Za’atar-Spiced Chicken
with Bulgur-Stuffed Roasted Tomatoes & Lemon Garlic Yogurt Sauce
- Milk
- Wheat
- Sesame
Prepare some space because your tastebuds will be doing cartwheels with this meal. We give plain ole chicken cutlets a toasty, tangy makeover with a sprinkling of za’atar. This Middle Eastern spice blend, bursting with aromatics (think sesame seeds, thyme, marjoram, and sumac), also flavors the accompanying stuffed tomatoes. These cute Romas are filled with roasted onion, parsley, and lemony bulgur—a hearty whole grain that’s long been a staple of both Middle Eastern and Mediterranean cuisines. It turns ultra-fluffy when cooked, making it a perfect base for saucy braises and stir-fries, and great for bulking out salads. The best part, though? Bulgur is a nutritional powerhouse—with a variety of vitamins and minerals such as iron and calcium. It also contains insoluble fiber which helps speed up digestion. Not to mention, bulgur has fewer calories per serving than white rice, is low in total fat, and has zero saturated fat or cholesterol. To finish the dish, there’s plenty of lemon garlic yogurt sauce to drizzle over the top for a big dose of brightness
Ingredients
1 unit
Red Onion
2 tablespoon
Sour Cream
2 unit
Chicken Stock Concentrate
1 unit
Lemon
4 tablespoon
Yogurt
(Contains: Milk)
2 clove
Garlic
3 unit
Tomato
10 ounce
Chicken Cutlets
¼ ounce
Parsley
½ cup
Bulgur Wheat
(Contains: Wheat)
1 tablespoon
Za'atar Spice
(Contains: Sesame)
Not included in your delivery
teaspoon (tsp)
Black Pepper
teaspoon (tsp)
Salt
Nutrition Values
Utensils
Cooking Steps
• Adjust rack to top position and preheat oven to 450 degrees. Wash and dry produce. • Halve, peel, and dice onion into ¾-inch-thick pieces; mince a few pieces until you have 2 TBSP (4 TBSP for 4 servings). Peel and mince or grate garlic (reserve a pinch for step 3). Zest and quarter lemon. Halve tomatoes lengthwise; scoop out and discard seeds with a spoon. Pat insides dry with paper towels. Finely chop parsley.
• Heat a drizzle of oil in a small pot over medium-high heat. Add minced onion, remaining garlic, and a pinch of salt; cook, stirring, until fragrant, 30 seconds. • Add bulgur; cook, stirring, until toasted, 1-2 minutes. • Stir in stock concentrates, 1 cup water (2 cups for 4 servings), and ½ tsp salt (1 tsp for 4). Cover, bring to a boil, then reduce to a low simmer. Cook, until water has absorbed and bulgur is tender, 12-15 minutes. • Keep covered off heat until ready to serve.
• In a small bowl, combine sour cream, yogurt, reserved garlic, a squeeze of lemon juice, and a big pinch of lemon zest. Add water 1 tsp at a time until mixture reaches a drizzling consistency. Season with salt and pepper.
• Toss diced onion on one side of a baking sheet with a drizzle of oil, half the Za’atar Spice, a big pinch of salt, and pepper. Place tomatoes, cut sides up, on empty side of sheet; season with salt and pepper. • Roast on top rack until onion is tender and tomatoes are softened slightly but still retain their shape, 6-8 minutes. TIP: If water pools in tomato halves after roasting, carefully blot dry with paper towels
• Meanwhile, pat chicken* dry with paper towels; season all over with remaining Za’atar Spice, salt, and pepper. • Heat a drizzle of oil in a large pan over medium-high heat. Add chicken; cook until browned and cooked through, 3-5 minutes per side. • Transfer to a cutting board to rest.
• Fluff bulgur with a fork. Stir in roasted onion, half the parsley, remaining lemon zest, a big squeeze of lemon juice, and 1 TBSP butter (2 TBSP for 4 servings). Season with salt and pepper if desired.
• Slice chicken crosswise. • Stuff tomatoes with as much bulgur filling as will fit. Divide remaining filling between one side of each plate and top with stuffed tomatoes. Fan chicken next to tomatoes. Drizzle everything with sauce. Garnish with remaining parsley and serve with any remaining lemon wedges on the side.
Customer reviews
Review summary
Updated on Dec 2025- Flavor: Many loved the Za'atar spice blend, finding it aromatic and flavorful. The lemon garlic yogurt sauce was a hit for most.
- Ease of prep: Some found it time-consuming with many steps, while others enjoyed the process. Consider preheating the oven later in prep.
- Suggestions: Consider dicing tomatoes instead of stuffing; they often got mushy. Try reducing onion amount for those sensitive to strong onion flavor.
- Portions: Several mentioned wanting more vegetables or larger tomatoes to balance the grain-heavy dish.
- Texture: The bulgur was a pleasant surprise for many first-timers, though some found it mushy if overcooked.
Reviews from our home cooks
WOAH! This one is FULL of flavor. I have za'atar at home, but with all of the layers on top of each other, wowza. Delicious. I do tweak it a bit though and cook the chicken in the oven instead on the stove. Saves me a pan & it's just 425 for 20 minutes. Perfection.
Delicious combination of flavors. Loved the flavors of lemon throughout (sauce and bulgur). Za'atar spice blend is delicious. The addition of the caramelized onions to the bulgur was a win.
This is just delicious, and the recipe is flexible. We made the same recipe the next night, using fish instead of chicken, and subbing in different veggies. (We have za'atar spice in the house already.)
This meal was an eye-opener. I never even heard of za'atar spice until HelloFresh (it's delish), and who knew bulgur wheat was so good?! Will def order again.
First time trying bulgur, loved it!! Za'atar spice blend was fantastic. Would have preferred maybe diced roasted tomato in the bulgur vs stuffing roasted tomatoes... but would definitely get again!
The stuffed tomatoes were something new and we really enjoyed them, though they were a bit of work to figure out how to scoop out the seeds. But the real star was the za'atar spice. Look forward to more dishes with that seasoning!!
I wasn't sure about the bulgur cause it smelled weird when I was cooking this, but everything was very flavorful. All the ingredients were the right combo to make this dish delicious. I would get this again. Za'atar is the best!
Loved the bulgur stuffed roasted tomatoes. Very tasty. I roasted onions but continued cooking them on the stove using butter after they should have been done in the oven. I mixed the bulgur in that same frying pan after it was done cooking. Sauce was awesome.
Bulgur was great, but the flavors were not spicy. The Za'atar spice was more like an Italian seasoning. I added hot pepper sauce at the end because the flavors were dull. Maybe the spice packet was old?
This is a tasty recipe however should be rated as medium difficulty due to numerous steps, more involved than your regular easy level recipes. I like the various tastes and very filling. I would also indicate to scoop/hollow out tomatoes rather than just remove seeds. You really have to remove the core and seeds to be able to fill with the bulgur. The chicken cutlets are pretty pathetic and in bad shape, recipe would be better with nice proper cut chicken cutlets instead of chopped up ones.
