Raisin Rice Stuffed Chicken

Delicious. I made too much of the rice mixture so I just put the extra rice in the bottom of the pan, under the chicken. The rice absorbed the juices from the chicken and tasted excellent.

This is an absoloutely excellent Persian recipe... just what I was looking for! It was a hit at Thanksgiving with everyone, Persian or not. My babajon (dad) was especially happy and proud to see me cook my first pot of good basmati rice! The rice turned a beautiful color from the tumeric and the raisins plump so nicely. We stuffed our turkey with it! Merci jonam, Nasi.

This dish was very yummy. The flavors mixed together very nicely to make it an enjoyable dish to eat. Like others, I substituted ginger for the tumeric and it tasted just as good. I didn't make it with the chicken, but I'm sure that would've made it even better. Some of the others that tasted it said a little bit more flavor would be better- maybe improvise a little and add some of your favorite spices that would go with the main taste. Very delicious overall!!

This was delicious. I also added lentils because I had an abundance of them. I also added more rice because the chicken was so juicy. I paired it with a wilted spinach salad with a balsamic dressing which came up on side dish suggestion list. Comforting, sweet and salty ... yet you don't really notice the raisins.

I did not have the turmeric flavoring, but it was still yummy!

the rice is a little more bland than expected. But to help, we used the chicken drippings on the rice that was left over. It was really good then.

It was my first try at roasting chicken in my new oven. Did not have ground tumeric at home, so I used freshly minced ginger. The chicken was perfect.

This review is on the stuffing only, as I used the stuffing in a turkey for Christmas dinner. I think I am a bread stuffing kind of gal through and through. But my mother-in-law has celiac's and cannot eat bread stuffing, or turkey roasted with bread stuffing. My family doesn't go for raisins in stuffing, so I swapped that for two stalks of celery, chopped, and added a small can of mushroom stems and pieces just on a whim. I didn't have turmeric in the house. I used parsley instead. I made the stuffing last night, and put it in a ziploc bag in the refrigerator over night before stuffing into the turkey this morning. When I first tasted it this morning, I thought it tasted too oniony. I stuffed about half of what I made (tripled the stuffing recipe) into the turkey, which had butter, garlic powder, thyme, savory, parsley, rosemary, crushed bay leaves, and thyme rubbed into the inside cavity. The part that was stuffed was about 10 times better than the unstuffed portion that just got baked with a little turkey stock added for flavor. I served the portion that got stuffed, saving the unstuffed portion for if we needed more. What I served got mostly eaten, and was better covered in turkey gravy and eaten with cranberry sauce. But the rice just didn't quite do it for me. I think I may try a different rice stuffing in the future to see if I can find one I like better for the times when I do have to make it for my mother-in-law.

Great basic recipe that you can build on or improvise with! I didn't have raisins, so I used chopped up dried apricots, which don't plump up but they do become soft and delicious! I also threw in some pine nuts with the onions and apricots, and since we like more fragrant and spicy foods I added lots of ground cumin and a bit of chilli powder as a rub for the chicken. Oh and I also used brown rice instead of white and i made quite a bit of the rice mixture and put it in the pan under and around the chicken...it went crispy on the edges and gave the dish more texture... So much more wholesome and yummy this dish turned out! Next time I'll try this with dried cranberries and pistachios!

Like others, not having Turmeric on hand, I modified the recipe. I only cooked one chicken. As well, the stuffing was the sauted onion and GOLDEN raisins with 1 tbsp of GINGER, 1 tsp of GARLIC POWDER and 1 tbsp of CURRY. I also placed the remaining rice mixture around the chicken as it cooked. As for cook time, I cooked it at 400*F for 13 minutes, then down to 350*F for 1hr 10min. Then I took it out and covered it in a foil tent for 15 minutes prior to carving and serving. Mouth watering moisture and the flavour was amazing.

Perhaps my mistake was to be the only person in the entire history of this website to follow the actual recipe as-provided. But I found this to be a rather bland meal.

this tasted fantastic and the aroma filled the house! Great recipe as a base. I tweaked this recipe to my taste and used dried cranberries instead of raisins, brown rice instead of white and added ginger. This turns out wonderfully every time.

Great recipe needed extra spices but good as is also. Rice mixture was delicious especially with the chicken drippings.Thanks for sharing!

OK. Was a little oily for our taste. Also needed more spices (too bland)

This recipe was very good for my family and I thank you.

What a terrific recipe! Very easy to prepare and added an exotic touch to a simple night at home. My husband and I loved it! I would not recommend substituting the turmeric however -- Turmeric is a subtle but distinct flavour and it really went a long way in authenticating this dish. I seasoned the chicken with more than just pepper however. A bit of pepper, oregon, basil and especially paprika on and under the skin gave the chicken that tiny extra boost.

love it. everytime i have a dinner party and i dont serve this item my guests are sad haha. I like to add about 1/3 cup of dried cranberries to the rasins, YUM! As for the left over rice, when im ready to serve the chickens, I add the left over rice to the serving tray. I dont bake the leftover rice because it burns.

I made one chicken for my wife and mother-in-law. I’m happy to say there were NO leftovers! They both seemed to really enjoy this dish, as did I. I think we’ll be eating it again!

Nice dish for something different with chicken. The chicken itself did not taste that different, but it was nice and moist and the stuffing was really good.

De-boned the chicken and added apple and pineapple cubes to the rice. It turned out fantastic.

My roommate prepared this and I thought it was excellent. The only adjustments we made was to season the chicken well with dried seasonings such as rosemary, garlic powder, onion powder, dill (surprisingly great on it), and oregano. We knew this would change the authenticity of the recipe but I like my roasted chicken well seasoned. We followed the rice portion of the recipe as stated but used brown rice instead. The rice added wonderful flavor to the bird. I would highly recommend it.

easy and simple. i did mine with brown rice and it came out excellent. two thumbs up!

Will Never make this again.bland.o flavor

Just was not impressed with the flavor.

A very good recipe. Gave it only 4*s because I modified it a lot. Combined this recipe with the Spicy Rapid Roast Chicken (from this site). I rubbed that paste on the chiken and filled it with the rice stuffing from this recipe. I sauted two minced garlic before adding the onion to oil. I omitted raisins and instead used 2 stalks of celery finely chopped. I also used a cube of chicken stock powder. Used basmati rice. Soaked the chicken in brine for an hour and half in the 'fridge before rubbing the paste and stuffing. Baked for an hour and a half. It came out really moist and soft. The taste was amazing and the stuffing tasted great..

I've made this twice, & both times it was delicious. Since I only cooked one chicken, I placed the extra rice in a dish, covered w/ foil, & baked. Recommend it both ways, as stuffing or baked.

i think this recipe was great

It was a good meal for something different. Kick up the spices for more flavor. I added more tumeric and onion powder. We ate it all.

Delicious. Easy. Looks fabulous. Followed directions exactly to see if it was worth doing again with changes. No changes required. Wonderful stuffing and rice dish.

This was my first time to roast whole chickens. I used the Citrus Brine also on allrecipes.com and I think the chicken and stuffing turned out great! My husband, who is hard to please, also liked the chicken and rice (he's not a raisin fan, so he didn't eat those). I also used ginger instead of tumeric as another reviewer suggested.

Exotic and delicious! A number of reviewers complained that the chicken itself was a bit bland, so I sprinkled the outside not just with pepper, but also with granulated garlic and cumin. With that addition it was fabulous. I also used brown rice, and under a tablespoon of oil. I found it odd that some people substituted the turmeric with other spice; the turmeric is what makes the dish. Go out and get some, it's great on roast chicken, roasted potatoes, and lots of other dishes.

This recipe was very good. The only change I made was to cut the raisins by half because my husband is not a big fan of too many raisins in his rice dish. Other than that I followed the recipe. We both loved it!

This was great! Since we didn't have raisins, I subbed cherry flavored cranberries, and surprisingly- It was delicious! I was nervous about the cherry flavouring...

I didn't make any changes to this recipe and it turned out wonderful. The flavors are subtle but very nice.

Nice, moist chicken. Mine took longer to cook than stated in the directions. Substituted dried cranberries for the raisins in the stuffing (knew the kids would turn their noses up at the raisins) and everyone like it.

Thanks so much for this recipe! I made a few changes to suit our taste and it was a big hit. I sauteed the onion with a finely grated carrot and about 1/2 c. of finely grated celery root (celery is not readily available here in Turkey.)Instead of 1 cup of raisins I used a handful (maybe 1/3 c.) of currants and added a pinch of cinnamon. I added uncooked rice and water, using less water than called for so that the rice would not be completely cooked and would absorb chicken drippings in the oven without becoming mushy. A few minutes before it was completely cooked, I removed it from heat and removed the lid so the rice could cool. When cooled, I stuffed the chicken. I followed the suggestion of one of the reviewers and put the chicken on a bed of rice but the rice burned and stuck to the bottom of the chicken so it was mostly inedible. The amounts were too generous for a 5 lb. chicken so after stuffing, I filled a small casserole dish with the remaining rice to eat with leftover chicken later in the week. The turmeric added a wonderfully rich color and exotic flavor which really went well with the plain roast chicken. I will definately be making this rice again!

I had already winged (no pun intended) my 1st rice stuffing mixture using a white & wild rice combo, chopped prunes & sunflower seeds as they were on hand. I hadn't decided on a seasoning tho...thanks for the inspiration, I went with turmeric. I'll have to update with the result though...the beast is still in the oven.

We loved this. I made it on a cold fall day and the aroma and beautiful color made it a great addition to the table even before we started to eat. We really enjoyed the flavor and it was a nice deviation from the usual bread stuffing.