Majboos

Ingredients :

1 kilo baby chicken and half a dozen chicken drumsticks (if your cooking for a family of 4 and sharing some with 2 neighbours)
1 cup onion paste
1 tbs garlic paste
2 tsp ginger paste
1 tsp turmeric powder
2 tbs cumin powder
3 tbs masala or kabsa spice
1 cinnamon stick
3 cardamom pods
4 cloves
2 star anise
2 tsp whole peppercorns
1 old lemon ( really dried up citrus, sold at Lulu)
4 chopped fresh tomatoes
1 small packet Tilda traditional basmati rice, yields 5 cups, soaked for 30 mins, and then drained.
a pinch of saffron
half cup raisins
chopped coriander for garnishing
olive oil and warmed ghee for frying (substitute with vegetable oil if you so wish)
caramelised onion
7 cups of water
salt, pepper

Season your chicken with a little bit of salt, pepper and a pinch of cumin.

Heat mixture of olive oil and ghee. Brown the chicken bits for 5 mins, drain and set aside.

Using the same oil, fry a mixture of onion paste, garlic paste,ginger paste turmeric powder, cumin powder, kabsa powder, the assorted whole spices together with the chopped tomatoes for about 5 minutes or until the tomatoes look withered. Add water and chicken. Leave to boil for 30 mins.Season with salt.

Remove chicken from the stock and add basmati rice. Bring it to a bubbly boil. Reduce heat, cover for 10 mins or until rice is 3/4 cooked. At this point, stir in a pinch of saffron and raisins.

In the mean while, brown the chicken parts further in a hot pan of oil that you used to caramelise an onion. When the desired color is obtained, remove from frying pan.

Stir in the chicken into the rice and garnish with caramelised onions and coriander leaves. Done! Normally served with Duqqa (Garlic tomato sauce), but Spicy Lime Chutney from Patak's rocks it for me!

Here's another recipe:

onion
garlic
pepper
tomatoes
dried lemon
cinnamon stick
curry powder
cumin powder

Fry everything with chicken. Add water and boil for 30 mins. Remove chicken. Cook rice in soup. Add chicken once cooked. Plonk in oven for further browning. Easy innit?

Recipe by Nazrah Nasir (FB)