Recipe

Asia → 🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia → Riyadh
Kabsa
Saudi · medium · serves 5
prep 20 min · cook 55 min
~1076 cal · 80g protein · 111g carbs · 33g fat (estimated, per serving)
🍽️
Platter of spiced rice topped with roasted chicken
🇸🇦 Riyadh
Kabsa is the great communal dish of the Arabian Peninsula, mounded on a platter for guests to gather around and eat by hand. The loomi (dried lime) and baharat give it its haunting sour-warm depth; a spoon of the smoky-red daqoos sauce completes it.
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Ingredients
Serves 5 —
•
3 lbs chicken, quartered
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2.5 cups basmati rice, rinsed
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3 dried limes (loomi), pierced
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2 tbsp baharat
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1 tsp turmeric
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1 a pinch of saffron
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5 + 4 + 1 + 2 whole spices: cardamom, cloves, cinnamon, bay
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2 onions
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5 cloves garlic
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3 tomatoes
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2 tbsp tomato paste
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1/3 cup neutral oil
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1 cup daqoos sauce (blended tomato + chili + garlic), to serve
Instructions
1
Brown the chicken (or vegetables) with the onions, garlic, and whole spices.
2
Add tomatoes, paste, baharat, turmeric, pierced dried limes, and water to cover; simmer 25 minutes (12 for the plant version).
3
Lift out the chicken and broil it until the skin crisps. Measure the broth to 4 cups.
4
Cook the rice in the spiced broth with the saffron, covered, 15 minutes; rest 10.
5
Mound the rice on a platter, arrange the crisped chicken on top, and serve with the smoky daqoos — everyone shares from the same dish.
Riyadh hospitality tradition.
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🌏 While it simmers — know your destination
📍
Riyadh. Where kabsa is heaped on a communal platter for guests.
🗺️
Saudi Arabia. Desert hospitality measured in platters of spiced rice.
🌍
Asia. From street-cart woks to slow monastery kitchens.
The story behind this dish is up top — worth a read while the pot works.
👩‍🍳
Richard Moore & Kelsey Tucker
Recipes cooked, tested, and researched by the creators of Spin the Globe. How we build our recipes →
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