Chicken Matazeez

Matazeez is a humble Saudi family stew from the Najd and Hejaz regions, made when the cupboard holds chicken, tomatoes, and flour. Small pieces of dough are pinched or cut and dropped into a simmering chicken and tomato broth, where they puff into soft, dumpling-like pillows. It is the kind of dish mothers cook on ordinary weeknights, and it disappears faster than any fancy celebration meal. Nothing about it is fancy, and that is precisely its charm.

Little dough pillows in tomato broth

The dumplings are the heart of the dish: soft and tender, soaking up the spiced broth so each bite tastes of turmeric, cumin, and rich chicken. The broth itself is thick enough to cling to a spoon, bright with tomato and finished with fresh cilantro. It is deeply comforting food, the Gulf equivalent of chicken and dumplings, and it costs almost nothing to make. It is the kind of meal that makes a cold evening feel warm and a full house feel fuller.

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