Recipe
🍽️ DINNER
Maqluba (Upside-Down Rice)
Layers of chicken, fried eggplant, cauliflower, and spiced rice cooked in one pot, then flipped tableside.
Jordanian (Levantine) · advanced · serves 6
prep 35 min · cook 60 min
~797 cal · 47g protein · 79g carbs · 31g fat · 4g fiber · 4g sugars · 5g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Maqluba, 'upside-down' in Arabic, is the theatrical centerpiece of the Jordanian and Palestinian table: layers of chicken or lamb, fried eggplant, cauliflower, and spiced rice cooked in one pot, then dramatically flipped onto a platter so the meat crowns the mound. The flip is a moment of communal suspense and delight.
The dish back centuries; a version appears in the medieval Arab cookbook tradition, and its layering allows the rice to absorb the flavors of the meat and vegetables above it. Warm spices like cinnamon, allspice, and perfume the whole pot.
Maqluba is a dish of gathering, made for family Fridays, guests, and celebrations across Jordan, and served from the shared mound with yogurt and salad.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally gluten-, egg- and pork-free. No swaps needed.
Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
🥕 Vegetarian
🌱 Vegan
🌾 Gluten-Free
🥛 Dairy-Free
🥜 Nut-Free
🥚 Egg-Free
🐖 Pork-Free
Dietary labels are a cooking guide, not allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish; we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, read the label on every product you use, and note that a kitchen can cross-contaminate in ways a recipe cannot control.
Ingredients
US
Metric
Serves 6
2 lbs chicken thighs, bone-in
2.5 cups basmati rice, soaked 20 minutes
1 large eggplant, sliced into rounds
2 cups cauliflower florets
1 potato, sliced into rounds
1 tomato, sliced
1 onion, chopped
1 tsp each maqluba spice: allspice, cinnamon, turmeric, black pepper
4 pods
2 bay leaves
1/2 cup , for frying
1/3 cup toasted almonds and pine nuts (to garnish)
on the side plain yogurt or a chopped salad, to serve
Instructions
1
Fry the eggplant, cauliflower, and potato in oil until golden on all sides, then drain on paper towels.
2
In the same pot, brown the chicken with the onion, cardamom, and bay leaves.
3
Add 4 cups water and simmer the chicken 25 minutes, then lift out the chicken and keep the broth.
4
Layer the pot from the bottom up: tomato slices, then chicken (or chickpeas), then the fried eggplant, cauliflower, and potato.
5
Toss the drained rice with the ground spices and spread it evenly over the top.
6
Pour in the hot broth to cover the rice by about half an inch.
7
Boil 5 minutes, then cover and cook on the lowest heat for 30 minutes.
8
Turn off the heat and rest, covered, for 15 minutes.
✎ Chef’s note
Do not skip the rest. It lets everything settle and firm up, which is what holds the shape when you flip it.
9
Place a large platter over the pot, then flip the whole thing over in one confident motion and lift the pot away slowly. Scatter with the toasted almonds and pine nuts and serve with yogurt or salad.
Amman family-table tradition.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Amman. The sauce is the difficult part. Jameed is yoghurt drained, salted and dried into hard pale balls that keep for months, then broken up and loosened back into the tart white liquid the lamb cooks in. Mansaf itself is eaten well beyond Jordan, so what is Jordanian is the ceremony rather than the dish.
🗺️
Jordan. Jordan is mostly dry, and its cooking reflects a pastoral rather than an agricultural inheritance: sheep and goats, their milk turned into yoghurt and then dried so it keeps, grains that tolerate little rain, and bread baked flat and thin because it travels. What grows in the wetter northwest, olives and tomatoes and herbs, joins the Levantine mezze table.
🌍
Asia. Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, and its food spans the delicate seasonality of Japanese washoku, the chili-fired curries of India and Thailand, and the wheat-and-lamb traditions of Central Asia. Rice, noodles, soy, and fermentation recur across its regions, while ancient spice routes and religious traditions shaped distinct grammars of flavor. Whether from a street-cart wok or a monastery kitchen, eating is deeply communal and ritual-rich.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Jordan
FattehLayers of toasted bread, warm chickpeas, and garlicky yogurt topped with sizzled butter and pine nuts.
MansafLamb cooked in a tangy fermented-yogurt sauce over rice and flatbread, Jordan's national dish of hospitality.
MahalabiaA delicate milk pudding set with cornstarch and perfumed with rose or orange blossom, a light Levantine sweet.
Browse all Jordan recipes →
Good to know
You’ll need: Pot or saucepan.
Storing it: Cool leftover rice quickly and refrigerate within an hour. Keep up to 2 days and reheat until piping hot all the way through.
Make it a Jordan meal
Qamar al-DinDrink
MahalabiaDessert
MansafLunch
Similar dishes from around the world
Hyderabadi Chicken BiryaniIndia
Bahraini MachboosBahrain
Emirati MachboosUnited Arab Emirates
Palestinian MaqlubaPalestine
Qatari MachboosQatar
Kittitian PelauSaint Kitts and Nevis
Cuisine
Diet
Themes
Frequently asked questions
What is Maqluba (Upside-Down Rice)?
Layers of chicken, fried eggplant, cauliflower, and spiced rice cooked in one pot, then flipped tableside.
Where does Maqluba (Upside-Down Rice) come from?
Maqluba (Upside-Down Rice) is a Jordanian (Levantine) dish from Amman, Jordan.
Can Maqluba (Upside-Down Rice) be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Maqluba (Upside-Down Rice) recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions, including several at once such as gluten-free and dairy-free together. Treat them as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Maqluba (Upside-Down Rice) safe for people with food allergies?
Our dietary labels and substitutions are a cooking guide, not medical or allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish, but we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, always read the label on every product you use, and remember a home or commercial kitchen can cross-contaminate ingredients in ways a recipe cannot control.
How long does Maqluba (Upside-Down Rice) take to make?
About 95 minutes total (35 minutes prep, 60 minutes cooking), serving 6.
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