A bone-in chicken breast can be a real thing of beauty, especially as part of a flavorful chicken and rice dish like this! But I’d be remiss if I didn’t start this post with a little shout out to my nephew, a HUGE soccer fan, and his obsession with the upcoming World Cup has inspired many of my country cooking selections for the next few weeks. I decided it was only fitting to start with the host country, Qatar, and while I don’t always lean into the national dish for a particular country, I did for this one as it sounded SO GOOD.
I did modify a bit on how I made the rice as I found the method listed in the recipe a bit unnecessarily labor-intensive. Admittedly I made this dish a few weeks ago right before I went on vacation so my modifications are a bit fuzzy at this point, but in essence, I didn’t wait until the chicken was done in order to make the rice but I did infuse some of the liquid and vegetables from the chicken cooking liquid to flavor the rice as it cooked and then added the remainder to the rice at the end of cooking. I don’t think modification changed the end flavor but maybe saved me a bit of time. If you don’t have a deep spice cabinet, you may need to shop for some of the spices that goes into the mix. Amazingly enough, I still had black lemon/lime in my cabinet from a prior recipe which rounded out this unique blend of spices with also included turmeric, saffron, coriander, and many more.
Overall Level of Effort: 2
Skill Level: Intermediate
Would Make it Again? Yes
Additional Notes: This may have been one of my favorite chicken/rice dishes from this year. I loved the blend of spices and I think bone-in chicken breast is always a good idea and worth the little bit of extra time and effort to cook.
A Portrait of the Artist as She Cooks 