Plain cornmeal flatbread cooked on a hot griddle — Adjara's everyday gluten-free bread, eaten with cheese and lobio.
Mchadi is the simple cornmeal flatbread of the Black Sea coast and western Georgia — eaten by mountain shepherds and seaside villages alike. The dough is just cornmeal, water, and salt; cooked on a flat clay griddle (ketsi) over wood fire, or baked in an oven. Always served with sulguni cheese and a bowl of lobio. The Adjaran version is thicker than Imeretian.
A small flat pancake of cornbread, crispy outside, soft inside, no leavening. By itself it's neutral; the entire reason it exists is to be torn and dragged through whatever sauce is on the table.
Without yeast or baking powder, the bread's structure comes entirely from cornmeal absorbing water and forming a starch matrix — pan-frying just sets the outside and lets the inside finish in residual heat.
Variations
Adjaran mchadi adds a touch of milk to the dough for softness; mountain Svaneti versions stay strict water-only and turn out chewier — softer down at sea level, harder up the slope.
On the Palate
Where Mchadi sits in the Georgian flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 4How it's made
5 steps · 30 min
- 16 min
Mix 400g cornmeal, 1 tsp salt, and ~250ml hot water (start with less, add as needed) into a thick dough that holds shape when squeezed.
Watch outAdd the hot water bit by bit until a squeeze holds its shape without cracking apart — too dry and the patties crumble on the griddle, too wet and they slump.
- 26 min
Divide into 6 portions; shape each into a 1.5cm thick oval patty in your palm.
- 36 min
Heat a flat cast-iron griddle or pan over medium heat (no oil).
- 46 min
Cook each patty 5-6 min per side until crusted and lightly golden — slightly cracked surface is normal and desired.
Watch outDry griddle, no oil — flip only once the underside has set into a firm golden crust; a fine crack or two across the top is exactly what you want.
- 56 min
Stack on a warm plate; serve immediately with sulguni cubes and warm lobio bean stew.
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