RECIPE: Chicken Majadra

I based this on a recipe I had for Majadra, a fairly traditional lentil and rice dish for Jewish people or Greeks of Lebanese or something. Dunno, didn’t research it. Anyway, it’s bloody good.

Ingredients:

• 400g lentils (brown or green), cooked and drained (note: that’s 400g AFTER cooking and draining)
• 2-3 cups of whole, long grain rice, cooked as per packet with chicken stock
• About 1 litre of chicken stock for the rice
• The meat of 1 Portuguese chicken with chilli sauce
• 1 tablespoon of cumin
• ½ tablespoon of paprika
• 1 cup of parsley, chopped
• 2 large onions, sliced
• 1 clove of garlic
• Juice of 1 lemon
• Salt and pepper to taste

Method.

• The good thing about this dish is that it’s so easy. You just need to get everything read, then chuck it together. So first off, get your rice cooking as per the packet instructions. This takes the longest to cook so you can get everything else ready while it goes.
• Throw the sliced onions and glove of garlic into a pan and fry with some olive oil until golden, set aside on a paper towel.
• While the onions and rice cook, take the meat off your chicken (I find it easier to buy one from a local chicken joint and just strip it down), chop your parsley and drain the lentils (canned is easy because lentils are a cunt to cook).
• With the rice ready, it’s time to rock. Heat up a wok with a bit of olive oil, put the rice in, then the chicken, the lentils, the cumin, paprika and some pepper and salt. You shouldn’t need too much salt, but add plenty of pepper.
• When you have everything mixed well and the spices are right (may need to adjust the cumin and paprika slightly) add the parsley, squeeze in the lemon and toss it again. All done!

Serves 6-8 hungry cunts but I prefer to make it on the weekend and eat it throughout the week. It keeps well in the fridge and reheats nicely.