Musakhan Recipe: Palestinian Roast Chicken with Sumac Onions & Olive Oil on Flatbread

• 1.5 kg bone-in, skin-on chicken pieces (thighs, drumsticks and breasts)
• 1 kg onions (about 5 to 6 large onions), coarsely diced or sliced into half-moons
• 250 ml extra-virgin olive oil
• 4 tbsp ground or coarse Levantine sumac
• 4 large flatbreads (taboon bread, tannour flatbread or saj bread)
• 1 tsp seven-spice (baharat), 1/2 tsp ground cardamom, 1 cinnamon stick, 2 bay leaves and salt
• 80 g blanched almonds and pine nuts, toasted until golden

Preparation Steps

1. 1Place the chicken pieces in a pot with a small quartered onion, bay leaves, cinnamon stick, cardamom and salt, cover with water and simmer gently for 30 minutes until tender; lift out the chicken and reserve two cups of the strained broth.
2. 2Warm the olive oil in a wide heavy pot over low-to-medium heat, add the diced onions with a pinch of salt and confit slowly for 20 minutes until completely soft, sweet and translucent without browning.
3. 3Stir 3 tbsp of sumac, the seven-spice and ground cardamom into the warm onions and olive oil, let infuse for one minute and remove from the heat.
4. 4Brush the cooked chicken pieces with spoonfuls of the crimson sumac-onion oil and dust with the remaining 1 tbsp sumac; moisten each flatbread lightly with warm chicken broth and sumac oil, then spread a generous layer of the sumac onions over each loaf.
5. 5Stack the onion-topped flatbreads on a large baking tray, arrange the chicken pieces on top, and broil in a hot oven (220 °C) for 10 minutes until the chicken skin is crisp and the bread edges are toasted; finish with toasted almonds and pine nuts.