Tsikan is the ancient meal of the Lezgi people. It is known to be filling and a small amount serves many people. One tsikan can feed a whole family because it contains a lot of ingredients. Tsikan is made of ground meat with a lot of fat. Onions and potatoes are cut into pieces and ground walnuts are added. Then dry thyme, salt, and pepper are added to this. Yeast dough is prepared, buttered, and made into balls. After rising, the two dough balls are rolled out flat. Cooked ground meat is placed on one of the lavashes, it is covered with another one and the sides are fastened. Tsikan can be twofold or threefold, with a layer of dough between each. It is baked in a xerek (traditional oven) or a stove. After it is baked, tsikan is wrapped in a thick tablecloth for 20-25 minutes.
Lezgi bread
Lezgi bread resembles the sun, which is related to their mythology. The dough, which is made both with yeast or unleavened is rolled out thickly. Water mixed with egg or buttermilk is spread on the dough before putting it into the xerek (traditional oven). This makes the surface of the bread well toasted. There are more than 20 types of bread with yeast (kyatay) or unleavened (tyili) that characteristic Lezgi people’s cuisine, and all lezgi women can bake these breads. This type of bread doesn’t crumble, doesn’t get moldy for 10-15 days.
Lezgi people have these types of bread: khu (the most ancient type of bread), khyul, charfu, gagoats, lavash, bazlamach, sachun fu, akat fu, gulan fu, char avay fu, shtkar, nisi kvay fu, mukash kvay fu, khoakh avay fu, tunut, shirin fu, quzan, aluqa, tsalug, bakluk, cherekun and others.