cloves of garlic, minced
• salt to taste about 1 tsp if you are not good at gauging how much salt to use... you can always add more at the end of it lacks saltiness
• pepper to taste - or 1 tsp - just like the salt situation
• 1 cup of chopped green onion (chives)
• 1 1/2 TBSP saffron PLUS 1 tsp saffron
• water

How it's done"

1. Put about 1 to 1 1/2 inches of oil into the frying pan and place over high heat. Allow it about 5-8 minutes to get hot.

2. Put chicken bits into hot oil and make sure it is submerged at least 75%. Too little oil and the chicken will fry too much too fast and will probably stick to the pan. Messy.

3. Leave the chicken to fry, occasionally turning the pieces and making sure they fry evenly on all sides. 

4. Once they have been frying for about 10 minutes, sprinkle your 1 tsp. of saffron over the top of the chicken and allow it to cook into the chicken as the chicken fries. 

5. Take your pressure cooker, leaving the top off for now (or your soup pot) and fill it about 1/4 of the way at first. Place it over medium to high heat to get it heating up for your fried chicken pieces. 

6. Go ahead and add the rest of you saffron, salt, pepper, garlic, and half of the chopped chives to the water and stir it until it looks to be mixed in. Leave it to start a boil.

7. Keep checking on your frying chicken. It needs to get to a dark golden brown color on the outside. It needs to look as if it is starting to get crispy, but isn't quite there yet. When it reaches that point (of not totally crunchy), they're ready to be removed.  Our goal is not to let them get too crunchy, but a nice dark golden color on the outside to seal in all those yummy juices on the inside.

8. Remove the fried chicken from the oil and transfer into pot of water which should be starting to boil by now. If it's not yet, that's fine. Not a big deal really. Take an additional 3 or 4 TBSP of oil from the fried chicken oil and add it to the water.

9. If you are using a pressure cooker, now you may give everything one last stir and lock the top on. If you are not using a pressure cooker, just give it one last stir and place the top on. Make sure heat is set to high.

10. Pressure cooker cooking time is about 30 minutes. After 30 minutes you can carefully remove the top (if someone hasn't shown you how to remove the top, you need to know how to do that first without ending up in the ER) and if the chicken has taken on a yellow color and looks tender, it's good to go. If you are looking to allow it to sit in a soup, you're done. If you are wanting it to be more of a thickened sauce, you need to return it to the stovetop on high flame WITHOUT the lid. Let it cook until it looks saucy enough for you. 

Then it's ready.

Normal pot cooking time is different. You will most likely need to leave it cooking with the top on for an hour. Occasionally you may need to throw more water in it when the water level starts to get too low. Once the chicken has taken on that golden color and looks tender, you're done. As said before, if you want more of a sauce consistency than soupy one, put it back on the fire with the lid off and let it cook down until it looks like what you want it to.

I prefer the soupier texture because I can pour that over rice or I can actually eat it like a soup. It's delicious!

11. Transfer your finished chicken with juices into a serving dish and sprinkle the remaining chopped green onion (chives) over the top of it.

12. Serve in a bowl or deep plate as a soup, add rice and pour soup over both for a chicken rice soup, or eat the chicken alone as is. 

Anyway you eat it, it will be delicious. The first time I made this for my husband, he told me I had completely outdone myself and if he hadn't seen me making it he wouldn't have believed I didn't buy that from a restaurant. It is super savory!

13. Prepare for "happy belly" faces!

Boa sorte! Good Luck!

Rice and Beans.. or.. the Brazilian Staple

     

      Arroz e Feijao, pronounced (ah-hose) ee (fay-jown), is THE staple of Brazilian food. Assuming this is due to the extreme poverty found in many areas of Brazil, rice and beans are a complete protein that for ages has fed those who cannot afford much more than that. Pay is monthly in Brazil, and the average person who works a full time job only makes about 600 Reais a month. That's equal to 300 US dollars a month... give or take depending on the value of the dollar. The government provides something called a cesta for those who either work government jobs or need assistance, and it generally consists of a bag with dry beans and rice, and things needed to cook it, such as oil and salt. There are other things they provide, but this post is about rice and beans so I'm going to stick to that.
      Though rice and beans seems like something that wouldn't have much of an emphasis in an everyday meal to you, to the average Brazilian, it is one of the most important things to think of when planning a meal. Rice and beans can generally be found on any traditional lunch or dinner plate. It is important that rice and beans be prepared the correct way, and seasoned to perfection, as Brazilians take this meal item seriously.I learned this the hard way, and it took me a few years to perfect it... but I finally have. There are many different variations of seasonings and add-ins but the basic method never changes.
      Generally, there are 2 popular beans eaten in a typical rice and beans plate; black beans and small red beans, otherwise known as Carioca beans (Carioca is the word for something or someone that is from Rio de Janeiro, so I guess it would be Rio de Janeiro style beans.) I always buy my beans dry in the bag, like most here, and cook them in the pressure cooker with water until they are soft, but you do have the option of buying them either in a can or frozen as well. If you are buying beans in a can, please make sure they have not already been seasoned, and don't have much salt added to them. While Brazilians love the use of salt in large amounts, it is not wise to add lots of salt to beans that have been soaking in salt in a can for who knows how long.

For the Rice you will need:

1. A medium size pot with lid.
2. 1 1/4 cup of dry rice.. recommended long grain white rice for this recipe
3. 1 tsp. salt
4. 1 tsp black pepper
5. 1 tbsp vegetable or olive oil
6. 2 garlic cloves (minced)
7. double amount of water as rice, so in this case, 2 1/2 cups of water
8. optional - 1 tbsp or so of chopped green onion or chives


Directions:
1. Put minced garlic, salt, pepper, and oil into pot. Mix around.

 2. Add rice.

3. Turn oven on.... medium to high flame and begin to stir the rice into everything.

4. Leave the rice on the oven for about a minute then continue stirring some more until you start to hear the rice sizzling in the pan. The trick is to fry the dry rice just a tiny bit before adding water, because this will prevent the rice from getting sticky after you add the water.

5. Once the dry rice is sizzling and cooking in the pan, and all of the rice is well coated with oil, add double the amount of water than the measurement of rice... so in this case since we put in 1 1/4 cups of rice, we will add 2 1/2 cups of water to the rice.

6. Do not mess with it much after this! You may now stir the rice just one whirl or two around the pot, but after that, leave it along and don't touch it! This is a very important part of making Brazilian rice. If you mess with it while it's boiling, it will get sticky. Leave it alone and don't even think about sticking anything into it.

7. Once the rice is near done, holes will begin to form in the rice and it is at this point that you should put a lid on it. Don't put a lid on until you can barely see any water in the pan.

You can take a spoon and gently move a little rice out of the way to check the bottom to see if there is any water left. There should be just a tiny bit of moisture left at the bottom of the pot.

 It is at this point you can sprinkle your chopped green onion over the top before putting the lid on.

8. Leave the stove on with the lid on top the pot for a minute or two... then turn the stove off without removing the lid. Leave the rice to sit with the lid on until you are ready to serve it.

9. When it is time to serve it, you may just leave it in the pot or pour the contents out into a serving dish. Gently run the tip of a fork over the rice to loosen it up and fluff it. Pronto!


And now for the second part of the dish, the beans!


What you will need for the beans:

1. Small pot
2. 1 - 1 1/2 cups Small red or brown beans, or black if preferred. If you are in Brazil, buy Carioca beans. Have these cooked in a pressure cooker or whatever method you have decided on, and set them aside.
3. 2 cloves garlic, minced
4. 1 tsp salt
5. 1 tsp black pepper
6. 1 1/2 tbsp vegetable oil
7. 1/2 cup water or juice separated from beans
8. optional 1 tbsp or more of chopped green onions

Directions:

This is done much like the white rice. Make sure you separate any water or juice from the beans. Set aside the juice because you will be returning it to the beans when needed.
1. Put garlic, salt, pepper, and oil into the pot.

2. Turn on medium to high heat.
3. Mix everything together, add beans.

4. Allow the beans to sort of fry with the oil. Keep an eye on them and stir them every couple minutes.

 Once you can hear and see the beans frying on the bottom of the pan, stir it good.
6. Add the water or juice that had been set aside, and stir again.

7. Let the beans cook for about 5 minutes, or until you see a thickness forming inside the pot. You want this thickness, but if it seems like the beans might be burning, it's ok to add a little more water. You want the beans to form a thick sauce within themselves, but not too  much water because you also don't want them to be watery.

8. Once the beans have gotten a good thick consistency, stir it once more. If you are going to add green onion, sprinkle those over the top of the beans now, then put the lid on.

 I always leave the fire on with the lid on for about a minute just to get a little steam built up inside before turning off the stove. Make sure the top stays on until ready to serve.

9. Before serving, stir the beans a couple times.
10. Traditionally, beans are poured over the rice.

Now you know how to make the most important meal item in Brazil!

Rice and beans are generally served at lunch and dinner, being a side item to really any meat you choose, homemade french fries, fried plantain, noodles with oil and salt, and some veggies like lettuce, beets, tomato, and cucumber.

Good luck!

This is a picture of a finished plate of rice covered with beans, covered with farofa, alongside pressure cooker pork.