Turkish food with saffron Recipe

Turkish food with saffron Recipe is a broad title for a very specific dish: a pastry-covered rice pilaf filled with chicken, onion, walnuts, barberries and potatoes. Turned out of its baking dish, it arrives at the table as a crisp golden shell with fragrant saffron rice inside.

The technique is related to Turkish perde pilavı, or curtain pilaf. This Rowhani version is an adaptation rather than a strict regional formula. It keeps the original page’s barberries, walnuts and fried potatoes, while explaining the pastry and filling clearly enough to make at home.

What Turkish Dish Is This?

Perde pilavı encloses seasoned rice and chicken beneath a thin dough “curtain.” The official Türkiye Culture Portal recipe for Siirt perde pilavı uses a well-greased pot, dough, chicken, rice and nuts. Regional and family versions differ in their spice and fruit mixtures.

Saffron also has a documented place in Turkish cuisine beyond this pilaf. The Culture Portal’s Safranlı Zerde, for example, infuses saffron before adding it to a rice-based dessert. Here it perfumes a savoury chicken pilaf.

Turkish Food with Saffron Recipe: Rowhani Curtain Pilaf

Serves: 6
Preparation: 40 minutes, plus 30 minutes resting
Baking: 50–60 minutes

For the pastry

• 150 g plain flour, plus more for rolling
• 1/2 teaspoon fine salt
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 70–90 ml lukewarm water
• Soft butter or olive oil, for greasing the dish

For the filling

• 3 cups cooked long-grain rice, cooled
• 250 g cooked chicken, shredded or cut into small pieces
• 2 medium potatoes, cut into 1 cm cubes
• 1 medium onion, finely chopped
• 1 tablespoon dried barberries, rinsed and drained
• 50 g walnuts, roughly chopped
• 1 tablespoon strong saffron infusion
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground allspice, optional
• 1/2 teaspoon fine salt, adjusted to the seasoning of the rice and chicken
• 2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
• 1/2 cup cooked peas, optional

Make and Rest the Dough

Mix the flour and salt in a bowl. Add the olive oil and 70 ml water, then stir until a rough dough forms. Add the remaining water a teaspoon at a time only if dry flour remains.

Knead for five minutes, until smooth. The dough should feel firm but flexible and should not cling to your hands. Cover it and leave it at room temperature for 30 minutes. Resting relaxes the dough so it can be rolled thinly without springing back.

Prepare the Saffron Chicken and Rice Filling

Cook the rice in chicken stock or lightly salted water, then spread it on a tray to cool. Three cups in this recipe means three cups of cooked rice; using three cups raw would overwhelm the pastry and the 250 g chicken.

Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a wide pan. Fry the potato cubes over medium-high heat until browned and nearly tender, then transfer them to a plate. Add the remaining oil and cook the onion for 7–8 minutes, until soft and lightly golden.

Add the chicken, barberries, walnuts, black pepper, cinnamon and allspice. Stir for two minutes, then fold in the potato and optional peas. Remove the pan from the heat and add the saffron infusion. Let the mixture cool before combining it gently with the rice.

A concentrated infusion flavours the filling without making it wet. If needed, use the grinding and steeping method in our guide to brewing saffron.

Line, Fill and Close the Dish

1. Heat the oven to 180°C/350°F. Generously grease the base and sides of a 20 cm/8-inch deep ovenproof dish.
2. Roll the rested dough into a thin circle large enough to line the dish with at least 5 cm hanging over the rim.
3. Ease the dough into the dish without stretching it. Press it into the base and sides, taking care not to tear the pastry.
4. Spoon in the cooled rice mixture and press only lightly. Packing it hard makes the finished pilaf dense.
5. Fold the overhanging dough over the rice. Pinch any gaps closed and brush the top lightly with oil or melted butter.

Bake and Turn Out

Bake for 50–60 minutes, until the pastry is evenly golden and pulls slightly from the side of the dish. The centre of this cooked-chicken filling should be steaming hot; reheated chicken and rice should reach 165°F/74°C under the USDA safe-temperature guidance.

Rest the pilaf for 10 minutes. Run a thin knife around the edge, place a serving plate over the dish and invert both together in one confident movement. Lift away the dish and cut the pastry shell into wedges at the table.

Optional Orange Pan Sauce

The old recipe notes mentioned an orange-flavoured sauce served alongside. For a restrained version, simmer 120 ml chicken stock with 2 tablespoons fresh orange juice for five minutes. Add any browned onion left in the pan, taste for salt and serve the sauce separately so the pastry stays crisp.

How to Keep Curtain Pilaf Crisp

• Cool the rice and filling before they touch the dough.
• Dry the barberries after rinsing and avoid a wet chicken mixture.
• Grease every part of the baking dish so the shell releases.
• Roll the pastry thin, but not so thin that it tears.
• Let the baked pilaf rest before turning it out.

Storage

Rice and cooked chicken should not sit at room temperature for long. Refrigerate leftovers within two hours in shallow covered containers and use them within three to four days. Reheat wedges in a 180°C/350°F oven until the centre reaches 165°F/74°C; the oven restores the pastry better than a microwave.

This Turkish food with saffron Recipe works because its two parts are treated differently: the rice filling is fully cooked and cooled, while the thin pastry is baked until crisp. Barberry, walnut and saffron keep the Rowhani variation distinctive without disguising its connection to perde pilavı.