Table for TwoChicken Kabsa
Saudi Arabia's national dish: fragrant spiced rice cooked with chicken, tomato and dried lime, topped with toasted nuts.
Photo: aboodi vesakaran / Unsplash
⏱ 70 min📶 Medium👫 Serves 2☪ Muslim-friendly
Ingredients (for 2)
- Chicken thighs or legs, 4 pieces
- Basmati rice, 1½ cups
- Onion, 1, chopped
- Garlic, 3 cloves
- Tomatoes, 2, chopped
- Tomato paste, 1 tbsp
- Kabsa spice mix (or cumin, cardamom, cinnamon and black pepper), 2 tsp
- Dried lime (loomi), 1, pierced
- Chicken stock, 650 ml
- Toasted almonds & raisins, to garnish
- Oil or ghee, 2 tbsp
Steps
- Soak the rice for 20 minutes, then drain.
- Brown the chicken in the oil, then add the onion and garlic and cook until soft.
- Stir in the tomatoes, paste, spices and dried lime, pour in the stock and simmer, covered, for 25 minutes.
- Lift out the chicken and keep it warm. Add the rice to the pot, cover and cook on low for 18–20 minutes.
- Fluff the rice onto a big platter, top with the chicken and scatter over the almonds and raisins.
Cook it together: One soaks the rice and toasts the nuts, the other browns the chicken — then share it from one platter, the traditional way.
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