Buckwheat and chicken fricassee: the dish explained

Buckwheat has "wheat" in its name and no family ties to it. It is a pseudocereal: true cereals such as wheat, rice and barley are grasses, while buckwheat belongs to a different plant family, Polygonaceae. Its seeds are used just like grain, whole, as groats or milled into flour (Lițoiu et al., 2025). It is thought to have been first domesticated in southwestern China, and in 2022 the largest producer was Russia, followed by China and Ukraine.

Eastern Europe's rice

In Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and Poland, toasted buckwheat groats (grechka in Russian) are cooked into a fluffy, nutty side dish or a porridge. They do the job rice does in Thailand: an everyday, filling base, eaten with meat, mushrooms, butter or milk. For many people from the region it simply tastes like home.

Gluten-free grain, not a gluten-free dish

Buckwheat grain is naturally gluten-free, and Coeliac UK lists it among gluten-free grain options. The same page warns that naturally gluten-free flours can pick up gluten when they are milled or stored where wheat is handled. The label belongs to the grain, then, not to a dish made with it: a sauce, a kitchen or a supply chain can bring gluten in. We do not claim that our fricassee is gluten-free.

Buckwheat can also be an allergen in its own right. An FAO and WHO expert committee noted that it may be included on national allergen lists where it matters locally. If you have a food allergy or coeliac disease, read our article on allergens and cross-contact and contact us before buying: we are on WhatsApp, Telegram and by phone, and the contacts are in the site footer.

What fricassee means

Fricassee is a French cooking term for pieces of meat or poultry cooked gently in a sauce, often a pale, creamy one, rather than browned hard or roasted. In Eastern European home cooking, chicken fricassee usually means tender chicken in a mild cream sauce with vegetables.

The version on our menu

Our menu describes it as creamy chicken fricassee with bell pepper, onion and aromatic spices, served with buckwheat. The current menu is on our website, and the assortment varies by machine. Calories and macros are on the card.

Chicken Fricassee with Buckwheat

500 kcal · P 30 · F 22 · C 50

Per pack. Calculated from the recipe, not measured in a lab.

See the full menu →

To see how its protein stacks up against other dishes, run the sum from comparing protein per portion.