Al Kabsa Recipe - Saudi Kabsa Recipe - Arabic Rice & Chicken Recipe

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Arab Kabsa is one recipe which was requested so many time in my blog. And i have never tasted that before. I refered lots of videos and browsed a lot about it and decided to give it a go. It tasted pretty good too.

The main flavouring for this comes from tomatoes, chicken, baharat spice mix and the rice. So use a good quality rice and cook the chicken as mentioned. I used my homemade baharat spice mix. You can either make it your own or buy from shop. I have given the recipe for that spice mix in this post too, even though i have shared it as a separate post..

Hope you will give this a try and let me know how it turns out for you..

Preparation Time : 15 mins
Cooking Time : 1 1/2 hour to 2 hours
Serves : 6

Ingredients:

Basmati Rice – 3 cups
Chicken – 1 whole chicken cut into 8 pieces with skin on
Oil – 1/4 cup
Onion – 2 large chopped finely
Garlic – 3 tblspn finely chopped
Tomatoes – 4 large chopped finely
Baharat Spice Mix – 4 to 6 tblspn (Recipe Here )
Tomato paste – 3 tblspn (Recipe here)
Orange Zest – 2 tblspn
Ghee – 2 tblspn
Carrot – 1 medium size grated
Salt to taste
Water – 4.5 cups

Whole Spices:
Cinnamon / Pattai – 4 cm piece
Bay Leaf – 3
Cardamom / Yelakai – 6
Cloves / Krambu – 6
Dried Lime – 1

For Topping:
Ghee – 4 tblspn
Almonds – 1/2 cup
Kishmish / Sultanas – 1/4 cup

For Baharat Spice Mix:

Cinnamon / Pattai – 5 cm piece
Dry Red Chilli – 8
Kashmiri Dry Red Chilli – 8
Cardamom / Yelakai – 10
Cloves / Krambu – 10
Whole Coriander Seeds / Malli – 1 tblspn

Nutmeg – 1 tblspn
Whole Black Pepper – 2 tblspn
Cumin Seeds / Jeerakam – 1 tblspn
Dry Ginger Powder / Chukku Podi – 1 tblspn

Method:

For Baharat Spice Mix:
Take all the ingredients except ginger powder in a pan and roast on low heat till golden.Add in ginger powder and saute for 20 more sec.Now let them cool a bit, add it in a blender and powder it finely.Spread on a paper and let them cool a bit.Store in a air tight container.

For Kabsa:
Wash and soak basmati rice for 1 hour. Soak almonds in hot water till use.

Heat a large pan with oil. Add in onions, garlic and salt. Saute for 2 mins or so.

Now add in chicken skin side down and sear it for 10 mins on each side..

Add in tomatoes, baharat, tomato puree, whole spices, orange zest and mix well. Now add in water and mix well. Bring it to a boil, cover and simmer for 30 to 40 mins till the chicken is cooked completely.

Now preheat oven to 250 degree C. Set oven to grill or broil mode.Line a baking tray with foil and grease it well with oil.

Now remove the cooked chicken from the mix and arrange it skin side up on a baking tray. Sprinkle the top with some more baharat and drizzle some oil over it and pop it into the oven and grill for 5 mins or so till the skin is crispy.

Heat some 2 tblspn ghee in a pan, add in carrots and saute it for 5 mins.

Now add the drained basmati rice into the liquid, Add in sauted carrots and mix well. Cook on high heat till everything comes to a boil. Now cover with a tight lid or a foil and a lid and simmer it for 20 to 30 mins till the rice has absorbed all the liquid,

Now peel off the almonds and slice it. heat some ghee in a pan, add in almonds and fry till golden. Add in kishmish and saute till golden.

Once the rice is cooked, Fluff it with a fork. Cover and set aside for 30 mins.

Spoon rice onto a serving plate, cover with broiled chicken and sprinkle with nuts.

Serve.

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