Maqluba With Chicken – The Best Palestinian Style Rice Dish

I’m Back!

Hey everyone! I am so happy to be writing on my blog again. For context, I was so busy planning my wedding, getting married, and moving to another country. So, I have decided to put blogging aside for a while. Now that all that is behind me and I am starting to settle, I am genuinely so excited to get back to writing, sharing, and learning through blogging! I knew exactly what I wanted to write as soon as I got back to it. I started this post before my wedding so we can say that this post has been in production for months, haha. But I promise that this post is much worth the wait. I am finally writing my first food blog post, and it is only right that I write about the first dish I learned to make myself – Maqluba!

For those of you who may not know, I am a proud Palestinian who was born and raised in America. I am passionate about holding onto my Palestinian roots, and that includes learning and passing down these essential Palestinian recipes. Through trial and error, I have been perfecting this recipe for years; ever since I was just 15 years old. My mom inspired me to learn this dish. I will never forget coming home from school to see my mom pour her hard work and love into this dish. The smell of freshly fried eggplant, cauliflower, and potatoes makes you fall in love. That smell felt like home. It gave me a ratatouille moment that I always transport back to when I make maqluba. Through my years of admiration for this dish, I have acquired a series of recipe secrets and tricks that make this dish special.

Maqluba

Maqluba, or Maqluba, is a Palestinian dish that quite literally translates to ‘upside down’ or ‘flipped over’ in Arabic. Once the dish is cooked in the pot, we flip it upside down onto a saaneyeh (huge serving platter). There is so much culture, history, and tradition infused into this dish. It consists of many rich flavors coming from the fried cauliflower, eggplants, spices, garlic, onions, sometimes carrots, chickpeas, and so much more. We often serve it with a salad and a delicious cucumber garlic yogurt. I am very excited to share with you all the BEST Palestinian Mabluba Recipe you will ever try

1. Preparation and Frying

Potatoes

First things first, prepare everything for frying! I peel my potatoes and cut them into 1/2-inch thick circles, then place them into a pot with vegetable oil and fry until they are golden brown. You can also use a frying pan for more surface area and shallow fry on both sides. I like to start with the potatoes so while they fry I can prep the eggplant and cauliflower.

Eggplant

As the potatoes fry, cut the eggplant into half-inch circles, place them onto a paper towel, and salt to make them sweat. You want to see water droplets form on the surface. The eggplant slices need to release water so that they soak up minimal oil when frying. Once the potatoes are fried, place them onto a plate with a paper towel to drain the oil. Put in the eggplant slices and start prepping the cauliflower if you already haven’t done so. Once the eggplant is dark golden brown on both sides, remove it and place it onto the plate with a paper towel. Here’s a secret: You want the eggplant to be almost burnt. This is what gives it its rich flavor, and the rice becomes more flavorful and develops a deeper color. So don’t be afraid of getting it a bit dark and crispy.

Cauliflower

To prep the cauliflower, break up into small-medium sections with your hand. Place onto a paper towel to drain as much water as possible. I like to wrap each one in a paper towel and give them a good shake before dropping them into the fryer. This is to really get the last few drops of water because let’s just say the oil can get really aggressive if there’s residual water. Proceed with caution! Fry until all edges are golden and crispy. Drain onto a paper plate.

Cooking the Chicken and Making the Broth

Now you have fried the vegetables, we can start on the chicken and broth. Dice one large onion, crush garlic, and cut up your chicken in desired sizes. I like to do large 2 inch cubes. Heat some water in a kettle before getting started on the next step. In a large pot, heat some olive oil and saute your onions and garlic. Add in your cloves, cardamom pods, crushed garlic, bay leaf, and cinnamon stick. After the onions have softened, sear the chicken and add in your spices. I like to use cumin, all spice or 7 spice, garlic powder, salt and pepper.

Next, pour in the water from the kettle (enough to cover all the components). If you don’t have a kettle, it’s okay! Simply add water from the faucet and let it come to a boil. Once it begins to boil for a few minutes, you will notice a foam at the top. Use a strainer or spoon to remove it. Add in more salt to taste boil for about 20 minutes or until chicken cooks 70% of the way. You can choose to strain out the cardamom pods, bay leaf, and cinnamon stick at this point or leave it in!

Assembling the Pot and Adding in the Rice

As the chicken cooks, I like to wash my medium grain thick baldo rice. You can also use basmatic rice, but I like them short and thick because I feel that they hold more flavor. Next in the pot of chicken and broth, add in your fried vegetables. Then, I like to cut up and add in some carrots and half a can of chickpeas for that extra rich flavor.

Now, get the vegetables boilng for a few minutes before adding in th rice. My mom taught me a beautiful secret about how to develop that dark brown, rich color and flavor for the rice; the longer you let the water boil with the eggplant, the better the color, and the more flavourful it is. Boiling the other vegetables along with it develops the flavor as well. So essentially, you boil the water until it turns into a rich brown color before adding the rice.

Now, pour in the rice, and add in additional water if needed. There should be about half an inch of water above the rice. Cover the pot with a lid and set a 15-20 minute timer. In this time, I usually like to toast my pine nuts, and almonds, and chop up some fresh parsley for garnish.

The Big Flip and Serving

Once the timer is up, check the rice to make sure it is fully cooked. Finally, it’s time for the big flip! This may be my favorite part of cooking the dish, because it speaks to our beautiful Palestinian culture. We have passed this tradition down for generations, and its a huge part of what makes this dish special.

Typically, we like to flip the dish onto a circular silver tray, called a saaneyeh in Arabic, as shown above. There are several ways to perform this flip, but I like to place the tray upside down onto the uncovered pot. Next, I put on oven mitts and place one hand on top of the saaneyeh and one hand under the pot. Then, carefully and swiftly flip! Place it onto a flat surface and pat pat the bottom of the pot to make sure all the rice comes down. Then carefully shimmy the maqluba pot off, showcasing your beautiful work of art.

Garnish with the pine nuts and almonds and the fresh parsley. Serve with salad and the mint cucumber laban, and enjoy. If you’d like the salad and laban recipes, please leave me a comment below and I’ll post it soon! Please let me know if you try this maqluba recipe out and what you think. I hope you all love it as much as my loved ones do.