Rfissa au poulet — Casablanca, Morocco

Rfissa is a layered Moroccan dish built from torn flatbread and a thick, spiced chicken sauce. Bundles of msemen or trid — thin, flaky griddle breads — are shredded into a wide serving platter and drenched with a sauce of slow-cooked chicken, onions, lentils, saffron and fenugreek seeds that have been soaked overnight. The chicken pieces are set at the centre of the dish, and extra sauce is kept aside so each diner can pour on as much as they want. The dish is closely tied to Casablanca and the Chaouia, the agricultural plain that surrounds the city, though it is cooked in households across much of Morocco. It carries a strong association with childbirth: fenugreek is credited with helping a new mother regain her strength, and rfissa is the meal customarily carried to her in the days after delivery. The same dish appears at large family gatherings, where its size and richness suit a crowd. Preparation begins with browning chicken pieces in oil and smen (preserved butter) with onions, saffron, ras el-hanout and ginger. Water is added along with drained fenugreek seeds and lentils, and the pot simmers slowly, sometimes for close to an hour, until the sauce thickens and the onions have almost dissolved into it. The msemen or trid are torn into pieces by hand, warmed through with steam, and spread out before the sauce and chicken are poured over them, finished with a scattering of coriander. This Casablanca and Chaouia version favours msemen, the square, layered griddle bread, though trid — a thinner, hand-stretched sheet — is used elsewhere in Morocco for the same dish. Some cooks add a little cinnamon to the sauce or thicken it further with extra lentils; others keep the fenugreek discreet rather than dominant. The amount of sauce prepared, and how long it is left to reduce, varies from one household to the next, since the dish is judged mainly by how well it soaks into the bread.