I made another Mandee today, but this time with chicken. We’re just two people as I mentioned, and since I cook everyday I only make what we eat on a particular day. I don’t like having any leftovers, so my quantities are measured. So, you can double, triple or quadruple according to the number of members in your family. I usually measure 1/2 cup of rice per person, if you are not serving anything else. Otherwise it is 1/4 cup of rice per person.
For two servings you will need the following:
1) Half of a whole chicken–literally cut in half and leave the skin on. Or you can use a whole Cornish hen.
2) One cup of rice, washed
3) 2 dried lemons (available at the Middle Eastern stores)
4) one whole green hot pepper–you can slice it through the middle
5) 2 tsp of ground cumin
6) 2 tsp of ground coriander
7) salt to taste
8) 1/2 tsp of black pepper
9) 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
10) a couple of pepper corns
11) a cinnamon stick
12) a couple of cardamon pods
13) 1/2 tsp of tumeric
14) 4 tblsp of Olive Oil
15) a medium onion finely chopped
Marinate the chicken–it turns out better if you do it the day before–but you can also marinate it on the same day. Use half of the oilive oil, cumin, coriander, black pepper, and cinnamon powder. All of the tumeric. Add salt. Cover every nook and cranny of the chicken with this mixture.
Place a pot on medium heat, and add half of the oil, onions and half of the cumin and enough salt for the rice. When the onions starts to turn a golden brown add the green hot pepper, dried lemons, rice, half of the coriander, black pepper, cinnamon powder, cardoamon,cinnamon stick, and pepper corns. Mix well and let the spice mix with the rice by stirring for about 2 minutes.
Add hot water (2 cups) to the rice. Take a piece of foil and fold once and cover the mouth of the pot tightly. With a fork pierce the foil randomly. Place the spiced chicken on the pierced foil. Then take another piece of foil and cover the chicken. Make sure you cover it well so no steam escapes. Leave on very very very low heat–one you can hardly see– for about 45 min-1 hr.
After half an hour take the foil off and place the chicken under the broiler to brown, and finish cooking if it hasn’t already.
To serve, place the rice on a platter and arrange the chicken on top. Serve hot. Goes well with a green salad.
More pics of the dish: 
A Yemeniyah's Recipes 
i have a few questions on this recipe.
first at the very beginning with the marinade you said half. did you mean just the olive oil or the olive oil along with the rest of the spices you listed?
if it is all the spices then when you say put half after the onion part did you mean the remaining?
lastly what exactly is dried lemon? i asked my husband and he does not know. we live near a couple of Arabic stores but i want to make sure so when i buy it i know exactly what i am looking for. thank you in advance.
Means half the quantity of the olive oil spices–means half of the total quantity. So, 2 tblsp and half of the quantity of the ground spices. I am going to go back and edit it , and make it clearer insha Allah. Dried lemon is exactly what it says it is, it is lemons that have been dried–the Arabian store should have them. If you look at the recipe for Mandee 1 in the picture you will see one lying in the rice. Go back to that picture.
Thanks for letting me know that it wasn’t as clear as i thought it was Dominique :-)
Hi Dr. Lamya Almas again,
so i was talking to my husband trying to get him to go to the arabic store for me to get the dried lemon but instead he talks to his cousin. his cousin said that traditionally you would use the dried lemon but now everyone just uses ground dried lime or lemon powder. i wanted to confirm with you see what your thoughts on it are. also if it is an acceptable substitute how much do you recommend i use? thank you in advance.
assalamu aleikum please advice whats the best rice for cooking mandi
Wa Alaikum Assalaam,
I would say Basmatic. It’s aromatic and is just the right size.
Lamya