Seffa medfouna with chicken: the traditional Moroccan recipe

Seffa medfouna is one of the most beautiful dishes on the Moroccan table: fine steamed vermicelli sweetened with cinnamon, with chicken hidden in the middle. The sweet-and-savoury mix is loved by kids and adults alike. Here is the recipe and the video where we cooked it outdoors.

Ingredients

• One chicken cut into quarters
• 2 grated onions
• One spoon of ginger, half a spoon of pepper, a little saffron and salt
• One cinnamon stick, parsley and coriander
• 3 spoons of olive oil and one spoon of butter
• 500 g fine vermicelli (seffa vermicelli)
• Ground cinnamon and icing sugar to decorate
• 200 g fried, chopped almonds
• One spoon of honey for the sauce (optional)

Method

1. In the pot, brown the chicken for a few minutes with the onion, spices, cinnamon stick, parsley, coriander and oil.
2. Add water and cook until the chicken is done and the sauce has reduced. Add the spoon of honey at the end if you like a slightly sweet sauce.
3. Meanwhile, coat the vermicelli with a little oil and steam it in the couscoussier for 15 minutes.
4. Take it out, sprinkle with a little salted water, fluff it and return it to the steam. Repeat 2 or 3 times until tender.
5. On the last steaming, mix it with the butter.
6. On the serving dish, put half the seffa, then the boneless chicken in the middle with a little sauce, and cover with the rest in a dome.
7. Decorate with cinnamon, icing sugar and almonds, and serve with the sauce on the side.

Tips from the countryside

• The secret of soft seffa is steaming several times, not using lots of water.
• Don’t like sugar? Drizzle some orange blossom honey over the seffa instead.

See also

Meat tagine with prunes and steamed seffa and rfissa with beldi chicken.