Musakhan
This is one of the National Dishes of Palestine, my homeland. Musakhan typically consists of a few staple ingredients. That being fresh flatbread, olive oil, sumac, chicken, and onions. So now imagine the flatbread topped with lots of olive oil, sauteed onions, roasted chicken, and loads of sumac. It is delicious! Taboon bread is traditionally used for musakhan but isn’t always readily available in the states. A thick flatbread will do the trick to take its place. Musakkhan celebrates the olive harvest which is so important to Palestinians and that is why so much olive oil is used in this dish whether it is to cook the onions or coat the bread with.
I grew up enjoying Musakkhan quite frequently actually but believe it or not; I have not made it myself yet! Don’t get me wrong, it is easy to make. The directions and ingredients are straightforward but I just never did it! As many of you know, my parents were in town. It was a request of mine for my mom to make this dish for me and she did before she left and it was amazing. I just had to share it with all of you.
In my e-cookbook, Soufrati, I have a recipe for musakhan rolls which makes it very easy to eat. They are like handheld egg rolls but musakhan flavored! This is awesome for the kiddos or to make ahead of time and freeze for dinner at another time. So, if you have my ebook, check it out. If not, I recommend you get it!
Tag me in your remakes on my Instagram for a chance to be featured and let me know what you think in the comments below!
Musakhan
Ingredients
Chicken Prep
- 4 3-4 lb Whole Chickens cut in half with a sharp knife
- 3 Lemon's or lime's juice
- 2 tbsp White Vinegar
- Sprinkling of Salt
Onions
- 10 Large White/yellow onions diced
- 2 cups Olive Oil
- 1/2 tbsp Cumin
- Salt & Pepper to taste
- 1/3 cup Sumac
Chicken Marinade
- 1/4 cup Olive oil
- 1 Lemon's juice
- Salt & Pepper to taste
- 1.5 tbsp All spice or seven spice
- 2 tbsp Your favorite chicken seasoning
- 1/3 cup Sumac
Other
- 6 Thick round flatbreads Taboon is preferred but I used Tanour bread
- 1/2 cup Toasted Almond Halves pine nuts, or slivered alonds will do
Instructions
- In a large pot, add all the diced onions. Cover and cook while sporadically stirring as to not burn the bottom on medium heat. The onions will start to soften.
- In the meantime, use the ingrdients in the chicken prep to clean the chicken's that should be halved. Let them soak in this for 10 minutes or so before rinsing off and patting dry.
- Now, mix all the ingreidents for the chicken marinade until it looks sauce like. Add all the chicken pieces to a lightly oiling baking pan. Then, completely coat with this chicken marinade. *You can either add the sumac as a spirnkle on each chicken at the end or in the actual sauce.
- Cover the chicken and bake in a 420 F oven for 1.5 hours. Chicken is cooked once it reaches an internal temperature of 165 F.
- Back to the onions! At this point, the onions should be very soft and translucent. Now add the salt, cumin, and olive oil. Let this simmer together for about 10 minutes then drain the olive oil from the onions and set aside.
- Take out the thick flatbread you will be using for the dish. If you have access to taboon bread that would be perfect for this. First, oil the bread evenly with the drained oil. Then, top with the cooked onions evenly. Then, sprinkle with sumac all over the top of each flatbread. Repeat with the other flatbreads.
- Broil the flatbreads in the oven for about 2 minutes until they are lightly crisped.
- To assemble, top the flatberads with the cooked chicken, a garnish of parsley, and toasted almonds. Enjoy with plain yogurt and arabic salad.
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