Turkish Chicken Pilav

I cooked this for the first time on 20 September and knew she was a keeper.

The rice is what does it. It comes out as separate buttery grains with the chicken already in the flavour, because the broth the chicken poached in is the liquid the rice cooks in. The chicken itself is simple, poached whole and then pulled apart with two forks.

What I like most is that it is a basic recipe that happens to be high in protein, about 44g a portion. I showed a friend and he said it looked like a gym man meal, which was the shredded chicken piled on top doing that.

What This Dish Is

Nohutlu tavuklu pilav is the rice sold off glass-fronted carts in Istanbul. Chicken is poached, the rice is cooked in the broth that poaching produces, chickpeas go in with the liquid, and the meat is shredded over the top with black pepper.

Nothing in it is difficult. It comes down to 180ml of broth per 100g of rice, 13 minutes with the lid on and 10 minutes resting after.

%%{init: {'flowchart': {'htmlLabels': false}}}%%
flowchart TD
    A[Poach chicken<br/>18 to 20 min] --> B[Rest in broth<br/>10 min]
    B --> C[Strain broth<br/>540ml]
    A --> D[Soak rice 20 min<br/>rinse, drain]
    D --> E[Fry in butter<br/>4 to 5 min]
    E --> F[Chickpeas, then<br/>hot broth]
    F --> G{Lid on, lowest heat<br/>13 min}
    G -->|Absorbed, holes on top| H[Off the heat]
    G -->|Still pooling| I[3 more minutes]
    I --> G
    H --> J[Tea towel under lid<br/>rest 10 min]
    B --> K[Shred chicken<br/>butter, broth, pepper]
    J --> L[Fluff, plate<br/>chicken on top]
    K --> L

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The Kit

Item	Detail
Pan	ProCook Elite Signature uncoated 28cm frying pan
Lid	Anything that covers it, including a baking tray or foil
Sieve	For rinsing the rice and straining the broth
Jug	Measuring the broth
Two forks	Shredding, or your hands

The pan is less important than the shape. Rice needs depth of liquid, so a 28cm pan works for a four portion batch and is too wide for a single one. Two portions go in a small saucepan instead.

A tight lid is the part that cannot be skipped. The last 13 minutes are steaming, not boiling, and steam that escapes takes the water the rice needs with it.

The forks are optional. I gave up on them and pulled the chicken apart with my hands, which is quicker and follows the grain.

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The Ingredients

Yields four portions as a main.

Ingredient	Brand / Source	Amount
Skinless chicken breast	Any, whole	600g
Baldo rice	Bodrum Gönen Baldo	300g
Boiled chickpeas, drained	Bodrum, jarred	240g
Unsalted butter	Any	50g, plus 20g for the chicken
Sunflower or olive oil	Any	2 tbsp
Onion, peeled	Small, whole	Two
Bay leaf	Any	1
Black peppercorns	Any	½ tsp
Salt	Fine	2 tsp in the poaching water
Water, for poaching		1.6 litres
Ground black pepper		To finish

Rice

Baldo is the Turkish pilav rice and it is the one to look for. The grain is plump and medium length, it takes butter and broth without breaking down, and it stays separate. Gönen is the growing region and reads as the better grade on the bag.

Any other rice makes a different dish.

Chickpeas

Jarred beat tinned. They hold their shape in the rice rather than breaking up, and the Turkish jars are firmer than a supermarket tin.

A 400g tin drains to about 240g, which is the amount this needs.

My mum told me about the overnight soak. Doing them from dried takes that night and an hour or so on the hob, and it is the version I prefer. I do not trust the supermarkets much, and a tin hides whatever was done to get them in there.

100g of dried chickpeas comes out at roughly the 240g this recipe takes, so a 500g bag does five batches. The soak takes the night whether you do 100g or the whole bag, so the whole bag is the sensible amount.

1. Cover them with cold water, three times their depth, and leave them overnight.
2. Drain and rinse, then cover with fresh cold water in a pan.
3. Bring to the boil and skim the foam off the top.
4. Simmer 45 minutes to an hour and a half, until one squashes between two fingers.
5. Salt at the end, and leave them to cool in their own water so they do not dry out.

Cook to the squash test rather than the clock, because the range depends on how long the bag has been in the cupboard.

Store the rest in their own cooking water rather than drained, which keeps them from drying out and from freezer burn. Portion into bags of 240g with a splash of that water in each, three days in the fridge or three months in the freezer. Thaw before they go in the pan, since frozen ones would drop the temperature of the broth.

Stock

The poaching broth is the stock. Making it is the recipe, not a step before it.

Powder stands in when there is no chicken in the dish. Başak tavuk suyu bulyon is the Turkish one, 10g per sachet to 600ml, so about 3g to 200ml. It has salt in it already, so the added salt comes out when powder goes in.

Freeze whatever broth is left over in an ice cube tray. The cubes drop straight into the next plain pilav in place of stock powder, and they keep three months.

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The Prep

1. Chicken in the pot. 600g breast, whole, into 1.6 litres of cold water with two small onions, 1 bay leaf, ½ tsp peppercorns and 2 tsp salt.
2. Rice soaking. 300g in a bowl of warm salted water, 20 minutes, started as the pot goes on the heat.
3. Chickpeas drained. 240g rinsed and left in the sieve to dry.
4. Cooling tray out. A wide tray or plate, for anything going in the fridge.

Everything runs in parallel from here. The rice soaks while the chicken poaches, and the chicken rests while the rice is rinsed.

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The Method

Step 1, Poach the chicken

Bring the pot to the boil, then drop the heat until it holds a lazy bubble with the lid half on. Skim the grey foam off the surface in the first few minutes.

18 to 20 minutes for 600g. Heat off, lid on, 10 minutes sitting in the broth.

Step 2, Strain

Chicken out onto a plate. Cut into the thickest breast and check it is white through with no pink.

Broth through a sieve into a jug. 540ml measured out. Taste it, and salt only if it reads flat.

Step 3, Rinse the rice

Drain the soaking water off. Rinse under cold water until it runs mostly clear, then leave it in the sieve.

Step 4, Fry the rice

Pan on medium, 50g butter and 2 tbsp oil. Once the butter foams, the drained rice goes in.

Stir constantly, 4 to 5 minutes. Stop when the grains are glossy and the edges have gone see-through.

Step 5, Chickpeas and broth

240g chickpeas stirred through. 540ml of hot broth poured in, one stir, then up to the boil.

Step 6, Steam

Lid on, heat to the lowest setting, 13 minutes. The lid stays on the whole time.

Step 7, Shred

While the rice steams, pull the chicken apart with two forks or your hands, working along the grain. Toss it with 20g butter, 3 tbsp of the leftover broth and plenty of ground black pepper.

Step 8, Rest

Rice off the heat. A clean tea towel laid over the pan, lid back on top, 10 minutes.

Fluff with a fork. Rice onto the plate, chicken on top, more black pepper.

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How to Tell If It Came Out Right

The lid comes off once, at 13 minutes.

At 13 minutes	What to do
No liquid left, small holes across the surface	Done, off the heat
Liquid still pooling at the base	3 more minutes, lid back on
Rice firm in the middle and dry underneath	Splash of hot broth in, 4 more minutes
Rice soft and claggy	Overshot on liquid, rest it uncovered for 5

Finished pilav has separate grains that fall apart under a fork, a slick of butter on them, and a thin pale crust across the base of the pan. The crust is correct. It is the layer in contact with the metal and it comes away with the spatula.

Sticky rice in clumps means it was not rinsed enough, or it was stirred during the steam. Both release starch.

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Serving

It is served two ways:

1. Cart style is rice spooned onto the plate with the chicken piled on top. That is what the Istanbul vendors do, since they are serving fast.

2. Restaurant style packs the hot rice firmly into a small bowl, then turns it out as a dome with a plate over the top. The rice has to be hot and just rested to hold. Chicken goes around the base or over the dome.

Ayran and pickles on the side.

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Nutrition, Per Portion (four portions)

Macro	Amount
Calories	~690 kcal
Protein	~44g
Carbohydrates	~72g
Fat	~25g
Fibre	~5g

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Summary

Detail	Value
Source	Istanbul cart style, nohutlu tavuklu pilav
Rice	Bodrum Gönen Baldo, 300g for four portions
Liquid ratio	180ml broth per 100g rice, which is 1.8 parts to 1 by weight
Pan	ProCook Elite Signature uncoated 28cm, code
Cook time	13 minutes steaming, 10 minutes resting
Yield	Four portions
Calories per portion	~690 kcal
Best served with	Ayran and pickles

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Documented September 2026.