Albaloo Polo is a Sour Cherry Rice made with pistachios, slivered almonds, and chicken. It's a beautiful and majestic Persian dish that has an unbeatable blend of flavors.
My grandma taught me to make this recipe with chicken, and you will sometimes see it with ground beef or meatballs. If you want to make it vegetarian-friendly, it's just as incredible without any meat.
Why this Recipe Works
Sour cherries are the hero of this dish and impart phenomenal flavor to it. This recipe is versatile as it can use fresh or frozen sour cherries. If you can't find sour cherries, tart, bitter, or pie cherries will also work.
This recipe uses the tried and true method of steaming rice, yielding perfectly cooked rice every time. The ingredients are steamed between layers of rice during the steaming process, releasing their flavor and aroma throughout the dish.
This dish keeps on giving the gift of tasty flavor with chicken cooked in simple aromatics before adding it to the rice.
The nuts are toasted before adding them to the rice, allowing them to release even more flavors and hold onto more of their crunch after they are steamed.
And bonus: my grandma taught me to make this recipe with oil instead of butter, making this recipe dairy-free.
Ingredients & Substitutions
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sour cherries - This recipe works best with fresh sour cherries. If you can't find them or they're out of season, you can also use frozen sour cherries, pie cherries, tart cherries, or bitter cherries. If using frozen, make sure they are completely defrosted before using them.
Note: Do not use the sour cherries in the sour cherry preserves or syrup. The cherries in this recipe are meant to be sour, and the sweetness of the syrup cherries will overwhelm the dish with sweetness.
sour cherry syrup - you can make your own sour cherry syrup or purchase it at the store. The brand I usually buy is K.Kloni and is from Greece.
basmati rice - This recipe uses white long-grain basmati rice. Basmati rice is different than white rice in both nutritional make-up and in the way it expands while cooking.
oil - Any flavorless oil should work in this recipe, but I usually use one of the following: canola, vegetable, avocado seed, sunflower seed, or safflower oil.
saffron - Optional, but recommended. There is a lot of fake saffron out there and real saffron can be expensive. You can tell it's real by rubbing it between your fingers and if it stains them yellow, it's real.
How to Make this Recipe
This is a recipe in three parts: Start by making the sour cherry syrup if you don't already have it made, then the chicken, and finally the rice. If you are using sour cherry preserves in syrup, skip ahead to the chicken step.
Sour Cherry Syrup
You can purchase sour cherry preserves in syrup as a shortcut for the syrup, but not for the cherries. I usually make the syrup the day before.
Pit 1 pound of sour cherries, add them to a pot with 2 cups of water and 1 pound of sugar. Turn the heat to low and stir until the sugar is dissolved.
Get the detailed Sour Cherry Syrup recipe with photos here!
Simmer for 20 minutes until the cherries are soft. Take the cherries out of the syrup, and simmer to reduce the syrup down until it sticks to the back of your spoon. Then, add the cherries back in and bring to a boil. Then turn it off.
Steam the Chicken
In the meantime, add the chicken to a pot with 2 quartered onions, 2 teaspoons of salt, and 1 teaspoon of pepper or peppercorns. Add just enough water to cover the chicken, bring to a boil, lower to a light simmer, and simmer for about 1 hour, until fully cooked through.
Note: Do not boil the chicken. You want to reduce the water to a simmer as soon as possible. Boiling the chicken will yield tough and dry meat.
Once cooked, debone the chicken. It should fall off the bone. Reserve ½ cup of the broth for this recipe, and the rest can be used in another recipe or frozen.
Cook the Rice
Bring about ⅔ of a pot of water to boil with 3 tablespoons of salt. This may sound like a lot of water, but we will be draining out the water and testing it for flavor later.
In the meantime, wash your rice 3-5 times with cold to lukewarm water until the water runs clear. Add the rice to the water and gently stir. Bring the water back to a boil, then remove the lid to keep it from overflowing.
Get the detailed instructions on how to steam rice with photos here!
When the rice is al dente, strain it into a colander. Take care not to overcook it! Taste the rice, and if it tastes salty, rinse it with cold water. Shake the colander to remove as much water as possible.
Bring the Albaloo Polo together
Add ¼ cup of oil to a pot and heat the oil over medium heat. Then layer the albaloo polo bah morg. Set aside 1-2 tablespoons of each of the toasted nuts.
Bottom Layers:
- ⅓ of the drained rice
- 3 tablespoons of sour cherry syrup
- ½ of the chicken pieces
- ½ cup of toasted slivered almonds
Middle Layers:
- ⅓ of the rice
- 3 tablespoons of sour cherry syrup
- The rest of the chicken pieces
- ½ cup of toasted slivered almonds
Top Layers:
- 1 cup of sour cherries (do not use the ones from the syrup)
- The rest of the rice
- ½ cup of pistachios
Put the pot on high heat, cover, and look for steam to start to collect on the inside of the lid. Once it does, pour in a half cup of strained chicken broth.
Next, add the final 3 tablespoons of sour cherry syrup over the top of the rice.
Form the rice into a dome by pressing it away from the edges of the pot. Using the stick/stem of a kitchen utensil, make 6 deep holes in the rice, then put the lid back on. After 10 minutes, turn the heat down to low heat.
Cook the whole dish over low heat for 1 hour.
If you are adding the recommended saffron, grind the saffron using a pestle and mortar. Then, steep it in 2 tablespoons of hot water while the albaloo polo is cooking. When the rice has finished cooking, pour the steeped saffron and water over the top of the rice.
Mix the whole dish together by fluffing it with two forks. Garnish with the pistachios as the very last step. Serve with herbs and vegetables on the side. Noushijan!
FAQs
Albaloo translates from Farsi to English as sour cherry.
Sour cherries are tart, tangy, and slightly sweet. They have a distinct, unique sour-sweet flavor and are just as delicious in desserts as in savory dishes like Albaloo Polo.
Sour cherries are only in season for a very short time in the summer, in the month of June and July.
Sour cherry syrup can be used in mocktails, cocktails, salad dressings, marinades, on waffles and pancakes, or poured over ice cream or faloodeh.
If you want perfectly fluffy rice that isn't mushy, the secret step is to wash your rice before you cook it. It not only cleans your rice, but it removes the excess starch on the rice kernels, which prevents any clumpiness later on in the process and allows your rice to separate and fluff up nicely.
Related Recipes
If you're looking for more incredible Persian recipes that are made with rice, you're in the right place! Here are some recipes you'll love:
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Albaloo Polo bah Morg - Sour Cherry Rice with Chicken
Ingredients
Sour Cherry Syrup
- 1 lb. sour cherries fresh or frozen and defrosted
- 2 cups water
- 1 lb. sugar granulated or cane
Chicken
- 4 lb. whole chicken
- 2 teaspoon sea salt
- 1 teaspoon pepper or peppercorns
- 2 yellow onions quartered, skins OK
- water
Rice
- 2 cups basmati rice
- 3 tablespoon sea salt
- water
Albaloo Polo
- ¼ cup oil flavorless, like canola or vegetable
- 9 tablespoon sour cherry syrup
- 1 cup slivered almonds toasted
- ½ cup shelled pistachios toasted
- 1 cup sour cherries fresh or frozen and defrosted
- ½ cup chicken broth from poaching the chicken
- 2 pinches saffron optional but recommended, steeped in 2 tablespoons of hot water
Instructions
Sour Cherry Syrup
- Pit 1 pound of sour cherries, add them to a pot with 2 cups of water and 1 pound of sugar. Turn the heat to low and stir until the sugar is dissolved.
- Simmer for 20 minutes until the cherries are soft. Take the cherries out of the syrup, and simmer to reduce the syrup down until it sticks to the back of your spoon. Then, add the cherries back in and bring to a boil. Then turn it off.
Steam the Chicken
- In the meantime, add the chicken to a pot with 2 quartered onions, 2 teaspoons of salt, and 1 teaspoon of pepper or peppercorns.
- Add just enough water to cover the chicken, bring to a boil, lower to a light simmer, and simmer for about 1 hour, until fully cooked through.
Cook the Rice
- Bring about ⅔ of a pot of water to boil with 3 tablespoons of salt.
- In the meantime, wash rice 3-5 times with cold to lukewarm water until water runs clear.
- Add rice to water and gently stir. Bring water back to a boil, then remove the lid to keep it from overflowing. When the rice is al dente, strain it into a colander.
- Taste rice – if it tastes salty, rinse it with cold water. Shake the colander to remove as much water as possible.
Bringing the Albaloo Polo together
- Add ¼ cup of oil to a pot and heat oil over medium heat. Then layer the albaloo polo bah morg. Set aside 1-2 tablespoons of each of the toasted nuts.
- Bottom Layers: ⅓ of the drained rice, then 3 tablespoons of sour cherry syrup, then ½ of the chicken pieces, then ½ cup of toasted slivered almonds.
- Middle Layers: ⅓ of the rice, then 3 tablespoons of sour cherry syrup, then the rest of the chicken pieces, then ½ cup of toasted slivered almonds.
- Top Layers: 1 cup of sour cherries, the rest of the rice, then ½ cup of pistachios.
- Put the pot on high heat, cover, and look for steam to start to collect on the inside of the lid. Once it does, pour in a half cup of strained chicken broth.
- Next, add the final 3 tablespoons of sour cherry syrup over the top of the rice.Form the rice into a dome by pressing it away from the edges of the pot. Using the stick/stem of a kitchen utensil, make 6 deep holes in the rice, then put the lid back on. After 10 minutes, turn the heat down to low heat.
- Cook the whole dish over low heat for 1 hour.
- If you are adding the recommended saffron, grind the saffron using a pestle and mortar. Then, steep it in 2 tablespoons of hot water while the albaloo polo is cooking. When the rice has finished cooking, pour the steeped saffron and water over the top of the rice.
- Mix the whole dish together by fluffing it with two forks. Garnish with the extra toasted pistachios and almonds as the very last step. Noushijan!
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