Chicken Kabsa

It's so beautifully arranged on the plate - you know somone's fingers have been all over it.

- Julia Child

I have always preferred the Mandi rice to kabsa rice but a lot of people I've met seem to prefer the latter. Kabsa rice is known to be of Yemani origin, mostly served in Saudi Arabia and famous all over the Gulf. I got this recipe from Sun Cuisine. Another beautiful blog I came across while searching for recipes.

What all you'll need:

• 1 whole chicken cut into 4 pieces
• 3 cups Basmati rice washed and drained
• 1 large onion chopped
• 4-5 cloves of garlic, chopped finely
• 1/2 an inch ginger, chopped finely
• 1/2 a small chopped tomatoes
• 1 tsp cumin powder
• 1 tsp turmeric powder
• 1 tsp coriander powder
• 1 tsp All spice (Now this was not there in the recipe. I simply added coz I wanted to check out what difference it would make to the rice.. and uh... I couldn't make out a difference :P)
• 1 tsp fennel seeds
• 1 tsp black pepper
• 2-3 pieces of cinnamon stick
• 3 dried limes
• 3 bay leaves
• 4 cardamon 
• 4 cloves
• salt to taste
• oil for cooking

How to make:

• In a pressure cooker heat oil.  Add in the chopped onions, ginger and garlic. Cook for a minute or two. Add in the chicken, tomatoes, all the spices and salt. Add 3 cups water. Cover and pressure cook on medium flame for 10-15 minutes or until 2 whistles or until u feel ur chicken is almost cooked but not fully cooked. Switch off stove.
• Cook the Basmati rice with salt... not half way but almost half way cooked. Drain and rinse the rice with cold water so that it does not get fully cooked with the heat. 
• Open the pressure cooker once it has cooled down (or if u want to open immediately without waiting for it to cool: Place the pressure cooker under cold running water. It'll cool the lid and you'll be able to open safely. I always do this). Check the amount of sauce. As the rice is a little cooked and the chicken almost cooked, there should be only about 1 cup sauce in the pressure cooker. Adjust by adding water or removing sauce accordingly. Now add the rice and cook for 10-12 minutes. 
• Switch off stove and place pressure cooker under cold running water and check rice and chicken. Make sure its not overcooked. 
• Garnish with some roasted cashew nuts.

It took me a few tries with mandi rice and kabsa rice to get this pressure cooker process proper. The water rice consistency. And the chicken too. The rice and chicken has to be just rightly cooked. I used to get the top layer well cooked and the rice near the chicken pieces a bit over cooked. But once I got the handle of it, its sooo much faster to use pressure cooker for making kabsa or mandi rice.

My husband and son both enjoyed this! And that's all what I need.... :) Alhamdulillah!