Maklouba
(Upside-down chicken)
Ingredients
700 g chicken breast
Vegetables (zucchini, eggplant, carrot, turnip, potato, cauliflower etc.).
2 cups rice
2 teaspoon baharat
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1⁄2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/3 cup olive oil
2 teaspoon salt
700 ml boiling water or chicken or beef broth
Directions
• Slice the chicken breast into strips.
• Sprinkle half of the spices over the sliced chicken breast.
• Stir-fry chicken in oil until browned but not cooked through, about 5 minutes.
• Add 1 cup of water and continue to cook for 2 minutes longer.
• Remove the chicken and reserve the cooking liquid.
• Coarsely chop all the vegetables.
• Fry (or roast) vegetables until they are 3⁄4 cooked through.
• Rinse the rice.
• In a bowl, mix together the remaining spices, 1 teaspoon salt, olive oil and the rice
• Line the bottom of a medium pot with the chicken strips. Place the fried\roasted vegetables on top of the chicken. Pour the rice over the vegetables.
• Press down very firmly on the rice so all the ingredients are well packed. Sprinkle 1 teaspoon of salt over the rice.
• Combine the reserved liquid the chicken was cooked in with 700 ml of either boiling water or chicken or beef broth. Pour the boiling liquid into the pot until you just see the liquid come up to just below the top of the rice. Cover well.
• Bring back to boil and reduce flame to low, Cook for 30 minutes After cooking, allow it to rest for 10 minutes.
• Remove the lid from the pot and place a large serving plate over the top of the pot. It is important that the plate covers the entire top of the pot. Quickly turn the pot upside down, holding the plate tightly over the top of the pot. Do not shake or rock the ingredients out. Allow gravity to drop the ingredients onto the plate. It may take a few moments for the ingredients to empty out of the pot.
Note: The dish looks very impressive when it comes out of the pot, looking like a cake, so we recommend turning the dish out at the table, in front of your guests to achieve that wow factor.
