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chicken fatteh

Chicken Fatteh (Fattet Djaj)

Layered chicken dish with crispy bread, rice, yoghurt tahini sauce, pine nuts and brown butter.

Course Breakfast, Brunch, Main Course
Cuisine Lebanese
Keyword Authentic, Brunch, Crowd pleaser
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 50 minutes
Servings 6
Author Zaatar and Zaytoun

Ingredients

For the chicken stock and rice

  • 2 large chicken breasts approx 500g
  • 4 cups of water
  • 1 onion
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 1 small cinamon stick
  • 5-7 peppercorns
  • 3 cardamom pods
  • 3 cloves
  • ¼ teaspoon turmeric
  • 1 teaspoon salt approx
  • 1 cup basmati rice

For the bread

  • 2 large Lebanese flatbreads approx 2-3 cups when fried
  • Vegetable oil for frying

For the yoghurt sauce

  • 2.5 cups plain yoghurt
  • 3 tablespoon tahini
  • 1 lemon juiced
  • 1-2 garlic cloves crushed
  • ¼ teaspoon salt

For the brown butter and pine nuts

  • ¼ cup butter
  • ¼ cup pine nuts

Instructions

To prepare the chicken and rice

  1. Flash fry the chicken breasts on high heat in a non stick pan until slightly golden on the outside, around 5 minutes

  2. Transfer to a pot with the bay leaf, cinnamon stick, peppercorns, cloves, cardamom pods, turmeric and salt along with the 4 cups of water

  3. Bring to the boil then simmer for around 25 minutes and set aside

  4. Shred the chicken breasts and set aside

  5. Drain the chicken stock through a fine sieve and set aside.

  6. Meanwhile wash the rice for a few minutes until the running water becomes clear

  7. In a medium pot, sauté the rice in a tablespoon of vegetable oil for a few minutes then add 1.5 cups of chicken stock and simmer for fifteen minutes

To prepare the bread

  1. Chop the flatbreads into small squares around an inch wide or so.

  2. Deep fry them in hot vegetable oil until golden and crunchy. Drain on a kitchen towel lined plate and set aside

  3. Alternatively, sauté the bread in a non stick pan with a few tablespoons of oil until golden, adding a little more oil if necessary to make them crunchy

To make the sauce

  1. In a pestle ad mortar crush the garlic well

  2. In a bowl, mix the yoghurt, lemon juice, tahini, crushed garlic clove and salt together. Taste to adjust the seasoning and add some chicken stock to loosen if necessary.

To assemble the fatteh

  1. In a small pot, add the butter and pine nuts on low heat, keeping an eye on it until it starts to froth and brown

  2. In a large serving dish, spoon the rice out at the base.
  3. Then add the flat bread croutons, then the shredded chicken

  4. Just as the brown butter starts to froth, swirl to check it has browned then turn off the heat

  5. Add the yoghurt tahini sauce over the chicken, then drizzle the brown butter and pine nut on top
  6. Serve immediately

Recipe Notes

You can also use leftover roast chicken or a rotisserie chicken.

The sauce should be a similar consistency to pancake batter. Loosen with water if you don't have chicken stock.

You can also use cashew nuts in addition to pine nuts.