Machboos recipe

Qatari rice cooked in the spiced broth of its own chicken, soured by whole dried limes and coloured by the bizar mix.

2 hours and 30 minutesmedium12 ingredients

Ingredients

• 4 tbsp bizar spice mix
• 2 dried lime
• 500 g basmati rice
• 1200 g chicken
• 1 onion
• 2 tomatoes
• 1 tbsp garlic
• 1 tbsp ginger
• 2 green chilli
• 1 bunch parsley
• 60 ml vegetable oil
• 1 tbsp salt

How to make Machboos

1. Rinse 500 g of basmati and soak it for 1 hour; if you have no bizar, grind cumin, coriander, ground dried lime, turmeric, cinnamon, ginger, black pepper and a pinch of saffron.
2. Heat 60 ml of oil and colour 1 chopped onion, then add 1 tablespoon of grated garlic, 1 tablespoon of grated ginger, 2 slit green chillies, 2 chopped tomatoes and 4 tablespoons of bizar, frying until the oil separates.
3. Add 1.2 kg of chicken and turn it in the paste until every piece is coated red.
4. Pour in 1 litre of boiling water, drop in 2 dried limes pierced with a knife and 1 tablespoon of salt, cover and simmer 40 minutes.
5. Lift the chicken out and finish it 10 minutes in a 200 C oven so the surface dries and browns.
6. Measure the broth left in the pot and drain the rice into it, the rice must cook in that broth and not in fresh water.
7. Cover and cook 15 minutes on the lowest heat, then leave it off the heat 10 minutes without lifting the lid.
8. Pile the rice on a platter, set the chicken on top and scatter a bunch of chopped parsley.

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