Seffa Medfouna | Chicken Beneath Cinnamon-Spiced Vermicelli

Finely chop the onions and soften them in the butter and oil for 6 minutes. Sprinkle in the saffron crushed with a mortar and pestle, ginger, turmeric, and black pepper; stir for 1 minute. Add the chicken thighs, cinnamon stick, salt, and water, and bring to a boil.

Lower the heat and cook until the chicken is tender enough to pull away from the bone. Remove the thighs and reduce the onion liquid in the uncovered pot until it reaches a paste-like consistency. This thick onion sauce provides the savory element of seffa; if it is left thin, it will make the vermicelli soggy.

Rub the vermicelli with oil and place it in the upper tier of a steamer. Steam for 12 minutes while the water below boils. Spread it on a tray, sprinkle with 2 tablespoons of salted water, and rub it by hand to break up clumps; let it rest for 10 minutes. Repeat the same process twice more, steaming for 8 minutes each round.

Insert a thermometer into the thickest part of the chicken without touching the bone: the internal temperature should be 74°C / 165°F. If the chicken has not reached 74°C / 165°F, return it to the pot and cook for 10 more minutes. Pull the meat into large pieces, removing the bones, and mix it with the thick onion sauce.

Soak the almonds in boiling water for 2 minutes and remove their skins. Toast them in a dry pan until golden, then roughly chop them. Remove them from the pan immediately; residual heat will darken the almonds.

Stir the butter and salt into the hot vermicelli after the final steaming. Pile the sauced chicken in the center of a large platter, then cover it completely with the vermicelli, shaping it into a mound—the chicken should not be visible. Sprinkle the powdered sugar and cinnamon in lines from top to bottom, then finish with almonds.