I'm from Saudi Arabia, and I've eaten and prepared this dish all my life, and I must say that the steps in this recipe are very accurate. This dish is very diverse and is well-known in all gulf countries. So it's prepared in different ways with different ingredients, and this is just one way. Another delicious way of preparing it (my favorite) is by replacing chicken with small pieces (about 2-3 inch) of lamb or goat and adding about 15 to 30 minutes to the cooking time depending on the meat. These small cuts are not what you would normally find in a butcher shop, and they're typically found in Halal meat stores and Afghani or Persian stores. I personally don't use carrots, and sometimes even make it without tomato puree or tomato paste (it's actually called red Kabsa when tomatoes are used and white Kabsa when they aren't). What I'm trying to say here is, this recipe is very flexible and you can adjust it to whatever ingredients you have/like. As long as sauteed onions, a type of meat and the allspice parts are there, you can't go wrong with it. All the spices in this recipe are sold in Middle Eastern grocery stores in North America as one blend, and even better, many online spice stores sell them. The spice blend is called Baharat, which literally translates to "spices" in Arabic. Not every one uses saffron and often it's added to make it fancier in special occasions. To get the yellow color of saffron for a MUCH lower price, we usually use ground turmeric instead.

Pretty good! I was missing a couple items (tomato paste and allspice), but forged ahead. Delicious with good flavor - I did add a spoonful of greek yogurt in the end to add a bit of creaminess to it, but I don't think it really needed it. I did sub beef broth instead of the water and chicken bouillon. Got impatient and didn't fully go with the simmer times, but still great. Served with asparagus. Will definitely make a version of this again.

Something was definetly missing from this dish. Too much spice without a warm undertone. I found myself adding chicken bullion and then trying to compensate by squeezing lime over it

I cooked this dish but did few changes because husband doesnt like chicken so i replaced it with minced meat :)) i crystalized the onions and garlic in buter and added the meat to fry; it became nice and saucy. After i followed the given steps in the recipes and instead the lime powder i added shredded lime skin the taste was soooo good. I also ommited saffron i dont use it in my cooking because it is an expensive ingredient and i don't know to use it properly. I also preboiled the rice a bit in a separate pot and instead of adding it to the meat i added the meat to the rice pot and from time to time added more legume brot to make it saucy and light to chew and swallow. Try it would come out niiiice my tab doesnt let me rate properly but its a 5* f rom me

First time I ever made an Arabic dish. Loved it. Smelled great and was delicious. I read the reviews, and I also did not use the Saffron, didn't even miss it. This dish is very flavorful with all the other spices in it. I also used boneless chicken breasts cut into pieces, vs the whole chicken.

I was happy to find a new Eastern recipe without curry! This dish has amazing flavor, and smells delicious while simmering. To avoid msg, I cooked the rice in chicken broth rather than using a bouillon cube/water. I ended up adding additional broth to the pot of chicken, so the mixture would end up saucier. (I enjoy the succulence that adds served over rice!) I will definitely make this again, but next time won't waste my pricey saffron in it - there are so many other spices going on, it's just not necessary, and is completely overpowered. Another thing that didn't make a lot of sense was making & adding the Kabsa spice mix separately; pouring each spice directly into the chicken pot individually, as with the nutmeg, etc. would work just as well.