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Musakhan

مٌسَخّن

Seasoned Roast Chicken with Sumac-Spiced Onions

Musakhan’s simple ingredients — bread, onion, chicken, olive oil, and sumac — contribute to its popularity, and it’s considered the national dish of Palestine. Musakhan is made with taboon bread, a Levantine flatbread baked in a clay tabun oven, but the best thick pita or naan you can find makes a good substitute. My mother likes to serve half a chicken per person, so she buys the smallest birds possible. This dish, traditionally eaten by hand, is guaranteed to leave you with messy fingers that you will be unable to resist licking clean. I refuse to eat it any other way!

Servings: 6

Ingredients

Roast Chicken:

  • 2 chickens (1.25kg each), quartered
  • ¼ cup olive oil
  • 2 tsp ground allspice
  • 1 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 2 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp ground black pepper
  • 1 tbsp ground sumac
  • 3 bay leaves
  • 1 lemon, juiced

Sumac Onions:

  • 8 large yellow onions, thinly sliced
  • ¾ cup olive oil
  • 2 tsp salt
  • ¾ cup ground sumac

Pan-Fried Nuts:

  • 3 tbsp olive oil
  • ½ cup pine nuts
  • ¼ cup slivered almonds
  • 6 taboon breads

Instructions

  1. Preheat your oven to 350 F. Line a baking tray with wax paper.
  2. Brush the chicken with olive oil on both sides; sprinkle evenly with allspice, cinnamon, salt, pepper and sumac. Arrange on a baking tray; add bay leaves and squeeze the lemon on top.
  3. Bake in the oven for 50 minutes until chicken skin is crispy, check for doneness.
  4. Meanwhile, slice the onions lengthwise into thin slices and place in a bowl.
    In a large pot over medium heat, add olive oil, add the sliced onion and turn to coat.
  5. Sprinkle with salt to help onions wilt and add a little more olive oil; cook stirring occasionally for 50 minutes or until the onions soften and wilt; mixture will shrink.
    Add sumac to the onion and mix well until the onion mixture turns color from the sumac; add more sumac to taste, if desired.
  6. In a pan over medium heat, add the olive oil and wait till it shimmers; add the pine nuts and cook stirring constantly until golden brown, about 2 to 3 minutes, set aside. Add the almonds, and cook stirring constantly until golden brown, 3 to 4 minutes. Set aside.
  7. Remove the chicken from the oven, add the chicken juices to the onion mixture and mix well.
  8. To prepare the taboon bread, place on a baking tray; ladle some of the onion mixture juices on the bread and using your hands spread evenly. Repeat with the others.
  9. Bake in the oven for about 7 minutes to slightly warm and crisp up the bread.
  10. To serve, ladle a ¾ cup of onions on the bread spreading evenly. Sprinkle with sumac; top with a piece of chicken, cover with a little more onion and sumac, top with the pan-fried nuts. Serve immediately.