Kabsa

Ingredients

• Chicken — in pieces1.6 kg
• Basmati rice600 g
• Onions2
• Tomatoes4
• Tomato paste2 tbsp
• Dried lime3
• Carrots2
• Kabsa baharat1 tbsp
• Cardamom pods6
• Cinnamon stick1
• Garlic5 clove
• Raisins60 g
• Almonds60 g
• Ghee80 g
• Salt and pepperto taste

Salt and spices grow more slowly than the rest: doubling a dish does not double the pepper.

Weight converts to ounces and volume to cups. Grams of flour are not turned into cups, because that depends on how tightly it is packed.

Method

1. 1

   Rinse the rice until the water runs clear and soak it twenty minutes.

   22 min

2. 2

   Fry the onion in ghee until golden, then add the garlic, cardamom and cinnamon.

   12 min

3. 3

   Brown the chicken on all sides, then add the tomato paste, tomatoes, carrot and baharat.

   15 min

4. 4

   Pierce the dried limes, drop them in, add water and simmer thirty minutes.

   32 min

5. 5

   Lift out the chicken, pat it dry and put it under the grill for ten minutes, to a browned skin.

   12 min

6. 6

   Add the rice to the broth at one and a half times its volume in liquid, season, and cook twenty minutes covered.

   25 min

7. 7

   Fry the almonds and raisins in ghee, mound the rice on a platter, set the chicken on it and scatter the nuts over.

   12 min

About the dish

The baharat blend for kabsa is its own — black lime, clove, cinnamon and mace. It differs from the Levantine and the Indian, and the dish is recognisable because of it.

The chicken is first poached in that broth, then lifted out and browned under a grill. Either step alone gives you pale poultry or bland rice.

The rice goes into the same broth and is not stirred again. As in pilaf, an extra move of the spoon turns the grains to porridge.

Worth knowing

• — The dried lime must be pierced. Left whole it gives nothing; broken open it turns the broth bitter.
• — Kabsa baharat is sold ready-mixed in Arab shops. Indian garam masala will not do — it is a different set entirely.
• — It comes with daqqus, grated tomato with chilli and garlic. It is sour and cuts the richness of the rice.

Nutrition

Per serving at the base yield, calculated from the ingredients rather than measured in a lab.

Calories

720 kcal

Protein

44 g

Fat

28 g

Carbs

78 g

More from Saudi Arabia

• Jareesh — Cracked wheat cooked with meat to a thick porridge, under fried onion.