COPPERWhat is the national dish of Kuwait?
Kuwait has no officially declared national dish, and two are named. Machboos, rice cooked in a spiced chicken or mutton broth soured with dried limes, is the one most often cited, especially machboos laham, with meat. Mutabbaq samak, fried fish served over rice cooked in fish stock, is also called a national dish of Kuwait, reflecting how central fish is there.
Machboos or mutabbaq samak?
Ask which dish is Kuwait's national dish and you will get two answers, both reasonable. Wikipedia's list of national dishes gives machboos laham (laham means meat), and its article on kabsa, the same rice dish under its Saudi name, lists it among the national symbols of Kuwait. Wikipedia's article on Kuwaiti cuisine calls machboos a prominent dish but names mutabbaq samak as "a national dish in Kuwait".
Kuwaiti cooking is part of the wider Eastern Arabian kitchen, shaped mainly by Arabian and Iranian food, with later Indian influence: biryani is a common dish there too. Both candidates reflect that mix of rice, spice and sea.
Neither has legal status. Machboos is the one you will find most often, which is why we put it first; mutabbaq samak is the coastal, fish-based answer.
What is in Kuwaiti machboos?
Machboos is rice cooked in the broth of the meat it is served with, usually chicken or mutton, sometimes fish. The meat or fish is served on top of the rice rather than mixed into it. Our machboos recipe uses:
- 500 g of basmati rice, soaked 30 minutes
- A 1.5 kg chicken, cut into pieces
- 3 dried limes (loomi), pierced with a fork
- Baharat, turmeric, a cinnamon stick and 6 cardamom pods
- 2 onions fried in 60 g of ghee, garlic and 3 tomatoes
- 1 tbsp of rose water, sprinkled over the rice at the end
How machboos is made
The onions are fried deep gold in ghee with the whole spices, the chicken is browned, then the tomatoes and pierced limes go in with a litre of water for 40 minutes. The loomi is what makes this machboos and not a generic pilaf.
The chicken is grilled for 10 to 15 minutes until the skin colours, while the broth is measured back to 1 litre and the rice cooks in it, tightly covered, for 20 minutes. Rose water goes on, the rice rests 10 minutes, and the chicken is laid on top. Kuwaitis serve it with daqqus, a thin cooked tomato sauce.
What is mutabbaq samak?
Mutabbaq samak means layered fish. It is spiced fried fish, often pomfret (Stromateus), with caramelised onions, served over rice cooked in well-spiced fish stock. Historically fish, rice and bread were layered in a pot that was flipped over to serve; today any fried fish over fish-stock rice goes by the name.
Across Arabia, cooks often add raisins, cardamom and a tomato broth. The dish is usually garnished with nuts and chopped parsley and served with a simple Arab salad, and it is widely thought of as comfort food.
Seafood is a staple of the Kuwaiti diet, from grouper (hamour) to sea bream (sobaity). Mutabbaq samak is also considered a national dish in Iraq: see the national dish of Iraq. For the Qatari take on machboos, see the national dish of Qatar.
Kuwait's other rice dishes
Machboos sits in a whole family of Kuwaiti rice dishes, many of them built around the sea:
- Mashkhool: white rice cooked over rings of onion with turmeric and black pepper at the bottom of the pot.
- Maidem: white rice topped with ground fish mixed with spices.
- Marabyan: rice cooked with fresh or dried shrimp.
- Muaddas: rice cooked with red lentils, sometimes topped with dried shrimp.
- Mashwi jeder: rice with meat, onions and potatoes at the bottom of the pot, flipped upside down onto a plate.
Other dishes to know from Kuwait
Kuwait's traditional bread is khubz, a large flatbread baked in a special oven and often topped with sesame seeds, served with mahyawa, a tangy fish sauce.
Harees is wheat and bone-in chicken cooked 4 to 5 hours, then beaten with a wooden pestle for 15 to 20 minutes until no whole grain is left. The Kuwaiti version stays slightly coarser than the Emirati one and is often finished with cinnamon and sugar.
Jireesh uses cracked wheat cooked about 2 hours with chicken, tomato and dried lime, then beaten into a thick porridge and crowned with slowly caramelised onion that is never stirred in.
Kuwaiti sweets include lugaimat, fried yeast dumplings in saffron syrup, and balaleet, sweet saffron noodles served with an omelette on top.
All three recipes are on our page about the food of Kuwait, and the region is covered in our guide to Middle Eastern food.
The recipes
- Machboos🇰🇼 Kuwait · 2 hours and 20 minutes
Harees🇰🇼 Kuwait · 13 hours and 30 minutes
Jireesh🇰🇼 Kuwait · 5 hours and 40 minutes
Questions people ask
What does machboos laham mean?
Machboos laham is machboos made with meat, usually mutton or lamb, as opposed to chicken (dajaj) or fish (samak).
Is mutabbaq samak Kuwaiti or Iraqi?
Both. It is eaten across the Gulf and southern Iraq, and is considered a national dish in both Kuwait and Iraq, where it is pronounced im'tabbag simach.
What is daqqus?
Daqqus is a Kuwaiti tomato sauce served alongside rice dishes such as machboos.
What spices are in Kuwaiti machboos?
Baharat, turmeric, cinnamon and cardamom, with dried limes for sourness and rose water at the end.
What fish is used for mutabbaq samak?
Pomfret (Stromateus) is the usual choice, served whole or as fillets.
Keep reading
- Traditional food of Kuwait: 13 dishes to know
- What is the national dish of Bahrain?
- What is the national dish of Iran?
- What is the national dish of Iraq?
- What is the national dish of Israel?
- What is the national dish of Jordan?