Fattet Djaj (Chicken and Chickpeas with Yoghurt)

So this is truly one of the yummiest chicken dishes I have ever made! This is from a recipe by Claudia Roden, who is a wonderful British chef whose specialty is Middle Eastern cuisine. She has written many great books, this recipe came from 'Arabesque'. I have made it twice now, and it has been really wonderful both times.

And it really is quite easy, really. And yes, I know I always say that! But, you boil a chicken, then layer it over some flatberad & chickpeas, then pop the whole thing in the oven. That is about it.

So I mentioned I've made this twice. The first time was exactly per the recipe below. Then I saved all the broth that I cooked the chicken in & froze it, as you would normally for stock. Stop laughing.

One night I made a roast chicken, and had half of it left over. So I defrosted the 'stock' and gently cooked the roast chicken meat in it for about 10 minutes. The end result was still fabulous.

This serves 6.

1kg natural (full-fat) yoghurt; look to see there is NO sugar
200g Greek style yoghurt
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1.5 tablespoons crushed dried mint, or a bunch of fresh (the recipe says dried, but I prefer fresh)
salt
1 large chicken (do, do, DO try to get a free range one)
1 large onion, cut in half
1 large carrot, cut into pieces
2 fresh bay leaves
1 cinnamon stick
6-8 whole cardamom pods
white pepper
3 very thin Lebanese or pitta breads (I found a fab Afghan bread: just use any flatbread you fancy)
3-4 tbs white wine vinegar
1 x 400g tin of chickpeas, drained
100g pine nuts (but almonds also work!)
2 tbs olive oil

1) Mix the yoghurts in a bowl, beat in the garlic & the mint w/ a little salt. Let it come to room temperature.

2) Put the chicken in a large saucepan & cover with water. Bring to the boil & remove any scum (scum is that white stuff you can see in the picture. Don't stress too much about getting every last bit). Add the onion, the carrot, the bay leaves, cinnamon stick & cardamom pods, and salt & pepper. Simmer, covered, for 1-1.5 hours, until chicken is very tender & almost falls off the bone. Set chicken aside & reserve the stock.

3) Open out the flatbreads (if you're using the pitta kind that has a pocket) & toast them in the oven until they crisp & slightly browned. Then break them up into pieces in our hands and spread them at the bottom of a wide baking dish. Mix the white wine vinegar on about 300ml of the strained chicken stock, and pour over the flatbread, adding more if necessary so that the bread is thoroughly soaked & soggy. Sprinkle the chickpeas over it.


4) Pull the meat off the chicken & cut the meat into pieces, removing the skin & bones. Spread the chicken over the soaked bread & chickpeas & cover the dish with foil. Heat through in the oven (pre-heated to 170'c) for 20 minutes before you are ready to serve: it should be very hot.

5) Just before serving, pour the yoghurt evenly all over the dish, spreading the yogurt mix all over the top of the dish. Briefly fry the pine nuts in the olive oil until golden & sprinkle over the top.