Two baked chickens in a red-orange marinade in a white dish, beside a plate of white basmati rice with fried potato, eggplant and peppers

Baked Chicken with Tomato and Potato Mashkhool Rice

I love a simple baked chicken at home. Somehow the flavors we build in our own kitchens always outweigh, in my opinion, any roast chicken or rotisserie chicken from a restaurant. This is what we make at home when we're craving an Arabic style baked chicken: whole chickens coated in a blended marinade of yogurt, tomato, garlic, ginger, lemon, green chili and fresh herbs, stuffed with potatoes, onions and lemon, and baked until tender and juicy.

We serve it with tomato and potato Mashkhool (مشخول) rice, a Gulf rice dish. The basmati is boiled briefly, then strained, and layered in the pot with potato, eggplant, green pepper, onion and tomato, each seasoned and fried on its own, then steamed on low heat.

There are other favorites as well, such as my Yogurt-Marinated Chicken, which I can't recommend enough, but this one sits in my top five all-time favorite baked chicken recipes.

More from my cookbooks

Simple family dinners like this one

My mom's Kuwaiti Spice Mix is on pages 198–199 of From My Childhood Kitchen, along with the Daqoos on pages 194–195 and a close cousin of this chicken, my Baked Yogurt-Marinated Chicken, on pages 93–95. The book is full of simple family dinners like this one.

Get From My Childhood Kitchen →

Baked Chicken with Tomato and Potato Mashkhool Rice

Dalal AlJaser

Servings

6-8

Prep Time

30 minutes

Cook Time

2 hours

Cuisine

Kuwaiti

Category

Main Course

A simple Kuwaiti family dinner: whole chickens baked in a blended yogurt, tomato and herb marinade, served with tomato and potato Mashkhool rice, a Gulf rice dish where each vegetable is fried on its own and layered with strained basmati.

Ingredients

    The chicken:

    • 2 whole chickens, about 1 kg each
    • 2 tablespoons each of yogurt, olive oil, ketchup and tomato paste
    • 1 tablespoon soy sauce
    • 1 tomato, quartered
    • 2 green chili peppers, chopped
    • 1 lemon, quartered
    • 3 garlic cloves
    • 1 inch piece of fresh ginger
    • 1 tablespoon each of coriander and parsley
    • 4–5 fresh curry leaves, optional
    • ¼ cup water, or more to help the blending
    • Spices: 1 teaspoon each of Kuwaiti Spice Mix (recipe available in my cookbook From My Childhood Kitchen), curry powder, turmeric and cumin; ½ teaspoon each of red chili pepper powder and paprika; 2 teaspoons salt
    • For the stuffing: 2 small onions, 2 small potatoes and a few slices of fresh lemon

    The rice:

    • 2 cups basmati rice, washed and soaked in water
    • 1 large potato, sliced
    • 1 eggplant, sliced
    • 1 large onion, sliced
    • 1 large green bell pepper, sliced
    • 1 tomato, sliced
    • Spices: ½ teaspoon each of Kuwaiti Spice Mix, curry powder, turmeric powder and cumin powder; ½ teaspoon salt

    Directions

      Marinate and bake the chicken:

      1. Blend the marinade ingredients in a food processor until very soft.

      2. Wash the chickens and pat them dry. Coat them with the marinade, inside and out. Marinate the potatoes, onions and lemon in some of it too, then stuff the chickens with them. Cover the chickens completely with the remaining marinade and leave them for at least 1 hour.

      3. Bake in a preheated oven at 180°C, on an elevated baking dish or a rotating oven roasting stick for better results. Bake for 1½ hours covered, then 30 minutes uncovered to crisp the skin.

      Make the Mashkhool rice:

      1. Mix the spices together and season each vegetable with the mix.

      2. Fry the vegetables one at a time, in this order: potatoes, eggplants, bell peppers, onions, then tomatoes. When each is fried and slightly wilted, move it to a plate.

      3. Par-boil the rice for about 5 minutes, then strain it, keeping some of the water.

      4. In a new pot, add a little of the oil used to fry the vegetables. Add a layer of rice, then a layer of half of each of the fried vegetables.

      5. Add a second layer of rice, keeping some aside for the top, then the remaining vegetables, and finish with the rest of the rice.

      6. Top the last layer of rice with more of the vegetable frying oil, or with a saffron and rose water mix (optional).

      7. Add ¾ cup of the rice water, cover and cook on low heat for about 30 minutes.

      Serve:

      1. Serve the chicken and the rice together with Daqoos and Maabooch. Bil Afya!
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