A Simple Chicken Molokhia Recipe

When I was a kid, I lived most of my time in Kuwait, and I ate a delicious middle eastern dish called Chicken Molokhia.

Chicken Molokhia Recipe is a popular Vegetarian Arabic recipes which is made from a leaves called Jute leaves. Because this is a Molokhia soup, it is served perfectly with rice. Apparently, this is also popular in Levantine region in Middle East, which they have their own version of this dish.

In Middle East and North Africa, Molokhia is an Arabic word of a leaves called Jew’s Mallow, Jute Leaves or Saluyot. The truth is it has many names, which depends on the place where you lived. For example, in the Philippines, they called it a Saluyot leaves.

It is a very delicious and healthy dish which I believe vegetarian will find this food tasty. It has many health benefits, which has rich sources of Vitamin C, fiber, folic acid, and other minerals. If you are a vegetarian. this is a perfect recipe to eat, and you don’t need to add any meat. Furthermore, this soup is perfect during winter or cold weather. That is because this is a hot soup which is very nutritious, and this can be eaten with or without rice.

Because I love Molokhia, I decided to learn this dish from my mother’s recipe.

Ingredients needed for Chicken Molokhia Recipe

The ingredient to cook a chicken molokhia is actually simple. The 4 main ingredients you need is lemon, garlic, chicken, and molokhia/jews mallow/jute leave powder.

In some supermarket or middle eastern grocery stores, Jute leave or jews mallow are sold in a form of powder. In my opinion, this is much easier since you can cook directly in the pot. The molokiya powder I have was already prepared, which was given from my father in Kuwait.

What happened if you can’t find the prepared powder? Don’t worry, you can just buy these leaves, and let it exposed to the sun for up to 2 days. That is because it will dry the leaves, which you can easily make into a powder.

Also, although this is not mandatory, I will recommend that you remove the skin, and clean the chicken with salt and lemon since it can help remove the smell of the meat.

Instruction to cook this dish

The first thing you should do is boil the chicken for 20 to 25 minutes. After boiling the chicken, you fry the garlic with olive oil in a separate frying pan until it is golden brown. Later, you add the molokhia/jute leave powder directly in the pan, and mix it well. Transfer the powder to the chicken pot, and let it simmer for 15 to 20 more minutes until the chicken is fully cooked. And you are done.

Below is the full instruction of chicken molokhia recipe

Chicken Molokhia Soup Recipe

5 from 2 votes

Recipe by Saif Al Deen Odeh Course: MainCuisine: Middle Eastern, Levant, EgyptianDifficulty: Medium

Servings

4 to 5

servings

Prep time

10

minutes

Cooking time

45

minutes

Calories

300

kcal

Chicken Molokhia is a healthy chicken Soup dish that is mixed with jute leaves or jew’s mallow. It is popular cuisine among Middle Eastern and North African.

Ingredients

• 6 cup of water

• 1.5 lbs chicken leg

• 1 to 1.5 cup of jute leave / jew’s mallow / molokhia powder

• 2 tablespoon of olive oil

• 6 cloves of garlic

• 2 teaspoon of salt

• 1/2 teaspoon of black pepper

• 1 teaspoon of coriander powder

• 1/4 cup of lemon juice

Directions

• Add chicken and the water in the pot, and let it boil between 20 to 25 minutes in medium heat.
• After 20 minutes, prepare a separate frying pan and add olive oil. Once the oil is warm enough, add garlic and stir it for few minutes or until it became light brown.
• Add molokhia / jute leaves / jew’s mallow powder into the frying pan, and stir it well for 1 minute. Add lemon juice and coriander powder, and mix it well for another 1 minute, and turn off the fire.
• After the chicken is boiled for 25 minutes, transfer the cooked molokhia powder into the pot, and let it simmer for another 15 to 20 minutes or until the chicken is fully cooked.

Notes

• In some groceries, they sell a frozen molokhia, jute leaves or jew’s mallow leaves, which can be used instead of dry powder
• If you notices the molokhia soup is little, add 1 to 2 cup of water.

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Other Amazing Middle Eastern Food Recipes

Middle eastern food has one of the best cuisines in the world. Their food is flavorful and rich in spices. In addition to Chicken Molokhia, here are other delicious middle eastern recipes you may like to try at home:

• Chicken Majboos Recipe
• Mujadara Recipe