Popular Yemeni-Arabian Dish, Chicken Mandi cooked in the Instant Pot…
Mandi is one of the popular Arabian dishes enjoyed by everyone, it’s a perfect one-pot meal consisting of aromatic rice & soft meat cooked in a special spice mix. Traditionally Mandi is slow-cooked in an underground oven or tandoor for hours, which will make the meat extremely tender & fall apart. Mandi can be made with chicken, lamb, or goat/mutton. Whole goat mandi is served during special occasions in some Arab families, which will be a show-stopper dish.
I’ve tried chicken & lamb mandi a few times, the meat was melt in the mouth & the rice was incredibly aromatic & flavourful. Finally, I cooked chicken mandi in my kitchen. I cooked the mandi in the Instant Pot, pressure cooked & air-fried the chicken & pressure cooked the basmati rice separately in the Instant Pot as well. The highlight of Mandi is the special spice mix, I made the homemade spice mix with the roasted whole spices. Chicken Mandi turned out to be a huge hit, absolutely delicious.
If you have an Instant Pot, this is a must-try dish.
Cooking Video
Best Chicken Mandi | Instant Pot Recipe | Popular Arabian One Pot Dish
Prep time
Cook time
Total time
Author: Thasneen
Recipe type: Main
Cuisine: Middle Eastern
Serves: 5 people
Ingredients
For making the Mandi spice mix
- Coriander seeds- 2 tbsp
- Cumin seeds- 2 tsp
- Whole black peppercorns- 2 tsp
- Whole cardamom- 10
- Whole cloves- 5
- Whole cinnamon- 3 inch slice
- Mace- 1
- Turmeric powder- 1 tsp
- Paprika- 1 tsp
- Ground nutmeg- ¼ tsp
For Marinating the Chicken
- Chicken pieces, thigh-leg- 5 (use bone-in pieces)
- Lemon juice- 1 tsp/chicken
- Salt- ¼ tsp/piece
- Mandi spice mix- 3 tbsp
- Olive oil- 2 tbsp
For Pressure cooking Chicken
- Water- 2 cups
For Cooking Rice
- White basmati rice- 2½ cups (soaked & rinsed)
- Oilve oil- 2 tbsp
- Whole cardamom- 5
- Whole cloves- 3
- Whole cinnamon- 1 inch slice
- Dried bay leaves- 2
- Onion, sliced- 1
- Whole black peppercorns- ½ tsp
- Remaining Mandi spice mix
- Dried lime- 1
- Salt- 1½ tsp
- Chicken broth- 2¾ cups
For Garnishing
- Fried onions- 1 onion sliced thin fried in oil
- Roasted whole almonds or cashew nuts or pine nuts- 10
- Roasted raisins- 2 tbsp
- Saffron- ¼ tsp soaked in 2 tbsp water
Instructions
Making Mandi spice mix
- Place a pan over medium heat.
- Add coriander seeds, cumin seeds & whole peppercorns; roast for 3 minutes.
- After that, add whole cardamom, cloves, cinnamon & mace. Roast for 3 minutes.
- Do not add turmeric powder, paprika & ground mace while roasting.
- Remove the pan from the heat, let the roasted spices cool down.
- Transfer to a blender jar, add turmeric powder, paprika & ground nutmeg, grind to a fine powder.
- Keep aside the spice mix, this can be prepared ahead of time & stored in an air tight container.
Marinating the Chicken
- I've taken thigh-leg chicken pieces, you can take any chicken pieces, should be bone-in chicken; tastes better.
- Add lemon juice, salt, prepared mandi spice mix 3 tbsp, olive oil over the chicken.
- Rub over the chicken spread it evenly.
- Let marinate the chicken for an hour to 2 hours. Or marinate in the refrigerator overnight.
Preparing the garnishing
- Fry 1 onion thinly sliced in enough oil, fry till golden brown. Transfer to a paper towel, keep aside.
- In the same oil, roast whole almonds or cashew nuts or pine nuts, keep aside.
- In the same oil, roast raisins till plumped up, keep aside.
- Soak ¼ tsp saffron in 2 tbsp water for 5 minutes.
Pressure cooking the Chicken
- Turn on the Instant Pot. I've used Instant Pot Duo crisp + air fryer, 8 quarts.
- Add 2 cups of water to the stainless steel pot.
- Place the air fryer basket in the stainless steel pot.
- If using other models Instant Pot, place a steamer in the stainless steel pot.
- Grease the basket or steamer with olive oil.
- Place the marinated chicken on the basket.
- Close the pot with the Instant Pot lid.
- Select pressure cook setting, set time to 20 minutes, at high pressure.
- After 20 minutes of pressure cooking, let the pressure release naturally for 5 minutes & then do a quick pressure release.
- Open the lid, remove the basket with the pressure-cooked chicken from the stainless steel pot.
- There will be chicken broth in the stainless steel pot. Pour the broth into a bowl & keep aside will be using the broth for cooking rice.
- Transfer the pressure-cooked chicken from the air fryer basket to a plate.
Air frying chicken
- Place the stainless steel pot back to the main pot.
- Place the air fryer basket into the stainless steel pot.
- Place the broil tray into the air fryer basket.
- Note: If you don't have an Instant Pot air fryer, and got a separate air fryer, you can use that to air fry the chicken. Or shallow fry the chicken in a pan, or bake in the oven at 400 F or 200 C for 10 minutes.
- Grease the tray with olive oil.
- Place the pressure-cooked chicken on the tray. Do not crowd the chicken.
- Close with the Instant Pot air fryer lid.
- Select Air fry setting, set the temperature to 400 F for 10 minutes.
- Halfway through air frying after 6 minutes, you will see turn food message on the display. If you want you could turn over the chicken. Otherwise, just ignore the message, it will disappear after 10 seconds.
- After 10 minutes of air frying, open the lid.
- Place the lid on the protective pad, it's really hot.
- Wear a mitten, air fryer basket & stainless steel pot are very hot too.
- Take the air fryer basket out of the stainless steel pot.
- Cover the air-fried chicken with aluminum foil & keep aside.
Cooking Rice
- Soak 2½ cups white basmati rice in 3 cups water for 15 minutes.
- After 15 minutes, rinse the soaked rice taken in a strainer. Keep aside the rice.
- Turn on Saute setting at high temperature.
- Add olive oil, whole cardamom, cloves, cinnamon & bay leaves.
- Saute for a few seconds.
- Add onion, saute for a minute.
- Add whole peppercorns, remaining mandi spice mix, dried lime & salt.
- Add soaked rinsed basmati rice, saute for 2 minutes.
- Add the soaked saffron water.
- Add the reserved chicken broth, for 2½ cups rice add 2¾ cups chicken broth.
- Combine well.
- Close the pot with the lid.
- Select pressure cook setting. Set time to 6 minutes at high pressure.
- After 6 minutes of pressure cooking, let the pressure release naturally for 5 minutes & then do a quick pressure release.
- Open the lid, perfectly cooked fluffy & aromatic basmati rice.
Assembling Mandi
- Use a large wide bowl or platter.
- Layer the basmati rice.
- Garnish with fried onions, whole almonds, raisins & saffron water.
- Place the chicken over the rice.
- Place a few tomato slices & lemon wedges.
- Delicious Chicken mandi is ready to be served, enjoy.
