Easy Chicken Fatteh (with various methods!)

Chicken Fatteh is a classic dish made up of a layer of crunchy pita, delicious shredded chicken, chickpeas, and a garlic yogurt sauce that brings it all together. It’s truly a celebration of textures! You get crunchy, spicy, garlic-y, and lemony all in one bite.

Fatteh originates from the levant and can usually be made with chicken, beef, eggplant, just chickpeas, with or without rice…. there are so many variations. This chicken fatteh recipe is one of my favourites! I also have an Eggplant Fatteh recipe if you were looking for a vegetarian version, along with the classic Chickpeas Fatteh.

How to make chicken fatteh, step by step

• This recipe starts with firstly getting the chicken boiling with whole spices until cooked. You can also use leftover rotisserie chicken; fatteh is a dish that is meant to use up leftovers!
• Then preheat your oven, cut up your pita and toss with the olive oil and sumac, then bake until golden and crunchy
• For this next step, I only do it if I have some extra time, to get more flavour into the chicken. But this is completely optional! Dice the onion and cook it until soft with the crushed garlic. When the chicken is cooked, shred and add to the onions, along with a can of drained chickpeas and the spices
• The mixture cooks for a few minutes until everything is cooked through
• The sauce comes together in 5 minutes when you’re done cooking the chicken and chickpeas – just add all the ingredients and mix!
• Layer starting with the pita, chicken mixture, yogurt, then the garnish. All done!

Easy replacements for Chicken Fatteh

• The way I usually cook the chicken is to boil it with whole cardamom, cinnamon sticks and bay leaves so the flavours infuse. I would then save the broth for a different use and shred the chicken for the fatteh
• You can skip this step and use up leftover rotisserie chicken – feel free to use whatever you have on hand!
• For the garnish, you can use almonds or pine nuts for the crunch. Pomegranate seeds are amazing but they are optional
• Also, its common to add rice with chicken fatteh in some regions, so if you have some leftover rice, feel free to add a layer of that. I never say no to rice!

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4.91 from 11 ratings

Arabic Chicken Fatteh with Chickpeas

Yield: 6 servings

Prep: 15 minutes mins

Cook: 45 minutes mins

Total: 1 hour hr

Author: Amina Al-Saigh

This Arabic Chicken Fatteh dish is so easy to make and FULL of texture. Crunchy pita, perfectly seasoned chicken and chickpeas, smooth garlic tahini yogurt, and topped off with crunchy almonds and parsley. It's a party in your mouth. MUST make!

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Ingredients

 

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For the Chicken & Chickpeas:

• ▢ 2 lbs boneless chicken thighs or legs, bone-in chicken works too, or pre-cooked leftover rotisserie chicken
• ▢ 3 green cardamom
• ▢ 1 cinnamon stick
• ▢ 2 bay leaves
• ▢ 1 can chickpeas
• ▢ 1 onion
• ▢ 2 garlic cloves
• ▢ 2 tablespoons olive oil
• ▢ 2.5 teaspoon seven spice, replace with allspice if unavailable
• ▢ 1 teaspoon salt
• ▢ 1/2 teaspoon black pepper

For the Pita:

• ▢ 4 round pitas, 8″ in size
• ▢ 1/2 cup olive oil
• ▢ 2 teaspoons sumac

For the Yogurt Sauce:

• ▢ 2 cups plain yogurt, 3% fat preferred
• ▢ 1/2 cup tahini
• ▢ 1 garlic clove
• ▢ 1/2 teaspoon salt, or to taste
• ▢ Juice of 1 lemon
• ▢ 1-2 tablespoons water

For the Garnish:

• ▢ 1/4 cup slivered almonds or pine nuts
• ▢ 2 tablespoons olive oil, for the nuts
• ▢ 1/4 cup parsley, finely chopped
• ▢ 1/4 cup pomegranate seeds, optional

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Instructions

 

For the Pita:

• Preheat oven to 425F
• Cut the pita into 1 inch squares and coat well with the olive oil and sumac
• Lay them in one layer on a baking sheet and bake for 10-12 mins or until golden (OR fry in a non stick pan on the stove in batches without overcrowding and continue stirring until golden)

For the Chicken:

• Wash the chicken and place in a pot covered with water along with the whole cardamom, cinnamon stick and bay leaves (see notes)
• Boil for about 30 minutes until cooked. Drain and cool (save the broth for soup!)
• Shred the chicken into bite size pieces using your hands
• Dice the onion and crush the garlic. Drain and wash the chickpeas
• In a non-stick skillet, add the oil, diced onion, and crushed garlic cloves. Cook for 5-7 minutes until onions are soft
• Add the shredded chicken and the drained and washed chickpeas, along with the seven spice and salt and pepper
• Mix well and cook for 10 minutes until flavours are combined. Taste and adjust the salt and pepper
• For the sauce, add all the ingredients to a bowl and mix well. Taste and adjust for salt
• Toast the almonds or pine nuts in a skillet with 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Stir constantly to ensure they toast evenly and don't burn
• Finely chop the parsley
• Layer the fatteh starting with the pita, then the chicken and chickpeas mixture, then the yogurt sauce
• Add the parsley, almonds and pomegranate seeds and serve immediately

Notes

• Instead of cooking the chicken from scratch, you can also use leftover rotisserie chicken that is shredded in this recipe
• Boiling the chicken with the whole spices infuses a delicious flavour, however you can also cut the chicken into bite sized pieces and pan fry them, remove from pan, add the onions, then continue following the recipe steps. This cuts down on time!

Serving: 1g, Calories: 740kcal, Carbohydrates: 35g, Protein: 40g, Fat: 50g, Saturated Fat: 9g, Polyunsaturated Fat: 10g, Monounsaturated Fat: 28g, Trans Fat: 0.03g, Cholesterol: 154mg, Sodium: 964mg, Potassium: 746mg, Fiber: 4g, Sugar: 6g, Vitamin A: 346IU, Vitamin C: 7mg, Calcium: 207mg, Iron: 3mg

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