Recipe
🍽️ DINNER
Piti
A slow-baked crock stew of lamb, chickpeas, and chestnuts scented with saffron and dried plum.
Azerbaijani · medium · serves 4
prep 25 min · cook 150 min
~634 cal · 52g protein · 34g carbs · 32g fat · 7g fiber · 8g sugars · 13g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Piti is a slow-cooked stew of Azerbaijan, lamb, chickpeas, and often chestnuts baked for hours in individual clay crocks, flavored with and dried plums. It is traditionally eaten in two courses from the same pot: first the broth poured over bread, then the meat and chickpeas.
The individual earthenware crock is essential, sealing in the flavors as the lamb grows meltingly tender and the chickpeas soak up the -tinged broth. The ritual of the two servings, soup, then solids, is part of its charm.
A specialty especially associated with the town of Sheki, piti is warming, filling food across Azerbaijan.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally gluten-, dairy-, egg- 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
1.5 lb lamb, bone-in with tail fat
1 cup chickpeas, soaked
1 cup peeled chestnuts
4 dried plums (or sour cherries)
a pinch
1 onion
to taste salt
Instructions
1
Layer the lamb (or chickpeas and mushrooms), chickpeas, chestnuts (or potato), onion, and dried plums in crocks or a heavy pot.
2
Cover with water, add the bloomed saffron, and seal.
3
Bake very low (300°F) for 2-2.5 hours until everything is meltingly tender.
4
Ladle the golden broth over crumbled flatbread as a first course.
5
Serve the meat, chickpeas, and chestnuts as the second course with sumac onions.
Baku / Sheki tradition.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Baku. Sourness comes from fruit rather than vinegar. Pomegranate turns up as seeds, as juice and as narsharab, a thick syrup poured over grilled fish, while quince and dried alycha plums go into lamb stews such as parcha bozbash. Dushbara are pinched small enough that four or five sit in a single spoon.
🗺️
Azerbaijan. Pomegranate does double duty as fruit and as narsharab, the syrup boiled down from the juice and spooned over grilled fish and meat. Herbs come to the table by the handful rather than chopped into a dish, and tea arrives in an armudu, the pear-shaped glass whose narrow waist keeps the top cool enough to hold. Plov is shared across the region, so this is a version rather than an invention.
🌍
Asia. Fermentation is the thread that runs the whole way across: soy sauce and miso, Korean doenjang and kimchi, Southeast Asian fish sauces, the soured batter behind an idli. Chilli is the newcomer among them, arriving only after 1500 with Portuguese and Spanish traders, which makes the heat in Sichuan, Thai and Korean cooking far younger than the fermenting underneath it.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Azerbaijan
QutabThin, half-moon griddle breads stuffed with greens and herbs, folded and cooked until charred.
LavangiChicken stuffed with a tangy walnut, onion, and sour-plum paste and roasted, a specialty of Azerbaijan's Caspian south.
ŞəkərburaCrimped half-moon pastries filled with sweet ground nuts and cardamom, the pride of the Azerbaijani Novruz table.
Browse all Azerbaijan recipes →
Good to know
You’ll need: Pot or saucepan, Oven.
Storing it: Stews and braises keep 3 to 4 days refrigerated and often taste better the next day. Reheat gently, adding a splash of water if it has thickened.
Make it a Azerbaijan meal
Azerbaijani ChayDrink
ŞəkərburaDessert
DovgaLunch
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Cuisine
Diet
Frequently asked questions
What is Piti?
A slow-baked crock stew of lamb, chickpeas, and chestnuts scented with saffron and dried plum.
Where does Piti come from?
Piti is a Azerbaijani dish from Baku, Azerbaijan.
Can Piti be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Piti 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 Piti 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 Piti take to make?
About 175 minutes total (25 minutes prep, 150 minutes cooking), serving 4.
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