Overview
Madrooba comes from the Arabic word darb, to hit. The dish is named for what you do at the end, take a wooden spoon to the pot and beat the rice into the chicken until everything melts into a creamy, porridge-like stew. A Ramadan staple across the Emirates and Qatar, eaten at iftar with a final drizzle of cardamom ghee, fried onions on top, and fresh herbs scattered through. Served with khobuz raqaq or warm pita.
The Ingredients
- • 500g chicken thighs, bone-in
- • 200g basmati rice
- • 2 Red Onions (Crysp)
- • 200g Cherry Tomatoes on the Vine (Crysp)
- • 1 Green Hot Chilli (Crysp)
- • 20g Coriander (Crysp)
- • 15g Parsley (Crysp)
- • 5 leaves Mint (Crysp)
- • 1 tbsp Peashoots (Crysp), to garnish
- • 4 garlic cloves, minced
- • 2 tbsp tomato paste
- • 2 dried limes (loomi), pierced
- • 1 cinnamon stick
- • 4 cardamom pods, crushed
- • 1 tsp ground cumin
- • 1 tsp turmeric
- • 1 tsp baharat
- • 3 tbsp ghee + extra for finishing
- • Salt & black pepper
- • Khobuz raqaq or pita, to serve
Instructions
Poach the Chicken
Place the chicken thighs in a large pot. Cover with water, add 1 cardamom pod, half a cinnamon stick, salt. Bring to a gentle boil, skim the foam. Simmer 25 minutes until cooked through. Lift out the chicken, reserve the broth. Once cool enough to handle, shred the meat off the bone, discard the bones.
Fry the Onions Twice
Slice one onion thinly, dice the other. In a heavy pot, heat 2 tbsp ghee over medium-high. Fry the sliced onion until deep golden brown and crisp at the edges, 5 minutes. Lift onto paper towel for the garnish. In the same ghee, add the diced onion, cook 3 minutes until translucent.
Build the Spice Base
Add the garlic and chilli to the pot, cook 1 minute. Stir in the tomato paste, cumin, turmeric, baharat, remaining cardamom and cinnamon. Cook 2 minutes until the paste darkens and the spices smell toasty. Halve the cherry tomatoes, add them to the pot, press lightly with the spoon to release their juice. Cook 4 minutes until the tomatoes break down into a thick base.
Add Rice, Chicken, Loomi
Rinse the rice three times until the water runs clear. Add it to the pot along with the shredded chicken, the pierced dried limes, and 750ml of the reserved chicken broth. Stir, season with salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, then drop the heat to low and cover. Simmer 35 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes so the rice does not stick.
Hit the Pot
This is the step that gives the dish its name. Once the rice is fully cooked and starting to fall apart, take a wooden spoon and beat the contents against the side of the pot, breaking the rice and chicken into a thick, creamy porridge. Five minutes of vigorous mashing. The texture should be like a savoury rice pudding, smooth, glossy, but still with bits of chicken visible.
Stir in the Herbs
Off the heat, fish out the dried limes and cinnamon stick. Roughly chop the parsley, coriander and mint, stir most of it through the madrooba, reserving a handful. Taste, adjust salt. Cover and rest 5 minutes so the herbs perfume the dish.
Plate the Iftar Way
Spoon the madrooba into a wide shallow bowl. Drizzle a tablespoon of melted ghee across the surface, the pool is part of the presentation. Scatter the crispy fried onions across the top, then the reserved fresh herbs. Pile peashoots in the centre. Serve with warm khobuz raqaq or pita to scoop. Eat immediately while hot.
The Tradition
Madrooba is iftar food. The slow simmer fills the kitchen for an hour before sundown, the mashing is a ritual that signals the breaking of the fast is near. Across the Emirates, Qatar and Bahrain, every household makes it slightly differently. Some use wheat instead of rice, some keep the rice partially whole, some use fish or lamb instead of chicken. What stays the same is the mash, the loomi, and the final spoon of melted ghee, the three things that make madrooba madrooba.
💡 Pro Tip: Pierce the dried limes (loomi) with a knife in two or three spots before adding them to the pot. Without holes, the lime cannot release its sour, smoky flavour into the broth. Pull them out before serving, the flesh inside is too intense to eat directly.
