Chicken And Rice Fatteh (Fatet Jaj)

Name: Chicken And Rice Fatteh (Fatet Jaj)
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: pt1h
Yield: 6-8
Cuisine: Middle Eastern

Mains

Chicken and Rice Fatteh is very easy to prepare and incredibly delicious. I love cooking this dish because I can prepare all the elements and assemble them later.

PREP TIME

20 minutes

COOK TIME

1 hour

Assembling

10 minutes

SERVES

6-8

About this recipe

Chicken and rice fatteh (Fattet Jaj) is by far one of my favourite. The only disadvantage is that I cannot eat it the very next day. You need to eat this dish straight away because once the crispy bread is soaked with yogurt, it will lose its crunch. A touch of chili paste drizzled on top takes this dish to another level.

Fatteh Jaj is very easy to prepare and incredibly delicious. I love cooking this dish because I can prepare all the elements and assemble them later. A meat-free option for this is the chickpea Fatteh.

Watch it here

Ingredients

Chicken Stock

2 pieces chicken (2 x Maryland)
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 celery stick- halved
2 sprigs parsley
4 cardamon pods (split)
3 cloves
½ teaspoon Baharat/mixed spice
¼ teaspoon nutmeg ground
½ teaspoon cracked black pepper
¼ teaspoon white pepper
salt to taste
2 bay leaves
3 lt water
1 brown onion cut into wedges

Crispy Bread

2 tablespoons ghee
1 ½ pocket of Arabic Bread – cut into 2 -3 cm squares using kitchen scissors

Rice

1 cup rice (Jasmin) washed and drained
2 cups reserved chicken stock

Yogurt Sauce

1 kg natural yogurt
3 garlic cloves crushed
3 tablespoons tahini
3 tablespoons water
salt to season
1 tablespoon ghee + ⅓ cup pine nuts for garnish

Notes from Rouba

A cheat way to make this is to buy a barbecue chicken and shred it.
There are no rules when it comes to frying your bread. You can fry the bread with olive oil or butter instead of ghee. Some people even toast their bread under a grill to avoid frying.
It’s perfectly fine to also use olive oil to fry pine nuts instead of ghee.

Method

Step 1.

In a large stockpot, heat olive oil and add the chicken. Sear the chicken on both sides until golden brown. Add spices, celery, parsley and generously cover all ingredients. Then add the onion wedges.

When the stock starts to boil, you’ll begin to see a foamy scum start to form at the surface. Remove as much as possible of the scum with a large spoon — this will take 5 to 10 mins.

Reduce the heat and simmer for 1 to 1.5 hours. When it’s ready, remove the chicken from the stock and pull the chicken off the bone, tearing the chicken into large chunks. Set aside in a bowl.

Step 2.

Heat 1 tablespoon of ghee in a frying pan on medium heat. Add ½ of the Arabic bread and fry until golden brown. Remove and drain on a paper towel. Repeat again with the remaining tablespoon of ghee and remaining bread.

Step 3.

Rinse the rice under running water until clear. In a pot, combine rice and 2 cups of reserved chicken stock. Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer and cover. Cook until the water is absorbed and the rice is cooked through. This will take around 15 minutes.

While the rice is cooking, make the yogurt sauce, by combining the crushed garlic, natural yogurt, tahini, salt and water into a bowl. Mix until smooth.

Step 4.

In a serving platter, layer evenly with bread, place the rice on top and ladle over some of the chicken stock (approximately 1 ladle). Chunks of those onions are delicious if poured over the rice too. Cover with the prepared tahini yogurt and top with the shredded chicken.

For the garnish, heat the ghee in a small fry pan, add pine nuts and stir until golden. Drizzle hot ghee and pine nuts over yogurt (this will make a TOOSH SOUND — that’s the sound the hot ghee makes when it hits the cold yogurt. It’s customary in my village to make sure the sound is made, otherwise, your Fatteh is considered a fail).

Garnish with parsley and sweet paprika (optional).