Chicken Maqluba — Upside-Down Rice and Vegetables

What you’ll need

Ingredients

Ingredient amounts make 6 servings. Nutrition below is for one serving.

• 750 g Raw boneless skinless chicken thigh
• 360 g White basmati rice, weighed dry
• 500 g Eggplant, trimmed, edible weight
• 400 g Cauliflower florets
• 200 g Tomatoes, trimmed
• 150 g Onion, peeled
• 45 g Olive oil
• 3 g Ground allspice
• 1 g Ground cinnamon
• 2 g Ground turmeric
• 1 g Ground black pepper
• 5 g Fine salt
• 1000 ml Water, plus extra for washing or soaking as directed

Make it

Instructions

1. 1

   Heat a conventional oven to 220°C (200°C fan). Slice eggplant 1 cm thick and cut cauliflower into small florets. Toss them with 30 g of the oil and roast on two trays for 25–30 minutes, turning halfway, until softened and browned.

2. 2

   Meanwhile dice onion and cut chicken into 4 cm pieces. Heat 10 g oil in a pot, soften onion 6 minutes and brown chicken 5 minutes. Add ground spices, salt and 1 litre water. Cover and simmer 15–20 minutes until chicken reaches 74°C.

3. 3

   Lift out the chicken; strain and reserve both onion and cooking liquid. Measure 650 ml liquid, reducing any excess by boiling separately or topping up with hot water if short. Rinse and drain the rice without soaking. Slice the tomatoes.

4. 4

   Grease a straight-sided 24 cm nonstick pot with the remaining 5 g oil. Layer tomato slices, eggplant, cauliflower, chicken and cooked onion, then spread rice evenly on top. Slowly pour in the 650 ml hot cooking liquid without stirring the layers.

5. 5

   Bring to a gentle boil, cover tightly and cook on the lowest heat for 30–35 minutes until rice is tender. If needed add 30–50 ml boiling water and cook 5 minutes more. Rest off the heat for 15 minutes so the layers settle.

6. 6

   Place a large heatproof rimmed platter over the pot. With dry oven mitts, grip pot and platter together and invert carefully away from your body; wait 2 minutes before lifting. If the pot is too heavy, serve in layers with a spoon. Divide chicken, vegetables and rice equally into six portions.