While looking through a Syrian cookbook, I came across a dutch oven recipe for hameen, a dish that required a whole chicken, 5 hours, and long-grain white rice. It sounded delicious, but I definitely had to switch it up a little bit. This recipe is pretty simple and the ingredients are all really basic, and you should have most, if not all of them in your house already.
I decided not to put fresh tomatoes in this. Mostly because I don’t even like tomatoes, but also because I was adding tomato paste (as opposed to the tomato sauce in the original recipe) and thought that was enough tomato flavor. I had mushrooms lying around, and decided to add those to the dish, they were definitely a nice treat in there.
Hameen, adapted from Deal Delights 2:
Ingredients:
- 1/2 chicken
- 2 onions, sliced thinly or chopped finely
- 4 cloves of garlic
- 1-28 ounce can tomatoes, sliced + juices
- 1 1/4 cup brown rice (or white)
- 2 cups water
- 1 teaspoon ground allspice
- Salt and pepper
- Olive oil, if needed
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Heat dutch oven over high heat. Season chicken with salt and pepper and brown on both sides. Remove from pan.
3. While chicken is browning, chop or slice the onions. After removing the chicken, check if there is fat in the pot. If so, add onions. If not, add a tablespoon of oil and then brown the onions and garlic. This will take about 5 minutes. Don’t forget to stir!
4. Add tomatoes, juices, and water, stir.
5. Add rice and allspice, then return the chicken to the pot.
6. Bring mixture to a boil, then lower the heat, cover and simmer for 5 minutes.
8. Place in oven and cook for 1 1/2 hours.
9. Lower the heat to 250 and cook another 1 1/2 hours. Chicken should be soft, and rice should be fluffy. Serve hot.
