Za'atar Uses: Bread, Eggs, Labneh, Chicken and More

Za’atar tastes herbal, sour and nutty all at once: a blend of dried thyme, oregano or marjoram, ground sumac and toasted sesame, often salted. Think condiment more than cooking spice. It’s mostly sprinkled on, stirred into oil, or rubbed on just before cooking. In Lebanon it tops man’ouché, the flatbread UNESCO calls the quintessential Lebanese breakfast,¹ and it’s just as at home over hummus, labneh, eggs and roast chicken. Check the label first, since salt can make up as much as half of a seasoned-salt version.

For the blend itself, how to make it and how to keep it, see cooking with za’atar and za’atar.

Where za’atar goes

Meal	Use	Source
Breakfast	Man’ouché flatbread; eggs; labneh	UNESCO; Crowley¹²
Bread	Brushed on with oil before baking; mixed into dough; an oil dip	Belsinger; Katzer³⁴
Mezze	Hummus, chickpeas, olives, feta, yogurt dips	Crowley²
Meat and fish	Grilled and fried meat, kebabs, roast chicken, fish	Katzer; Crowley; Ottolenghi and Tamimi; Belsinger⁴²⁵³
Vegetables and grains	Roasted, grilled or steamed vegetables, lentils, grains, beans	Crowley; Belsinger²³
Soups, salads and sauces	Sprinkled in or on	Belsinger³

Bread and olive oil

UNESCO describes Lebanon’s man’ouché as the quintessential Lebanese breakfast: a flatbread topped with a mixture of thyme, sumac, toasted sesame, salt and olive oil.¹ Susan Belsinger brushes rolls, flatbread, pitas or pizzas with olive oil and sprinkles them with za’atar, and also works the blend into bread or cracker dough.

Mix it with oil and you’ve got a dip. Za’atar combined with olive oil works as a bread dip, and Belsinger’s proportions are about 1/4 cup of the blend to 1/4 cup of olive oil.³

Breakfast plates

Labneh. UNESCO lists labne among man’ouché toppings, along with tomatoes, cucumbers, olives and mint.¹ Laura Crowley of the UC Master Food Preservers pairs za’atar with yogurt cheese (labna) and yogurt dips. Labneh topped with olive oil and za’atar is an easy way to serve it.
Eggs. Crowley and Belsinger both name eggs. Fried, scrambled or boiled, add it at the end. See spices for scrambled eggs.
Olives and feta. Both are on Crowley’s list. Olives and feta dressed with oil and za’atar make a quick mezze.

Hummus and chickpeas

Crowley names chickpeas and hummus first. Sprinkle za’atar over hummus with a pool of olive oil, or toss it with roasted chickpeas. Lentils are on her list too. See hummus spices.

Meat, chicken and fish

Katzer says the zahtar he describes is mostly used to season fried and barbecued meat. Crowley suggests it for meat kebabs, and Belsinger for chicken or fish.

For a whole dish, Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi marinate a quartered chicken with 2 tablespoons of za’atar and 1 tablespoon of sumac, then roast it. They call it a simplified version of the Palestinian dish m’sakhan.⁵ See sumac uses for the traditional version, and good spices for chicken and spices for lamb for more.

As a crust or breading. You can mix za’atar into breadcrumbs, or press it onto fish or chicken before pan-frying. It’s a modern use, and we found no recipe to cite. Keep the heat moderate, since dried herbs and sesame can scorch.

Vegetables, grains and soups

Crowley names cauliflower, cucumber, eggplant, potatoes and any grilled vegetable. Belsinger sprinkles za’atar on steamed or grilled vegetables, grains, legumes and beans, salads, soups and sauces. Try tossing roasted potatoes or cauliflower with oil and za’atar as they come out of the oven.

Snacks and the table

Za’atar on popcorn, on buttered toast or over a bowl of yogurt are newer snack ideas. No source we found describes them, but they follow from the uses above. At the table it works like salt and pepper: sprinkle to taste.

How much, by dish

Amounts from named recipes:

Use	Za’atar	Source
Roast chicken, serves 4	2 tbsp, with 1 tbsp sumac	Ottolenghi and Tamimi⁵
Bread-dipping oil	About 1/4 cup, with 1/4 cup olive oil	Belsinger³

Store-bought blends vary in salt. Crowley notes that salt can make up as much as half of a seasoned-salt version,² so taste before you salt the rest of the dish.

The name

Za’atar is also the Arabic name for several wild herbs. Katzer writes that it covers oregano, marjoram, thyme and savory, and that in Jordan it usually means a spice mixture containing them.⁶ When a Middle Eastern recipe calls for fresh za’atar leaves, it means the herb, not the blend.

Allergen note

Most za’atar contains sesame, which has been a major food allergen under U.S. labeling law since 2023.⁷ Check labels and ask in restaurants.

Za’atar, cooking with za’atar and za’atar substitutes
Sumac uses and cooking with sumac
Thyme uses, oregano uses and marjoram uses
Dukkah uses, another blend eaten with bread and olive oil

“Al-Man’ouché, an emblematic culinary practice in Lebanon”, UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage, 2023. ich.unesco.org · Reference work ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴
Laura Crowley, “Za’atar Spice Blend”, UC Cooperative Extension Master Food Preservers of El Dorado County. ccfruitandnuts.ucanr.edu · Reference work ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵
Susan Belsinger, “Za’atar: An Exotic Herb Blend”, Fine Gardening, 2010. finegardening.com · Publication ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶
Gernot Katzer, “Sumac”, Gernot Katzer’s Spice Pages. gernot-katzers-spice-pages.com · Reference work ↩ ↩²
Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi, “Roast Chicken with Sumac, Za’atar and Lemon”, from Ottolenghi: The Cookbook, via The Splendid Table. splendidtable.org · Publication ↩ ↩² ↩³
Gernot Katzer, “Oregano”, Gernot Katzer’s Spice Pages. gernot-katzers-spice-pages.com · Reference work ↩
Robert M. Califf, “An Update on Sesame Allergen Labeling on Food Packages”, FDA, 2023. fda.gov · Regulator ↩

Also drawn on

Za’atar (recipe, Bryan Roof, 27 Jul 2017), America's Test Kitchen. americastestkitchen.com

Za’atar Uses: Flatbread, Labneh, Eggs, Chicken, Vegetables and More