Musakhan: Sumac Roast Chicken over Taboon Bread with Caramelised Onions & Pine Nuts

⏱ 95 min · Serves 4

Palestine's most generous dish: sweet slow-cooked onions stained crimson with sumac, olive oil-drenched flatbread that soaks up every drop of chicken juice, and burnished roast chicken piled on top with toasted pine nuts. Made to be torn into with your hands, in the middle of the table, with friends.

Per serving: 1010 kcal · 58.0g protein · 62.0g carbs · 60.0g fat

Ingredients

• 1.6kg whole chicken, jointed into 8 pieces (or 8 bone-in thighs/drumsticks)
• 5 tbsp ground sumac, plus extra to finish
• 1 tsp ground allspice
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ground cardamom
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 150ml good olive oil, plus more for drizzling
• 1kg onions (about 5 large), very thinly sliced
• 2 tbsp lemon juice
• 1 tbsp pomegranate molasses (optional)
• 250ml chicken stock
• Salt and black pepper
• 2 large taboon breads or 4 Middle Eastern flatbreads/naan
• 60g pine nuts
• 20g flaked almonds (optional)
• Small bunch flat-leaf parsley, chopped
• 200g thick Greek yoghurt, to serve
• 1 lemon, cut into wedges

Method

1. Mix 2 tbsp sumac, the allspice, cinnamon, cardamom, cumin, 1.5 tsp salt and plenty of pepper. Rub all over the chicken with 2 tbsp olive oil. Leave 20 minutes at room temperature (or up to 24 hours in the fridge).
2. Heat oven to 200C/180C fan. Sit the chicken skin-side up in a roasting tin, drizzle with a little more oil and roast 40–45 minutes until deep golden and cooked through. Keep every drop of the tin juices.
3. Meanwhile, warm 100ml olive oil in a wide heavy pan over medium-low heat. Add the onions with a big pinch of salt and cook, stirring often, for 30–35 minutes until soft, sweet and pale gold — don't rush or brown them hard.
4. Stir the remaining 3 tbsp sumac into the onions with the lemon juice, pomegranate molasses if using, and the stock. Simmer 8–10 minutes until glossy and just moist, not soupy. Taste and season generously.
5. Toast the pine nuts (and almonds) in a small dry pan over low heat until golden, 3–4 minutes. Tip out immediately.
6. Brush the flatbreads with olive oil and the chicken tin juices, then warm in the oven for 4–5 minutes until edges crisp.
7. Lay the bread on a big platter. Spoon over two-thirds of the sumac onions, then pile on the chicken and pour over the remaining onions and all the pan juices.
8. Scatter with pine nuts, parsley, a final dusting of sumac and a slick of olive oil. Serve with yoghurt and lemon wedges, and let everyone tear in.