Ferakh Mashwi
Chicken spatchcocked and grilled under a cumin, garlic and lemon paste until the skin blackens in patches. The marinade is thin on purpose so it burns rather than steams.
Photograph credit: Arabic grilled chicken with Egyptian pickle by Mohamod Fasil · CC BY 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Before You Start
A thin marinade. A thick one steams the skin.
Slash to the bone or the thighs will not be done with the breast.
Char in patches is correct. Uniform gold means the heat was too low.
Photograph credit: Flickr - schmuela - chicken in the grill, rice in the pots by Karen Green · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons · this resized copy is shared under the same licence
How to Make Ferakh Mashwi
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Cut down either side of the backbone with kitchen scissors and press the bird flat, cracking the breastbone.
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Slash the thighs and the thickest part of the breast twice each, down to the bone.
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Mix the marinade — it should be thin and pourable, not a paste. Rub it into the slashes and all over the skin.
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Leave for 60 minutes, covered, in the fridge.
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Heat a grill to high, or set coals up for indirect heat. Start the bird skin-side up, 20 cm from the element.
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Grill 25 minutes skin-side up, then turn and give it 20 minutes more, until the juices run clear at the thigh and the skin has blackened in patches.
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Rest 10 minutes, then squeeze over the last of the lemon and scatter with coriander.
Related guide: Prep, cook and total time.
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Why It Works
The marinade contains no yogurt and very little oil, which is deliberate: a thick coating insulates the skin and steams it, where a thin one burns in patches and gives the char this dish depends on. Spatchcocking is the other half — flattening the bird means the thighs and breast finally sit at the same height and cook in the same time, which a whole roasting chicken never manages under a grill.
After You've Cooked It
Refrigerated for 3 days. Reheat at 200°C / 392°F for 12 minutes. It freezes cooked for 2 months.
Common Substitutions & Variations
- An eighth of a teaspoon of garlic powder per clove is the stand-in usually given when you are out of fresh garlic; it will not brown the same way, and it burns easily, so add it with the liquid.
Serving Ferakh Mashwi
- Batates mohammara
- Salata baladi
- Egyptian tahina
Sides from the same cuisine on this site: Egyptian Rice with Vermicelli, Eish Merahrah, Roz Mermah.
Still Wondering?
How long does Ferakh Mashwi take to make?
20 minutes of preparation and 45 minutes of cooking, plus 1 hour of marinating, so allow 2 hours 5 minutes from start to finish. The recipe serves 4.
Ferakh Mashwi Nutrition
Per serving, an approximate calculation from the ingredient list. Treat it as a rough guide: the marinade or brine is counted in full, though some is discarded. How the figures are worked out.
Your notes on this recipe
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Compiled by Turab
Checked by script for timings, diet labels and nutrition arithmetic. How the recipes are checked. Found a mistake? Tell us.
First published ; last changed .
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