🇲🇦 Morocco
Rfissa
The dish Moroccan families cook for a new mother — fenugreek for strength, lentils for warmth — and for any guest worth honoring.
🔪 Prep: 30 min🔥 Cook: 80 min📈 Difficulty: Medium
Cooking for
6 people
✨ What makes it special
Shredded msemen (or day-old trid) drinking a saffron-ras el hanout broth of chicken, lentils, and whole fenugreek seeds.
Ingredients
- 1 whole chicken (farm-raised if you can)
- 8 msemen flatbreads, torn
- 200 gbrown lentils
- 2 tbspfenugreek seeds, soaked
- 1 tspras el hanout and ginger
- 1 pinchsaffron
- 3 onions, sliced
- 3 tbspolive oil or smen
Method
- 1
Brown the chicken in oil with onions, saffron, ginger, and ras el hanout.
- 2
Add water, lentils, and the soaked fenugreek and simmer until chicken and lentils are tender.
- 3
Steam the torn msemen briefly so it softens without turning to mush.
- 4
Bed the msemen in a wide gsaa, seat the chicken in the middle, and drench everything with broth, lentils, and onions.
- 5
Let it drink five minutes before serving — rfissa must be soaked, never dry.
🍽 On your table
How this dish looks served for 6