Afghan Style Rice

Source

My mother is from Afghanistan and we eat variations of this rice probably three times every week. One consistent thing with every variation is the fact that you have to add one tablespoon of salt to the rice for every cup of rice, which really adds a lot to the flavour.
Also if the carrots or raisins aren’t your cup of tea, it’s perfectly fine to not add them, there will still be a lot of flavour. But still, don’t forget the salt!
This looks like a simplified version of Kabuli Pulao. Not a bad thing, the original asks for a lot more of ingredients and steps, but different.
Some variations based on the original recipe:
* Instead of water, use meat broth – like the one you used to cook the meat you’re serving it with. The original asks for lamb, but chicken looks fine.
* Spices/seasonings: onion, garlic, cloves, cinnamon, cardamom, cumin… pick the ones you like but, if using cumin, go easy with it (it overpowers everything else).
* Chopped almonds so it gets crunchier.
This is a great visual example of *deglazing*
You can add a little bit of Saffron to bring aroma and color to the rice. Saffron flakes 4-5 dipped in 1 tbsp of milk added in the last 5 min of cooking
Here’s the original source video recipe: