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A Pilau of Chicken
Wash a broiler or young plump chicken; joint, and lay in a marinade of salad-oil and lemon juice for half an hour. Fry a sliced onion in 3 tablespoonfuls of butter. Drain the chicken, but do not wipe the pieces, and when the onion has begun to brown, lay the chicken in the pan and fry for ten minutes, turning often. Empty the contents of the frying-pan into a broad-bottomed pot; pour in 1 cupful of weak stock and 1 of strained tomato juice. Cook gently until the chicken is tender, then take it up and set in the oven to keep warm. Return the gravy to the fire and add three-quarters of a cupful of rice which has soaked in cold water for an hour. Cook fast until the rice is soft, then put the chicken back into the pot, and when thoroughly mixed together heap upon a heated platter and sprinkle Parmesan cheese over the top.
A straightforward one-pot chicken and rice, closer to Italian-American practice than to a Turkish or Indian pilau. The only real trap is the liquid ratio for the rice.
- The hinge: liquid for the riceAfter simmering the chicken you will have well under two cups of gravy left, and three-quarters of a cup of rice wants roughly a cup and a half. Measure what remains and top it up with stock before the rice goes in, or it will scorch on the pot bottom.
- "Broiler"A broiler in this period is a very young bird, generally reckoned at something like 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 lb. The recipe gives no simmering time, only "cook gently until the chicken is tender"; a modern 3 1/2 lb bird will want appreciably longer than a small one, so judge by the meat rather than the clock.
- Salad-oilUsually olive oil in books of this date, though the term could also cover a bland refined oil such as cottonseed; a plain, non-peppery oil is the safe reading, and not a made-up dressing. Enough oil and lemon juice to coat the joints is all that is meant, and the recipe asks for no more than half an hour in it.
- Weak stockDeliberately thin rather than a concentrated one. Use unsalted or low-sodium chicken stock cut with water by a third, and season at the end, since the Parmesan brings salt of its own.
- Strained tomato juiceNot the drinking juice sold today. Use passata, or canned whole tomatoes crushed and pushed through a sieve, for the body the dish needs.
- Soaking the riceThe recipe calls for an hour in cold water. With modern long-grain rice a 20-minute soak is plenty; drain it well, and reduce your added liquid slightly since soaked grains carry water in.
- "Cook fast"The text means a brisk cooking, but a hard rolling boil will break the grains; a lively simmer, lid on, is safer. Soaked rice softens quickly, so start checking early and let it stand off the heat a few minutes before the chicken goes back in.
- Keeping the chicken warmCover it loosely and hold it at 200F. Uncovered in a hot oven for twenty minutes it will dry out badly.
- YieldServes three to four as written. The recipe heaps the mixture on a heated platter and sprinkles the Parmesan over the top; passing the cheese at the table instead is a modern preference, not what is written.