Lebanese chicken and rice

5 from 5 votes

This dish combines rice cooked with meaty and spices, chicken and toasted nuts to make a meal that's a wonderful mix of flavors and textures.

Prep Time3

Cook Time45

Total Time48

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: Lebanese

Servings: (or slightly more)

Calories: 824kcal

Author: Caroline's Cooking

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Ingredients

For nut topping

¼ cup slivered almonds or can use halved blanched almonds
2 tablespoon pine nuts
3 tablespoon cashews
1 tablespoon olive oil approx

For chicken

1 lb chicken breast or can use boneless thighs (see notes)
⅛ onion
2 stems parsley
1 bay leaf

For rice base

½ onion
1 tablespoon olive oil
¾ lb ground beef or lamb beef or lamb mince
2 teaspoon Lebanese seven spice (baharat)
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon pepper
1 ½ tablespoon butter
1 ¼ cups long grain rice eg basmati
2 cups chicken stock

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

For nut topping (can do ahead)

Warm the oil in a small skillet/frying pan over a medium head and add the nuts, one kind at a time (since they can take different times to cook). Keep a close eye on them as they cook and turn occasionally so that they cook on each side. The nuts can take around 1 - 4 minutes depending on the kind and size. Once the nuts are brown but not burnt, remove from the skillet, draining excess oil, then transfer to kitchen paper to remove any more oil.
Add the next kind of nut to the oil and repeat until all are toasted. If you don't seem to have enough oil as you add the second or third kind of nut, add a little more. These can be made a day or two ahead and stored at room temperature

For chicken (can do ahead)

If using fresh chicken, place in a pot and add the onion, parsley and bay leaf. Add water so that the chicken is covered by a good 1in/2-3cm, cover then place on a medium-high heat and bring to a boil. Reduce heat slightly to simmer/low boil and cook for around 10 minutes, testing now and then, until the chicken is cooked through (if using an instant-read thermometer, you are looking for around 165F/74C in thickest part). Remove from cooking water.
If cooking as you are about to eat, start cooking the meat and rice as the chicken is poaching and then keep chicken warm and shred before serving. If you make it ahead, let cool then refrigerate to store a day or two.

For rice

Dice the onion into a relatively small dice.
Warm the oil in a Dutch oven or other relatively large pot with a lid over a medium heat then add the onion. Cook for a few minutes to soften the onion.
Once the onion is translucent but not browning, add the ground beef/lamb. Cook the meat, turning and breaking up the chunks regularly.
Once the meat has browned, add the Lebanese seven spice, salt and pepper and stir to mix through. Add the rice and butter and mix both through the meat so that the butter melts and the rice becomes well coated.
Add the stock to the meat and rice mixture, cover and bring to a simmer. Reduce the heat so that the liquid simmers rather than boils and leave to cook, covered, until all the liquid has been absorbed.
Serve the meat and rice mixture topped with the chicken and then some of each of the toasted nuts. You can either place all on one platter to serve from or layer up each on individual plates (a platter is more typical). Great served with salad on the side.

Video

Notes

You can also use similar quantity of leftover/pre-cooked chicken eg rotisserie chicken in place of starting from scratch. Simply shred then re-heat before adding on top of the rice. You can warm in microwave or, possibly better, with a little stock in a pan to help ensure it is moist. While poaching is more traditional, we also like this with pan-fried chicken thighs.

You can make your own Lebanese seven spice really easily - just follow link to the recipe.

Nutrition