Morgh-e-Kofta Baghali Polo – Chicken Meatballs with Broad beans and Rice

This recipe is something a little different. Layers of rice, broad beans, chopped garlic chives and small chicken meatballs, with tarragon.

A friend recently gave me a huge bunch of fresh tarragon which inspired this recipe. Tarragon and chicken go together really well, and Baghali Polo is a firm favorite in our family. Garlic chives grows really well in our garden and lends itself well to the this layer Persian rice.

You can replace the chicken mince for turkey mince for a variations, and it works equally well with white basmati rice as well as yellow basmati rice. We prefer the yellow basmati rice for our default rice, and tend to use the white basmati rice when we have guests.

Things to note when cooking Chicken Meatballs with Broad beans and Rice

The Chicken Meatballs

Using a food processor is so much easier for the meatballs. Process the onions, tarragon, parsley, salt pepper, turmeric and cumin together before adding the chicken mince.

Add in the chicken mince and gently pulse the mixture together until well mixed. The form them into small balls, these need to be quite small, about large marble. The smaller the better.

When frying the meat balls, heat some oil in a no stick frying pan. I always use Olive Oil. When the pan is hot, gently add in the check meatballs. Leave them to cook for a few minutes, than gently turn them. When the outside of the meatballs are browned, them add a about 1/2 cup water, and put on the lid of the frying pan while preparing the rice.

Preparing the Rice

Cook the rice as you would for a normal Persian Polo rice. You can see the instructions on how to do this on the Polo rice recipe.

Putting it all together

Start with a liberal layer of oil in the bottom of you rice cooker, and lay out slices of potato around the bottom of the pan.

Carefully add a layer of rice and sprinkle with powdered saffron and chopped fresh garlic chives.

Layer the chicken meatballs and the broad beans, and repeat until all the rice is used. Be careful not to squash it down, and the layers need to be loosely added.

The next step is to wrap a tea towel around the lid of the rice cooker and fit firmly. The tea towel retains the moisture and is an important requirement to form good crispy Tahdig.

Turn out onto a serving dish, and enjoy with a side of thickened yogurt and shirazi salad.