Rice pilaf with chickpeas (Nohutlu Pilav)

It seems like my last couple of rice dishes have really struggled to get the right amount of moisture/stickiness/fluffiness.  A couple of deviations I made from the written recipe:

• skipped the rinse and soak step at the beginning (supposedly the rinsing washes off excess starch, which helps prevent stickiness of the final product)
• added about 8 ounces of canned diced tomatoes instead of the 2 diced fresh tomatoes
• used 2 tablespoons butter + 1 tablespoon olive oil instead of the 4 tablespoons of butter
  

Another challenge I've had is getting the right amount of salt.  I roughly added 1 teaspoon of salt in addition to the salt in the 2.5 cups of low sodium chicken broth.  In contrast, several recipes I found online for Indian basmati Rice specified 1/4 teaspoon of salt per cup of rice (much less than what I put in).

After bringing the whole mixture to a boil, I covered and steamed at lowest heat for about 10 minutes, then mixed in the 1.5 cups of cooked chick peas. However, after letting it steam for another 5 minutes, the Rice was clearly much too wet, still. I let it go for another 5 minutes (for a total of 20) and then turned off the heat and let it rest, covered for another 5.

The end result was still slightly wet, with a couple of very firm grains still. In hindsight, it probably just needed to go a bit longer to finish the cooking process and cooking off the excess moisture.

Despite my disappointment initially in the dish, the leftovers pproved to be fantastic. I think after a couple of days, the excess moisture evaporated away leaving it somewhat fluffier/lighter.