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Hashweh is a traditional Lebanese “stuffing” that includes rice, ground beef or lamb, and very often (always in my family) roasted chicken topped with nuts.
Hashweh, a beloved Lebanese rice dish, is a flavorful and comforting dish. I have included recipes for hushweh or hashweh (same thing, different spellings) since the inception of this site because it was always such a staple that my mother made and that so many Lebanese make. Our favorite routine-dish is hushweh, with a flavor so deeply savory and easy on the eater (and cook), that we make ours for Sunday supper, sick days, and what-the-heck-should-we-make-for-dinner days alike. Hashweh is also there for special occasions like Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Known for its delicious flavor and rich aroma, Lebanese hashweh combines simple ingredients of ground meat, rice, and a blend of warm Middle Eastern spices. We always eat hushweh with chicken, most often roast chicken that is pulled into small pieces and added to the pilaf. My mother often made her wonderful oven fried chicken with hashweh rice and served them side by side. The crowning glory of hashweh is the halo of toasted nuts over the top.
What Is Hashweh?
Hashweh is comfort food at its finest! This authentic Lebanese rice dish features a hearty meat mixture with long grain rice, seasoned with warm spices. Often prepared with ground lamb or ground beef, this rice dish is a classic in Lebanese cuisine. The combination of seasoned ground meat, fluffy rice, toasted nuts (pine nuts are traditional; I use them or slivered almonds, or mixed nuts) and chicken gives us all we need!
The word itself means โstuffing.โ I have yet to experience our hushweh stuffed in a bird, though I understand this is done in some kitchens here and there (meaning here in the U.S., and there in Lebanon). The drippings from the chicken must impart a similar umami richness as they do in my roasted chicken fattoush.
Hashweh is versatile. We eat it as a main dish with chicken pieces stirred into it or on the side. As itt’s considered a stuffing in general, it is the same rice and meat mixture, uncooked, that fills kousa, grape leaves, or cabbage.
Key Ingredients for Perfect Hashweh
Making hashweh involves simple ingredients:
- Ground lamb or ground beef. I most often use grass fed ground beef for healthy, excellent flavor.
- Spices. Mom used cinnamon. I use cinnamon! But 7 Spice or baharat spice blend lends this dish that hallmark Arabic flavor we love too.
- Olive oil and butter. You can use a combination of these two, or all olive oil, or all butter. In any case you are lending additional fat to the dish that’s very flavorful.
- Toasted nuts. These aren’t just oven-toasted nuts…they’re traditionally “fried” or sautรฉed in butter before topping the pilaf. Use pine nuts, slivered almonds, cashews, pistachios, or a mix of your favorite nuts.
- Long grain rice. Mom used Ben’s exclusively. I look for that or any long grain rice.
- Chicken stock. Flavorful stock brings the lion’s share of flavor to this dish.ย
How to Make Hashweh
The secret to a delicious hashweh lies in the cooking process. First, melt the butter or heat the olive oil or combo and brown the meat with spices (salt, black pepper, cinnamon and/or 7 Spice), then add the rice. Give that a stir and add the stock. Cover the pot, bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer (don’t forget to reduce the heat to medium low so the rice cooks evenly!) and cook for about 30 minutes. The ratio of stock to rice here is key: don’t over-do it! Too much liquid lands us with mushy hashweh rice! Over the years, I have cut back on the amount of stock I add during the cooking process to help avoid mushiness. Then, if needed and to freshen the hushweh before serving, I’ll add a little more stock to the finished rice just before serving.
Butter toasting the nuts is simple–just be sure to keep an eye on the nuts. They can go from golden brown to burned in a heartbeat! (I speak from experience…!) I try to toast my nuts ahead of time so they are at the ready for hashweh, which we make frequently.
What to serve with it
Enjoy hashweh with a Lebanese salad (Salata or a Fattoush salad), a side of fresh vegetables, and pita bread or saj bread.
Storage Tips and Reheating
Prepared hashweh can be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for 3-4 days, making it perfect for meal prep or leftovers. Reheat gently in a microwave or skillet, sprinkled with a few tablespoons of chicken stock or water, revives its texture.
I freeze hushweh too! Leftovers can go into the freezer for up to 3 months. Thaw in the refrigerator, then reheat as described above.
Hashweh Recipe
Ingredients
Rice Pilaf:
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 2 tablespoons butter, optional
- 1 cup long grain white rice
- 1 pound ground beef, or ground lamb
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon, or 7 spice, baharat
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/4 teaspoon Black pepper
- 1 1/4 cups chicken stock, plus more for finishing, if needed
- 3 cups shredded chicken, warm, from a roasted chicken or chicken breasts
Nut Topping:
- 2 tablespoons salted butter
- 1 1/2 cups nuts, use pine nuts, cashews, slivered almonds, or a mix of these
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
Instructions
- In a medium bowl, cover the rice by several inches with cool water. Rinse, and repeat several times until the water runs fairly clear. Set aside.
- In a dutch oven or deep sautรฉ pan, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the ground beef, breaking it up into small pieces with the side of a large metal spoon as it browns. Season the meat with cinnamon, salt, and pepper. Add the rice and chicken stock and stir to combine.
- Cover the pot and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium low and simmer, covered, for 20 minutes. Do not stir while the rice is cooking. Remove the lid to allow steam to escape and continue to cook for another 10 minutes.
- Meanwhile (or ahead of time), make the butter toasted nuts. In a medium pan, melt the butter over medium heat. Add the nuts. When the butter foams up, leave the nuts undisturbed for a minute or two so the nuts will toast in the foamy butter. Then stir constantly until the nuts are golden. Transfer the nuts to a bowl and add a teaspoon of salt while they are hot, and stir to combine. Set aside. And try not to eat them all.
- When the rice is cooked, add the pulled chicken pieces to the hot rice mixture and gently stir to combine. If needed, stir in a touch more chicken broth to moisten. Top with all of the toasted nuts, and serve immediately.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
More Lebanese Rice Recipes
Another pilaf-style Lebanese favorite is Mujadara, a lentil and rice (or bulgur) dish that is packed with nutrition and flavor.
Lebanese Rice with vermicelli (no meat) is a staple pilaf to try.
New favorite! Can I freeze leftovers? Would be great for lunch next week.
Margaret thank you! Hushweh freezes perfectly. When you reheat it, refresh with a sprinkle of water or chicken stock. Also, would love your “star” rating if you are so inclined–Thank you!
This is excellent. Fast, tasty and very filling.
Thank you Nancy! Favorite!
Hello! I’m so excited to make this but am wondering if I can substitute Brown rice, and how that would affect the cook time or proportions? Thank you.
Hi Annie! You can substitute brown rice, just increase the cooking liquid by 1/2 cup and increase the cooking time by up to 15 minutes. Fluff the rice and taste it to see if it’s done toward the end of cooking. If it is not tender, you may want to add more liquid and continue cooking with the lid on.
Shaheen sounds real familiar….my husband is John Shaheen.We live in Charleston,WVa.
Your recipes are wonderful,little touches that differ from how his family cooks. And they have noticed and remarks how much better they taste with the extra touch.
Anne I’m honored! From one Shaheen to another, here’s a hug!
Maureen, being a Detroit Lebanise family member I need to comment on this recipe. First of all, Iโve never had Hushwey with chicken. But your rice/meat with cinnimon (with pinenuts) was exacaly lime my moms/sittoโs. Tonight, I added the chicken tonight and it was a huge hit for the adde protine and flavors. Thanks for your wonerful recipies. Are you from the east side?
Hi Dennis, I am always fascinated by the variations of our recipes as they trickle down through the generations here in the U.S. and no doubt same anywhere. My father’s family immigrated to Lansing, and my mother’s to northern Ohio. They spent lots of time in Detroit though!! Thanks so much for your star review and comment Dennis!
Made this vegan with crumbled tofu which I tossed with an oil/soy sauce/corn starch mix and then with the salt and cinnamon, then baked, used veggie broth making the rice separately, substituted sauteed mushrooms and an onion for the chicken. And just dry roasted the nuts. It was delicious! Thanks MA for great recipes!
Dave that is clever and sounds so delicious!! I will pass this on to vegan friends who want hushweh (they all do of course!)–thank you for sharing!
Delicious Hashweh recipe!! Tastes just like my two Tataโs and Jidoโs. Who wrote nothing down – yay! Toasting the nuts in butter bring it to a higher level!
Sahtein to my family when we eat it tonight Thank you Maureen!
That means so much to me Renee, that my recipe reminds you of how your grandparents made it! Double yay and sahtein to all of you at your table!
Dear Maureen,
We are grateful for your site. I am Lebanese/Armenian, and my wife is Puerto Rican. Sinc e my mom died many uears ago I have not been able to get a good Lebanese meal. Not much in the restaurants. My wife is trying to make some of my favorites, like mjadra, lubia rooze. So we look forward to your experience.Thank you. One request can you darken your fonts as it is hard to read. to lite.
Fred, thanks so much for your note! I’m happy you are here and what a neat thing that your wife is learning to make your favorites–hope you find all of the recipes you’re looking for here. And thank you for your suggestion, will see about making the type easier to read!
Thanks for all your wonderful recipes Maureen – I always enjoy reading them. I am vegetarian and am wondering if I could do this dish without the meat – chicken or lamb or ground beef, or if it would need โsomethingโโฆbut what would that something be? I look forward to your thoughts.
Interesting Pam. I would try mushrooms as that “something,” to replace the meat. Love to hear how it goes!
I lived in Aqaba, Jordan and some of the roast chickens we bought had a delicious rice stuffing. I wonder if this was it. I’ll ask a couple of Jordanian friends what it was as I’ve wanted to duplicate it.
I bet so!
Greetings Maureen:
Excellent recipe and I will do it at his Thanksgiving Holiday dinner. I’ll share with my family and friends.
Thank you, Rachid
Wonderful, thank you and enjoy!
Hi Maureen I made the recipe and I can’t thank you enough! For once, I followed it exactly! So Tasty! Will be one of my favorite dishes! God bless you!
Fantastic Marcia!!
Hi Maureen, just curious why you do not use ground lamb in your hushwe?
Hi Scott! My mother never did, so I guess that’s the short answer! I don’t think it was widely available back in the day here. We love it with ground beef but I know it’s great with the traditional lamb too!
Hi Maureen, I stumbled across your recipe last week and it was like a “Eurkea!” moment for me. My wife (and her family) have made a version of this for years, but always stuffed it into a roast chicken. I read through your version and decided to make it by pulling a rotisserie chicken instead and substituting cumin for the cinnamon (that’s the way her family makes it). It honestly took about 30 minutes total (including pulling the chicken) and it was a smash with the family! Everyone was so pleased with the result that it will now be a guaranteed part of the monthly dinner rotation as it takes so much less time than prepping, stuffing and roasting a fresh bird. The family and I offer our everlasting gratitude ๐
How special Michael! Thank you so much for this. Hushweh is a wonderful dish to look forward to on a regular basis as a family.
We had a Lebanese neighbor when we lived on ardussi in Saginaw years back.
She and her family cooked Lebanese. Now I wish Iโd taken more interest in learning from her.
Well Gail it’s never too late! But I hear you, all of the things we missed out on earlier in life for not knowing what was in front of us….
The pictures seem to show hushweh made with ground beef (or maybe ground lamb?). Out of curiosity, which do you prefer?
I use ground beef almost exclusively for this. The flavor is more reliable than ground lamb, and the kid crowd seems to go for that too.
LOVE hushweh! I have always started by boiling the chicken in chicken stock until it is beginning to fall off the bone, then pop it into a hot oven to roast/crisp up the skin for a short time. Boiling the chicken in the stock makes for a fabulously rich ‘double’ stock in which to cook the pilaf.
While the chicken roasts, finish preparing the pilaf (I fry the meat — I usually use lamb — and wash then soak the rice for 30 minutes while the chicken is cooking). For the nuts, I usually just use a LOT of pine nuts, but will now try this mix, which sounds fabulous. I also throw in a generous handful of raisins or, more often, golden raisins. And I space it generously with Lebanese 7 spice mix.
Turn in the now roasted chicken at the very end. Eat till you are stuffed! (It’s why it’s called hushweh!!)
Terrific Mark, thank you! Love the “double” stock!
My mother was from Colombia and met my Lebanese father in a grocery store. This was an irony for me always given their mutual love for food! Mom hardly cooked Colombian dishes and early on in her marriage, learned all the tricks from my Lebanese aunts (dadโs sisters). At holidays, as others mentioned, mom stuffed the bird with this dish. Cornish hens were my favorite combination! The kitchen was a tight galley, remained 70s style with tan and brown wallpaper that I believe had layers of aromas held tightly to the surface over the course of 5 decades. If there was one scent on that wallpaper that remained, it was of Husweh, as this was the staple, the go-to filler in so many meals! Thank you for reviving these memories for me. I have your book now too and this year plan to follow in momโs footsteps and begin these traditions in my home.
What a wonderful story Juliette, and what a great combination of cultures in your parents. I can’t wait to hear what you cook and how your journey unfolds. Very special! And that wallpaper…!!!
Iโm going to make this dish for the holidays but in the meantime I wanted to say thank you to Maureen for giving a shout out to Beirut Bakery!
I just moved to Dearborn for work and Iโve been searching for my Lebanese favorites for 2 weeks. Iโve found some good, some bad… I tried BB yesterday and Iโm going to purposely schedule a trip up to Livonia at least once a week. Itโs the next best thing to making your recipes, thank you!
Lucky you, Thomas, hitting up Beirut Bakery every week! Thanks for your comment!
Very interesting recipe and I can’t wait to try it asap!!
Love it with the game changing nuts.
Can we have it tonight?
Absolutely!
Simple but tasty. The nuts made it something special. Maybe a sacrilege but next time I may spice it up a bit with some onions and garlic and harissa.
Bet that will be extra-delicious…
YES! From my Sitto to my mother and father to my own kitchen, we stuff the turkey with hushweh- toasted slivered almonds and spanish pine nuts, adding chopped flat-leaf parsley to the mix once cooked. I add allspice (or Lebanese 5-spice) to the cinnamon and the flavors permeate the bird and the gravy we make from the drippings is to die for!
I just can’t wait to try the hushweh stuffed as you described, Ron! Is the rice mixture already cooked before stuffing it in the bird, so that you can be sure the rice will cook?
Every Thanksgiving and Christmas, my Mother-in-law would serve two dressings along side the turkey; one was a cornbread dressing and the other was the “meat” dressing; Hushweh. She added diced celery and onions simmered until soft in butter and seasoned with poultry seasoning (no cinnamon) to the dish before covering with foil and baking in the oven. At times she would also mix some toasted pine nuts into the cooked dish before serving rather than placing on the top. She always made extra Hushweh so everyone had plenty to take home for another meal. We loved this dish and when the children were still at home, I usually made it at least once a month. My Mother-in-law was a very special, wise, caring, giving, gracious person and no one ever came into her home without being fed and taking food home with them when they left. Thank You Maureen for posting this Hushweh recipe, reminding me once again of this special person. I am going to include your recipe in my meal plans this week.
Just wonderful Frances. Thank you for sharing this! Your mother-in-law was such a treasure indeed. As are you.
Is it possible to use brown rice or quinoa or would it ruin the texture?
You know Karen, that is so worth trying. I might cook the quinoa separately so it doesn’t get mushy, then stir into the beef and chicken. Keep us posted if you try either one! And I’ll do same.
I have done Hushwea with brownrice and my recommendation is to just soak the rice a bit before cooking or if cooking longer I believe it takes more liquid.
Great tips, thank you Amy!
Dad always stuffed the turkey with Hushweh on holidays. I never quite understood what people were talking about when they talked about “stuffing” and it wasn’t rice. Have never thought of adding cashews, but now I might be obsessed with the idea.
No kidding! Do you stuff your turkey with hushweh too? Let’s discuss. And you are going to die for the cashews on this. I’ll make for you….
that was the only way i remember a turkey being stuffed back in the day. Today it is regular stuffing. I will say that hushweh is number one on my list and also for my 3 grown up boys. They always look forward to having it when they come to visit. without a doubt …..the best! Well, lets add Kibbee Neyyeh in there as well, and for my kids…. Ghrabey! I guess I could keep going.
Haha! On and on! But I think hushweh is number one here with my crew too.