It’s Hard to Beat T’beet!

For the most part, Americans have a pretty narrow perception of what Jewish food is. Americans, even Jewish ones, think about bagels and lox, pastrami sandwiches, matzo ball soup, and brisket. While these are all delicious in their own right, they only encompass one faction of what “Jewish food” really is.

To be specific, these foods aren’t just Jewish, they’re Ashkenazi Jewish. To fully understand what this means, we need to have a brief history lesson. As a history buff, I relish any opportunity to go on a historical tangent, so please indulge me. I promise this is relevant.

The historical homeland of the Jewish people is Israel (not confined to the modern political state of the same name). Starting in around 700 B.C.E., Israel was a semi-autonomous territory in a handful of different empires, including the Neo-Assyrian, Babylonian, and Persian. For the most part, Jews remained in their homeland and were allowed to live their lives within these empires. Then, in 63 B.C.E., Israel fell into the hands of the Roman Republic. The Romans installed a king of their own, and after a handful of suppressed revolts, the Romans destroyed and looted Jerusalem and expelled the Jewish population from the land in 70 C.E.. Many were taken all over the Roman Empire as slaves, while even more fled, and this spreading of the Jewish population is today known as the Jewish Diaspora.

Over time, these populations continued to migrate, until they were scattered all over the world and progressed into fairly distinct cultural groups.

Population-wise, the majority of Jews eventually ended up in Europe and became Ashkenazi Jews. Millions of Ashkenazi Jews emigrated to the United States between 1880 and 1920 (including my ancestors), and today make up about 90% of the American Jewish population.

Because the vast majority of American Jews are Ashkenazim, they have shaped the global perception of Jews. As such, the phrase “you don’t look Jewish” refers to Ashkenazi standards. However, the Jewish community is much more diverse than meets the eye. Take the actress and comedian Tiffany Haddish.

Her father was an Eritrean refugee from an Ethiopian Jewish family. She’s Jewish, but does not fit the typical image of what Americans associate with being Jewish. The point I’m trying to make is that there is a lot more to global Jewish culture than just Ashkenazi culture.

Excuse my very long tangent, but I’m trying to explain some background on what this blogpost is about – T’beet, aka Jewish Iraqi chicken (if you consult the above map, you’ll see that Iraqi Jews are part of a larger cultural subset known as Mizrahi Jews), is a whole chicken stuffed with spiced rice and baked. Traditionally, Iraqi Jews make this before sunset on Friday night, and then eat it for Shabbat lunch (remember that no cooking or work of any kind can be done on Shabbat, which runs from sundown on Friday night to sundown on Saturday night).

Because cooking is a no-no on Shabbat, this recipe is designed for the chicken to go into the oven Friday afternoon, and stay there practically overnight. No joke, you’re supposed to cook the chicken for 8-10 hours. So I have to get started at the crack of dawn, which for me means about 9 A.M. Luckily, I have someone to help me – shout out to my girlfriend, Arianna, who volunteered to assist me with both photography and cooking.

Finally, we can get started. I have virtually no experience in making any kind of Middle Eastern food, so all of this was new to me. First thing we do is make baharat, a spice blend used throughout the Arab world. My recipe informs me that I need sweet paprika, cumin, cinnamon, coriander, allspice, cardamom, black pepper, cloves, and nutmeg.

 Everything went pretty much according to plan, except for the cardamom. See, back when we were in India on Journey, we purchased a bunch of spices which have sat almost untouched in our pantry for years. When I initially looked at this recipe, I thought this would be the perfect time to use them, and I found our mortar and pestle to grind them up. But after Arianna tried unsuccessfully for 20 minutes to grind the cardamom by hand, we opted to dig the mini food processor out of the garage.

Our completed baharat looked like this:

Next, I parboiled some rice real quick. Remember, it’s gonna cook inside the chicken for like ever, so we don’t have to completely cook it now. After mixing some baharat with tomato paste, we add our rice as well as some diced tomatoes, onions, and garlic.

Next up, I have the distinct of honor of doing my best at cramming this into the cavity of an air-chilled chicken.

After that arduous process, here’s what we’re looking at.

After a quick sear on all sides to give it some color and extra flavor, we add the rice that didn’t make it inside in addition to some chicken stock.

Because this chicken takes 8 hours to cook, we have some extra time on our hands. As such, we’re gonna make some side dishes. First up is tabouleh, or as my mom liked to call it when she was little, “parsley salad”.

That’s all there is to tabouleh. But we’re not stopping there. Next we’re gonna make some hummus.

Blend the hell out of them chickpeas and add some tahini and your hummus should look like a clay donut.

Add (you guessed it) lemon juice.

Season with copious amounts of salt and pepper, and serve in an artistic yet unpretentious manner.

All that’s left to do now is play some Mario Kart while we wait for our chicken to finish baking. At long last, the timer sounds and I pull it out of the oven.

I’m sure you’re all familiar with the phrase “fall-off-the-bone-tender”. But what about “it’s-so-tender-that-the-bones-freaking-dissolved-tender”?

The first thing I thought when I tasted this was “this reminds me of dirty rice“. The flavorful rice, tender meat, and overall texture was really reminiscent of the Cajun dirty rice that’s a slow cooker staple in this house. It had the same warm and comforting feeling that I associate with the dirty rice.

Overall this dish was spectacular – the warmth of the paprika and the cinnamon really made a unique impact on the flavor profile. But was it worth all of the prep? That’s something I’m still wrestling with. The verdict? Only make this if you have some serious time to kill.

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