Mussakhan - Palestinian Sumac Roast Chicken
The national dish of Palestine. I love that Mussakhan represents gathering community around a table and celebrating community around a shared meal.
It’s made with an incredibly flavoursome sumac roast chicken and caramelised onion, on warm flatbread with pine nuts and olive oil. So warming and comforting, yet zesty and fresh.
I roasted the chicken low and slow to make the chicken extra tender and juicy - I highly recommend this, however, if you’re short on time, you can cook at 180C/ 350F (fan oven) for about 1.5 hours.
This recipe is adapted from Yasmin Khan’s Mussakhan from her cookbook, Zaitoun. tHIS is everything I want in a dish and more.
Ingredients
2 large red onions, thinly sliced
1 medium whole chicken
4 TBSP extra-virgin olive oil
5 cloves of garlic, crushed
1 1/2 TBSP sumac
1/2 TSP cumin
1/4 TSP allspice
1/2 TSP cinnamon
1 1/2 TSP salt
1/4 TSP black pepper
1 lemon, juiced
2 tbsp pine nuts, toasted
Parsley, chopped
Warm flatbread for serving
Chopped parsley for serving
Salad for serving
Pickles for serving (optional)
Method
Preheat fan oven to 200C/ 390F
Slash the chicken with a knife a few times, and place in an oven-proof dish. Add lemon juice, 3 tablespoons olive oil sumac, garlic, cumin, allspice, cinnamon, salt and pepper. Rub it all, into the meat. Add the red onion and rubbing that in too. Cover with foil and place in the middle of the oven to roast for 10 minutes
After 10 minutes, reduce the oven temperature to 150C/ 300F. Roast until the juices run clear when the chicken pieces are pierced at their thickest part, about 3 hours. Once the chicken is cooked, cover the baking sheet tightly in foil and set aside while you prepare the toppings.
To serve, heat the flatbread in the oven until warmed and transfer to a platter. Arrange the chicken and red onion on top. sprinkle the pine nuts, sumac and chopped parsley. Drizzle some of the roasting juices to soak into the bread, with a little more olive oil.
Enjoy with a Jerusalem-style salad and pickle (optional).
