Description
Maftoul, Palestinian Couscous, is a hearty delicious dish with two components. The maftoul itself, you can think of it as a grain. The second component is the flavorful chicken stew filled with chickpeas, onions, and spices served on top of the maftoul.
Ingredients
Scale
- 1 bag of maftoul (follow bag instructions, or follow instructions below)
- 1 chicken cut into 4-6
- 1 tablespoon oil
- 1/2 teaspoon allspice
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon (divide in half, for spicing chicken and with cooked maftoul)
- 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg (divide in half, for spicing chicken and with cooked maftoul)
- 4 -6 cups water
- 2 bay leaves
- 2-3 cardamom pods
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 1.5 cups cooked chickpeas
- 1 teaspoon turmeric
- 2-3 sweet onions
- 1.5 tablespoons butter (half a tablespoon used for sauteing onions)
- 1-2 teaspoons of sea salt (adjust to taste).
Instructions
- Remove skin from chicken and rub the chicken with spices (nutmeg, cinnamon, allspice).
- In a large pot and over medium-high heat, heat olive oil.
- Place chicken over oil, and brown on both sides, about 2-3 minutes on each side.
- Cover the chicken with water until submerged, add bay leaves, cinnamon stick, and cardamom pods over water.
- Once it starts boiling lower it to medium heat, cover and let it cook.
- While chicken is boiling lift up the cover and with a large spoon remove any foam that gathers on top of the water. Repeat this process if necessary.
- Meanwhile, slice onions into wedges.
- In a separate pot, heat oil or butter and saute onions for 2-4 minutes. (onions do not need to be fully cooked as they’ll be cooking with the chicken and broth).
- Let the chicken cook for 20 minutes then add sauteed onions, and chickpeas, over chicken broth.
- Then add salt and turmeric, mix everything well together, and continue cooking on low heat for another 20 minutes and until chicken is fully tender.
- Adjust spices and salt as needed.
- Make maftoul separately by following package instructions.
- After maftoul is cooked, add butter, nutmeg, and cinnamon over maftoul and integrate it all together.
- Serve hot in a plate by pouring cooked maftoul first then the stew over it.
Cooking Dried Maftoul
- Wash and rinse maftoul.
- To provent maftoul from sticking add 1 teaspoon of oil at the bottom of the pot.
- Add maftoul and saute for 1 minute.
- Pour hot water over maftoul: 1 and ⅓ cups of boiled water per 1 cup of dried maftoul.
- Once it starts boiling, lower the heat and cover.
- Let it cook for 10-15 minutes.
- Once ready, fluff with a fork, add butter, cinnamon and nutmeg powder and mix well.
Notes
- Think of maftoul as rice, pour the maftoul topped off with the chicken stew just before serving.
- You can make maftoul sauce slightly thicker by adding cornstarch. This step can be at the very end. Mix 1 tablespoon of cornstarch with ½ cup of cold water (keep in mind that cornstarch won't dissolve if mixed in hot water), whisk well then pour over the chicken stew, and let it cook for another 5-10 minutes.
- Sauteing the onions before adding them to the chicken and broth gives them an extra flavor, the onions do not need to be fully cooked since they still be cooking with the stew.
- Use canned chickpeas, and if using dried they should be previously cooked before adding them to the stew.
- You can make maftoul with lamb instead of chicken.