Chicken Zurbian Rice

Sunday, 24th November 2013

I was looking for an opportunity to use a Zhug spice mix that I had in the cupboard and chose this Yemeni recipe.
Most of what I googled for Zhug suggested it should be a green sauce, but my spice mix was brown, probably due to being a little old. So instead of trying to make up a sauce by mixing it with water or oil, I used it instead of the spice mix indicated in the recipe. Served with turkish flat bread and a salad of lamb's lettuce and mushrooms.
Judging the amount of liquid needed when the rice was added was tricky, but I got it about right and the rice was nicely cooked at the end. The spices tasted quite Indian to us, rather than Arabic, but the mix is very similar to what I might use for a Curry, so that was no surprise. It was quite rich and pretty hot, so good for me, but a little too spicy for Monika I think.