Afghanistan: Qabili Pilau

The Dish: Qabili Pilau is a basmati rice dish.  Basmati rice is long, dark, rice.  It can be made with any meat (mainly lamb, beef, or chicken), so I used chicken.
The Country: Afghanistan is a country whose food is deliciously made with wheat and rice.  They also produce a lot of grapes... and what comes from grapes? RAISINS.  What was in my dish tonight? RAISINS. I love raisins.

Inflated raisins-it was hard to get a picture because as soon as I removed them from the pan, they shrank again.

Ingredients:
1 large onion
A pound of chicken (cut into pieces)
Cinnamon
Cumin
Salt
Three carrots
1 cup of raisins
2 cups of basmati rice

carrots....

Procedure:
Dice the onion and sautée it in 1/4 cup oil.  When it is light brown (about 10 minutes), add the pieces of chicken.
When the chicken is cooked (it's no longer raw...) add two cups of water, 1 tsp salt, 1 tsp cumin, and 1 tsp cinnamon.  Cover and simmer until the meat is tender (for me this took about 40 minutes, though the original recipe said it would take an hour). 
While the chicken is simmering, cut three carrots into match sized slivers.  Sautée them in 1/4 cup oil until they have yellowed a bit.
Take the carrots out of the oil, and place 1 cup of raisins in the leftover oil.  They will inflate (WHICH IS SO COOL), and once they do, take them out and place them in a bowl with the carrots.
When the chicken is done simmering, take it, and the onions, out of the juice and put it with the carrots and raisins.
Boil 2 cups of water.
Put the basmati rice into the leftover juice from the simmering chicken. Add the boiled water and 1 tsp salt.  Stir it over high heat until all of the water has been absorbed/evaporated.
Put the rice with the chicken, onions, carrots, and raisins.
Bake the full mixture in the oven at 300° for half an hour (if your oven is less efficient it may take up to an hour).

THE FINAL PRODUCT

 Notes: This is the best tasting entree I've ever cooked. Notice that I said "tasting." The texture was a bit off- the rice must have hardened when I baked it... so the whole thing was a bit crunchy- it tasted great though.  The best part was the inflatable raisins. Seriously, put some raisins in a pan with oil and watch them.
Rating (out of five): 3.25