Chicken
Chicken machboos
Qatar's best-known rice dish: chicken simmered with bezar and dried lime, then rice cooked in the same stock.
- Serves
- 4 to 5
- Time
- 1 hr 30 min
Ingredients
- 1 whole chicken (about 1.3 kg), cut into 8 pieces
- 3 cups basmati rice, washed and soaked for 30 minutes
- 3 tablespoons ghee or oil
- 2 large onions, sliced
- 4 garlic cloves, crushed
- 1 thumb of fresh ginger, grated
- 2 tomatoes, chopped
- 2 dried limes (loomi), pierced
- 1 tablespoon bezar (Gulf mixed spice)
- 1 teaspoon turmeric
- 5 cardamom pods, 5 cloves, 1 cinnamon stick, 2 bay leaves
- 1 green chilli
- A pinch of saffron soaked in 2 tablespoons rose water
- Salt
Method
Heat the ghee in a wide pot and cook the onions until deep golden. Add the whole spices, garlic, ginger and chilli and stir for a minute.
Add the chicken, bezar and turmeric. Turn the pieces until they take colour, then add the tomatoes, dried limes and salt.
Pour in 6 cups of hot water. Cover and simmer for 35 to 40 minutes, until the chicken is cooked through and the juices run clear at the thigh.
Lift the chicken onto a tray, brush it with a little of the saffron water and brown it in a hot oven (220°C) for 10 to 15 minutes.
Measure 4½ cups of the stock back into the pot and bring to the boil. Add the drained rice and cook uncovered until the liquid drops to the level of the rice.
Cover tightly and cook on the lowest heat for 20 minutes. Sprinkle over the rest of the saffron rose water, rest for 5 minutes, then fluff.
Spread the rice on a large platter and set the chicken on top.
Serve with Daqoos (tomato, garlic and chilli sauce), yoghurt and a plain salad.
For this dish
Choose the 8 pieces preparation when you order.
