Cuisine
Lebanese
Recipe Description
Tangy, herby za’atar is queen of the spice blends in Lebanon, and every family has its own version. Here, I’ve used it as a rub for chicken, teaming it with fatteh to add a cooling, creamy element to the dish. Fatteh is a classic breakfast dish eaten in the Levantine, and a tasty way to use up stale flatbread by toasting and covering it with spiced yoghurt.
Ingredient List
1 free range butterflied chicken
40 ml (1¼ fl oz) grape seed oil
1 tablespoon za’atar
1 garlic clove, minced
375 g (13 oz) yoghurt
½ teaspoon cumin
1 white onion, diced
½ bunch parsley, leaves picked
½ bunch dill, fronds picked
50 ml (1¾ fl oz) olive oil
2 teaspoons za’atar
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons pomegranate molasses
40 g (1½ oz) toasted walnuts, chopped
250 g (9 oz) cooked chickpeas (tinned is acceptable)
60 g (2 oz) tahini
pinch of aleppo pepper or paprika for dusting
Recipe Steps
Preheat the oven to 140°C (275°F). Rub the chicken with 20 ml (¾ fl oz) of oil, put in a roasting tin and roast for 50 minutes.
Remove from the oven and increase the temperature to 200°C (400°F). Mix the next 20 ml (¾ fl oz) of oil with the za'atar and a pinch of salt and pour over the chicken. Return to the oven and roast for 10 minutes.
To make the fatteh, in a large bowl combine the garlic, yoghurt, cumin, onion, parsley, dill, olive oil, za’atar, salt, pomegranate molasses and walnuts to make a flavoured yoghurt. In a saucepan warm the fatteh very gently; it's not meant to be to hot, just warm.
Fold the chickpeas through the tahini and set aside.
Place the chicken on the serving platter whole. In a wide shallow bowl, put the chickpea mix on the left and the fatteh on the right and using a fine strainer dust it with some aleppo pepper or paprika and serve.
Sauce - Provided Pre-Prepared in the Atlas Box