Recipe
🥙 LUNCH
Qifqi
Gjirokastër's signature fried rice fritters bound with egg and white cheese and heavily scented with mint, served with yogurt.
Albanian · medium · serves 4
prep 40 min · cook 20 min
~420 cal · 19g protein · 47g carbs · 17g fat · 1g fiber · 3g sugars · 9g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Qifqi are the fried rice fritters of Gjirokastër, the stone city of southern Albania, and few Albanian dishes are so tied to a single place. Cooked short-grain rice is bound with beaten egg and crumbled white cheese and, above all, a heavy hand of mint, then shaped into small ovals and fried until golden.
Traditionally they are made in a special dimpled qifqi pan handed down through families, though an appam pan or shallow frying does the job. The mint is the load-bearing flavour, loud in a way it rarely is elsewhere in Albanian cooking, and the fritters are served warm with a bowl of cool yogurt.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally vegetarian and nut- and pork-free. No swaps needed.
Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
🥕 Vegetarian
🌱 Vegan
🌾 Gluten-Free
🥛 Dairy-Free
🥜 Nut-Free
🥚 Egg-Free
🐖 Pork-Free
Dietary labels are a cooking guide, not allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish; we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, read the label on every product you use, and note that a kitchen can cross-contaminate in ways a recipe cannot control.
Ingredients
US
Metric
Serves 4
1 cup short-grain rice
2 cups water
4 eggs
4 oz white cheese (feta), crumbled
1 cup fresh mint, chopped
2 tbsp all-purpose flour
to taste salt and pepper
as needed oil, for frying
1 cup plain yogurt, to serve
Instructions
1
Cook the rice in the salted water until tender and the water is fully absorbed, then spread it out and cool completely.
✎ Chef’s note
Cool the rice fully before mixing, or the hot rice scrambles the egg and the fritters fall apart.
2
Beat the eggs, then stir in the crumbled cheese, chopped mint, flour and pepper.
3
Fold in the cooled rice gently, keeping the grains intact, and rest the mixture 20 minutes so the flour hydrates.
4
With wet hands, shape the mixture into small ovals about the size of a thumb.
5
Fry in shallow oil over medium heat, turning once, for 3 to 4 minutes until deep golden all over. Drain and serve warm with yogurt.
Gjirokastër, Albania tradition.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Tirana. Tirana bakes tave kosi, lamb and rice set under a tangy custard of yogurt and egg until it puffs golden. Albanian cooking mixes Ottoman and Mediterranean habits, with byrek pastries, peppers, olive oil, and abundant fresh dairy.
🗺️
Albania. Byrek is the everyday food, thin hand-stretched sheets layered with cheese, spinach, meat or pumpkin and baked in a round tray to be cut in wedges. Along the coast the cooking turns Mediterranean, olive oil, tomatoes, grilled fish and lemon, while the mountainous interior leans on lamb, dairy and preserved meat.
🌍
Europe. A surprising amount of European cooking is under five hundred years old. Tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, maize, beans and chocolate all crossed from the Americas after 1492, and none of them was trusted quickly: the potato took most of the eighteenth century to be accepted as food rather than animal fodder across much of the north.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Albania
Tavë KosiLamb and rice baked under a tangy, set yogurt-and-egg custard, Albania’s national comfort dish.
PetullaSoft Albanian fried dough eaten warm with honey, jam, feta, or a dusting of sugar.
FërgesëPeppers and tomato baked with soft white cheese into a rich, bubbling dish, the pride of Tirana's kitchen.
Browse all Albania recipes →
Good to know
You’ll need: Whisk.
Storing it: Cool leftover rice quickly and refrigerate within an hour. Keep up to 2 days and reheat until piping hot all the way through.
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Frequently asked questions
What is Qifqi?
Gjirokastër's signature fried rice fritters bound with egg and white cheese and heavily scented with mint, served with yogurt.
Where does Qifqi come from?
Qifqi is a Albanian dish from Tirana, Albania.
Can Qifqi be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Qifqi recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions, including several at once such as gluten-free and dairy-free together. Treat them as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Qifqi safe for people with food allergies?
Our dietary labels and substitutions are a cooking guide, not medical or allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish, but we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, always read the label on every product you use, and remember a home or commercial kitchen can cross-contaminate ingredients in ways a recipe cannot control.
How long does Qifqi take to make?
About 60 minutes total (40 minutes prep, 20 minutes cooking), serving 4.
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