Mansaf Recipe

Mansaf is a wonderfully delicious and distinctive tasting Jordanian dish. This hearty meal consists of bread, rice, meat and a special rich and tangy yogurt sauce.

Meat and rice dishes are very popular in the Middle East like mandi, kabsa and maqluba.

Mansaf is the national dish of Jordan and a meal you would expect to experience if you were to ever visit. However, it is also very popular throughout the Middle East and Levant region. It is a celebratory meal that is served at many family gatherings. Today I will show you how you can make this authentic dish at home.

The meat, traditionally lamb, is cooked in a yogurt sauce. This utterly unforgettable sauce is called Jameed. Jameed is a critical ingredient in making Mansaf. Jameed is a fermented milk product made from sheep or goat milk. It has a very distinctive taste and smell. In Jordan, Jameed is fermented, salted and strained and then rolled into balls. The balls are dried and hardened. This is how Jordanians would preserve the milk without refrigeration, until they wanted to use it.

In the US, we have Jameed liquid (also known as soup starter). Here the Jameed balls are crushed into a liquid, blended with oil until it becomes a smooth ready to use rich yogurt sauce.

Jump to:

• ❓Why This Recipe Works
• 📝 Recipe Ingredients
• 🥣 Equipment and Products
• 🥄 Instructions
• 💡 Amira's Tips
• 💬 FAQs
• 🍽️ Serve With
• 📣 Related Recipes
• Mansaf

❓Why This Recipe Works

Many of the items are easily obtained and using liquid Jameed makes Mansaf as authentic as possible here in the US. Although there are a few steps, making it is actually pretty easy to do and can be eaten any time; no need to wait for a celebration. With the tips I provide here, you will be able to make Mansaf at home and have it come out fork tender and flavorful as it is in Jordan.

📝 Recipe Ingredients

📋 Ingredient Notes and Variations

• Pieces of lamb: The traditional meat to use is lamb, but you can use beef if this is all you have.
• Balls of Jameed: Jameed is a Middle Eastern dry yoghurt. In the US, we use the readily available liquid jameed. If you don't have or can't get Laban Jameed, you can make the sauce with a mixture of Greek yogurt and buttermilk or just Greek yogurt.
• Short-grain rice is traditionally used in this Jordanian dish, but if you do not have it, you can use any rice you have.
• Bread: Shrak or Markook bread is the traditional bread for Mansaf. To make it easier for everyone, I used 4-5 uncooked tortillas in place of the Shrak bread. Cook the tortillas by quickly pan-frying them for about 30 seconds in a non-stick pan on your stovetop. Traditional Shrak bread is only cooked on one side to create a doughy texture on that side. You may prefer the same.
• Large onion and garlic for flavor base.
• Ghee, you can also use olive oil, but ghee gives much more flavor.
• Spices like cinnamon, turmeric, peppercorn, and bay leaves.
• Cornstarch to thicken the Mansaf sauce.

🥣 Equipment and Products

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• Large Pot or Dutch oven.
• Liquid Jameed or soup starter.

🥄 Instructions

Note: This is an overview of the instructions. The detailed instructions are in the recipe card below.

1. Fill a Dutch oven or a large saucepan with water and bring to a boil on medium-high heat. Add meat and wait for the water to boil again.
2. Let the meat boil with water for 5 minutes then take the meat pieces out and dump the water.

1. In the same pot melt 2 tablespoons of ghee then add onions.
2. Sauté for a couple of minutes then add the spices.
3. Add the meat cubes and brown for about 5 minutes.
4. Cover with hot water and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer until done. This will probably take about 75 minutes.

1. In a pot melt ghee and then add rice. Stir rice until the rice grains are covered with ghee. Mix in turmeric and salt, then pour in water.
2. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover and cook until done.

1. When the meat is done start making the Jameed sauce. In a bowl add yogurt and sprinkle with cornstarch. Mix the cornstarch in using a whisk. Pour in the liquid Jameed (soup starter) and whisk well.
2. Then mix in about 1 ½ cups of the meat broth.
3. In a pot over medium heat melt ghee, then sauté garlic for just 30 seconds. Pour in the Jameed mixture whisking everything well and bring to a boil.
4. Add in cooked meat. Taste and season to your liking. Let everything cook together for about 10 minutes over medium heat.

1. Right before serving, assemble the dish. In a big platter, arrange the bread.
2. Ladle some of the Jameed sauce on top.
3. Spread the rice over the bread.
4. Place lamb meat on top of the rice. Ladle some more Jameed sauce over and sprinkle top with toasted almonds and chopped parsley.

💡 Amira's Tips

• Some people like to cook the meat halfway through then finish it off in the Jameed, others prefer to cook it in the Jameed from the start. I find it is easier to cook the lamb then let it boil in the Jameed sauce later.
• Adding garlic to the Jameed is a step I learned from a fried but it is not traditional.
• Some like to tear the bread into pieces before placing them on the serving plate.
• You can use toasted pine nuts as well.
• Serve extra Jameed sauce on the side.

💬 FAQs

🍽️ Serve With

• Mansaf is served on a large platter with Shrak bread on the bottom to soak up the rich tasting Jameed yogurt sauce soon to be poured on top. After assembling Mansaf, be sure to save any extra Jameed sauce for dipping.
• I like serving such heavy meals with a salty yogurt drink like Ayran to help with digestion.
• Authentic Maamoul is the right sweet treat after this flavorful one pot chicken and rice dinner.

📣 Related Recipes

• Mandi is the kind of rice dish you will eat when you visit a Yemeni grandmother. A one dish baked rice and chicken recipe that you need to try.
• My mom's recipe for Chicken and Yellow Rice is one that shows up frequently on our dinner table.
• Kabsa is another flavorful rice dish that I grew up eating in Saudi Arabia.
• Mahshi is the Arabic word for anything stuffed and this mahshi recipe got them all. Delicious vegetables stuffed with fragrant aromatic rice mixture and cooked in tomato sauce.
• Musakhan is considered a staple traditional dish in Palestinian cuisine. Roasted sumac-flavored chicken over Taboon Bread with caramelized onion and garnished with nuts. A feast on the table.
• Koshari, is the Egyptian national vegetarian dish or rice, pasta, lentils and delicious sauces.
• Stuffed Onions recipe is a hearty and comforting dish with tender onion layers rolled with delicious rice and meat mixture. All cooked in a simple tomato and broth mixture.

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