World Cup recipe idea, an Iranian dish called Tachin

AUSTIN, Texas - A huge part of any sport is the food you eat while watching it.

Ahead of today's World Cup matchup against Iran, FOX 7 Austin's Kelly Saberi shows us an Iranian recipe you can recreate at home.

The recipe is called "tachin" or "tachin ba morgh" (tachin with chicken). Tachin is essentially a rice cake that can sometimes have chicken and barberries spread throughout the inside. It is much less confusing and more predictable to make than the popular tadig, which is crispy rice, a delicacy in Iranian cuisine. 

Ingredients: 

• 2 cups of basmati rice, rinsed and parboiled
• ½ cup of a neutral oil like grapeseed, plus more to grease your dish
• 1 cup plain whole milk yogurt, not Greek yogurt
• 3 egg yolks
• ¼ teaspoon saffron
• ½ teaspoon rock sugar or kosher salt to bloom the saffron
• 1 teaspoon salt if you’re not using salt to bloom the saffron
• 1 cup barberries
• 2 tablespoons butter, plus more to top the dish
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• OPTIONAL: 1 cup of cooked shredded chicken thighs, or shredded rotisserie chicken if you want to make it easy

Directions: 

1. Bring a big pot of water to a boil with lots of salt. Rinse your rice until the water is no longer murky and runs clear. When the water is boiling, throw in your rice and cook it for about 6 to 8 minutes until it is al dente.
2. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.
3. Bloom the saffron. Combine the threads with either rock sugar or kosher salt in a mortar and pestle and break it down. Then pour in 2 tablespoons of hot water and let it sit for about 10 minutes.
4. In a bowl, whisk together your egg yolks, oil, yogurt and saffron. Sprinkle in your salt if you used rock sugar to break down the saffron.
5. Gently mix in your parboiled rice.
6. Grease up either an oven safe dish, pie dish or a spring form cake pan and pour your rice mixture in (only halfway if you’re integrating chicken into the recipe – place your chicken in a neat layer and then top off with the second half of your rice in that case). Wrap it tightly with foil.
7. Bake for about 60 to 70 minutes.
8. While it’s baking, prepare your topping. If you can’t find barberries, which are traditional in Iranian cooking, you can use dried cherries as well. To prepare them, you’ll want to candy them to offset the sour taste of the berries. Melt your butter, cook the berries on low so as not to burn them and sprinkle in the sugar for sweetness. If you are feeling fancy you can add a dash of rose water.
9. When the rice cake is done baking, gently flip it over with a plate or platter and top with your berries.
10. You can serve it with a yogurt sauce made of cucumbers and garlic, and a simple salad of finely chopped tomato, cucumber, onion and lime juice.