Musakhan Recipe: Sumac Spiced Chicken with Flatbread
Musakhan is a Palestinian street food, my version adapts it for home cooking and it features sumac roasted chicken legs served on a toasted flatbread topped with caramelised red onions and fried pine nuts... and it tastes every bit as good as those things sound!
Servings 2 Servings
Calories 1121kcal
Ingredients
- 2 Chicken Legs Skin on Bone In
- 1 tablespoon Olive Oil
- ½ teaspoon Salt
- 2 Middle Eastern Flatbreads
- Lots of Parsley for Garnish
- Lemon Wedges to Serve
For the Caramelised Onions:
- 500 g Red Onions 2-3 Medium-Large
- 1 tablespoon Cooking Oil
For the Spice Mix:
- 1½ tablespoon Sumac
- ½ tablespoon Ground Cumin
- ¼ teaspoon Ground Allspice
- ¼ teaspoon Black Pepper
- ⅛ teaspoon Ground Cinnamon
For the Pine Nuts:
- ½ tablespoon Olive Oil
- 3 tablespoon Pine Nuts 25-30g
Instructions
- Top and tail the onions, cut them in half, peel them, then cut them into 10-12mm (½") thick strips.
- Heat the one tablespoon of cooking oil in a 28cm or 11" (not nonstick) frying pan over a low-medium heat, add the onions and slowly caramelise for at least an hour, 90 minutes is better. Stir the onions every 15 minutes or so; you are looking to get some beautifully soft caramelised onions, but take care not to burn them. You may need to add a splash of water towards the end of the cooking process for the onions to remove any "fond" from the base of the pan.
- Add all of the ingredients for the spice mix to a bowl and mix well.
- Around 40-45 minutes before the onions have finished make 3-4 deep slits across the chicken legs, place them in a baking dish, pour over the olive oil then season with half of the spice mix and the salt. Massage into the slits thoroughly. Transfer the chicken to the oven and cook at 180°C or 350°F on fan mode, and cook for 35-40 minutes.
- Approximately 5 minutes before the chicken is ready, heat a small (20cm or 8") frying pan over a medium heat, add the oil for the pine nuts and the pine nuts and toast them until they are golden.
- Heat a 30cm or 12" frying pan over a high heat and toast the flatbreads for a minute or two on each side.
- Finally, remove the chicken from the oven, pour the roasting juices into the onions, sprinkle in the remaining spice mix, and stir before building the dish. Start with the flatbread, spoon over the onions, followed by the chicken, sprinkle over the pine nuts and parsley, then get stuck in.
Nutrition
Serving: 1 | Calories: 1121kcal | Carbohydrates: 87g | Protein: 77g | Fat: 54g | Saturated Fat: 9g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 38g | Cholesterol: 328mg | Sodium: 1476mg | Fiber: 11g | Sugar: 16g
