Freekeh with Chicken
Green wheat, harvested young and roasted over fire, cooked like a pilaf under poached chicken. It tastes of smoke before it tastes of anything else.
Photograph credit: فريكة by Saraabdallat · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons · this resized copy is shared under the same licence
Where This Goes Wrong
Rinse and pick it over. Freekeh really does carry grit.
Check whether yours is whole or cracked — the times are very different.
Grill the poached skin at the end or it stays flabby.
Cooking Freekeh with Chicken
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Simmer the chicken with the onion, whole spices, bay and salt in the water for 30 minutes, skimming the foam. Lift the chicken out and strain the broth, keeping 900 ml.
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Rinse the freekeh in several changes of water, picking out any grit and chaff, and drain.
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Soften the chopped onion in the oil for 8 minutes, then stir in the allspice and cinnamon.
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Add the freekeh and turn it in the oil for 2 minutes.
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Pour in the 900 ml of hot broth, add the salt, bring to the boil, then cover and cook on low heat 40 minutes, until the grains are tender but still chewy and the liquid is gone.
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Meanwhile grill the chicken thighs skin-side up for 8 minutes until the skin crisps, and toast the nuts in the butter (or olive oil) until gold.
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Rest the freekeh covered for 10 minutes, fork it through, and serve with the chicken on top, scattered with nuts, parsley and lemon.
Related guide: Ingredient substitutions.
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Why It Works
Freekeh must be rinsed and picked over before it is cooked, because it is a fire-roasted field grain and it genuinely does arrive with grit and chaff in it. It also takes far more liquid and far longer than rice — around forty minutes and twice the water — so it cannot be substituted into a rice method and treated the same way. Cracked freekeh cooks in half the time of whole; check which you have bought, because the difference is the dish.
Leftovers, Reheating and Keeping
Refrigerated for 3 days. Reheat covered with a splash of broth. It freezes for 2 months.
What to Serve Alongside
- Plain yogurt
- A tomato and onion salad
- Pickled chillies
Nutrition per Serving
No nutrition figures are given for this recipe: they cannot be worked out reliably from its ingredient list (some ingredient lines cannot be read). Why some recipes have none.
Dairy-free when made with olive oil rather than butter.
Your notes on this recipe
Cooked this? Keep a note for next time
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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