I look forward to making this dish, because I very much look forward to eating it! I adore eating fantastic food and would much rather spend the time preparing a favourite meal than picking up mediocre takeaway. 

Chicken Fattee is an impressively multi-layered, chicken based dish from Lebanon. Simply put, it is delicious! Texture, colour and flavour all beautifully balanced and combined on one large, feast-worthy platter. This is THE dish to serve up at a casual gathering with relatives or friends and is also an excellent weekend family meal. 

I say weekend, because you will need to (as my foodie friend Stephanie says) “fiddle-faddle” a fair bit in the preparation. But please don’t let this dissuade you from giving Chicken Fattee a go. The more often you make this dish, the easier and more proficient you will become. Before you know it, you will be hooked on the aromatic flavours and look forward to another opportunity to add this edible marvel to your regular home cooking repertoire. 

There is a recipe for Chicken Fattee that I have followed over the years, in the Casa Moro cookbook by Sam and Sam Clarke. I have made a couple of minor changes, mainly adding a few extra of my favourite spices to the chicken. Due to my nut allergy I leave out the 75 grams of toasted pine nuts. I also increase the quantity of rice from 300 to 400 grams and add saffron because this fragrant ingredient is one my children particularly enjoy in rice dishes. 

Chicken Fattee to serve 8 people

1. Start with the CHICKEN

Buy the best quality chicken you can find. You need a plump, juicy chook about 1.8 kilograms preferably organic or free-range. Do not buy one of those scrawny looking birds left behind on the supermarket fridge shelf at the end of the day. The better the produce to start with, the better the flavour at the end. 

My spice mix for Chicken Fattee


Preheat the oven to 220 degrees on a conventional setting. Rub the chicken all over (and sprinkle inside the cavity) with the following mixture:

1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon sweet paprika
1/2 teaspoon sumac
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1 tablespoon dried coriander leaves
2 heaped teaspoons sea salt

Then, squeeze over the juice of 2 lemons and drizzle with olive oil. Push the halves of the lemons into the cavity of the chicken. If you have preserved lemons on hand then you can use these instead. Rinse them first under running water to remove excess salt, then whizz up in a food processor or chop finely and rub over the chook and also place inside the cavity. 

Bake for 80 minutes until golden brown, then remove from the oven. Cut up the chicken into pieces and once it has cooled slightly (just enough to handle comfortably), use your very clean hands to pull the chicken meat off the bones. Slice into portions that can easily be served up.  Cover with foil to keep warm until you are ready to assemble with the other ingredients. 

2. While the chicken is roasting, start on the SAUCE.

You will need: 

5 cloves of garlic finely diced
olive oil
1 x cinnamon stick
2 x 400 grams tins of crushed tomatoes

Fry the garlic and cinnamon in a couple of tablespoons of olive oil until the garlicky scent is noticeable. Then add the tinned tomatoes, season to taste and simmer for 30 minutes. Set aside when ready. 

Fried eggplant waiting to be assembled with the other ingredients. 

3. While the sauce is simmering, prepare the EGGPLANT. 

You will need:

2 x eggplants (I peel all the skin off mine for this dish)
1 teaspoon table salt
8 tablespoons olive oil

Dice the eggplant into bite sized pieces and toss in a bowl with the salt. Once the sauce is ready, rinse the eggplant cubes under cold running water and drain well on paper towels or a clean tea towel. 

Heat up the olive oil over a medium setting and fry the eggplant in batches until golden brown. Drain the fried pieces on paper towels and set aside, covering with aluminium foil to keep warm. 

4. The RICE can also be started while the eggplant is steeping in the salt, the sauce simmering and the chicken roasting. 

You will need:
1 small onion finely chopped
1 x cinnamon stick
75 grams unsalted butter
1/2 teaspoon saffron threads
400 grams basmati or long grain rice (washed under running water in a sieve to remove the starch)
sea salt to taste
3 cups (750 mls) chicken stock, or a combination of half stock and half water 
1 x 400 gram tin cooked chickpeas drained and washed (If you are not a fan of chickpeas then you can leave them out without destroying this dish, but I do encourage you to give them a go because they compliment the chicken perfectly.)

Saute the onion, cinnamon and salt in the butter over a low heat for 10 minutes until the onion turns golden and sticky. Add the washed, drained rice and stir until coated with the buttery mixture and the grains start to turn opaque. 

Add the liquid which should be at room temperature. Scatter over the chickpeas. Place a piece of baking paper over the top of the rice pressing gently against the mixture. This will help the rice to steam perfectly and avoid losing moisture. 






Cover with the saucepan lid, bring to the boil briefly and then simmer for 10 – 12 minutes until the rice is cooked, but certainly not mushy. Lift the lid, fluff up with a fork and set aside until needed. 






Buttery crispbread roughly sliced.

5. Finally the CRISPBREAD

Take 3 large rounds of Lebanese bread and brush over the top of each one with melted butter. I used 30 grams in total. Place each piece on your oven trays for 10 minutes until they crisp up. Remove carefully onto a chopping board and using a large knife, cut each one into 12 triangles. It doesn’t matter if the bread breaks or the triangles are uneven. This is a casual, rustic dish, not fine dining. Set aside. 



6. Time to ASSEMBLE your Chicken Fattee. You also need plain, thick yoghurt and about a cup of coarsely chopped flat leaf parsley or coriander leaves. 

Find a large, flat platter – it doesn’t matter what the shape is. Start with a layer of crispbread, followed by the rice, then the chicken and roasting juices, then the eggplant, drizzle over tomato sauce, yoghurt and parsley or fresh coriander (I forgot to add this…it’s now in a Glad Snaplock bag in my fridge!). Continue to layer up the dish in this order finishing with extra dollops of yoghurt and fresh herbs. 

Provide a set of broad salad servers to plate up this dish for your family or guests. 

Chicken Fattee…all gone!