Stuffed pumpkin with chicken breast and rice (baked in the oven). Pilaf in pumpkin Pumpkin stuffed with chicken and rice with eggplant

Pumpkin can be used to prepare countless dishes - from soups, stir-fries and salads to delicious desserts and baked goods.
Stuffed pumpkin- it's always very elegant. The very contemplation of a bright beauty, adapted for edible utensils, is pleasing. Beauty! But the taste of chicken pilaf, when cooked inside a pumpkin, always turns out to be unusually interesting!

In preparing this pilaf, I used chicken, two types of rice, and seasonings - turmeric and aromatic garlic. The pumpkin in which this miracle was baked became very tender, giving the products a slightly sweet, even caramel-like flavor.

Garlic is added to this dish unpeeled, making its aroma especially subtle and delicate. But keep in mind that pilaf with chicken in pumpkin will take time: for the pumpkin to be thoroughly baked, it needs to spend almost 2 hours in the oven.

Cooking time: about 2.5 hours

Ingredients

(based on stuffing a pumpkin with a diameter of 20-21 cm):

• 2 chicken thighs
• 1 medium carrot
• 1 onion
• 1 third cup wild rice
• 2 thirds cups long grain rice
• 1 whole head of garlic and another 3-4 cloves
• ¼ teaspoon turmeric
• salt, pepper - to taste.

Preparation

First you need to boil the rice until half cooked. To do this, boil a liter and a half of water in a small saucepan, adding a little salt to it.
When the water boils, add rice to it.



Cook for 10-12 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Then drain the rice in a colander to drain all the water. Place it in a deep bowl.



Heat the frying pan.
Cut the meat from the chicken thighs and cut it into pieces about 2 cm in size. There is no need to remove the skin - it will fry and give the required amount of fat, which will make the dish juicier and more nutritious.
Fry the meat over high heat until it begins to turn golden.



Then transfer the meat to a bowl with rice. Try to remove the meat so that the fat remains in the pan - it will come in handy later.
Peel the onion, cut it into cubes and fry in the fat remaining after cooking the chicken.



Grate the carrots on a fine grater.



When the onion turns golden, add the carrots to the frying pan and fry over low heat for 2 minutes.



Place the finished fry in a bowl with rice and chicken. Mix the ingredients thoroughly, then season them with salt, pepper, turmeric, and also add unpeeled garlic cloves (don’t touch the whole head yet).



Now is the time to prepare the “shape” - the pumpkin. Carefully remove seeds and fibers from the fruit. It is most convenient to use a spoon and a small knife. If the pumpkin is not very stable, cut a small layer off the bottom to prevent it from flipping over while cooking in the oven.



Stuff the pumpkin with half the prepared pilaf, compacting it a little inside. There is no need to add water - the pumpkin will give the required amount of liquid.



Once the rice and chicken are in place, insert a head of garlic into the center, making it a little deeper.



Wrap the pumpkin in foil and place in the oven preheated to 200 degrees. Bake the dish for 1.5 hours, then remove the foil and increase the temperature to 220 degrees.
Bake pilaf with chicken in pumpkin for another 20-25 minutes.
Serve the finished dish directly in the pumpkin, adding your favorite herbs. Bon appetit!

Stuffed pumpkin with chicken breast and rice (baked in the oven)

Stuffed pumpkin with chicken and rice!

In winter, many housewives store beautiful, delicious pumpkins in their basements. Which are very tasty to stuff and bake with some hearty filling. And then surprise your family with a fabulous dish in a vegetable saucepan, because the dish is served right on the table in this magical pumpkin.

Usually, a baked whole pumpkin with filling makes a stunning impression on those gathered at the table and, undoubtedly, strengthens the authority of the hostess who fed them such an outlandish food. Although, in fact, baking pumpkin is quite simple. Let's try!

What you need to bake pumpkin

for 4-5 servings

• Medium sized pumpkin;
• Chicken breast – 1 piece;
• Short grain rice – 1/2 cup;
• Onion – 1 piece;
• Sweet pepper – 1 pod;
• Lemon – 1/2 piece (piece);
• Seasoning for pilaf – 1 teaspoon (or just pepper, you can take basil with oregano, a mixture of herbs de Provence, suneli hops);
• Vegetable oil – 1/3 cup;
• Salt.

How to bake stuffed pumpkin

Prepare the pumpkin filling

• Cut the chicken breast into small pieces. Season with salt, pepper, lemon juice and leave to marinate.

Preparing the breast for marinating for a delicious filling

• Rinse the rice in warm water. Boil 1 cup of water in a saucepan, add a pinch of salt and rice. Bring the rice to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes over low heat. Drain the water and place the rice in a bowl.
• Cut the onion into half rings and fry in vegetable oil until golden brown. Stir so as not to burn. Add to rice.
• Cut the sweet pepper into small cubes and add to the rice.

Place the marinated chicken breast with the rest of the filling (along with the marinade). Season everything with seasonings (you can set aside some of the seasonings and sprinkle the inside of the pumpkin). Salt carefully.

Prepare pumpkin for baking

• Wash the pumpkin thoroughly. Place the stalk up (or the place where it is attached) and cut a circle around it (10 cm in diameter). This will be the lid that opens the pumpkin in order to take out its insides and stuff it with chicken and rice filling.To make the hole neat, you can take a plate or bowl of the same diameter and trace it, marking the cut line directly on the pumpkin with a simple pencil. You need to cut through the pumpkin with a sharp knife, carefully and slowly.

How to remove the pulp from a pumpkin. The spoon should be round and not pierce the walls of the pumpkin.

• Afterwards, remove the top and remove the seeds and some of the pulp using a tablespoon.You cannot do this with a knife - if you pierce the pumpkin, all the filling juices will flow out of the pumpkin pan through the hole.The walls of the pumpkin should be approximately 1.5 cm. The remaining pulp should be carefully removed with a spoon.

Now the pumpkin pot can be filled with delicious chicken and rice filling!

Stuff the pumpkin

• Grease the inside of the pumpkin vegetable oil, lightly salt it (also from the inside) and put the filling in it. Close the lid.

Combine the filling and fill the pumpkin with it.

• Place 2 sheets of baking foil on a baking sheet - crosswise. And carefully wrap the pumpkin in it.If an orange pumpkin is half-opened, it will darken and become inexpressively brown, but a pumpkin wrapped in foil will retain its beautiful original color.

Pumpkin must be well covered before baking.

This is how you close the pumpkin before cooking in the oven

Bake stuffed pumpkin in the oven

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C. Place the pumpkin in the oven and bake for 2 hours.

Baked pumpkin with filling is ready!

Features of preparing and eating stuffed pumpkin

I recommend eating the baked pumpkin and filling in one sitting. After standing overnight, the rice absorbs moisture and sweetness from the pumpkin. If you can’t handle the pumpkin right away, then transfer the rice and breast into a regular saucepan.

The pumpkin is baked, now we’ll put the filling on plates!

Pumpkin stuffed with chicken and rice is a very tasty and satisfying dish. Stuffed pumpkin is very easy to prepare, and the dish looks very impressive. contains vitamins B1, B2, C, E, PP and minerals - silicon, iron, zinc, calcium, fluorine, magnesium. In addition, pumpkin contains fiber; anyone on a diet can safely eat pumpkin without fear of gaining weight. I love pumpkin very much and cook a lot with it. different dishes: , and others .

Ingredients

• 1 pumpkin (I have about 1.2 kg)
• chicken breast
• 2 onions
• 200 grams of rice
• salt, black pepper
• vegetable oil

Cooking method

Boil the rice until half cooked. Any rice will work for this recipe. Cut the chicken fillet into small pieces and fry until golden brown. Salt and pepper to taste.
We take out the chicken and fry the onion cut into half rings in the same oil.
Mix onion, rice and chicken. If necessary, add salt, you can add your favorite seasonings.
Wash the pumpkin and cut off the top. Using a spoon, scoop out the seeds and wash the inside of the pumpkin well.
Place the filling into the pumpkin. Cover with a “lid” (cut off top). Lubricate the pumpkin with vegetable oil so that it does not dry out. Bake the pumpkin at 200 - 220 degrees for about 1.5 hours. Check the pumpkin for doneness with a toothpick; it should pierce easily.
We cut the finished pumpkin like a watermelon, into slices.

For reference:
* Pumpkin fruits, like watermelons and melons, are called berries by botanists.
* Pumpkin pulp is rich in sugars, vitamins (C, B, PP and E, and pumpkin also contains carotene, which is more than in carrots), salts: potassium, calcium, magnesium, zinc, iron, etc.
* A couple of years ago in England, pumpkin seeds were simply swept off store shelves: in one TV program they revealed a “terrible secret” that pumpkin seeds are a natural aphrodisiac worse than Viagra! The high zinc content in pumpkin seeds increases a person's sexual desire.
So, let's get to work!

The amount of products depends on the size of the pumpkin itself; I give the proportions for a pumpkin with a diameter of about 30 cm. Preparation time is about 40 minutes, baking time is an hour and a half.

You will need:
Large pumpkin - 1 pc.
Chicken or chicken parts - thighs, wings, etc. - 1.5 kg.
Rice - 1 glass
Onion - 2 pcs.
Salt, pepper, seasonings to taste, parsley

Oil for frying

1. Wash the pumpkin and cut off the top of it - this will be the lid. The hole should be large enough to fit the chicken pieces. And boldly, picking with a spoon and helping with your hands, we take out all the fibers with seeds - in principle, we won’t need the insides, although the seeds can be saved, dried and peeled - they’re an aphrodisiac, remember?

2. Rice should be boiled until half cooked. Any rice is suitable, I like steamed rice, it is quite hard, each grain of rice is separate and does not turn into porridge.

3. The chicken will have to be cut into pieces. Add salt, season and fry until golden brown; you don’t have to let it get ready, it will finish in the oven.

4. While the rice is cooking and the chicken is sizzling and frying, peel and cut the onion. And after the chicken, brown it in chicken fat in the same frying pan.

5. That's it, let's start assembling! We put it in layers, like in a saucepan (it’s a real benefit - we’ll eat the filling, and the “saucepan” too, so there’s less washing up to do). First, rice (about half a pumpkin), onion on top, and chicken on top. All one and a half kilograms fit!

6. Close the lid; the outside of the pumpkin itself must be buttered so that it does not dry out in the oven and retains its presentation.