Gulf Chicken Machboos
Machboos is made by browning chicken with onion, bzar spice and dried limes, then adding tomato and water and cooking it through, then cooking the rice in the same broth. The rice takes its colour and flavour directly from that broth, which is what sets it apart from kabsa.
- Prep
- 20 min
- Cook
- 60 min
- Total
- 80 min
- Calories
- 540
Machboos is the everyday dish of Gulf households, and its secret is the bzar spice blend and the dried limes that give the whole cuisine its particular sourness and depth.
Method
-
1
Brown the onions
Fry the onions in the oil until deep golden — this is where the colour of the dish comes from.
⏱ 12 min -
2
Chicken and spices
Add the chicken, cardamom, cinnamon and cloves and stir until the chicken takes colour, then the bzar and turmeric, and stir for a minute until fragrant.
⏱ 10 min -
3
The broth
Add the tomato paste, grated tomatoes, pierced dried limes and salt, and pour in water to cover the chicken. Cover and cook over medium heat until done.
⏱ 30 min -
4
The rice
Lift the chicken out. Measure the broth — you want four and a half cups for three cups of rice. Add the drained rice to the broth, boil for five minutes, then cover and cook on the lowest heat for twenty minutes.
⏱ 28 min -
5
Brown and serve
Crisp the chicken in the oven at 220°C for ten minutes and serve it over the rice with daqqous sauce.
⏱ 12 min 🔥 220°C
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Tips that actually matter
- Pierce the dried limes with a fork before they go in — sealed, they give nothing.
- Deeply browned onions are the source of the colour, not the turmeric.
- Don't stir the rice once it's covered — stirring breaks the grains.
People also ask
What's the difference between machboos and kabsa?
Machboos is Bahraini/Kuwaiti, more heavily spiced and with more dried lime. Kabsa is Saudi and leans more on tomato. Both are built the same way.
Can I use lamb or prawns?
Yes — prawn machboos is very popular in the Gulf. Add the prawns in the final five minutes only, or they toughen.
My rice wasn't fluffy.
Soak the rice for thirty minutes and drain it well, keep the broth at one and a half cups per cup of rice, and don't stir while it cooks.
Cook mode
Gulf Chicken Machboos
-
1
Brown the onions
Fry the onions in the oil until deep golden — this is where the colour of the dish comes from.
-
2
Chicken and spices
Add the chicken, cardamom, cinnamon and cloves and stir until the chicken takes colour, then the bzar and turmeric, and stir for a minute until fragrant.
-
3
The broth
Add the tomato paste, grated tomatoes, pierced dried limes and salt, and pour in water to cover the chicken. Cover and cook over medium heat until done.
-
4
The rice
Lift the chicken out. Measure the broth — you want four and a half cups for three cups of rice. Add the drained rice to the broth, boil for five minutes, then cover and cook on the lowest heat for twenty minutes.
-
5
Brown and serve
Crisp the chicken in the oven at 220°C for ten minutes and serve it over the rice with daqqous sauce.
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