How to Make Kabsa at Home: Spices and Method

Everything in kabsa depends on one measured cup of broth. Get that right and the rice comes out separate and fragrant; guess it and you are choosing between soup and crunch. This is how to make kabsa at home with the recipe we keep in our library.

A note on what we have: the library has Lamb Kabsa but no recipe titled chicken kabsa. If you want chicken, the nearest we have is Chicken Machboos, which uses the same method with the same rice ratio. We explain below where the two differ, and the long comparison is in Machboos vs Kabsa.

How to make kabsa at home: the ingredient list

Lamb Kabsa serves 4. Our recipe lists:

• Mutton or lamb, 1 kg / 2.2 lb, in large pieces
• Basmati rice, 400 g / 2 cups
• Onions, 2; tomatoes, 3; tomato paste, 2 tbsp
• Garlic, 5 cloves; ginger, 1 tbsp
• Dried black lime (loomi), 2
• Mixed Arabic spice blend (baharat), 1 tbsp
• Ghee, 3 tbsp; salt to taste
• Optional: a pinch of saffron, 3 tbsp raisins and nuts

For chicken machboos, swap in 1 kg / 2.2 lb chicken cut into 8 pieces, 2 tsp baharat, 0.5 tsp turmeric and 2 tomatoes.

What the spices are doing

Baharat is a blend, not a single spice, and brands vary. Our recipes call it a "mixed Arabic spice blend" and do not name the contents, so we will not either. Check your jar's label. Taste it before you cook: if it is stale and dusty, the dish will be too.

The dried lime is the sour note. Our Chicken Machboos recipe says to pierce it with a fork so the sourness reaches the broth, and to taste before adding more salt, because the lime and the strained broth both add flavour.

The saffron is optional and should be treated that way. A pinch soaked in 2 tablespoons of warm water goes in when the rice goes in.

Build the broth first

1. Soak the rice for 20 minutes. Wash it first.
2. Fry onions in ghee about 7 minutes until golden.
3. Garlic, ginger and baharat for 1 minute, until fragrant.
4. Lamb, tomatoes and paste. Cook, stirring, about 7 minutes, until the meat firms and browns lightly.
5. Add the dried limes, salt and about 1.5 litres of water, enough to cover the lamb. Cover and simmer on low until tender, about 70 minutes. Large bone-in pieces or shanks can take up to 90.

The rice rule

Lift the lamb out and strain the broth. Then measure: 3 cups (700 ml) of broth for 2 cups (400 g) of rice, about 1 part rice to 1.5 parts broth. Top up with water if you come up short.

The same ratio appears in Chicken Mandi and Lamb Mandi use it too, and Lamb Kabsa's tip adds that straining the broth gives fluffier rice.

Then drain the soaked rice, add it to the broth with the saffron water, and bring it to a boil, about 3 minutes.

The dum: cover and leave it

Lower the heat, lay the lamb on the rice, cover tightly and cook on low without lifting the lid, about 20 minutes. "Dum" means sealed slow steam. Then rest 5 minutes off the heat.

Do not lift the lid to check. That releases the steam the rice is cooking in. If the grains are still firm at the end, the Chicken Machboos tip is useful: sprinkle 3 to 4 tablespoons of hot water, cover, and give it 5 more minutes.

Fluff with a fork, which keeps the grains whole, then plate it with the meat on top, and scatter fried raisins and nuts.

How long it takes in total

Our page lists 90 minutes for Lamb Kabsa, but its own steps add up to longer: soaking runs alongside, then roughly 7 + 1 + 7 minutes of frying, 70 minutes of simmering, a few minutes to boil, 20 on dum and 5 to rest. Plan on about two hours from first onion to plate. Chicken Machboos is shorter, at 65 minutes in total, because chicken simmers about 25 minutes.

Safety note for the chicken version: poultry should reach 74 C / 165 F in the thickest part. Check with a thermometer, not the colour.

Kabsa, machboos or mandi

They are cousins, and the library treats them as a family. Per our recipe tips, kabsa is Saudi in origin and usually a touch drier than Emirati machboos; machboos tends to be tangier from the dried lime. Mandi, meanwhile, finishes in the oven: the chicken sits on a rack above the rice in a tray at 200 C / 400 F for about 40 minutes.

For something lighter at the same table, try the mezze night spread, and see Maqluba for a rice dish you flip.

The leftover plan

One buying tip from the recipe belongs here too: bone-in lamb shoulder or leg gives the richest broth, and the broth is the whole dish.

Once the platter is down to the last third, the useful next page is What to Do With Leftover Kabsa or Machboos. The short version is to cool the rice quickly and refrigerate it within about an hour.

If you want to see what you already have before you buy a kilo of lamb, Degchi's pantry sandbox lets you try it with your own ingredient list.