Ainsley Harriott served up tasty Persian-inspired fragrant chicken torsh Kebabs with Saffron, Cardamom and Rosewater Rice on Ainsley’s Fantastic Flavours.

The ingredients are: 4 large chicken breasts (or 6-8 large thighs), skinless, boneless, cut into 3cm cubes, 1 onion, chopped into chunks, 225g basmati rice, well rinsed, 2 cardamom pods, bashed, 1 tbsp butter, pinch of saffron threads, soaked in 1 tbsp hot water, 1 tsp salt, ½ – 1 tsp rose water (depending on strength of brand), 2-4 large vine tomatoes, halved, 2 tbsp toasted flaked almonds or pistachios, to serve, 1 tbsp chopped coriander, edible dried rose petals, to serve (optional) and lemon wedges, to serve.

For the Marinade: 5 cardamom pods, pods removed, and seeds crushed, 1 clove of garlic, minced, 1 tsp ground turmeric, pinch of saffron threads, ground in a pestle and mortar, soaked in 1 tbsp of hot water, 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil, 120g Greek yoghurt, juice and zest of 1 lemon, sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.

See recipes by Ainsley in his book titled: Ainsley’s Mediterranean Cookbook available from Amazon now.