Msakhan (Palestinian sumac chicken and onions)featured

This Palestinian dish is sooo flavourful. Msakhan means “heated” in Arabic and this dish gets it’s name from the fact that you make it’s various components then assemble them and heat it all up together. Msakhan, Palestinian sumac chicken and onions, is the perfect make ahead meal! 

To make this glorious dish, cook sliced onions in lots of olive oil and loads upon loads of tart and tangy sumac. Use your best tasting oil and make sure your sumac is fresh and flavourful.

Next, boil the parts of a whole chicken with onion, bay leaf, cardamom pods, allspice berries and coriander seeds until just cooked through. You could bake the chicken if you prefer.

To assemble this dish, you will need some good quality, thick flatbread to use as the base. I picked up some naan from a local Indian restaurant (taboon is traditionally used) and got to layering. First, I slathered it with some of my oniony olive oil, then added the onions, then more sumac. I seared off my chicken and layered it on then added more sumac (yes) and baked it all together.

The sweetness of the onions plays so well with the tart sumac, and the bread absorbs all the olive oily, chicken-y juices. You tear right into it with your hands, scooping up all the components with the bread. Serve with yogurt on top, a side of salata baladi, and lots and lots of napkins.

Msakhan Palestinian sumac chicken and onion rolls

If you need a more portable, less messy msakhan fix, this can be made into rolls. I did this for my daughter’s fourth birthday and they were a hit!

Simply shred the chicken into the onion mixture and add nuts.

This would then typically be rolled in shrak, a thin Middle Eastern flat bread, but flour tortillas work perfectly. Simply roll the filling in the tortillas. You can use a few dabs of water around the edges of the tortilla to get them to hold shut. You can brush these with olive oil and bake on 400F until golden brown, or fry them. Once they are done, sprinkle with sumac and serve with yogurt.

Bel hana wel shefa! Enjoy!

Print Recipe

Msakhan (Palestinian sumac chicken and onions)

Chicken served with sweet onions, tart and tangy sumac, and copious amounts of olive oil, served over warm flatbread, topped with nuts and parsley and eaten with yogurt.

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: Middle Eastern

Ingredients

• 3 large onions 2 sliced, 1 quartered
• olive oil
• sumac to taste, have half a cup on hand
• salt I prefer kosher
• 1 whole chicken cut into parts, or use any particular cut you like
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 tbsp coriander seeds
• 1 tbsp cardamom pods
• 1 tbsp allspice berries
• 1 carrot
• thick flatbread taboon or naan- style
• handful chopped nuts
• handful parsley chopped, to garnish
• plain yogurt whole milk, for serving

Instructions

For the onions

• Chop or slice 2 onions, Don't cut them too small or thin. I used a mandoline on the thickest setting.
  
• Put onions in a small pot and cover with good quality olive oil and add a good pinch of salt. Cook over medium heat until nice and soft, maybe 10 minutes. You're not carmelizing them, just softening.
• Once they are soft add a few tablespoons of sumac. Start with 2 tablespoons and increase from there as desired to give the onions an assertive tangy flavour and deep colour.
  

For the chicken

• Put chicken in a pot and add the quartered onion, a couple tablespoons of sumac, some carrot, bay leaf, and whole allspice berries, coriander seeds and green cardamom pods and a big shake of kosher salt. Add enough water to cover, bring to a boil then turn down to simmer and cook until JUST cooked through, maybe 40 minutes.
• Once chicken is done, add ¼ cup or so of the broth to onion mixture. 

Assembly

• Preheat oven to 450F.
• Remove chicken from the broth, pat dry and sear in a pan over high heat in some olive oil to begin crisping the skin and getting some colour.
• Lay flatbread on an oven safe platter, casserole dish or baking sheet. Brush on some of the olive oil from the onions, and put in the oven for a few minutes to let the bread crisp slightly.
• Layer on the onions, reserving a few. Dust it all liberally with sumac.
• Put seared chicken on top and put the reserved onions over the chicken. Give it one last dusting of sumac and drizzle with olive oil.
• Bake until the skin is crisp and the oils are bubbling in the tray- about 15 minutes. Be careful to not overcook the chicken. 
• Remove and top with fried nuts and parsley. Serve with plain yogurt. 
• Dig in, scooping it all up with your bread and enjoy!