I created this chicken meatballs majboos recipe to keep up with our diet requirements during a 12-week low-carb diet program. Though we no longer abide by that, I had a lot of good takeaway lessons in nutrition. The meatballs are made with chicken breast and cooked cabbage seasoned with bezar spice mix.
During the low-carb high-fat eating phase, we measured and cooked food as per the diet chart...also called Quantitive Nutrition in the diet world. Now, making chicken meatballs majboos including a vegetable makes it easy for me to divide the portion between us.
This recipe was inspired from my Persian cabbage polo recipe but portion controlled for this recipe.
Ingredients
A lot of Indian or Arabic meatballs or koftas don't call for breadcrumbs or eggs. They are made purely with the meat and the flavours. I had oats for that week's diet chart so used a little oats flour just as insurance and it worked beautifully! I have already tried with flax meal and chia seeds and they too work great! These meatballs are juicy, easy to cut (won't fly off the plate) and flavourful!
- Produce: cabbage, onions, green chillies, garlic cloves, coriander leaves and tomato
- Poultry: chicken boneless breasts
- Ground spices: cumin powder, bezar spice mix, turmeric powder and cinnamon powder
- oats flour
- olive oil or ghee or butter
- Whole spices: black lime, cinnamon stick, cardamom, cloves, bay leaf, black peppercorns and saffron
- basmati rice
How to make it?
- shape the meatballs and pan sear them until browned on all sides
- boil the rice in sauted spices and meatballs
- cover and cook until cooked through
- serve with yoghurt and salad
See recipe card for details.
Substitutions
- Cabbage: You can replace this with any other vegetables like broccoli, bottle gourd, or zucchini.
- boneless chicken breasts: You can use boneless thighs or chicken tenders
- bezar spice mix: If you don't have, I highly recommend making my small batch recipe. Else, you can use any other arabic spice blend you have. This is not a traditional dish, so you can experiment.
- oats flour: You can flaxseed flour
Variations
For a more traditional majboos recipe, check my Bahraini chicken machboos or Sella rice chicken machboos recipe.
Storage
Highly unlikely to have leftovers but if you do, refrigerate and consume within 3 to 5 days.
Related
Looking for other recipes using loomi (dried lime)? Try these:
F had no clue that these meatballs had veggies... He kept coming into the kitchen like a cat that smells meat... and when I served the Majboos and cabbage meatballs, his eyes lit up with happiness, "No veggies today!!" I didn't want to disappoint him so let him eat what he believed! 😀
📖 Recipe
Chicken Meatballs Majboos
Ingredients
For the chicken meatballs: Yields 14
- 150 grams cabbage chiffonade and cooked
- 300 grams boneless chicken chopped roughly
- ½ medium onion chopped roughly
- 2 to 3 green chillies chopped roughly
- 2 to 3 garlic cloves
- 2 tablespoon chopped coriander leaves
- ½ teaspoon cumin powder
- 1 teaspoon bezar spice mix
- ¼ teaspoon turmeric powder
- ¼ teaspoon cinnamon powder
- 2 tablespoon oats flour
- Salt and pepper to taste
- 1 tablespoon ghee or butter or olive oil
For majboos rice
- 2 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 loomi dried lime
- 1 inch cinnamon stick
- 2 green cardamom
- 2 cloves
- 1 bay leaf
- ¼ teaspoon black peppercorns
- 1 large onion diced finely
- 1 medium-sized tomato chopped finely
- ¼ teaspoon bezar spice mix
- 150 grams basmati rice ⅔ cup, washed and soaked for 30 minutes and drained
- a pinch of saffron strands brewed
- 11/2 cup hot water
Instructions
Prepare chicken meatballs
- Keep all the ingredients ready. Add all the meatballs ingredients except the oil into a large mixie grinder and pulse a few times until well combined. You should stir and wipe down the contents and pulse until mixed thoroughly. Transfer to a bowl and make equal-sized meatballs (approx 14)
- Let it rest for 10 to 15 minutes in the fridge for the flavours to marry. At this point, you can freeze it individually and then pack it in a box or bag.
- Heat some choice of oil in a pot and brown the meatballs until cooked - 5 to 7 minutes. Remove the meatballs and keep them aside. Use the same pot for making the rice.
Prepare majboos rice
- Heat ghee or olive oil and add the whole spices and saute until fragrant.
- Add the onions and sauté until almost caramelized.
- Add the tomatoes and bezar spice mix and sauté until cooked down.
- Add the drained rice and fry for a few seconds. Pour enough HOT water to submerge the rice
- Drop the meatballs carefully and bring to boil on high flame. Let it boil until there is no water on the surface.
- Reduce to the lowest flame. Sprinkle the saffron water and give a stir. Cover the pot with foil and then close with a tight lid. Keep a flat pan below this pot to prevent burnt food.
- Cook for 10 minutes and switch off the flame. Let it stay undisturbed for 8 to 10 minutes. Open and serve warm with yoghurt or green salad.
Adapted Rafeeda's Majboos recipe.
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