Spiced Saudi-Style Chicken and Rice with Tomato, Almonds and Raisins
Inspired by techniques from Serious Eats and NYT Cooking.
Saudi-style kabsa: chicken pieces browned and then simmered on fragrant basmati rice cooked with tomato, carrot, warm spices and dried lime. Finished with toasted almonds, pine nuts and plump golden raisins.
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Method
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Equipment
- large heavy casserole with a lid (5-6 litres)
- tongs
- large plate
- small frying pan
- wire rack set over a baking tray (optional, for grilling)
- instant-read probe thermometer
Nutrition per serving (estimated values)
| Per serving | Amount |
|---|---|
| Energy | 1039 kcal |
| Protein | 47.2 g |
| Carbohydrate | 110.9 g |
| of which sugars | 15.4 g |
| of which free sugars | 0 g |
| Fat | 45.4 g |
| of which saturates | 9.2 g |
| Fibre | 8.3 g |
| Salt | 2.41 g |
Protein per 100 kcal
4.5 g High Protein needs ≥ 10 g
Calculated from USDA FoodData Central ingredient values
Metric · 4 servings
Chicken
- 4 bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs
- 4 chicken drumsticks
- 4.5 g fine sea salt or table salt about ¾ tsp
- 1 tbsp neutral oil
Rice
- 1 large onion, finely chopped about 280 g
- 5 garlic cloves, finely chopped
- 10 g fresh ginger, finely grated
- 3 tbsp tomato paste (no salt added)
- 2 tsp ground cumin
- 2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 2 tsp ground coriander
- 1 tsp ground turmeric
- 1 tsp ground allspice
- 1 tsp ground black pepper
- 4 green cardamom pods, lightly cracked
- 250 g ripe tomatoes, finely chopped
- 1 large carrot, coarsely grated about 170 g
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 dried lime (loomi), pierced, or a 7 cm strip of lime peel
- 400 g basmati rice, rinsed until the water runs almost clear
- 600 ml water
- 3 g fine sea salt or table salt about ½ tsp
Topping
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 30 g flaked almonds
- 20 g pine nuts
- 40 g golden raisins
- 1
Salt the chicken. Pat the chicken dry and rub it all over with the 0.75 tsp salt. Leave it for 30 minutes at room temperature, or up to 8 hours uncovered in the fridge. Early salting seasons the meat more deeply and dries the skin so it browns better.
- 2
Brown in batches. Heat the oil in the casserole over medium-high heat and brown the chicken skin side down in 2 batches, 5-7 minutes per batch, until golden; lower the heat if it smokes. Set the pieces aside on the plate. Working in batches stops the pan cooling, so the skin sears instead of steaming.
- 3
Build the spice base. Pour off all but 2 tbsp of the fat and cook the onion over medium heat for 5 minutes until lightly golden. Add the garlic, ginger, tomato paste, all the ground spices, pepper and cardamom and stir for 1 minute until fragrant. Frying the spices and paste in the fat deepens their flavour and removes the raw edge of the tomato.
- 4
Cook the vegetables. Add the tomatoes, carrot, bay leaves and dried lime and cook for 4 minutes, scraping up the browned bits from the base, until thick and jammy. Those caramelised bits dissolve into the sauce and give the rice its savoury depth.
- 5
Toast the rice. Tip in the rice and stir for 2 minutes until the edges of the grains turn translucent. Coating the grains in the spiced fat helps them stay separate and absorb the flavour evenly.
- 6
Simmer with chicken. Stir in the water and the 0.5 tsp salt, nestle in the chicken skin side up with any juices and bring to the boil. Cover, turn the heat to medium-low and simmer gently for 25-30 minutes until the rice is tender and the liquid absorbed. Check the thickest thigh next to the bone: it must read 74 °C; if it does not, lift out the chicken, cover the rice and grill the chicken on the rack under a hot grill (broiler) for 4-5 minutes until it reaches 74 °C.
- 7
Rest and crisp. Lift out the chicken, fluff the rice gently with a fork and discard the cardamom, bay leaves and lime, then cover and rest off the heat for 10 minutes. For crisper skin, grill the chicken on the rack for 2-3 minutes until spotted brown while the rice rests. Resting lets the steam finish softening the grains.
- 8
Top and serve. Fry the almonds and pine nuts in the olive oil in the small frying pan over medium-low heat for 2-3 minutes until golden, then add the raisins for 30 seconds until plump. Pile the rice onto a platter, arrange the chicken on top and scatter over the nut and raisin topping.
Storage
Cool quickly, refrigerate within 1 hour and use within 24 hours. Reheat once, covered, until piping hot (74 °C). Cool leftovers in a shallow container and refrigerate within 2 hours (within 1 hour on a day above 32°C).
