Plov...A One Pot Chicken and Rice Recipe (2024)

Plov is the ultimate Slavik comfort food. It’s a one pot chicken and rice recipe that is packed with flavors and spices and just takes a few steps to reach ultimate rice perfection. Perfect rice and tender chicken that beg you for just another bite. Plus it’s SUPER freezer friendly! How awesome is that!

Every once in awhile, a dish comes along that is just perfect. In fact, it would be disrespectful to the generations before to change it.
France has duck confit, Italy has risotto, the US has BBQ and Uzbekistan has “plov”. Whether you call it, pilaf, polow, pulao, the basic idea remains the same, a simple rice dish with complex flavors and old tradition. While it may be a bit timely, the end result is perfection in a bowl. Delicious, individual rice grains fall away from tender and succulent meat; the perfect bite on a fork.

Plov is actually the Russian pronounciation of the word common to all of the Caucas, Turkmenia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Iran, Afghanistan and India. “Plov” seems to be first seen in Samarkand when Alexander the Great of Macedonia asked his cooks to create a dish that could be used for him to entertain “company”. “Plov” recipes were handed down not from parent to child but instead from merchant to merchant, from traveler to traveler on the Great Silk Road. Although several changes were made due to local available ingredients and tastes, it has remained in some shape or form as a popular dish among all eastern cultures from China to Azerbaijan.

Today “plov” is known as the most popular and common dish to Uzbekistan. Natives of this country claim that there are more than 50 varities of this dish. It is used when a friend comes over, as the main dish at a wedding and even funerals. Some use different meats, nuts, dried fruits, spice etc, but the technique remains the same. However, the classical “plov” recipe remains the same for over 1000 years. There are certain traditions that must remain the same when cooking a classic “plov”.

1. You have to use a heavy bottomed pot which they call a “kazan” to cook the “plov”. Cast-iron works the best. I love my Lodge Dutch oven for this. “Plov” cooks on a very high temperature, therefore you need something that is going to be a good insulator of heat and cast iron proves to be one of the best.
2. Rice must be washed throughly and preferably steeped in water before adding it to the “kazan”.
3. Plenty of carrots must be used. In fact, they even state that the carrots to use are light orange in color not the deep orange-red that I have here. *Unfortunately, regular orange carrots were all I could find and my “plov” still tastes amazing, so I would not worry too much about it.*

This technique also inspired my other favorite comfort food…Arroz Con Pollo, which is very similar except with Latin flavors.

Now while this dish is not difficult, it does allow a few hours. So give yourself some time to make it right.

The best part about this plov is that it truly is at its heart a one pot chicken and rice recipe. And best of all it is in fact super freezer friendly. So make extra and freeze the rest!

Alright…ready…here we go!

First we start off with the rice. The rice is crucial! You must use enriched, parboiled long grain rice. Not the healthiest, but it works the best.

Rinse it through, well, under cold water. Then transfer it to a bowl and let it soak in cold water while you make the rest of the plov. There is my over the sink colander…best. purchase. ever.

Next comes the meat. Traditional plov is made with lamb. However, I have made it with beef and chicken and it was fantastic. In this instance, we are using chicken breast and boneless skinless chicken thighs.

Before you get dirty with your meat, heat up your heavy-bottomed pan with coconut or any other high temperature smoking point oil. You wanted it smoking hot.

Cut up the meat into medium cubes, a little bigger than bite size.

For the chicken breast, first cut them into strips.

Then cut them into cubes

The chicken thighs just cut into rough pieces. Each thigh should be cut into 2-3 pieces.

Season the meat heavily with salt and pepper. Then add to your pot carefully so not to burn yourself. You may need to do this in batches so as to not overcrowd the pan. Get them really nice and golden brown.

While the meat is browning, Lets prep our veggies.

Cut off the ends of the onions.And then cut in half so that it is easier to remove the peel.

Next, slice each half of the onion in half.

Now slice the onion horizontally.

Do the same with your other onion.

Peel all your carrots. If you have a Vitamix or food processor I would highly recommend pulling it out. I used to cut up the carrots by hand, but there really is no need for that nor the callouses caused by the knife after cutting up all those carrots into matchsticks.

If you are using a food processor then go ahead and use your medium shredder attachment.

If you are using a Vitamix then you are going to want to do a wet chop. Add your carrots to the Vitamix and fill it up with water just above the carrots.

Pulse it a 2-3 times until they are all shredded. Pour into a colander to pour out excess water.

Next, add the onions to the nicely browned meat. Toss together. Let it cook for 10-15 minutes over high heat.

Go ahead and add in the carrots and toss everything to combine. Let cook for 15 minutes.

This time around I did not use actual bulbs of garlic (because I forgot) but instead I used individual cloves as you see in this picture. If you are using bulbs of garlic, you pretty much end up with perfect roasted garlicand you can reserve it in the fridge if you add in extra bulbs into the plov.

Now, cover this whole mass with boiling water, just enough to cover the top. Add in salt, pepper and cumin. Taste the liquid. You will be using the seasoning to season a lot of rice. So make sure it’s extra seasoned. If using whole bulbs of garlic, go ahead and nestle them into the mixture, cut side down into the liquid. You want to use boiling water because otherwise the mixture would cool off and your cooking process would be interrupted.

GO AWAY. PLEASE PLEASE Please whatever you do DO NOT STIR! You will disrupt the wonderful magic that is about to happen! Go talk on the phone, watch half a movie, drink some wine…whatever you want…just do not touch this for 45 minutes.

After the 45 minutes you will end up with something looking like this

Once this time has passed crank up the heat. Remember that rice you had steeping in the water? Now is the time to drain it and prepare for its final resting place. Once drained, lay the rice CAREFULLY over your carrot, meat and onion mixture. Pretend you are gently “blanketing” the mixture with your rice.

Again, take BOILING water and SLOWLY cover the rice just about 1/2 of an inch above the rice. See all that beautiful brown goodness come up to the top? That’s your flavor right there, that’s what you did all that work for.

Let the rice cook on HIGH heat until there is no more liquid. If you see liquid still bubbling up from the top, it isn’t done. If you see liquid bubbling up at the bottom, it isn’t done. Only when it is completely dry is it done. And this will take about 30 minutes. Once the rice is dry, cover and let stand for about 30 minutes. Then you can gently fluff it with a fork. Make sure to mix well as a lot of the meat, carrots and onions will be at the bottom.

Grab a forkful

Or a bowl.

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