Invented in pursuit of more interesting ways to use chicken mince, today’s recipe is a SOS take on lahmacun, Lebanese pizzas made with flatbreads topped with a thin layer of meat. Astoundingly fast to make, and extremely versatile – use any ground meat, add vegetables, and endless topping options!
Dear Lebanese nationals
Dear Lebanese nationals,
Please don’t be offended by this recipe I’ve called a “Lebanese pizza.” I know they’re actually called manakish (among other names), made with homemade dough and comes with various toppings.
I adore them all – I’d have the za’atar ones with every meal, the cheese ones stole my heart, and the meat ones (called lahmacun in Turkish) – wow. Just wow!
So I don’t present today’s recipe as the real deal, but wanted to give a nod to the inspiration behind it, hence the name. Think of it as a SOS version of lahmacun for all those nights you’ve got no time to cook.
And an interesting way to use chicken mince, which can be so dull and bland!
Ingredients for 8 minute Lebanese pizza
The speed of the recipe relies on a no-chop mince meat topping, store bought Lebanese bread for the base, and toppings that call for nothing more than opening a jar.
But the main point I want to make here is versatility. There are loads of substitution options, and it’s hard to go wrong!
1. Spiced meat topping
Here’s what you need for the meat topping. The recipe was born on a day I was trying to think of interesting ways to use chicken mince, so that’s what I’ve used. It’s delicious as is, and I’m glad to have another great chicken mince recipe in my arsenal, but frankly, even better with fattier meats – lamb or beef.
Chicken mince (ground chicken) – I’ve used chicken here but you can use anything you want – lamb (Lebanese favourite!), beef, turkey, even pork. The spicing for the topping works with everything, and the cook time remains the same.
Baharat (aka Lebanese 7 Spice) is the shortcut spice here. It’s a spice mix used in Middle Eastern cooking that is made with – yup, you guessed it – 7 spices! Cinnamon forward (very Middle Eastern), usually with cumin, coriander, all spice and pepper, then the other spices vary between paprika, cloves, nutmeg, and cardamom. I’ve popped a homemade version in the recipe notes.
Find it at some large grocery stores (I get mine from Harris Farms, same price as dried herbs), fresh produce stores, Middle Eastern stores. Don’t fret if you can’t find it, substitute with any Middle Eastern or Moroccan spice mix (sold at all grocery stores), something more exotic like an Egyptian or African spice mix, Harissa paste, or even a Shawarma spice mix (from this recipe).
Tomato paste – Used in the meat mix for traditional Lebanese pizza. Adds a touch of colour and flavour. I substituted ketchup in an emergency. It wasn’t exactly the same, but it worked!
Garlic – Because we love how much the Lebanese love garlic.
Parsley or coriander/cilantro (OPTIONAL) – I added it because I had it, for a touch of colour and flavour. But it is by no means essential.
Tip: try adding shredded zucchini and carrot into the mixture, to sneak some vegetables in and make the meat go further!
2. lebanese bread for the base
Are you familiar with this large pita bread? It’s a staple at every grocery store here in Australia! Don’t worry if you can’t get it. This recipe will work with any flatbread. Or even tortillas!
Lebanese bread – this is a type of flatbread that is sold in every grocery store here in Australia. It’s like a large pita bread – about 30cm / 12″ in diameter, a thin double layer of bread that can be separated. It’s not bready, like this type of pita pocket, which is why it cooks up crispy quite quickly.
Other suitable flatbreads – Anything fairy thin but not paper thin (won’t be sturdy enough) that will go crispy when pan fried.
Tortillas will work, though they won’t be quite as crispy. I’d make then quesadilla style (spread with meat, toppings, fold then fry).
Greek pita bread, the thin kind not bready kind (like Golden Top brand, pictured in Lamb Souvlaki) is ideal.
3. TOPPING OPTIONS
I can’t stress enough though – toppings are essential, else it’s a little boring. I really recommend at least feta and olive oil, or anything that serves a similar purpose – goats cheese, labne, drizzle of yogurt mix with lemon, or even sour cream.
Feta – I like to use Danish feta because it gets a bit smeary, though the more crumbly Greek feta is just as good. Goats cheese is extra excellent! Got leftovers from last weeks’ Goat Cheese Risoni?
Other ideas – Labne, yogurt, sour cream, avocado sauce (yes!), tahini sauce or whipped tahini yogurt sauce would also be fabulous. Essentially, a crumble or drizzle of something a little creamy goes a long way here.
Extra virgin olive oil – Chicken mince is so lean, so this too is highly recommended. Though, if you use a creamy drizzle sauce in place of feta, you mightn’t need it.
Everything else pictured is recommended but not essential! Here’s some notes on each:
Toasty pine nuts – or sesame seeds (za’atar vibes), or almonds (chopped, flakes, slivers), walnuts or pistachios (pretty!)
Red pepper flakes – Because a little fiery heat makes everything more interesting!
Parsley or coriander/cilantro – For some fresh green and herby touch. Substitute with dried oregano (sprinkle it on top, like we do Greek Salad).
Lemon – Nice fresh finish, channeling the tangy touch you get from sumac in real Lebanese Pizza.
More ideas!
Sprinkles – Za’atar, dukkah, sumac or other spice mixes
Chilli crisp or other chilli sauce – a swish of sriracha would totally work!
Salsa like pico de gallo or even a bit of finely chopped tomato
Olives or other pickled veg, chopped / finely sliced
Rocket / arugula – Just a small handful (think – Rocket Prosciutto Pizza)
I have to stop here, else this post will be lengthy!! But you get the idea. 🙂
How to make this 8 minute Lebanese Pizza
4 minute prep, 3 minute cook, 1 minute toppings. YOU GOT THIS!
Mix the spiced meat topping ingredients in a bowl.
Trim the Lebanese bread so it fits in your pan. Only trim along one side so the bread stays together.
Pan size – I use my large non-stick pan which is 30cm/12″ wide (this one).
Spread the meat all over the bread, like you would peanut butter on toast! It will be and should be fairly thin.
Pan fry the meat side down for 1 1/2 minutes on high heat until there are some golden patches. No longer – chicken mince dries out in a flash!
(PS Don’t skimp on oil when pan frying, else the bread will just burn rather than go golden and crispy).
Crisp base – Turn with tongs (the meat sticks!) then pan fry the bread side for 1 1/2 minutes until crispy, lowering the heat slightly if needed so the bread doesn’t burn.
Sprinkle with toppings. Baseline is feta or goats cheese + olive oil, everything else just makes it even better.
Cut like pizza then devour!
Also – proof it’s crispy enough to pick up:
Final words
Cooked Lebanese pizzas will keep for a few days, but I recommend reheating by pan frying to re-crisp the base and a fresh drizzle of olive oil to rejuvenate the chicken.
And final words of advice – don’t get hung up on having the exact ingredients listed. This recipe is more of a blueprint for you to use and make your own with what you’ve got!
Hope you can find 8 minutes in your day to give this a go. 😉 I promise you won’t regret it. – Nagi x
PS Some of you may have picked up that this recipe is like an open-faced Arayes, Lebanese meat stuffed pita breads, pan fried until crispy. Funnily enough, that’s where this recipe started! See Development Woe tales in the FAQ section below. 🙂
8 minute Lebanese pizza FAQ
None for this actual recipe but plenty leading up to it! This came into existence because I was determined to expand my chicken mince repertoire. It’s so lean, it overcooks so easily and I usually resort to adding cheese or serving with loads of sauce to compensate.
So, faced with a packet of expiring chicken mince, I had what I thought was a brilliant idea to try a chicken mince version of Lebanese Arayes, a recipe I shared a couple of years ago where raw spiced lamb mince is stuffed inside pita breads then pan fried until crisp.
In theory, it should’ve worked. In reality, it was bland. Chicken mince is way less flavourful than lamb mince, so cooking it inside bread where it doesn’t get browned just lacked flavour. I tried twice, dialling up the spicing, but it was still no good.
Recognising that the lack of meat browning was the problem, I then flipped to the Lebanese pizza idea where the meat is exposed so I could get colour on it. And it worked! It was so, so delicious, and kept getting more delicious the more toppings I put on it. 😂
So actually, it originally came about as an “open faced Arayes” but then I realised it had re-routed to be a variation of Lebanese pizzas, so I changed the name!
This recipe was a cinch! It’s a low-risk fast recipe so I didn’t need to do much testing on the cooking process. I made the same recipe with beef and pork to make sure they were still tasty using the same quantity of spicing and salt (which they were). I didn’t do lamb because it’s similar to beef in terms of amount of flavour it can take / needs – and I know it’s the best because lamb is a natural protein choice for Lebanese food and flavours. 🙂
Watch how to make it
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8 minute Lebanese Pizzas (Lahmacun!)
Ingredients
- 1 x ~30cm/12" Lebanese bread , (sub other thin flatbreads, Note 1)
Spiced Chicken Mince spread:
- 125g / 4 oz chicken mince (ground chicken) (Note 2)
- 2 tsp tomato paste
- 1 tsp Baharat spice mix (aka Lebanese 7 spice) (Note 3 subs)
- 1/2 tsp paprika , sweet (or smoked)
- 1 garlic clove , crushed using garlic press
- 1/4 tsp cooking salt / kosher salt (halve for table salt)
- 1 tbsp finely chopped parsley or coriander/cilantro, totally optional (sub 1 tsp dried oregano)
- 1 1/2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil , for cooking (or regular olive oil)
Toppings – essential! (Note 4)
- Extra virgin olive oil
- 2 tbsp Danish feta or goats cheese , crumbled (or regular feta)
Toppings – optional (makes it even better!)
- Lemon juice , just a light drizzle
- Dried chilli flakes / red pepper flakes
- ~1 tbsp toasted pine nuts , roughly chopped (sub pistachios, almonds, sesame seeds)
- 1 tsp finely chopped parsley or coriander/cilantro
Instructions
ABBREVIATED RECIPE:
- Trim bread to fit pan, mix filling, smear on bread. Heat oil on high, pan fry 90 seconds meat side down, then bread side 90 seconds until crispy. Top, cut, eat!
FULL RECIPE:
- Use a large 30cm/12" non-stick pan. If needed, use scissors to cut one side of the Lebanese bread so it fits in your pan (Note 4)
- Mix the Chicken Spread ingredients in a bowl. Spread all across the surface of one side of the bread like peanut butter – use it all! It will be a fairly thin layer.
- Cook meat side – Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in the pan over high heat. Place the bread in meat side down and cook for 90 seconds, pressing down lightly to encourage colour. The meat will stick to the bread!
- Crisp bread – Turn with tongs (there should be some golden patches) and cook the bread side for 90 seconds until golden and crispy (lower heat if browning too quickly).
- Toppings – Slide onto cutting board, sprinkle with feta, drizzle with extra virgin olive oil. Sprinkle with other toppings you choose. Cut into 8 like pizza, enjoy!
Recipe Notes:
1 tsp EACH ground all spice, cinnamon
3/4 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp cumin powder
1/8 tsp each ground cloves, nutmeg powder Based on this recipe from Silk Road recipes, tweaked to align with store bought I use. 4. Toppings – So many options! Read in post for suggestions. Nutrition per pizza assuming only the feta and 1 teaspoon olive oil is used for drizzling (that’s all you need). It also assumes 1 tablespoon of the 1 1/2 tbsp of oil used for cooking ends up being consumed. You can reduce the cooking oil to 1 tablespoon but the bread won’t crisp quite as well and may burn a bit instead of going golden.
Nutrition Information:
Similar stuffed crispy bread-type-things
Clumsy heading. But you know what I mean!
Life of Dozer
No dogs allowed on the couch.
No dogs allowed on the couch!
Dear Nagi,
Can you make these in the oven?
Please help! I love them but I have fear of frying pans!
Just made this for lunch. Sooo delicious!whole family loved it. Made my own Baharat which was easy. Will make again for sure. Thanks Nagi!
I made this tonight, something quick and easy. I used ras el hanout spice instead of baharat because I had that in the cupboard, other than that followed recipe. Added the feta, lemon and pine nuts, it was lovely. Thanks Nagi
I have made this several times. Really nice!! I haven’t made it with chicken though, I have made it with lamb mince and pork mince and it is excellent. After making it in the frying pan the first time, I now bake it in the oven. Cooks so quickly, a great “what on earth can I cook for dinner” recipe when no one feels like cooking! I really must try it with chicken mince….. 🙂
Of course dogs ‘shouldn’t’ be on the couch just as they ‘shouldn’t’ have chocolate and ‘shouldn’t’ eat pork sausages.
The trouble is: no-one has ever told the dogs this !!
These were insanely delicious Nagi! I’ve made a lot of your recipes and this is up there as one of my absolute favourites!!
Ridiculously tasty, super easy and full of vibrant flavour. Thank you for this beautiful gift of a recipe
Winner!! This was so quick to make and super delicious. Woolies were out of the pre-made spice mix so I used your spice blend and it worked a treat. Thanks Nagi xx
Delicious as always! I added feta, olives, arugula and pecans. Thank you so much Nagi!
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Dear Nagi – you’ve done it again! I am so wedded to all your magnificent recipes and thrilled that you and Dozer are getting the recognition you deserve.
I’ve pulled this ‘pizza’ together a few times for friends calling in for a sundowner, and they’ve been blown away, giving me a chance to promote your website.
btw: I couldn’t get the chicken mince in such small quantities in the supermarket, so made a batch and froze portions which I pull out as needed. Works perfectly every time xx
For any vegans or vegetarians out there wondering – yep, this absolutely works a treat with chickpeas. I ditched the tomato paste and used ground coriander/cumin for the spices; topped it with a tomato/cucumber/spring onion/herb/feta/lemon salad and it was like a delicious felafel version!
Delicious! I’ve never bought or used the Baharat spice mix before and it worked beautifully with the chicken mince. It would be awesome with lamb too! I was able to use 500g mince (quadrupled the recipe) to feed the family and made 4 x 10” pizzas. Only differences in my method was I used Greek pita bread instead of Lebanese, and while delicious it does require a bit of extra drying/crisping when cooking the non-meat side (on lower heat). The only other change was I made a creamy whipped feta (feta, Greek yoghurt and lemon zest whizzed in food processor) drizzled on top instead of just feta chunks. OMG – highly recommend this slight modification! Thanks for another quick and tasty dinner idea, Nagi xx
Forgot to rate it! 5 stars 🙂
We love Lebanese food & this recipe was absolutely delicious!! We cooked ours in the oven as we made 4 at once so it was easier. Didn’t take long & the base was nice & crispy. We added goats cheese, chilli & lemon. All flavours were amazing. For its flavours, fun factor & quick cook I can see this being a mid week staple in our house.
Jo, if you happen to see this, could you share if you did anything different to adapt it to being cooked in the oven? Did you drizzle any oil onto the top of the chicken before baking, or was it OK to cook as is? And do you know roughly how long you baked it for? (Just a ballpark figure!)
Thanks for your helpful review!
Wasn’t my favorite thing, but it was good enough. A drizzle of hot honey made it better!
Soooo easy! Made it with the lamb mince and it is a real replica living so far away from good middle eastern bakeries. Great recipe.
Delicious flavour but lamb mince does not stick to the bread and it tore when I tried to flip it.
Followed the recipe to a tee, cook a lot of your recipes but this one missed the mark for me. Next time I’ll make my own base and cook it in the oven.
I couldn’t wait to make this & so glad I did. They were so tasty, the flavour was so good. The 90 seconds cook on each side was spot on. I will be making this again & again.
These had a authentic great taste and were super easy to make , great for an easy Friday night meal or when you know you have a busy day out , if you prepare everything beforehand , super fast and easy to have food on the table (faster than uber eats lol)
We also tried with lamb mince and drizzled a yogurt mint sauce on top after cooking 10/10 .
This is a nice take on a classic.I used 500gm of turkey thigh mince which i bunged in the processor with a red bell pepper 1/2 red onion garlic and Allepo pepper some parsely along with the spices and tomato puree to make the paste.Did the feta thing & used cheaper sunflower seeds served up with a help your self plate of thinly sliced tomato/cucumber/red onion a chopped jalapeno parsely and corriander sprigs greek yoghurt with lemon whisked through. I got 6 out of my 1lb of mince,i kept them warm in a low oven.
Oh my goodness- I have just finished the last mouthful and had to leave a review. This was amazing! I’m watching my weight at the moment so I made some slight adjustments – used 95% lean beef mince, and cooked it in my toaster oven on the grill setting for 2.5 minutes instead of pan frying so no oil was needed. Topped it with a salad made of tomato, herbs, lots of lemon juice and then drizzled 1tsp of olive oil over the top with a sprinkle of chilli flakes. Absolutely delicious, cannot wait to make it again.
We don’t have ground lamb in my area so I made it with beef. I don’t know what I did wrong the meat side did not stick. So, I served it in a bowl with warm flat breads, dishes of add ons around it. Delicious.