Many Jewish families eat Cholent or Hamin for lunch on  Shabbat (Saturday). It is prepared on Friday and allowed to cook at a low temperature all night long.

There are both Ashkenazic and Sephardic versions of Cholent/Hamin.  Eytan Elias shared his mother Merle's recipe for a traditional Iraqi hamin. 

Hamin (Iraqi Cholent)

Merle Elias

2 large onions, chopped & fried

2 c. rice, soaked, cleaned & drained  

1½ kg. whole chicken (fatty) with skin

1½ t. salt & ¼ t. pepper

¼ t. tumeric

2 cloves

2 cardamoms

small piece of cinnamon stick

1 ripe tomato, cut into small pieces

4 T. tomato paste

1½ c. water

~~~ 

Soak, wash & drain rice.

Clean chicken & wash well.  If there are pin hairs, pour boiling water over chicken.  Put aside.

Fry onions in a large pot that can be placed in oven.  After onions are browned, add rest of ingredients (except tomato paste).  Mix well so that the tomato pieces soften.  Add tomato paste.  The mix will thicken.  Add a little water while mixing.  Continue mixing, then add 1½ c. water to the pot.

Add chicken.  Bring pot to boiling, then add the drained rice.  Keep shifting the rice with the sauce under the chicken .  Bring to boiling and then lower the fire (be sure that the contents of the pot are not sticking at the bottom).

Continue cooking for 5-10 minutes until the rice is absorbed into the sauce.  Continue pouring the sauce and rice over the chicken (so nothing sticks on bottom).

Preheat oven to 120° C.  Place covered pot in oven at midnight and remove from oven at 1 p.m. the next day.  The hamin should be nicely browned.

If hamin dries up completely, add a little water (about 4 T.) while it is in the oven.  Check that the rice and chicken are soft and cooked by the morning.  If not, play around with the oven by making it higher for about 10-15 minutes and then lower the heat to 80° C until lunchtime (noon-1 pm).

If desired, add eggs to the pot by washing them properly (do not use eggs that are cracked).  Put them into a small pot and CAREFULLY pour boiling water over them without cracking them.  Allow them to sit in the boiling water for 10 minutes and then add to the hamin pot which will cook throughout the night in the oven.

To enhance the flavor, chicken can be stuffed with the rice prior to cooking with the internal organs (liver, gizzard & heart) chopped up into small pieces.  Add spices such as pepper, turmeric, pine seeds, currants or raisins.

Reprinted from "Maternal Instincts."