Taqwa Obaid's Makloba

Recipes

Makloba

By Taqwa Obaid

The word maqluba means “upside down” in Arabic. It’s a Middle Eastern rice dish “very famous and popular in our culture,” Taqwa Obaid says. Made with chicken or lamb, this hearty, casserole-like dish – also featuring vegetables, spiced rice and toasted nuts – is cooked in a pot, then flipped over onto the serving dish. You’ll see various spelling of the dish, with Obaid calling it “makloba.” On the first day of Ramadan – a month of reflection and fasting in the Islamic faith – “you’ll find that 90% of households, they will make that dish.”

Ingredients

Serves 6

5 cups water

1 whole, bone-in chicken cut into four pieces

1 tablespoon salt

1 tablespoon black pepper

1 tablespoon turmeric

1 tablespoon allspice

1/2 cup vegetable oil

2 eggplants, chopped

4 potatoes of any variety, chopped

2 cup of basmati rice, uncooked

1 onion, chopped

1 tomato, chopped

Instructions

To Make:

In a large (8-quart) pot, add chicken pieces and 5 cups of water. Bring to boil over medium-high heat. When the chicken starts to boil, add salt, black paper, turmeric and allspice. Continue boiling for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, heat 1/2 cup vegetable oil in a skillet and add the chopped potato and eggplant. Fry, turning occasionally until browned. Set aside. Remove the chicken from the boiling water and reserve the broth. Now, fry the chicken in the same pan, adding more oil as needed.

In another large pot, assemble the makloba. For the first layer, sprinkle in one-third of the rice followed by half of the vegetables (eggplant, potatoes, raw onion and tomato) and half of the bone-in chicken. For the second layer, repeat by putting in another one-third of the rice followed by the remaining vegetables and chicken. Lastly, put in all of the remaining rice and pour the chicken broth on top of the rice.

Bring the pot to boil over medium-high heat. After 10 minutes, switch it to low. Cook until the rice is soft. Turn off the heat and let it cool for five minutes.

To Serve:

Place a large serving plate on the top of the pot. Then very carefully invert the pot onto the dish. (This will be very hot.)

Pro Tips

1

While you are rolling out pizza dough, put a sprinkle of semolina under the dough to give it a nice color and a neat crust that will not stick.

Bio

Six years after settling in Milwaukee, Taqwa Obaid and her husband opened Taqwa’s, a bakery and full-service restaurant offering specialties not easily found in the local Muslim community. Lacking a baking background, Obaid used her mother’s recipes as a springboard, graduating from baking out of her home to catering to opening a restaurant that serves fresh-baked taboun (flatbread), fatayer (a meat or cheese pie) and mosakhan (roasted chicken and caramelized onion served on taboun bread).

Taqwa Obaid

Taqwa’s Bakery & Restaurant

Taqwa Obaid

Taqwa’s Bakery & Restaurant

About Taqwa’s Bakery & Restaurant

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