Chef David Cui’s restaurant opens up the usually pork-heavy Cajun and Creole cuisines to the larger Dallas community by using all Zabiha halal meats in his dishes — from gumbo to red beans and rice to po’ boys. Even the muffulettas are made with beef salami and turkey pastrami.

Queen of Sheba offers halal choices for its lamb, chicken, and beef dishes. Go for injera (spongy, tangy teff flat bread) topped with Ethiopian halal meat entrees like doro wat (slow-cooked chicken drumsticks) or kifto (marinated beef tartare), served alongside vegetable sides.

Sahara is known for grilled Persian-style kebabs ranging from chicken, beef, lamb to Cornish hen and fish, all served over fluffy, buttered, aromatic long grain rice with a side of charred tomatoes. Try the stew of the day too, including the herbaceous sour beef and kidney bean stew, ghormeh sabzi, or the hearty lentil, tomato, lamb and eggplant stew, gheimeh bademjan.

While there is strong presence of that New York City-based halal chain across the metroplex, local Big Guys Chicken and Rice provides some stiff competition. Order the NYC-style chicken rice platter a with a generous squiggle of the white sauce and a touch of the fiery hot sauce. There’s also a Big Guys Chicken and Rice location in Euless.

Family-owned and operated with MMA fighter Faez Miraki at the helm, Olive Burger’s been serving up Texas-sized halal burgers, chicken sandwiches, and wraps since 2012. The menu is full of classic hamburgers and cheeseburgers, but try the olive burger and let the briny olives cut through the hefty beef patty. Olive Burger runs multiple DFW locations.

True to the name, hummus dishes are front and center here, served in a variety of styles from across the Middle East. Another chickpea dish, the falafel, comes either plain or stuffed with a spicy tomato paste. Order other traditional mezze dishes, breakfast such as ful medames, slow-cooked fava bean stew, and chicken or beef shawarmas to complement those chickpeas.

Six months prior to opening, a member of the Richardson Muslim community reached out to Ricky’s Hot Chicken, requesting that the restaurant serve halal meats. Ricky Tran and his team graciously worked on this request and now are one of the best Nashville hot chicken destinations in the metroplex, using all halal meats. Ricky’s Hot Chicken recently expanded to a second location in Arlington, serving up the same menu including tenders, wings, quarter birds, sandwiches, and chicken and waffles.

For sweet endings, Bigdash is a must. Syrian immigrants Kareem Alrefaai and Asmaa Khattab recreate memories of home with Arab-style stretchy ice cream, an array of Middle Eastern sweets, and knafeh (a sweet and savory cheese). Knafeh comes in different styles, as distinguished by its topping, including brown for semolina and red for shredded, crispy phyllo dough. The owners are relocating the original Richardson spot to Greenville Avenue soon, but for now the original location will remain open.

Find traditional South Asian flavors — Indian, Pakistani, and even Burmese — with a Texas swagger inside a subway-tiled, farmhouse-chic dining room in this restaurant that’s the embodiment of the diversity of DFW’s suburban sprawl. Try a Chapli burger, a Karahi Taco with masala chicken curry in a tortilla or the tandoori mac and cheese. Then add ice-cold bottles of soda, mint lemonade, or lassi (a yogurt drink) to tame the heat.