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Recipe · 4 min read

Ruz bi-Djaj ma'a Hashweh

Festive chicken on spiced rice with minced meat, pine nuts and almonds

رز بالدجاج مع الحشوة

Seco · dry Cooked in Serving tray PalestineJordanSyria Sources (5)

⚠️ Source-confidence note: hashweh (spiced rice with minced meat and nuts) and festive chicken-and-rice platters are well attested across Palestine, Jordan and Syria. However, I found no source documenting town-by-town differences. The variations in §3 are reconstructed from general Levantine practice and flagged. Quantities are a household blueprint.

01Geographic & Texture Profile

  • Primary Geographic Zone: Urban Palestine (Jerusalem, Nablus, Ramallah, Bethlehem), shared with Jordan and Syria.
  • Liquid & Texture Profile: Seco (dry, separate grains). Fluffy, buttery rice (ruz mfalfal, "peppered", meaning loose-grained), browned with minced meat.
  • Traditional Cooking Vessel & Fuel: A heavy pot (tanjara) on the hob for the rice. The chicken is boiled, then roasted or pan-browned. It is served on a large tray.

02Historical & Cultural Context

Hashweh means "stuffing". It is a rice cooked with minced lamb or beef, warm spices and toasted pine nuts and almonds. It stuffs chickens, lamb, vegetables and kibbeh, and on feast days it is served as a dish in its own right, heaped on a tray under boiled-then-roasted chicken. Traditionally it was made with lamb and used to stuff a whole animal. It is a common meal at Easter and in Ramadan, and is often cooked in large batches to feed many. Spicing leans on the Levantine "seven/nine spices" (baharat: allspice, cinnamon, cardamom, clove, nutmeg, black pepper, cumin…). Reem Kassis calls a nine-spice mix the thing that gives food a "distinctly Palestinian" touch.

Culinary science: the "loose grain" (mfalfal) texture comes from washing off surface starch, frying the rice in fat until opaque, and cooking it in an exact measure of broth without stirring. The minced meat is browned hard first, so its Maillard flavours coat the grains. The nuts are fried separately and added at the end so they stay crisp. A close cousin is the Syrian ouzi (rice and meat wrapped in pastry), documented on the Syria page.

03Local Town-by-Town Variations

  • Urban Palestinian (Jerusalem, Nablus): Chicken on hashweh with pine nuts and almonds, spiced with allspice and cinnamon. ⚠️ Reconstructed.
  • Festive stuffed-chicken version (djaj mahshi): The hashweh is cooked halfway, stuffed into the chicken, and the bird is boiled then roasted. Arabic recipe sites document a "Palestinian-style" chicken stuffed with rice, onion, peppers and thyme.
  • Jordanian / Bedouin-leaning tables: Lamb hashweh, sometimes with yogurt. Hashweh is associated with Bedouin-style cuisine. ⚠️ Reconstructed.
  • Christian Easter and Christmas tables: Hashweh under chicken or turkey (cf. the Valencian festive arroz con pava). ⚠️ Reconstructed.

04The Master Recipe (4-Person Batch Blueprint)

Variant represented: festive chicken on hashweh with pine nuts and almonds.

The Flavor Base (El Fondo) (the chicken broth / maraq)

Ingredient Quantity
Chicken, whole or halved 1.4 kg
Water 1.8 L
Onion, bay leaves, cardamom pods, cinnamon stick, peppercorns 1 / 2 / 4 / 1 / 6
Rub for roasting: allspice, cinnamon, salt, olive oil 1 tsp / ½ tsp / — / 2 tbsp

Simmer the chicken for 40 min, skimming. Lift it out, rub it with the spices and oil, and roast at 220 °C for 20–25 min until golden. Strain the broth and keep ≈ 750 ml.

Assembly Ratios

Element Quantity
Rice (Egyptian medium grain or basmati), washed 400 g
Minced lamb or beef 250 g
Samneh (ghee) or butter 40 g
Chicken broth ≈ 700–750 ml (basmati ≈ 1.6 : 1 by volume; Egyptian rice ≈ 1.8 : 1)
Baharat / seven spices 2 tsp
Cinnamon, allspice ½ tsp each
Pine nuts + blanched almonds, fried in a little ghee 40 g + 60 g
To serve: plain yogurt or yogurt-cucumber salad —

Step-by-Step Cooking Blueprint

  1. Preparation: Poach and roast the chicken (above). Fry the nuts until golden and set them aside on paper.
  2. Meat: In the pot, melt the samneh and brown the minced meat hard with the baharat, salt and pepper (8 min), breaking it up.
  3. Toasting: Add the drained rice and stir for 2–3 min until the grains turn opaque and glossy.
  4. Liquid Addition: Pour in the boiling broth and correct the salt. Bring back to a boil.
  5. Fire Manipulation: Cover and cook on the lowest heat for 15–18 min without stirring.
  6. Finish/Resting Phase: Rest 10 min off the heat, covered (a cloth under the lid absorbs the steam). Fluff it with a fork, mound it on a tray, set the chicken on top and shower with the nuts. Serve with yogurt.