Name: Stuffed Chicken, Simmered in Tomato Juice and Buried in Rice (Tabyeet/Tannouri)
Yield: Makes 4 to 6 servings
Cuisine: Iraqi
Ingredients: ¼ teaspoon black pepper; 1½ teaspoons salt; 1 chicken with giblets (about 4 lb/1.80 kg), washed; 1 teaspoon baharat; Salt and pepper, for rubbing the chicken; Juice of one lemon (¼ cup/60 ml); 1 cup tomato juice (250 ml); or ½ cup (125 ml) tomato sauce diluted in ½ cup (125 ml) water; or 1 heaped tablespoon tomato paste diluted in water to make 1 cup (250 ml); 1 medium tomato, chopped; 2 cups (16 oz/450 g) rice, washed and soaked in water for 30 minutes, then drained; 1 teaspoon crushed coriander seeds; 4 eggs, boiled and shelled; 2 medium onions, chopped (about 1½ cups/9 oz/250 g); 3 tablespoons oil

Preparation info

Makes
4 to 6
servings

Difficulty
Complex

Appears in

Delights from the Garden of Eden

By Nawal Nasrallah

Published 2019

About

A traditional dish prepared for the Sabbath by Jewish families in Baghdad. The slow simmering was done in the tannour oven and hence the name tannouri. As for the other name tabyeet (meaning ‘keeping things overnight’), it comes from the custom of keeping the pot simmering in the slow-burning tannour overnight, as the oven could not be lit on the Sabbath. Due to the prolonged cooking and generous amounts of fat, the rice develops a delicious crunchy crust. The fo