Ethiopian Instant Bread (Chéchébsa or Kita Firfir)

⏱ 30 mins 🍽 3 serving(s) 🏷 Breakfast

Chéchébsa, also known as Kita Firfir, is a traditional Ethiopian spiced flatbread. It is a simple yet flavourful dish, often enjoyed for breakfast or as a snack alongside coffee with milk. The recipe involves making a dough from wheat or teff and barley flours, pan-cooking it until golden, then tearing it into pieces and mixing it with a spiced, clarified butter blend featuring berbere chili powder. The entire process takes about 30 minutes to complete.

Ethiopian Instant Bread (Chéchébsa or Kita Firfir)

Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 cups wheat flour or 1 1/2 cups teff flour
  • 1/2 cup barley flour
  • 3 tablespoons butter (purfied or clarified)
  • 1/4 teaspoon cardamom
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 tablespoon chili powder (Berbere)
  • salt and black pepper
  • 2 cups water (or more)

Method

  1. Combine the wheat or teff flour, barley flour, and baking powder in a mixing bowl, ensuring they are well blended.
  2. Pour a small amount of water into the flour mixture and use your hands to blend it, continuing to add water gradually while kneading until you achieve a smooth and elastic dough.
  3. Transfer the dough to a medium non-stick pancake pan, flattening it out to cover the base of the pan.
  4. Use a fork to prick small holes across the surface of the dough.
  5. Cook the dough on both sides in a lower heat until it turns a golden colour and develops a crusty texture.
  6. In a separate pan, melt the butter over a lower heat.
  7. Stir the berbere chili powder, cardamom, black pepper, and salt into the melted butter until fully combined.
  8. Take the pan-baked bread, known as Kita, off the heat and cut it into very small pieces.
  9. Combine the small bread pieces with the melted spiced butter, mixing until everything is well coated.
  10. Serve the dish immediately while it is still hot.

Nutrition (per serving)

Sodium235200 mg

Recipe details

CategoryBreakfast
Authoryewoinfamilycooking