Roasted Chicken with Sumac over Taboon Bread (Musakhan)

A Roasted chicken over taboon bread that is covered with loads of onion, dripping of olive oil and sumac. It’s healthy, and flavorsome!

This Roasted chicken with bread is a very old recipe, and very popular in Palestine and, Jordan as well. It’s healthy, and unique.

The word {Musakhan} literally means that the bread is being warmed up. In the old times, the ladies “mothers and wives”, used to bake the bread themselves on an open saj ( an upside iron wok, used to make flat bread) then add the onion,  sumac, and freshly pressed olive oil. So the traditional bread is more crispy, and airy comparing to the automatic bakeries, which the bread is more doughy. 

Let me tell you this meal is loaded with olive oil, and it’s quite a big amount. I’ve added less amount than the traditional recipe (although I don’t think there is an exact amount) because oil should be dripping from the bread. But I don’t like that, I prefer to soften the bread with little chicken stock, to make it more nutritious, and easier on the stomach too.

If it’s still cold where you live, and you wish you to try this recipe, I suggest to wait until the weather is warm enough, but not hot too. Oily meal with cold weather is not a pleasant combo.

If you can’t find taboon bread near you, try Iraqi, Iranian or Afghani bread. If you can’t find any , try thick pita bread, but unfortunately, you won’t have the same results.

Sumac

A pungent tangy spice that has a unique flavor, it’s a dried form of ground red berries. It’s commonly used in the Arabic cuisine, Indian, Iranian, and Kurdish too. It does give a kind of purple color to the food.  Also, sumac has other uses than food flavoring.  

Sumac has so many health benefits, to mention some:

• It has antioxidant, anti-fungal, and antimicrobial properties.
• It can lower glucose blood level in type 2 diabetic patients.  
• There are also promising results for sumac used in prevention or treatment of atherosclerosis, and that is good for your heart too. 

You can find Sumac in your local middle eastern/Indian stores, or you can find it online, here  is the brand I trust. 

Note that sumac plant belongs to the cashew family tree, so if you are allergic to nuts, consult your doctor first. 

Chicken 

Is my favorite poultry. Okay I didn’t try many, you know turkey, quail, pigeons, but I’ve never tried duck, and I know I should! I think I should get out of my comfort zone, and try cooking with different games. But with a limited budget, and a picky husband, trying new stuff is not easy! Maybe in the future, who knows? And of course chicken is leaner than red meat, and more available comparing to fish.

You can check my other recipes for chicken where I mentioned the health benefits of eating chicken, and I debunked the myths about cooking chicken with the skin on, and eating chicken thighs too.

Now let’s go to the recipe 

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Palestinian olive oil

Yield: 4

Baked Chicken with Sumac (Msakhan)

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 45 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour

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Ingredients

• 4 boiled pieces chicken with bones and skin on
• A pound of onion ( around 5 medium onions chopped)
• 2 big flat pita bread pieces
• 130 ml olive oil (freshly pressed if ever possible)
• 2 ladles of Chicken stock
• 3 Tb of Sumac
• Optional:
• Pine nuts and silvered almond sauteed in ghee.

Instructions

1. Chop the onion by hand if possible, small pieces but not very fine. if you did use a food processor, squeeze them to get rid of their water.
2. In a medium pot on a medium heat, saute the onion in olive oil, it should cover the onion, leave it for 30 minutes, you can leave it more if you prefer it very tender.
3. Now add 2 ladle of chicken stock and sumac to onions, and turn off the stove.
4. Spread the onion over the bread, brush more oil on the edges, and add little chicken stock if you up to.
5. Put the bread in the oven until it is crispy, but soft enough to fold it.
6. Brush some of the onion mixture over the chicken with extra oil too.
7. You can add the chicken over the bread and roast them together or you broil chicken by itself first if you want.
8. Now it's done, have it with a side of yogurt, and maybe a salad too.
9. You can add sauteed pine nuts and almonds in ghee over the bread.

Notes

You may need around 15 minutes for the bread in the oven, but please check regularly, it depends on the the oven heat, and the bread thickness.

Have you ever tried Sumac spice before? How do you use it?