High Protein High Fibre Chicken Kabsa
Chicken Kabsa is the national dish of Saudi Arabia and a beloved staple across the GCC. Growing up in Kuwait, dishes like this were always part of my life, and I love finding ways to recreate the cultural foods I grew up with while making them PCOS-friendly.
By mixing chickpeas with rice, you are increasing your fibre intake while slowing down the release of glucose into your blood stream.
Per 1/4cup cooked chickpeas you get 4 gram fibre.
This isn’t the traditional way of making kabsa. Instead, it’s my simplified version that focuses on getting a nourishing meal on the table with as little effort as possible.
Although the dish bakes in the oven for about 45 minutes, I still consider it a very low-effort meal. There’s minimal chopping involved—we simply layer everything into a baking dish and pop it into the oven. While it cooks, I can clean up the kitchen, start a load of laundry, or tackle a few other tasks around the house.
Sometimes the best recipes are the ones that make life just a little bit easier while still bringing the flavours we love to the table.
Ingredients
serves 6
6-7 skinless chicken thigh fillets
2 tbsp Kabsa Spice mix ( If you do not have this you can do this with a shawarma spice mix instead but this would then be a shawarma bowl)
1 Tbsp tomato paste
1 tsp chilli powder
3/4 tsp salt
1 yellow onion , sliced
3 cloves garlic (large) , minced
1 tbsp olive oil
1 canned chickpeas, washed thouroughly ( 540 ml/ 19 fl oz)
1 1/2 cups uncooked white rice (Basmati if you like fluffy texture or medium grain if you pretty mushy soft texture)
1 1/2 cups (375 ml) Hot chicken broth/stock
1 1/4 cups (315 ml) water
Directions
Preheat oven to 218°C/425°F.
Sprinkle the kabsa spice, chilli, and salt over the Chicken to coat it properly on both side and add tomato paste + drizzle the 1 tbsp olive oil over it . Make sure everything is mixed well together.
Scatter onion and garlic in a baking dish
Add rice and chickpeas, mix with onion and garlic
Place the spiced chicken on rice. Then pour chicken broth and water around the chicken.
Cover with foil, then bake for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, remove the foil and continue baking for another 20 minutes until all liquid is absorbed.
Stand for 5 minutes, then remove chicken and fluff up rice.
Serve with a side of salad. You can portion 3-4.5 oz cooked chicken along 2/3 - ¾ cup chickpea/rice mix to get good protein carb ratio.
