Freekeh With Chicken, Almonds and Yogurt Recipe (2024)

Would you mind telling us ordinary mortals where to buy Freekeh? Certainly not at my neighborhood supermarket.

It always amazes me that folks who can find their way to this invaluable source of delicious recipes don't seem to know how to do a search. In less than a minute I found all kinds of info on freekeh -- the different ways its spelled and pronounced, it's fascinating history, where to buy it [amazingly easy], recipes, and whatever else you might want to know. Just enter freekeh in the search box and you might be amazed at what you discover.

1st, freekeh took 55 minutes to get to rice like consistency & was still too wet. Needs half again more spices & 4 cups water/broth. Chicken was decent but not much point in getting it browned only to turn around & stew it. Way too much liquid in the chicken as well. I suggest either reducing amount of liquid or removing lid half way through cooking chicken. Used broth for everything and followed recipe as written. Not sure about a 2nd try. Used thighs as pictured.

The recipe calls for legs. The photo shows thighs. I'm going to go with thighs, in part, because I prefer thighs.

Has anyone tried reducing total liquid to ~5 cups and cooking the freekah and chicken together? Given the similar cook times, seems like a good way to amp up the flavor of the grains. I’m not sure there’s much benefit in topping the finished product with cooking broth if one is also serving with yogurt.

Long time home cook, long time NYT Cooking fan.And I say emphatically, you will be very disappointed in this recipe. Don't bother.Freekeh is delicious. Chicken pairs well with it. But if you follow these directions to a T, as I did, you will end up with a mouthful of bland, boiled blah.It's a rare thing when I'm disappointed with an NYT recipe. But please trust me here... this one is a stinker.

I have cooked Freekeh many times. Its flavor is smoky and delicious. I do not soak the freekeh. The only liquid I use is the broth I make with a whole chicken, whole onion, garlic cloves and cinnamon and allspice, salt and pepper. Use additional chicken taste such as "BETTER THAN BOUILLON" CHICKEN, 1 big Tsp. Just cover the freekeh with enough broth, boil, cover and simmer like rice. Chicken is boned and kept warm.Serve freekeh topped with Chicken,Slivered almonds and pine nuts toasted.

I buy freekeh online from Bob's Red Mill. Sign up for the mailing list and wait for a sale.

Ask your local Palestinian how to make this and get it right, as this is a national dish in Palestine.

Bob’s Red Mill makes freekeh. I found it at Whole Foods. But it didn’t taste grassy or smokey. It tasted more like the smell of a forgotten gym sock.

Technically, a chicken “leg” includes the thigh.

G.S. You can buy this at any store that carries the Bob’s Red Mill line of grains. They make a good one. You can also may brands from Amazon or other online etailers if you don’t have a local market that carries it.

You can get freekeh at Kaluystyans in NYC, they have an online store. Some WholeFoods markets carry it, and Bob's Red Mill has a version which can also be purchased online.

Recipes aren't gospel, you can absolutely tweak to your own needs, but with 2 cups of uncooked grain and 3 lbs of chicken the butter is not excessive. Olive oil is a good oil, I don't even count that. If you do worry about the fats you can certainly cut back, but the final product won't be as savory.

Recipe is delicious, but cooking the chicken in 4-cups of broth produced way too much liquid to pour over the finished dish. Had we done that, we would have had soup. The freekeh also required far more time to cook than the recipe says. After 45 minutes I just took the cover off and cooked it until most of the liquid had evaporated. The rest was absorbed as it rested.

Too much liquid for cracked, whole-grain freekeh, after 45 mins. Leftover freekeh absorbed remaining broth in fridge. Good, but use less oil. For the meh chicken, couldn't fit that much liquid into my large braising pan, so stopped short of submerging the thighs. (Why brown skin-on chicken only to drown it?) Leftovers: broth from chicken into pea soup; shredded chicken for Fred's Chicken Salad; added toasted pinenuts & dates to freekeh; will make grain salad with the rest.

Freekeh like everything is available on Amazon.this is a recipe that is only good for a large group.I found a a recipe on the internet from a Lebanese cook that uses boneless thighs or breast’s so can scale it down for a smaller group

Frrekeh is available on Amazon like everything.I suggest looking on the internet for Lebanese recipe that uses boneless thighs or breasts which is way easy since freeekeh is used in lots ofdishes

Used Son of a butcher vegan chicken pieces and vegan yogurt. Given all the comments about the liquid in the chicken I made a yogurt sauce instead. Used a fraction of the water for the freekah. It was really good.

Yes, it's possible to find Freekeh on the web. But if I'm eager to cook this dish, or a reasonable facsimile, before UPS can bring it to me, please tell us mere mortals what we might substitute for Freekeh? I live a long way from any large city, so I'd have to rely on an internet source.

If you soak the freekeh for more than 30 minutes reduce the water/stock you cook it in. I didn't and it came out pasty. The whole point of this dish is freekeh with separate grains. For cooking the chicken with a cover on, 4 cups of chicken stock was too much. Better to use less stock or leave the lid off or both. I will try some other way to use freekeh.

Freekeh took 45+ minutes to absorb all the liquid. It has a very soft texture like risotto. I did not add the cinnamon and allspice to the chicken until after I had browned the skin as I did not want the spices to burn. I only used 1 cup of broth in the skillet with the chicken which kept the skins crispy and the meat falling off the bone.I added cinnamon, allspice, clove, and cayenne to the yogurt.I fed this to a picky eater teenager who loved the freekeh and went back for seconds!

Just found this recipe a couple of months ago and it took me right back to a wonderful night in Damascus in 2010, just before the war started. Although freekah is a staple in our cupboard I make this chicken dish with rice, as that’s the way we had it in Naranja, a restaurant in Damascus old town. It’s warm and comforting and reminds us of wonderful people we met on our travels through Syria. And that’s what food should do, isn’t it?

Def agree that the amount of liquid could be reduced by about 2 cups for the freekah (I only added 4 cups to the pan bc when I soaked the freekah it soaked some water up and still had to improvise a bit). I ended up realizing towards the end that I should turn up the heat and treated it kinda like a risotto to get the liquid out. The chicken portion could also have done with a cup or 2 less. I would think it would depend on how much extra liquid you want for ladling.

This was wonderful!!! I ended up with too much liquid in the Freekeh (available at any Middle Eastern shop) and the chicken, but will definitely make again.

I had boneless, skinless chicken breasts that needed to be used. I cubed them ( ~1 inch), and proceeded with the same spices but no broth. Excellent, with enough liquid for sauce, and much quicker. For 1 1/2 lbs chicken, this was about twice the amount of freekeh needed; I’ll use or freeze the rest. (BTW, in Oct 2020, I can get the Bob’s Red Mill freekeh at both my standard supermarkets. A year can change things!) Next time I’ll use 4 c. broth, as I had extra liquid when the freekeh was done.

Definitely need to reassess the liquid recommended. I used whole freekeh and had to add 30 mins and dump some liquid. I would recommend using 4 c max. Maybe 3.5. I used spices as recommended for freekeh but used Lebanese 7 spice and some hot Aleppo pepper. Cut broth by 2 c for chicken Added squeeze lemon on end. It’s not the best proportions and needs a revamp.

I roasted the chicken thighs on a sheet pan instead. When done, 20 minutes convection roast 375, I sliced the meat and served atop the freekeh. I find 2 ¼ cups liquid per 1 cup freekeh has always been plenty. I also added ⅓ cup golden raisins at the end with the almonds.

I agree with several of the notes above; the freekah was mushy and unpleasant. Next time I make it I’ll cut way back on the liquid. I’m tempted to try toasting it in olive oil first; has anyone tried this?Also, am I the only one who rubs seasonings onto the surface of chicken, then winds up scraping it off the bottom of the pan while the chicken is browning? Please, someone-tell me where I’m going wrong!

This is a weird recipe that I won’t be making again. I bought some cracked Freekeh on Amazon but I wasn’t overly impressed with it. I thought it would taste smokier, it took longer to cook than it said, and it still was pretty mushy. I cut back on the broth in both the chicken and Freekeh, but the chicken was still swimming in it. Like others, I increased the spices and sautéed onions, but it was still just pretty good. I am a big fan of savory dishes with cinnamon, but not worth the bother!