Recipes

Recipes from the Deera table

From Friday kabsa to the wrap you pack for a desert outing, these are home recipes the way we cook them ourselves. Each one names the Nokhbat Al Deera cut to use, with quantities for an ordinary household.

Serves: 4–5
Time: 1 h 30 min
Cut: Whole chicken, 1200 g

Chicken kabsa

Friday kabsa, the kind whose spices fill the house an hour before lunch. All it asks of you is a little patience.

Ingredients

1 Nokhbat Al Deera whole chicken (1200 g), quartered
3 cups basmati rice, soaked for 30 minutes
2 onions, chopped
2 tomatoes, grated, plus 1 tbsp tomato paste
3 garlic cloves, crushed
1½ tbsp kabsa spice mix
2 dried limes (loomi), 4 cardamom pods, 1 cinnamon stick
3 tbsp ghee or oil
Salt to taste
Toasted almonds and raisins to finish

Method

1
Heat the ghee in a wide pot and cook the onions until soft and golden.
2
Add the chicken and brown it on all sides, then add the garlic, spice mix, loomi, cardamom and cinnamon.
3
Stir in the tomatoes and paste, then 5 cups of hot water and the salt. Cover and simmer gently for 40 minutes.
4
Lift the chicken onto a tray and roast at 200 °C for about 15 minutes, until the top is golden.
5
Leave 4½ cups of broth in the pot, add the drained rice and let it boil until the liquid drops below the rice.
6
Cover, turn the heat to its lowest and cook for 25 minutes, then fluff the rice gently.
7
Spread the rice on a serving tray, set the chicken on top and scatter over the almonds and raisins.

To serve Serve with daqoos, a green salad and a jug of cold laban.

Order this cut

Serves: 4
Time: 2 h
Cut: Whole chicken, 1100 g

Oven chicken mandi

Real mandi is cooked in a pit in the ground, but a home oven gets you surprisingly close. A piece of charcoal at the end does the rest.

Ingredients

1 Nokhbat Al Deera whole chicken (1100 g), halved
2 tbsp mandi spice mix
3 tbsp ghee
3 cups basmati rice, soaked for 30 minutes
1 onion, chopped
4 cardamom pods and 2 dried limes (loomi)
4 cups hot water
Salt to taste
1 small piece of charcoal, for smoking

Method

1
Rub the chicken with ghee, the mandi spices and salt, and leave it in the fridge for an hour.
2
Fry the onion in a little ghee, then add the water, cardamom, loomi and salt and bring to the boil.
3
Add the drained rice. When the water has dropped by half, tip the rice and its liquid into a deep oven tray.
4
Lay the chicken on the rice, seal the tray tightly with foil and bake at 180 °C for a full hour.
5
Uncover, raise the oven to 220 °C and give the chicken another 15 minutes to brown.
6
To smoke: light the charcoal, set it in a small foil cup in the middle of the rice, drip a little ghee on it and cover the tray for 10 minutes.

To serve Bring it to the table with green sahawiq and yogurt, the smoke still in the tray.

Order this cut

Serves: 3–4
Time: 50 min + 1 h marinating
Cut: Chicken wings

Lemon and garlic grilled wings

Coals at the istiraha, wings on the grill, and hands reaching in before they've had a chance to cool. The easiest recipe on this page, and the quickest to disappear.

Ingredients

1 kg Nokhbat Al Deera chicken wings
3 tbsp olive oil
Juice of 1 large lemon
4 garlic cloves, crushed
2 tbsp plain yogurt
1 tsp paprika and 1 tsp ground cumin
½ tsp black pepper
Salt to taste
Chopped parsley to serve

Method

1
Pat the wings completely dry with kitchen paper.
2
Mix the oil, lemon juice, garlic, yogurt, spices and salt, and toss the wings through it.
3
Cover and refrigerate for at least an hour, overnight if you can.
4
Grill over medium coals for 20–25 minutes, turning every few minutes, until cooked through and the skin is browned. Or roast at 220 °C for about 35 minutes.
5
Scatter with parsley and a squeeze of lemon, and serve hot.

To serve Serve with garlic toum and hot bread, and start the second batch now.

Order this cut

Serves: 5
Time: 1 h 45 min
Cut: Chicken thighs

Chicken maqluba

The flip is the star of this dish: everyone gathered round the tray, someone counting to three. Take your time layering; the pot does the rest.

Ingredients

1 kg Nokhbat Al Deera chicken thighs
2½ cups rice, soaked for 30 minutes
1 large eggplant, sliced
1 small cauliflower, cut into florets
2 potatoes, sliced into rounds
1 large onion
1 tbsp mixed spices (baharat) and ½ tsp turmeric
Oil for frying
Salt to taste
Toasted almonds to finish

Method

1
Simmer the thighs with the onion, spices and salt in 5 cups of water for 30 minutes. Strain and keep the broth.
2
Fry the eggplant, cauliflower and potatoes until golden, and drain on kitchen paper.
3
Toss the drained rice with the turmeric. Layer the chicken in the bottom of a deep pot, then the vegetables, then the rice.
4
Pour in broth to cover the rice by about 1 cm, bring to the boil, then cover and cook on low for 30 minutes.
5
Turn off the heat and leave the pot covered for 10 minutes.
6
Set the serving tray over the pot, turn it over in one confident move, lift the pot away slowly and top with almonds.

To serve Serve with yogurt and cucumber salad, and do the flip in front of everyone.

Order this cut

Serves: 4
Time: 1 h 10 min
Cut: Chicken drumsticks

Chicken and orzo soup

On a cold night, or on the iftar table in Ramadan, nothing warms a house like a pot of soup on the stove.

Ingredients

6 Nokhbat Al Deera chicken drumsticks
1.5 litres water
1 onion, quartered
2 carrots, finely diced
1 celery stalk, chopped
½ cup orzo
2 cardamom pods, 1 cinnamon stick, 1 bay leaf
Salt and black pepper to taste
Juice of ½ lemon
Chopped parsley

Method

1
Put the drumsticks and water in a pot, bring to the boil and skim off the foam.
2
Add the onion, cardamom, cinnamon and bay leaf, lower the heat and simmer for 40 minutes.
3
Lift out the drumsticks, pull the meat from the bone and chop it, then strain the broth.
4
Return the broth to the heat, add the carrots, celery and orzo, and cook for 15 minutes.
5
Put the chicken back in, season with salt and pepper, and stir in the lemon and parsley just before serving.

To serve Serve with toasted bread and lemon wedges so everyone can squeeze to taste.

Order this cut

Serves: 4
Time: 30 min
Cut: Chicken breast fillet

Grilled chicken wrap

For a desert outing, or a quick lunch between errands: grilled fillet, fresh vegetables and tahini. Ready in half an hour, rolled up and ready to travel.

Ingredients

500 g Nokhbat Al Deera breast fillet
2 tbsp olive oil
2 garlic cloves, crushed
Juice of ½ lemon
1 tsp paprika and ½ tsp ground cumin
Salt and black pepper
4 saj breads or tortillas
Lettuce, 2 tomatoes and 1 cucumber, sliced
4 tbsp tahini sauce

Method

1
Flatten the fillets with a meat mallet to an even thickness so they cook evenly.
2
Season with the oil, garlic, lemon, spices and salt, and leave for 15 minutes.
3
Cook in a hot griddle pan for 5–6 minutes a side, until cooked through.
4
Rest for 5 minutes, then slice thinly.
5
Spread each bread with tahini, add the vegetables and chicken and roll up tightly. Or serve the same filling as a salad.

To serve Wrap each one in baking paper and it'll reach the desert the way it left your kitchen.

Order this cut

Home-cooking suggestions. Every house has its own way.