Prep time ~ 45 mins
Cook time ~ 20 mins
Yield ~ 6-8
Musakhan is a flavor-packed dish that gives your taste buds and your gut a good punch. This is chicken carb heaven. Covered in the tangy sumac spices within layers of laffa bread, the chicken sits on top of a bed of caramelized onions which have been nesting in 2 cups of olive oil for 45 minutes before being graciously slathered onto the pita. Like we said. Heaven.
Musakhan is Palestine on a plate
This is a national Palestinian dish originally from the Tulkarm and Jenin areas. It assembles many of the ingredients available locally and of course from our handy spice stores in Jaffa. The word “musackhan” means something that is heated in Arabic. You can serve this delicious masterpiece with whole chicken thighs or shredded chicken breast and feed the whole flock.
What you’ll need
1 whole large chicken cut into 6 pieces or whole chicken breast
Cardamon pods
Salt
Cumin
Black pepper
Cinnamon
2-2.5 cups of olive oil
4-6 big white onions finely chopped
150 grams of sumac
4-6 laffa bread
Pine nuts or tsnobar (toasted)
Sliced almonds (toasted)
Parsley(chopped)
Get the spices here on Jaffa Foodie!
The detailed steps to make musakhan
For the whole chicken , boil in a pot for 1 hour but dress with all the spices (cinnamon, salt, pepper, cardamon). You can do the same with the chicken breast for slightly under an hour.
In the meantime, in a deep frying pan heat the oil. All 2 cups of it and fry it with the onions. Add in cumin, black pepper, cinnamon and salt for 45 minutes over low heat. You want the onion to be transparent but not browned. This yummy onion mix is going to be the base of your musakhan.
Remove the chicken from the water and set it aside to cool. Place one tablespoon of the oiled onion on each piece and generously sprinkle sumac on top. To give it that crisp, place the chicken on a baking tray for about 5 minutes to brown in the oven.
For chicken breast, set aside to cool and start shredding it with a fork. No need to brown in the oven.
Once all your ingredients are ready, take the first piece of lafa/flatbread and slather it with the onion oil mix extremely generously. Then sprinkle on a lot of sumac , followed by the chicken pieces. On top of those you want to garnish with the almonds, pine nuts, and finally the chopped parsley. Stack on another laffa bread on top and repeat. You want all the layers to mush together so that when you rip it , it's oily yummy and messy.