Every ingredient in this throw-together side plays its part beautifully: crispy leftover basmati; earthy fried mustard seeds and curry leaves; mildly sweet, almost-caramelized onions; crunchy peanuts; and lingering heat from chiles. Altogether, it’s a glorious study in balance.
Excerpted from Indian-ish © 2019 by Priya Krishna with Ritu Krishna. Photography © 2019 by Mackenzie Kelley. Reproduced by permission of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. All rights reserved.
Recipe information
Yield
4 servings
Ingredients
3
2
1
½
1
10
1
1
2
2
Preparation
Step 1
Combine rice, lime juice, and salt in a large bowl; set aside.
Step 2
Heat ¼ cup ghee in a shallow medium pan over medium. Once ghee melts (or oil begins to shimmer), add mustard seeds. As soon as they begin to pop and dance around in the ghee, which should be within seconds, remove pan from heat. Add curry leaves, making sure they get fully coated in ghee (there may be more popping and splattering, and that’s okay!). The leaves should immediately crisp up in the residual heat.
Step 3
Return pan to medium-low heat and add peanuts. Cook, stirring, until peanuts turn a medium shade of brown and become fragrant, 5–8 minutes. Pour peanut mixture over reserved rice mixture and toss gently to incorporate.
Step 4
Heat remaining ¼ cup ghee in same pan over medium. Once ghee melts (or oil begins to shimmer), add onion and chiles, spreading in an even layer, and cook, stirring occasionally, until onion is lightly browned and starting to caramelize, 5–7 minutes. Stir onion mixture into rice. Taste and add more salt and lime juice, if needed. Garnish with cilantro before serving.
Leave a Review
Reviews (16)
Back to TopI love this recipe. As written above, however, the list of ingredients does not include ghee! Might be an editing issue! Bon Appetit lost a good one in Priya!
Alice Madden
Asheville NC
6/11/2023
This is my favorite food in the whole world! I make it all the time.
Anonymous
PNW
3/25/2023
This is a glorious rice dish. It’s so fresh tasting with curry leaves, lime and fresh peanuts. We love this by itself or with lamb, fish, salad or chicken. Fabulous.
Barb Lundgren
Colleyville, TX
1/1/2022
Firstly, to answer the question about curry leaves - leaves that are dried whole can be substituted for fresh (in my experience). If they are ground, then use much less and add just at the end of frying. my family just freezes them (I chuck the whole bag in the freezer) and uses them as needed. Second, I just made this, but with slivered almonds as we had no peanuts. Really easy, though I cooked the onions until they were really brown (almost as dark as for biryani) and threw the rice into the skillet with the onions at the end to crisp it up a bit. Just seemed logical to me. I might actually reverse the process if I make it again, cooking the onion and chili, adding the rice to the skillet, removing it and then doing the tarka with mustard seed, curry leaves and nuts at the end. I also cut down on the ghee a bit - probably 1/3 cup overall. I would reduce it a bit more next time, as I found so much ghee for only 3 cups of rice dulled the flavour a bit.
Rachel
Canada
4/1/2021
Question - what happens if you use dried curry leaves? And a corollary - how long do fresh ones last?
JTK DC
Washington, DC
1/15/2021
Simple and really delicious – a definite crowdpleaser. Putting this into the regular rotation!
Anonymous
4/18/2020
Background: I started watching Test Kitchen on Pluto and truly appreciate your chefs, show and recipes. I’ll give credit due on other recipes on subsequent reviews. I learned to cook and bake from my mother and grandmother until I became a single father and began cooking for my son and I from sheer embarrassment telling friends I was buying prepared and instant foods for us, that evolved into cooking everything from scratch- the past 22 years. I write today because since watching Chile Peanut Rice made, I’ve made it nearly a dozen times now. Recently replacing with Thai peppers and quinoa. I LOVE this dish. Thank you for your work.
RGLancaster
Charlotte, North Carolina
3/13/2020