Algeria – Rechta

by Y Shomwi

Algeria is located in the northern part of African continent, being bordered by the Western Sahara to the west, Mauritania to the south as well as Tunisia to the northeast. Retcha consists of thin and flat noodles (traditional pasta dish) and sauce made with chickpeas as well as chicken.

Traditionally, the dish prepares in wedding events, at the end of Ramadan fasting and Ashura.

Some prefer meat mix like chicken with lamb, as long as you like the idea, just do it. Enjoy the recipe from Algeria.

Prepare the followings

• 1 kg of chicken
• 1 bowl of chickpeas
• 4 eggs
• cinnamon stick
• cinnamon powder
• 2 onions
• oil (butter)
• salt
• pepper

Cooking methods

As I spotted before, there will be two cooking works, we start with the chicken sauce, to save time welcome to the cuisine.

• Soak the chickpeas for one night.
• Take a cooking pot add in the chicken, chop in the onions, cinnamon stick and other spices.
• Brown chicken meat both sides with little oil.
• Add 1.5 litres of water and the chickpeas when the soup settles at the bottom.
• Once chicken cooks well, remove it from pot, boil the chickpeas for 10 minutes until they become tender. Add your flavor seasonings, check for soup and boil for 5 minutes more.

After finishing chicken sauce, we prepare the retcha dough. Welcome;

• Take retcha on the couscoussier and cook, once steam escapes cook for about 10 minutes.
• Drizzle three rimes as follows;
  • the first time mix with half glass of water and some oil like 2 tbsp.
  • the second time mix with half glass of water.
  • thirdly drizzle with white sauce and mix with butter sprinkles.
• You must be careful when lifting so that it mixes well, each drizzle counts about 10 minutes of steam pass.

In a large plate arrange the pasta, top up with chicken soup, veggies and any prepared side dishes. Some don’t prefer decorating with boiled eggs cut in half, but I found it so useful.

Enjoy this meal, once tasted it will remark itself as the best taste ever.