Kibbeh is a very famous Levantine dish made of bulgur, minced onion and finely ground meat with sautéed pine nuts. There are many types of Kibbeh from fried shaped balls or patties, baked, cooked in yogurt sauce, grilled or served raw.

Today, I will share my recipe of baked Kibbeh. It is definitely one of my favorite dishes.

Ingredients:

4 Cups of Bulgur- Soaked in water for a couple of hours

One Pound of Chicken Breast

One Piece of Onion – Minced

One Pound of Ground Beef (or your choice of meat)

2 tbsp of Pine Nuts

2 tbsp of Butter – cut into small cubes

Salt and Pepper

Saffron

How to Prepare:

In a saucepan, sauté the minced onion in butter and cook the meat with salt and pepper until browned then add the pine nuts and cook for a few minutes until all the water dries.

Grind the bulgur with some onion slices in a meat grinder then grind the chicken breast (save one teaspoon of the chicken breast on the side after grinding).

Mix the bulgur, chicken breast, salt and pepper and kneed with hands until it shapes into a dough.

Pre-heat the oven to 300F/180C.

Grease a deep oven tray and spread half of the bulgur dough in the bottom evenly.

Add the meat mixture on top and spread evenly.

Spread the rest of the dough mixture on top by making circles on your hands and laying them on top of the meat. Fill in between with the rest of the dough. Wet your hands with some water to spread it easily and make the dough stick together.

Mix one teaspoon of the chicken breast that you saved earlier with some saffron and spread evenly on top of the last layer.

Using the back of the fork, roll it over the dough to give it a design vertically and horisontally (optional).

Using a knife, cut it into even squares.

Place the butter cubes on top the kibbeh evenly.

Bake for 45 minutes or until golden brown.