A few years ago, I used to work at a bank in Troy, MI and there used to be a Lebanese restaurant, not sure if it’s still around, but it was called La Shish. That’s where I had my first Fattoush Salad. It was amazing, delicious, probably the best salad I ever had in my life. Well since then we moved to Calgary, and I haven’t been to a Lebanese restaurant since. Not sure how or what happened, but I got a craving for one of those beautiful and scrumptious Fattoush Salads. I remember at the restaurant they used to make them with no meat, or some sort of deli meat or chicken, so I decided to make mine with chicken. The ingredients for this salad are very basic, but I’m not sure what makes it so special, I have to say this Fattoush Salad is my favorite salad. I really encourage you to try it, it’s wonderful, refreshing, and if you’re on a diet, you can’t go wrong.
Start by cutting up the chicken breast into small strips and add it to a hot saute pan with a bit of olive oil. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.
Cook the chicken until lightly golden on all sides and no longer pink in the middle and place it in a small bowl and let it cool.
Normally this is when you would cut up a couple tortillas into small pieces and add them to the same pan and toss them around until they are golden. However, I didn’t have any tortillas so I used nachos instead. A risk I was willing to take. Next I used a whole English cucumber, you can peel it if you don’t like the skin, but it doesn’t bother me, so just chop it up into small cubes.
Clean a green bell pepper and also chop it up into small pieces.
Next come the green onions, chop them as well.
Place the cucumber, green pepper and green onions in a large bowl. Chop the parsley and add it to the bowl. I used cocktail tomatoes here, but really you can use any tomatoes you have on hand.
Add the tomatoes to the bowl and also the chopped cilantro. Have I mentioned I love cilantro lately? I do! The chicken should be cooled by now, so add that to the bowl and the mint as well. I love mint too!! Every time I hear mint or think about mint only one thing goes through my head … MOJITOS!!
In a small bowl, whisk together the lemon juice with olive oil, salt and pepper and most importantly the sumac. You’ll notice it will thicken as you whisk it. The first time I made this I did not have sumac, the salad was still delicious but I must say the sumac is a very important ingredient to this salad, so if you can find it definitely use it. You should be able to find it at Arabic stores.
You can at this point add the tortilla crisps, or nachos in my case to the salad and drizzle with the dressing, or add them at the end. I however, mixed everything together, because I knew the salad was going to be eaten right away, no chance for the nachos to get soggy. Toss everything well.
I mean look at those colors, so vibrant, the salad looks and tastes amazing.
Ingredients:
- 1 english cucumber
- 1 green bell pepper
- 3 medium tomatoes
- 6 green onions
- 1 boneless skinless chicken breast cut in small strips
- 2 flour tortillas cut in small pieces (or a few nachos)
- 1/3 cup of chopped cilantro
- 1/3 cup of chopped parsley
- 1 tbsp finely chopped mint
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 1/4 cup lemon juice
- salt and pepper to taste
- 1 tbsp sumac
Instructions:
- In a small saute pan, add chicken with a bit of olive oil and saute until cooked. You may add salt and pepper on the chicken as well.
- After the chicken is done, in the same pan, add the tortillas that have been cut in small pieces and fry for a bit until they are nice and crisp.
- Next chop all the tomatoes, cucumbers, green peppers and onions in small cubes.
- Add them all to a large bowl. Add the cilantro, parsley and mint.
- In another bowl, whisk the olive oil, lemon, salt and pepper and sumac until it turns thick.
- To the large bowl, add the chicken and the tortilla chips and pour the dressing over everything.
- Toss well. You can add the tortilla chips after, so they don’t become soggy.
Enjoy!
Where is your romaine lettuce? That is the like the main ingredient of fattoush
An alternative (authentic one- I’m lebanese) to the nacho chips is Pita bread either dried out over night, baked in the oven until crisp or deep fried…I deep fry mine so it stays crispy longer. Another thing I do is replace the lemon juice with apple cider vinegar, it gives it a nice zing!
Yes I mentioned they’re usually done with Pita bread, but all I had was nacho chips, so nacho chips it was.
I lived in Farmington Hills and I loved La Shish as well. I’m in CA now, so there’s no shortage of Lebanese/Middle Eastern food here, yet I still miss La Shish. They had something special. Thanks for sharing this recipe. I’ll definitely try it!
You’re very welcome. Let me know how you like it.
Very good salad and I would recommend it to all of my friends whenever we have potluck! Thanks!
Thank you Janie, I’m glad you enjoyed it.
I must say, the picture and write up of this wonderful salad was exactly what I envisioned! It was such a cool relief with the cucumbers the mint and all the other welcoming veggies. It is so hot and dry in Texas this year and it just was exactly what we needed. Thank you for sharing your recipes. I love your website!
I can’t stop eating Fattoush salad and make it 3-4 days a week however there is one important ingredient left out in this recipe and that is Sumac. It’s a sour berry that’s dried and ground into a wonderful lemony spice, the deep red colour looks and tastes wonderful when mixed into the olive oil and lemon juice and garlic dressing. The Lebanese and Turks use this profusely, since I’ve discovered it I can’t get enough! try it in this recipe, you won’t be disappointed!
Leone
Thanks Leone, I since then found sumac and updated the recipe. You are right, it does make the salad.
Thank you, it truly was very good.
This looks so good, I have never had fattoush salad, but I will try it this weekend. It looks just gorgeous.