Chicken or Meat Kabsa

Ingredients

Chicken

• 1 chicken, quartered, cleaned and soaked in olive oil, lemon and vinegar
• 1 tomato
• 1 onion
• 2 garlic cloves
• Whole spices for the stock (bay leaf, cardamom, cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, black pepper)
• 1 tbsp kabsa spice
• 2 tbsp tomato paste
• 2 tbsp vegetable oil
• Salt

Rice

• 2 cups Abu Bint rice, soaked
• 3 carrots, grated
• 2 onions, thinly sliced
• 1/2 head of garlic, thinly sliced or grated
• 2 tomatoes, grated
• 1 tbsp kabsa spice
• 1 chicken stock cube
• 2 tbsp tomato paste

For serving

• Fried raisins
• Fried almonds

Kabsa salad (dakkous)

• 3 tomatoes
• 1 green bell pepper
• 1 hot chili pepper
• 1/2 onion
• 3 garlic cloves
• A handful of chopped parsley
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• A squeeze of lemon
• Salt

Method

1. Brown the chicken (or meat) pieces on all sides in the vegetable oil. Add the kabsa spice and onion and stir, then the garlic, then the tomato paste, tomato and chili. Add boiling water and the whole spices and simmer for half an hour until cooked. Then brown the chicken in the oven.
2. Fry the sliced onions in 2 tbsp oil, add the garlic and carrots and stir, then the kabsa spice, then the grated tomatoes.
3. Add the rice and the chicken stock, 1 1/2 cups per cup of rice, and cook until done.
4. Serve the rice on a platter topped with the chicken pieces, fried almonds and raisins, with the kabsa salad on the side.
5. For the salad: blend all the ingredients except the parsley until smooth, then stir in the parsley.

Notes

You can skip boiling the chicken: after frying it with the aromatics, place it in a tray with 1/4 cup oil and 1/4 cup water, cover with foil, bake for an hour and a half, then uncover to brown.