When I lived in Washington, there was this local chain, Lebanese Taverna, that had this one amazing dish...consisting of either chicken, lamb, or eggplant, served with yogurt, chickpeas, pomegranates, and tons of garlic. It was to die for.
There is no Lebanese Taverna in Berkeley, and I had a craving. Through the magic of the internets, I was able to hunt down a recipe for this dish. The recipe I used was posted by a poster on the Chowhound boards. I improvised a little, so I'll try to describe it the way I did it. And while I used a whole chicken as the recipe suggested, next time I will just use boneless chicken pieces, which will make preparing this a lot easier. Or perhaps I'll try lamb or a vegetarian version with eggplant.
While not exactly like Lebanese Taverna's, this version was still really, really good. I'll definitely make this again.
Fatteh Bel Djaje
For chicken and broth:
1 chicken, quartered (or 2-2.5 pounds or so of boneless chicken pieces)
1/2 lemon, cut into quarters (I used half an orange)
1 Tb ground cinnamon
1 tb salt
2 cups water (I needed a little more water to cover everything in the pot)
1 onion with 3 cloves stuck in it
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/2 stick cinnamon
2 bay leaves
1 large can chickpeas
For serving
1 quart plain yogurt (i use labneh or the thick greek yogurt, they work best)
4 cloves garlic, crushed
1 cup mints leaves, torn
1 cup pine nuts
3 Tb butter
2 pita breads cut into 1 inch squares
1/2 a pomegranate (if available)
4 cloves garlic, crushed
1 cup mints leaves, torn
1 cup pine nuts
3 Tb butter
2 pita breads cut into 1 inch squares
1/2 a pomegranate (if available)
Rice or couscous, for serving, if you want.
First, mix the yogurt with garlic and a pinch of salt and let it sit for at least 15 minutes. I'd keep it out of the fridge so it can come to room temperature.
Brown the chicken in a large large dutch oven or stockpot. Add lemon or orange, ground cinnamon, salt, water, onion with cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon stick and bay leaves. If you are using boneless chicken in small chunks, you can probably just leave it on the stove to to simmer. If you are using bigger pieces with the bone in, bring the water to a boil and put it in a 350 degree oven for 20-30 minutes, depending on how big the pieces are.
Once the chicken is cooked, remove it from the broth. Let it cool if you need to debone it. Strain and skim broth, pour over chickpeas and cook for 15-20 minutes. I reserved a little bit of broth and poured it back over the deboned chicken, covered it, and simmered on very low heat to keep it warm.
Cook the rice or couscous, if you are using it. (I used basmati rice, which works well with this.)
Fry pine nuts in 1 tb butter until brown.
Set them aside and fry the pita cubes in remaining butter until crisp.
To serve
Put rice or couscous in a shallow bowl. Top with chicken, chickpeas and a couple tablespoons of broth, and the yogurt mixture. Sprinkle the pine nuts, pita, mint, and pomegranate on top.
And convince people that despite the odd ingredient list, it is actually an incredibly delicious meal. The pomegranate seeds add sweetness, the pine nuts and pita are crunchy, the mint makes it fresh and bright, and all of them compliment the spicy chicken and garlicky yogurt beautifully.
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6 comments:
oh man I really miss Lebanese Taverna! I would smell like garlic for days after eating there, it was SO GOOD.
*sigh* Lebanese Taverna, how I miss thee. Thanks for this post. I can't wait to reconstruct my favorite dish from one of my most favorite DC restaurants!
Thanks a lot for your pix and your notes to add to the Chowhound recipe. Like you & your other commenters, I am a former DC resident who misses Lebanese Taverna so bad that it seems like nothing else will do, sometimes.
I made this tonight and it was more or less mind-blowing, even without the tragically out-of-season pomegranate seeds. I thought I would add some notes for anyone else diving into this recipe.
1) Use 2 pans if you have to, to brown the chicken. A too-crowded Dutch oven will not brown correctly.
2) I was too cautious on browning the chicken... if I'd darkened it all up some more the finished dish would've had a nicer texture.
3) I too found that 2c water wasn't enough to cover the chickens/onions/lemon to simmer. Instead of diluting the flavor by adding water, I added a cup or so of canned chicken broth. Next time I'll probably multiply all the broth ingredients by 1.5.
4) This recipe made way, way, WAY too much yogurt sauce. Suggestions for what to do with 3 cups of mildly garlicky yogurt gladly accepted! Next time I will use just a pint of yogurt sauce, and the same 4 cloves of garlic.
5) Pine nuts and pita bread both fry INCREDIBLY fast in butter. Mind you don't burn these!
6) For people wondering how many this dish serves: 2 really hungry, or 3 with maybe the addition of another piece of pita bread. Here too you may want to fry all that pita in 2 pans, or 2 batches, so that overcrowding doesn't prevent proper browning. And don't settle for oven-toasting instead of frying. The butter-fried pita is to die for.
Hope this is helpful to someone in the future. Thanks again for a completely delicious dinner!
Oops!
7) You could also halve the pine nuts and the mint.
8) Lebanese Taverna's fattehs add sliced radishes and scallions as garnishes. Optional, but I wish I'd remembered... now that I think of it LT may have been where I learned to love radishes!
I know you posted this ages ago, but I just found it and made it tonight and blew my family away. My son's fiance said, "I'm so happy I found you guys!"
My family is Greek and we love the Lebanese Taverna. But making this at home is so easy (thanks to you!) and I think it will make a fabulous dish to serve company (and keep up my Mediterranean cred).
I used 2 lbs of boneless breast "tenders" and they cooked up beautifully in this broth. The house smells so good, too!
Thanks again! --Tina
I bookmarked this recipe on Chowhound in 2004 and thought I'd lost it forever when those boards disappeared. Thanks for allowing me to make this again; you are an angel!
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