25 Homemade Morog Polao (Chicken Rice), Bangladesh

What is Morog Polao?

The ultimate best-known Bangladeshi chicken pilaf loaded with flavour and required slow cooking. The flavour is similar to Biryani, but It isn’t like chicken Biryani; it’s more gentle than Biryani. It is an aromatic, rich in flavour dish.

2 hours cook time

Ingredients

• For the chicken marinade
  • 3 lb mix of chicken legs and thighs, scored with a knife (skinless or skin-on is fine; bone-in and skin-on will give you better flavor, and is what I prefer)
  • 4 tablespoons whole-milk plain natural yogurt
  • 2 tablespoons ginger paste (or finely grated ginger on a micro-plane zester)
  • 2 teaspoons garlic paste (or finely minced or pressed through a garlic press)
  • 1 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg, ground
  • 1/4 teaspoon mace, ground (optional)
  • For cooking the chicken (morog)
  • 4 tablespoons ghee or unsalted butter
  • 1 large yellow onion, thinly sliced
  • 2 cinnamon sticks, 3-4 inches long
  • 4 cardamom pods, whole
  • 4 cloves, whole
  • 2 cups room temperature water
  • 2-3 tablespoons lime juice, freshly squeezed (or to taste)
  • 1 teaspoon granulated white sugar
  • 4-6 green chilies, slit in half with seeds intact (Thai bird or serrano)
  • kosher salt to taste
• For the rice (pulao)
  • 4 tablespoons ghee or unsalted butter
  • 1 large yellow onion, thinly sliced
  • 2 cups long thin grained basmati rice*
  • 2 cups hot water
  • 1 tablespoon kosher salt
  • 4 tablespoons whole milk
  • 1 tablespoon kewra water (screw-pine or pandanus essence), optional
  • 1 tablespoon pistachio powder (freshly ground), optional
  • Garnishes (optional)
  • crispy fried onions
  • green chilies
  • lime wedges

*Basmati rice is a long, slender-grained aromatic variety of rice originally cultivated and grown in the Indian sub-continent. Basmati rice is extremely fragrant, and non-sticky, meaning that each grain remains individual after cooking. This characteristic is especially important when cooking Bengali rice dishes such as pulao, biryani, and even khichuri. It allows the rice to hold more sauce and absorb better flavor.

*It’s important to use basmati rice for this dish because substitutions such as jasmine rice, brown rice, brown basmati rice, etc. won’t yield the same aromatic, textural, or flavorful results. You can find basmati rice at most Asian supermarkets.

Equipment

• Dutch oven or a heavy bottomed pot with a tight-fitting lid
• 2 bowls

Method

• Marinate the chicken
  • Using a sharp knife, score the chicken thighs and drumsticks with 1-inch slits.
  • In a bowl, combine the yogurt, ginger paste, garlic paste, kosher salt, nutmeg powder, and mace powder. Add the chicken pieces and mix well to combine. Marinate for 30 minutes on your kitchen counter or for 2 hours in the refrigerator.
• Cook the chicken (morog)
  • While the chicken is marinating, thinly slice a large yellow onion.
  • Heat 4 tablespoons of ghee or unsalted butter over medium heat in a Dutch oven.
  • Once the ghee is hot, add the sliced yellow onion, and sauté until translucent and starting to brown on the edges (about 10 minutes).
  • Add the cinnamon sticks, cardamom pods, and whole cloves to the onions, and sauté on medium heat for 2-3 minutes until the onions and whole spices are fragrant.
  • Add the marinated chicken and all of the marinade mixture to the pot.
  • Increase the heat to medium high. Arrange the chicken pieces in a single layer, if possible, and cook for about 3-5 minutes on each side until the chicken pieces (and skin) are starting to caramelize and turn golden brown.
  • Add 2 cups of room temperature water to the chicken and reduce the heat to medium. Cover the pot with a tight-fitting lid. Cook for 20 minutes, stirring once in the middle to release any chicken pieces stuck to the pot.
  • After 20 minutes, check the chicken for doneness. At this point, the chicken should be fully cooked and there should be about 2 cups of gravy in the pot. If the chicken is not yet done or if you have too much gravy, uncover the pot and cook until chicken is done, or gravy is reduced.
  • Add the lime juice, sugar, and slit green chilies. Mix well into the chicken. Taste and adjust with kosher salt as needed.
  • Transfer the cooked chicken and all of the gravy (every drop!) to a bowl. Set aside. Don’t clean the Dutch oven as we will use the same pot to cook the rice in the next step.

• Cook the rice (pulao)
  • Rinse 2 cups of basmati rice. Set aside. Bring 4 cups of water to a boil in a kettle. Set hot water aside.
  • In the same Dutch oven that we cooked the chicken in, heat 4 tablespoons of ghee or unsalted butter over medium-high heat.
  • Once the ghee is hot, add the thinly sliced onions and fry until they are translucent and starting to become crispy and golden on the edges.
  • Add the rinsed basmati rice to the onions, and fry until the rice starts to become crispy – about 2 minutes.
  • Pour 2 cups of hot water to the rice. Add the kosher salt and bring to a boil over high heat. Once at a roaring bowl, cover the pot with a lid, and immediately reduce the heat to medium. Set a timer for 5 minutes.
  • After 5 minutes, turn off the heat completely. This is called parboiling the rice.
• Layer the morog pulao
  • Uncover the pot, and gently remove half of the par-boiled (partially cooked) rice from the pot to a second bowl, being careful not to over-handle the rice in the pot. Set this bowl of rice aside.
  • To the pot (that is missing half of the rice), add all of the cooked chicken and all of the gravy (every drop!).
  • Cover up the chicken by layering it with the rice that we set aside.
  • Drizzle 4 tablespoons of milk over the chicken and rice. Add crushed pistachios and drizzle on kewra water, as well, if using.
  • Cover the pot with a lid and set the heat to the lowest possible setting. Set a timer for 20 minutes.
  • After 20 minutes, turn off the heat, and let the pulao rest for at least 10-15 minutes. Don’t open the lid.
  • Uncover the lid and give the whole mixture a gentle stir to fully combine all of the rice and chicken.
  • Garnish with crispy fried onions, extra green chilies, and lime wedges if desired.
  • Serve warm with a traditional Bengali garden tomato and cucumber salad (see recipe below).

Comments

• Ana (Ecuador): This looks delicious, but also hard to make! What is mace? here in Ecuador we don´t have some of those spices, but when I need them, I have to replace with similar flavors.
• Trinidad (Ecuador): Mace is maca I think.
• Trinidad (Ecuador): Syful, here again capturing all my attention with this fantastic recipe! I will do it as soon as I find all the ingredients, we do have most of them. Basmati rice y. hard to find around here, but I will try my best, since you are telling us the differences between one and the others. Actually is a full meal with all details.. thank you for the details, it helps a lot when preparing something for the first time. Kewra water I do not exactly with this is, same as morog, is this a roster or a type of chicken? is this something you prepare for special occassions? looks super! gracias.