Ouzi — Slow-Roasted Whole Lamb over Spiced Rice

Ouzi is the most festive dish in the Levantine kitchen — the dish you make for a hundred guests, for a wedding, for the homecoming of a son from abroad, for Eid, or for a funeral where you must feed the whole village. The word ouzi (also spelled ouzi or ouzie) derives from the Turkish kuzu (lamb), and the dish entered the Levantine repertoire during the Ottoman period, when whole roasted lamb was the standard offering at state banquets and great celebrations. In the Bekaa Valley, where lamb farming has been the foundation of the rural economy since antiquity, ouzi is considered the defining dish of celebration — no major event is complete without it. The preparation spans two days: the lamb is marinated overnight in spiced yogurt, then slow-roasted in a wood-fired tannour or a covered oven for four to six hours until the collagen in the shoulder and leg has completely dissolved and the meat can be lifted from the bone with a spoon. The rice is cooked separately in the lamb drippings and stock, loaded with toasted almonds, pine nuts, and crispy fried onion. The finished dish is assembled on a massive platter — the lamb laid over the rice — and carried to the table whole, where the host tears the meat apart with their hands and distributes it to guests. Lebanese Heritage Kitchen has adapted the traditional whole lamb for a home oven, using a bone-in leg and shoulder, which produce the same silky, falling-apart texture in a vessel that fits a domestic kitchen.