Have some leftover paneer cubes in your refrigerator or some leftover takeout paneer tikka then try out today’s recipe – Paneer tikka pulao – YUMMY and FRAGRANT !! Inspired from my previous post Paneer tikka recipe, I thought of trying this fusion and turned out to be very aromatic and flavorful dish.This one pot meal is a delicious combination of starch free rice tossed with grilled Paneer cubes and flavored with aromatic spices. I prepared this pulao in a slightly different way; instead of going the traditional way of boiling everything along with the rice I took the liberty of sauteing my veggies separately and later tossing them with cooked rice. For this recipe you will need Paneer tikka cubes and starch free rice. Once you have these ingredients ready, from thereon the recipe is straight forward. BREAKDOWN OF THE TOTAL TIME – 4 hours Marinade Paneer – 3-4 hours or Overnight Cooking rice – 20 minutes Preparing Paneer tikka – 20 minutes Assembling Pulao- 15 minutes In the recipe below leftover marinade is used up to cook onions and capsicum but again that’s optional and can be skipped. Instead you can saute onions and capsicum in oil, cover and cook for 2 minutes, stir in spices and toss with cooked rice. This grainy curd which curdles from the leftover marinade gives an extra flavor to this dish. It’s aroma itself is so strong and fragrant that it will keep everyone at home guessing what’s for dinner? Adding garam masala powder and red chili flakes at the end is again optional. It all depends on how spicy you want your pulao to be. Maintain your sodium level in this dish because salt is added at every step in this recipe – paneer tikka has salt and its marinate too has salt. When boiling your rice avoid adding salt to it and this way you can stay in control of the total salt that goes in this dish. The overall spice combination creates a wonderful aroma while cooking and the grainy curd adds an interesting mild and subtle flavor without overpowering the whole dish.
