There’s two different parts to the recipe, which are the chicken and the rice. Since rice in mandi is bit more complicated than just boiling some rice and calling it a day, I’m going to explain how to make both of these things separately in their own little sections. That way, everything won’t be one big jumbled mess and the recipe will be easier to understand. Let’s start with the chicken part.

Chicken Prep

1. Combine Main Ingredients: Get a large pot in which you can put most of your major ingredients. In this pot, add about 5 cups of water because you’ll need it to soak the other ingredients. Start by dumping 3-4 small pieces of cinnamon inside the water, followed by 3-4 small pieces of cardamom. Similarly, add the same amount of dried cloves and small bay leaves (3-4). Follow these ingredients up with as much salt as you prefer in your recipes and 1 onion. Cut that onion into 4 equally large pieces. Finally, once everything is in the water, end this step by putting 4 chicken pieces inside. Once you do that, you can just cover the large pot and let the water come to a boil.
2. Remove and Store Chicken: Once you make sure that the mixture has come to a boil, remove the chicken pieces from inside and set them aside. Make sure that they’re covered and stay fresh until you need them again.
3. Mix Stock, Spices and Food Coloring: Get a bowl and add 4 tablespoons of chicken stock to it. In this same bowl, add 1 teaspoon of salt and 2 teaspoons of black pepper for taste. Follow all of this up with a bit of red food coloring that’s important for the presentation and look of the chicken mandi. Lastly, just add ½ teaspoon of oil and mix everything together.
4. Apply Mixture to Chicken: After you’re done with the red dyed mixture, get the small bowl and the pieces of chicken you set aside earlier. Coat these pieces with the mixture until they’re fully covered on every spot.
5. Bake the Chicken: After the chicken is coated and ready, you can put it in the oven for baking. You can do this at 200 degrees Celsius for about 20 minutes. Keep looking into the oven to make sure the chicken isn’t getting burned on any side during this time. While you wait, you can focus on the rice part of the recipe!

Rice Prep

1. Soak Some Rice: Soaking rice takes a bit of time, which is why you should do that before focusing on other parts of the rice preparation. Just get ½ KG of rice and soak it in a large pot of water. 20-30 minutes should suffice for this, and you can work on other things in the meantime.
2. Fry Some Onions: Get a large pot and put just 3 tablespoons of oil inside of it. Once the oil is heated up and ready for use, you can add 1 finely chopped onion to the pot. Sauté the onion for as long as it takes to notice a discernable change in color. Make sure to stir while you wait, because onions can burn easily if left unattended for too long.
3. Add Other Ingredients: Once the onions have changed color, you can start adding other ingredients to the pot to fry alongside them. This includes 4-5 cloves of garlic for starters. You also need to add 3-4 bay leaves, 5-6 pieces of cardamom, 5-6 pieces of dried cloves, and 4 cups of chicken stock, ‘cause all of these are important in their own way for the flavor of the mandi. Once everything is inside, give it a nice little mix and cover the pot for it to ready up.
4. Add Soaked Rice: By the time you do all of this, the rice should be soaked and ready for use. So, dump them all into the pot with the other ingredients and stir well so they mix with everything. You’ll want the rice to be completely covered by the other ingredients so that they absorb the taste well. Cover and cook the mixture for 7-8 minutes after doing this.
5. Cover With Aluminum and Cook: When it’s done cooking for 7-8 minutes like detailed in the last step, you can remove the covering and mix the ingredients a little again. After that, cover the pot once more, but this time with aluminum foil. Then, place the lid over the foil and let the rice cook for 15 minutes on low heat with all the other ingredients.
6. Add Food Coloring and Cook: Lastly, you need to add just 3-6 spoonfuls of food coloring to the rice, depending on just how much you want. Don’t stir this like you did with the other ingredients though, regardless of how many spoonfuls you add. Let it sit on top just the way you dumped it on the rice, and cover the pot again so everything can cook for 3 minutes. Once you do this, the rice will be ready!

Bringing it All Together

1. Combine Rice and Chicken: Now the only step left is to combine both the chicken and rice to make it a proper Arabic chicken mandi. For that, you’ll first need to carefully lay out and shape the rice on a large plate, just the way you want it to look. Then, carefully dump the chicken you baked earlier all across the rice, so that every bit of it is covered.
2. Enjoy the Food!: This recipe is a long one, and if you’ve done everything I’ve said so far, you’ve been up to some hard work. So, settle down now and enjoy the food you worked so hard to prepare! If you followed my instructions, I’m sure you’re going to be really happy with what you cooked up for yourself.