Recipe
🍽️ DINNER
Kabsa
Spiced rice cooked in aromatic broth with chicken, dried lime, and a whole-spice perfume, heaped high for sharing.
Saudi · medium · serves 5
prep 20 min · cook 55 min
~1310 cal · 85g protein · 132g carbs · 49g fat · 8g fiber · 20g sugars · 8g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Kabsa is the national dish of Saudi Arabia and the celebratory rice of the Arabian Peninsula, long-grain rice cooked in an aromatic broth with chicken or lamb, dried limes ('loomi'), and a warm spice blend, then crowned with the meat and toasted nuts. It is the centerpiece of hospitality and feasts.
The dish is built on 'baharat' spice and the distinctive sour note of dried lime, the rice cooked in the meat's spiced until every grain is fragrant. It reflects the Bedouin and Gulf traditions of one-pot rice feasts meant to feed and honor many.
Served on a great communal platter and eaten by hand, kabsa is the dish of weddings, holidays, and honored guests across Riyadh and the Kingdom.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally gluten-, dairy-, 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 5
3 lbs chicken, quartered
2.5 cups basmati rice, rinsed
3 dried limes (loomi), pierced
Hard to find? wide strips of lime zest, plus a squeeze of lime at the end - brightens the pot but cannot give loomi's dark, musky fermented note; Middle Eastern grocers sell dried limes cheaply
2 tbsp baharat
1 tsp turmeric
5 pods
4 cloves
1 cinnamon stick
2 bay leaves
2 onions
5 cloves garlic
1 tbsp fresh ginger, grated
2 carrots, coarsely grated
1 orange orange zest
1 tbsp salt
3 tomatoes
2 tbsp tomato paste
1/3 cup
1/2 cup total slivered almonds and pine nuts, toasted in oil, to top
1/3 cup raisins, plumped in the same oil
1 cup daqoos sauce (blended tomato and chili and garlic), to serve
Instructions
1
Brown the chicken (or vegetables), set it aside, then cook the onions until golden and add the garlic, ginger, and whole spices.
2
Add the tomatoes, paste, grated carrot, baharat, and turmeric, and cook until jammy and starting to stick, then return the chicken with the pierced dried limes, orange zest, salt, and water to cover, and simmer 25 minutes (12 for the plant version).
✎ Chef’s note
Cooking the tomato and carrot down until jammy before the liquid goes in concentrates them and stops the rice turning soggy later. The loomi is what makes this kabsa rather than spiced chicken rice: pierce them, and fish them out before the rice goes in.
3
Lift out the chicken and broil it until the skin crisps.
4
Measure the broth and top it up to 4 cups for the rice.
✎ Chef’s note
Cooking the rice in the spiced chicken broth is what carries the kabsa flavour through every grain, so get the broth measure right for fluffy, separate rice.
5
Cook the rice in the spiced broth, covered and as low as the burner goes, for about 20 minutes, then rest 10 minutes off the heat.
6
Mound the rice on a platter, arrange the crisped chicken on top, scatter over the toasted nuts and raisins with their oil, and serve with the daqoos sauce.
Riyadh hospitality tradition.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Riyadh. Which dish is national is not actually settled. Kabsa is what most people would name, but in 2023 the Saudi Culinary Arts Commission declared jareesh, crushed wheat cooked down with meat and yoghurt, to be the national dish instead. Kabsa's own origins are sometimes traced to Yemen, and it appears round the Gulf as machboos or majboos.
🗺️
Saudi Arabia. Coffee here is a ceremony with rules. Qahwa is lightly roasted, cardamom-heavy, pale rather than dark, poured from a dallah into small handleless cups filled only part way, and refilled until the guest shakes the cup. Dates come with it, and the pairing is offered before any conversation about business begins.
🌍
Asia. Fermentation is the thread that runs the whole way across: soy sauce and miso, Korean doenjang and kimchi, Southeast Asian fish sauces, the soured batter behind an idli. Chilli is the newcomer among them, arriving only after 1500 with Portuguese and Spanish traders, which makes the heat in Sichuan, Thai and Korean cooking far younger than the fermenting underneath it.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Saudi Arabia
MasabibSoft, holey yeasted pancakes drenched in date syrup or honey, a Hejazi and Saudi breakfast.
MutabbaqA thin folded pastry stuffed with spiced minced meat and egg, griddled crisp, a favorite Saudi street snack.
AreekaSoft bread mashed with dates, butter, and honey into a rich, comforting sweet of southern Saudi Arabia.
Browse all Saudi Arabia recipes →
Good to know
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 Saudi Arabia meal
AreekaDessert
MutabbaqLunch
Similar dishes from around the world
Hyderabadi Chicken BiryaniIndia
Maqluba (Upside-Down Rice)Jordan
Bahraini MachboosBahrain
La Bandera DominicanaDominican Republic
Emirati MachboosUnited Arab Emirates
Palestinian MaqlubaPalestine
Cuisine
Diet
Themes
Frequently asked questions
What is Kabsa?
Spiced rice cooked in aromatic broth with chicken, dried lime, and a whole-spice perfume, heaped high for sharing.
Where does Kabsa come from?
Kabsa is a Saudi dish from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Can Kabsa be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Kabsa 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 Kabsa 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 Kabsa take to make?
About 75 minutes total (20 minutes prep, 55 minutes cooking), serving 5.
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