Pilaff or Pilau is a French-Creole dish of rice with fowl or meat similar to the Spanish Paella.
1 young chicken (fryer about 2 1/2 lbs.)
1/2 cup butter or chicken fat
1 medium onion, chopped
1 cup diced celery
2 cups uncooked rice
1 qt. chicken broth, about
Salt, pepper, and nutmeg
Fry disjointed chicken in butter until it begins to brown; add onions and celery, and let simmer
until onion is done. Add raw rice; stir thoroughly. Cover with chicken broth; taste with
seasoning; let come to a boil. Close saucepan with tight-fitting lid, and let simmer about
18-20 minutes in medium hot (350-degree) oven. Pilau should be more moist than dry. Serve
in soup bowl with corn sticks on side.
—John S. Cator, President, Fort Sumter Hotel, Charleston, S.C.
Bill Neal's Southern Cooking