Dish · middle-eastern
Kabsa
Kabsa is a spiced rice dish from the Arabian Gulf: chicken or lamb cooked with tomato, dried lime, and a warm spice mix, then set over rice cooked in that same broth.
Where it comes from
Rice reached the Arabian Gulf through trade routes across the Indian Ocean, and it became a one-pot meal built around chicken or lamb to feed a large family at once, a dish now closely tied to Saudi and wider Gulf cooking.
What cooks argue about
The debated step is toasting the whole spices and tomato paste before adding rice to build a deeper base, versus layering everything raw, which cooks faster but tastes flatter.
Versions
Nobody has published a kabsa here yet. When somebody cooks one from a video and publishes it, their version appears in this list, with a link back to the original.
What goes in it
Each one opens everything else made with it.
basmati rice
chicken thigh bone in
cardamom green
dried lime powder