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Tender chicken meatballs simmered in a fragrant coconut and curry sauce, this Indonesian classic combines aromatic spices with creamy coconut milk for a comforting, flavourful dish. The meatballs stay moist and are infused with lemongrass and lime leaves for authentic flavour.
A wet jerk paste: scotch bonnet chillies, garlic, ginger, spring onions, thyme, allspice (whole or ground), brown sugar, soy sauce, lime, oil, salt and pepper, pureed in a blender. The chicken (bone-in skin-on thighs and drumsticks, or spatchcocked whole bird) marinates for 12 hours minimum. Slow-grilled over indirect heat with a pile of pimento wood chips or allspice berries on the coals for the signature smoke; alternatively, an oven-bake at 180°C with a final blast under the grill, supplemented with allspice in the marinade.
Saudi Arabia's national dish, the one platter you'll meet at almost every gathering from family lunch through wedding banquet. You brown chicken pieces or lamb shoulder hard in a heavy pot, then build a base of onion, garlic and ginger softened in the same fat, with tomato and a spoonful of baharat (or a dedicated kabsa spice mix) blooming until the kitchen fills with cardamom and cinnamon. The protein simmers in tomato and stock until it's tender and pulling away from the bone, then long-grain rice goes in to cook absorption-style in the same liquid, drinking up every layer of flavour the broth carries. You finish with almonds toasted in butter, raisins plumped briefly, and a fresh salsa of tomato, onion, chilli and parsley spooned on the side to cut the richness. Eaten communally from the centre platter, with hands or a long spoon.
Sticky rice toasts in a dry pan to a deep gold, ground to a coarse powder (khao khua). Mince fries hot with a splash of stock until just cooked. Off heat, fish sauce, lime juice, chilli powder, sliced shallot, spring onion and rice powder toss through. Lots of fresh herbs fold in at the end. Served with sticky rice and raw vegetable plate.
A two-part dish: a deeply concentrated prawn-and-chicken stock built from roasted prawn shells, layered with a freshly pounded laksa paste of dried chilli, galangal, lemongrass and candlenuts. The two are joined with coconut cream to create a glossy, fragrant broth that bathes rice vermicelli, tofu puffs and prawns. Finished at the table with sambal, lime, fresh coriander and bean sprouts.
The Saudi gathering platter built for the night when one cut of meat isn't enough. Three proteins share the same pot: lamb shoulder and beef chunks go in first with a kabsa-spiced tomato base for ninety minutes of slow simmer until they're meltingly tender, then chicken pieces drop in for the last thirty-five minutes (their cook time is shorter, so they go in later). The strained meat broth, deeply spiced from everything that has braised in it, becomes the cooking liquid for basmati scented with saffron and dried lime. At the end you arrange all three meats on top of the rice in the same platter and bring the whole thing to the centre of the table. The kind of dish you make for a wedding lunch, an Eid gathering, or the night the extended family arrives unannounced.
Myanmar's coconut-chicken noodle soup, the dish closest in spirit to a Thai khao soi but with its own Burmese identity. You poach chicken thighs in stock with shallot, garlic, ginger and turmeric for twenty-five minutes, lift them out and shred the meat. The stock cooks down with coconut milk, fish sauce and paprika, thickened with a slurry of chickpea flour and water into a silky soup. Yellow egg noodles cook separately. Everything piles into the bowl at the end: noodles first, soup ladled over, shredded chicken in the middle, then heaping garnishes (sliced shallot, crispy fried shallot, halved boiled egg, lime wedges, cilantro, chilli flakes). The garnishes are half the dish; eat with chopsticks in one hand and a spoon in the other.
Bone-in goat (or chicken or catfish, fish takes much less time) simmers in lightly salted water with onion, garlic, ginger, scotch bonnet and the pepper-soup spice mix for 75 minutes until tender. Crayfish (ground dried shrimp) and stock cube go in for depth. Scent leaf (Nigerian basil) or basil leaves and chopped onion finish at the table.
Pollo asado is the Mexican answer to grilled chicken, and the marinade is the entire point. Achiote paste (ground annatto seed with garlic, cumin, oregano and vinegar) provides both the dish's distinctive brick-orange colour and a subtle, almost peppery earthiness. Sour orange (naranja agria) is the traditional citrus, though a blend of orange and lime juice mimics it where bitter orange isn't available. The chicken is marinated for at least 4 hours, ideally overnight, so the acid tenderises the meat and the achiote stains right through to the bone. On the grill, the marinade caramelises into a deeply coloured crust while the meat underneath stays juicy thanks to the bone-in cuts. Regional differences matter: Yucatán-style pollo asado leans heavily on achiote and sour orange, drawing from pibil traditions; northern Mexican versions add more cumin and chilli; the version popular in Los Angeles and Texas often gets a touch of tomato paste in the marinade for extra colour. Difficulty for home cooks is low: it's grilled chicken with a confident marinade. The main pitfall is high direct heat scorching the achiote-stained skin before the meat cooks through; a two-zone fire fixes that. Served with charred spring onions, warm corn tortillas, lime wedges, and salsa or guacamole.
Bone-in chicken pieces marinate in lime, garlic, achiote and cumin, then are floured and fried until deep gold and crisp-skinned. Ripe (or green) plantains slice into long tajadas and fry until soft and sweet. A quick curtido of cabbage, onion and vinegar provides crunch; a chunky chimol of tomato, onion and cilantro provides freshness. Plate, top, drizzle, serve.
This classic Thai dish of noodles is both aromatic and lightly spicy, serving well as either a main course or a starter. Pad Thai combines stir-fried rice noodles with tender chicken, pork, and prawns in a balanced sauce of curry paste, oyster sauce, and fish sauce. Fresh herbs, crushed peanuts, and a squeeze of lime complete this iconic Thai street food favourite.
Prik king paste fries hard in oil until aromatic and the oil splits. Thinly sliced pork (or chicken) joins; sears for 4 minutes. Green beans (snake beans, French beans or fine green beans) go in for 5 minutes; fish sauce, palm sugar and torn kaffir lime leaves finish. Served over jasmine rice with fresh herbs.
A Hijazi speciality that sits closer to a savoury rice porridge than to any other rice dish on the peninsula. You poach a whole chicken in a stock built around onion, cardamom, dried lime, mastic and bay for forty-five minutes, then strain the stock and reduce it. Short-grain rice cooks slowly in equal parts of that reduced stock and warm whole milk, stirred often over thirty-five minutes until it reaches a creamy, almost-risotto consistency. The dairy is what makes this dish what it is. The chicken comes out, gets brushed with butter and finished briefly under the grill so its skin turns gold, then sits on top of the rice for serving. Brown butter drizzled over, a heavy crack of black pepper, eaten with bread torn at the table. Comfort food of Mecca and Medina, traditionally served at Hijazi weddings and family gatherings.
The Saudi Ramadan staple, the snack that breaks the fast in households across the Gulf when the call to maghrib sounds. You brown minced beef (or chicken) with diced onion and garlic, lifted with a generous spoonful of Saudi spice mix (baharat, black pepper, cumin, coriander, cardamom, cinnamon, allspice), then fold in toasted pine nuts, chopped parsley and a hit of lemon zest, and let the filling cool fully before you assemble. Spring-roll wrappers or samboosa pastry sheets fold into the traditional triangular packets with the long-strip-into-stacked-triangle technique that every Khaleeji household teaches its children, sealed with a flour-and-water paste at the edge. Deep-fried at 180°C in three or four centimetres of oil until they're amber-gold and shattering-crisp. Drained on paper, eaten warm with the first dates of iftar and a glass of laban.
A whole hen (or chicken thighs and drumsticks if you can't get a stewing bird) simmers with aromatics for 90 minutes until tender. Cassava and plantain join for 30 minutes. Potato, sweet potato and corn-on-the-cob for the last 20. Coriander folds in. Served in deep bowls with rice on the side; the broth is poured over the rice, the meat eaten alongside.
A workday cross-cultural dinner that adds the Caribbean to the Tex-Mex format: jerk-marinated chicken (slow-cooked to fall-apart tender) shredded into warm tortillas, topped with a fresh mango salsa. The slow cooker is the technical workaround, traditional jerk wants grilling or smoking, but a 6-hour low-heat braise in Walkerswood jerk paste, browning sauce, allspice and lime gives the meat similar depth without the grill. The Walkerswood paste is the canonical bottled jerk; the mild version is the recommended choice here because the heat would otherwise be overwhelming with so much marinade. The salsa is the second half of the dish; sweet mango, sharp red onion, crunchy bell pepper and cilantro, dressed with lime, it's bright and crisp and cuts through the rich shredded chicken underneath. Genuinely set-and-forget cooking, 20 minutes of prep, 6 hours of nothing, and the result eats like something that took much longer. A modern fusion dish, popularised by American-Caribbean food bloggers in the 2010s, with no claim to traditional authenticity beyond the jerk seasoning itself.
Whole spices dry-toast until smoky, then grind to a Sri Lankan curry powder (coriander, cumin, fennel, cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, fenugreek). Onion melts in coconut oil with curry leaves, pandan and lemongrass. Chicken pieces sear briefly; the spice mix blooms; thin coconut milk simmers everything until tender; thick coconut milk finishes the sauce. Lime at the table.
Spicy green curry with fresh bird's eye chillies. Use homemade paste for best flavor; adjust spice level. Creamy coconut milk base with chicken and vegetables.
Gaeng phed gai, this classic Thai red curry features tender chicken simmered in a rich, aromatic coconut sauce infused with homemade red curry paste. The chilli paste that forms the basis of this dish has superb flavour and is worth making in quantity, as it's useful in all sorts of spicy dishes. Taking the extra time to pound herbs and spices using a mortar and pestle releases their fragrances perfectly, creating an authentic, restaurant-quality curry.
Chicken thighs are poached with onion, garlic and bay until just cooked, then shredded with two forks. A sauce is built separately: sliced onion is caramelised, then chipotles in adobo and tinned tomatoes are blended in and simmered down with the poaching liquor. The shredded chicken is folded back through the sauce so every shred picks up the smoke and acidity. Spoon onto warm tostadas with avocado, crema and crumbled queso fresco.