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Chicken and Feta Manakish/Arabic Pizza

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Hope you all had wonderful Eid!

Eid for me was great but hectic too.Hubby was extremely busy,that meant late night outings and late,lazy mornings.Routines were gone haywire and kids were falling asleep or up and about on all the odd times.I had a couple of snacks and dessert ideas to be worked on and none materialized till now,after somewhat establishing the routine again…Phew…

This is one of my favorite Arabic dishes.Although it’s the same as pizza I love the beauty of it being so simple.That means no making pizza sauce from scratch,not a load of veggies or toppings to chop and no dumping of the whole mozzarella packet on top.
For some reason,I can’t bring myself to buy the pre-made pizza sauce or pasta sauces,toppings mix.Maybe,it’s the way I was brought up.We hardly ate from outside unless my mom or aunt is really,really sick.There were not much of packaged goods anyways.

 

But I really let myself go,when I started working.I started restaurant hopping with my hubby(then boyfriend 😉 and got sick of it soon.Now I try to minimize those mishaps and incorporate healthy options for my kids.

Manakish is normally topped with Zaatar(a thyme,sesame seed mixed with olive oil) or cheese.I added chicken and feta so all of us can enjoy(specially the kids).This was one of the regulars in our Iftar menu.I love,love Feta cheese and I buy the less salty one.
I really loved making this dough as it was soft and sticky.Don’t be put off by the texture of the dough,it turns out really good.And the pics too,doesn’t do much justice to the dish.But it tastes really yummo..
Here’s the recipe.This makes 4 large pizzas or 6 small ones.
Chicken and Feta Manakish
 
Ingredients:
For the dough-
3 cups All purpose Flour
1 1/4 cups warm water
1 tsp baking powder
1 packet of Yeast(mine is about 11g)
2 1/2 tsp sugar
2 tbsp Olive oil(plus extra for brushing)
For the topping-
2 Chicken breasts cleaned and cut into pieces
1 large onion chopped
2 cloves Garlic minced
1/2 to 1/4 tsp Kashmiri Chili powder
1/2 tsp Cumin powder
2 tbsp Tomato ketchup
2 tbsp Olive oil
Handful of Coriander leaves chopped
Salt & pepper to taste
Feta Cheese crumbled(low fat and less salt version)
Method:
Dough-
  • Add yeast,sugar to the warm water and let it stand for about 10 minutes.If it froths you can proceed else discard and use a new batch of yeast.
  • Mix the flour with baking powder and salt.
  • In a separate bowl,add the yeast mixture with the olive oil.Whisk a bit combining the two.
  • Now,add the flour mix to the yeast mixture little by little,forming the dough.You end up with a soft,sticky,pliable dough.You may not have to use all the flour.
  • Pour a tsp of oil and knead the dough.
  • Do not add in all the flour at once and make it a hard dough as in a normal pizza.
  • Cover the dough with damp cloth and let it rise for about 1 hour.
  • Roll out the dough,place it on a wax paper,brush with olive oil(specially the edges),place the toppings and bake it in a pre-heated 350 degrees oven for about 12 to 15 minutes.
Topping:
  • Heat the oil in a pan,add the chopped onions,garlic and coriander leaves and cook until the onions sweat out.
  • Add the chicken pieces,salt,pepper,chili and cumin powders and cook through till the chicken is almost done.It will continue to cook in the oven when we bake the Manakish.
  • Add the ketchup.cook further for minute or two.Adjust seasoning.

 

Notes:
You can top the Manakish with olives,any cheese of your choice or the traditional Zaatar.

 

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