Muhājir Opens in Chicago's Lincoln Park With Wood-Fired Shared Plates
Chefs Zubair Mohajir and Jacob Dela Cruz opened Muhājir in Lincoln Park this summer, featuring a wood-fired, shared-plate menu that includes a 920-year-old duck recipe.
Muhājir debuted this summer in Lincoln Park as a wood-fired, shared-plate restaurant exploring culinary traditions from Europe, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia. The venture marks a shift for chefs Zubair Mohajir and Jacob Dela Cruz, who previously focused on tasting menus in their other ventures.
Signature dish: Duck Numidian
The centerpiece of the menu is the Duck Numidian, a 920-year-old recipe from southern Spain. The chefs have been workshopping this dish for years. Its preparation involves breaking down a rare halal duck through multiple techniques. Duck wings and neck are cooked down for duck jus. The legs are made into confit and folded into duck rice. "The breasts hang over the fire right before service, before they are finished in the oven," said chef Jacob Dela Cruz.
Starters and hearth technique
Meals begin with a selection of dips and shattas served alongside papadam and roasted focaccia. Ingredients in these starters range from cream cheese to fava beans. The restaurant's distinct smoky flavor profile comes from its hearth and oven, which use a combination of oak wood, olive wood, and coal.
Seafood and meat highlights
Seafood offerings include branzinos that are carefully broken down, with every bone removed, and spend days in the fridge to crisp the skin for grilling. They are served on a walnut, yogurt, and coriander sauce with a relish for acidity. For meat, the Beef Cheek Nihari is a standout Pakistani dish made with halal wagyu beef. The beef is coated in a spice blend of toasted and ground cinnamon, black pepper, coriander, cumin, clove, and cardamom. It is roasted on high heat and then braised in its own fat for 14 hours. The same spices are mixed into a jus used in the final cooking. It is served in an ornate clay pot placed directly on the table. The kitchen also makes in-house saffron rice dumplings called faraa, which are treated like pasta and served with vegetables and a cream sauce.
The restaurant's launch was captured in an episode of Now Open, which showed the kitchen team cooking over a huge fire.
