Chakhchoukha (Algerian Shredded Bread Stew)

Chakhchoukha comes from the Aurès mountains of eastern Algeria, where Chaoui cooks built a whole feast around torn flatbread and a fiery red sauce. Stale bread is toasted until crisp, then drenched in a slow-simmered lamb and tomato sauce so it soaks up every drop. It is the dish of weddings, feasts, and long Ramadan evenings, and every region seasons its sauce a little differently.

Bread that drinks up a spicy red sauce

Each ragged bite is half-bread, half-sauce — chewy where it has soaked and crackly where it has not — with tender lamb and chickpeas tucked throughout, and the sauce is loose enough to soak in yet thick enough to cling. The lamb is pulled apart into the sauce as it simmers, so every spoonful carries a bit of meat, a bit of chickpea, and a lot of flavor. It is bold, garlicky, and unabashedly saucy, the kind of meal that demands you eat it the moment it is served. Families traditionally share it from one enormous platter, and everyone tears off bread until the platter is wiped clean.

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