Fatta with Chicken
This multi-layered dish is complex and time consuming, and I don't expect many people to attempt it. But it is very important in the Arab world, especially in Syria and Lebanon.
- 4 cups thick Greek-style drained yogurt, at room temperature
- 4 cloves garlic, crushed
- 1 chicken, about 3½ pounds
- Juice of 3 lemons
- 1 teaspoon ground cardamom
- 5 or 6 small pieces of mastic , pulverized with a little
- salt (optional) Salt and pepper
- 1 large onion, finely chopped
- 4 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 1 pound lean ground beef
- 1 cup basmati or long-grain rice (washed if basmati)
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon allspice
- 3 very thin pita breads or 2 ordinary pitas Vegetable oil for frying
- ¼-⅓ cup pine nuts
Instructions:
- Pour the yogurt into a bowl and beat in the garlic. Let it come to room temperature. Wash the chicken. Put it in a large pot and cover with water.
- Bring to the boil, and remove any scum. Add the lemon juice and cardamom, mastic if you like, salt, and pepper, and cook until the chicken is very tender and almost falls off the bones—1 to 1½ hours. Lift out the chicken, remove the skin and bones, and return the chicken pieces to the stock. Bring it to the boil again when you are ready to serve.
- In the meantime, make the hashwa or filling: Fry the onion in 3Â tablespoons of the oil until it is golden brown, stirring occasionally.
- Add the ground meat and cook, crushing and stirring it, until it has changed color, then add the rice and continue to stir. Add cinnamon and allspice, salt and pepper, and l¾ cups water. Cover the pan and reduce the heat to a minimum. Cook gently over low heat for about 20 minutes, until the rice is done.
- Open out the pita breads. Toast them in the oven or under the broiler until they are crisp and only lightly browned. Then break them up into pieces in your hands and spread them at the bottom of a deep serving dish.
- Work quickly to assemble the dish when you are ready to serve, so that all the layers, apart from the yogurt, are hot. Cover the toasted bread with the rice-and-meat hashwa. Lay over this the chicken pieces, and pour over enough of the flavorsome stock to soak the bread thoroughly. Cover entirely with the yogurt, and sprinkle the top with the pine nuts lightly fried in a drop of oil. Serve at once.
- Note: If you want to prepare this in advance, assemble the layers in a large ovenproof dish, cover it with foil, and heat it up in the oven before serving.