I have known my friend Gaby since college and have requested her incredible tabbouleh and baba ganoush for many occasions over the years. She is a fabulous cook and the food from her native Lebanon is a staple of her repertoire.
Because Gaby has been in my life for so long, she has become one of those friends who is friendly with my entire family - which was great - until she had a dinner party last year and, since she, my mom and sister live in New York, invited them as well as my sister's boyfriend and made them this dish. My mom and sister went home after the party, each phoned me and went on and on in the most laudatory of terms about the most delicious thing that they had eaten in a long time. I was truly cross to have missed it.
A few months later, L. and I were in New York and - again because Gaby has been in my life for so long - I had no compunction about requesting that she make it for us since I had heard so much about it. My mom, sister and sister's boyfriend then proceeded to invite themselves as well, as did another mutual friend who had heard about the dinner so, though my heart went out to Gaby for being forced to play cook and hostess unexpectedly, I knew that this really was going to be an amazing dish. And it was.
I recently made it for L. and the only change I made was to use 2 1/2 Lbs of boneless chicken thighs in the place of the whole chicken in order to avoid having to bone the damn thing. So - without further ado and in her own words - here is what is now referred to in my family as "Gaby's Chicken".
Recipe
Should serve 8 but will actually only serve 6 because people will stuff themselves
1 three to four pound chicken
1 medium onion cut coarsely
1 cinnamon stick
2 ½ cups rice
1 quart whole milk yogurt (not Greek)
1 or 2 cloves of garlic, pressed
Toasted pita bread in pieces
1/3 cup pine nuts
Butter*
Vegetable oil
Mix the pressed garlic into yogurt and add salt to taste. Strain yogurt after 1 hour to remove garlic bits.
Place rice in bowl and cover with boiling water and a teaspoon of salt. Let stand until cool and rinse thoroughly until water runs clear (preferred rice is short/medium grain Calrose rice).
In a heavy pot, heat a tablespoon of vegetable oil until shimmering. Sprinkle salt on chicken and brown on each side. Add water up to one third of the height of the chicken. Add the onion and cinnamon stick and adjust salt. Cover and simmer for one hour until cooked, turning the chicken every 20 minutes.
Discard chicken skin and remove meat from the bones. Add meat back to cooking liquid to keep warm.
In a medium size pot, add drained rice, 2 ½ cups of water, 4 tablespoons of butter and salt to taste. Cover and simmer until rice is cooked.
In a frying pan, melt four tablespoons of butter and cook pine nuts until golden (watch carefully as pine nuts can get too brown quickly).
In a 9x13 serving dish, cover bottom with layer of toasted pita; add layer of chicken then layer of rice. Cover with yogurt and then add melted butter with pine nuts. Serve immediately.
* Butter used is clarified brown butter.