Musakhkhan- Chicken With Flat Bread and Sumac- مسخن فلسطيني

Photo: Mimi Cooks

Ingredients

2 Cut up chickens into four or six pieces

2 cups Virgin Olive Oil

8 large diced onions

4 tablespoons Pine nuts for garnishing- fried or raw

4 tablespoons Sumac

Salt and pepper-Cardamom for boiling the chicken

4 Taboon bread. If not found, use any flat bread of your choice. I used Iranian <

Preparation

Prepare the chicken for cooking by washing, cleaning .Adding lemon juice and olive oil to the chicken keeps it smelling nice.

Sauté couple of medium diced onion, add the chicken. Add enough water to cover the chicken, cardamom and salt. Boil over high heat and then let simmer until the chicken is fully done.

Add 2 cups of olive oil to a casserole and cook the diced onions until translucent, this takes about 25-35 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the sumac to the onions and cook for 2 minutes to mix. Do not overcook the onions, you do not want them burnt and you do not want them mushy...they should hold their shape nicely.

Add the chicken to the pot with onions in it, let cook for ten minutes.

Remove the chicken from the pot, bake until golden brown.

To assemble:

Soak the break in the chicken broth and lay in an oven safe serving platter. Add the first layer of the onion mix on top of the bread, add pine nuts. Broil to a nice golden color. Repeat to form three to four layers of the bread and onions. Traditionally the bread is soaked with olive oil and then topped with the cooked onions and broiled, repeating the same step with every layer of bread.

Arrange the baked/broiled chicken on top of the last layer of bread and onions and garnish with pine nuts. Fry the pine nuts or add them raw to the dish to garnish

For more on this recipes, please check out the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0mAHQhKHk4&feature=player_embedded

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About

This is a very traditional Palestinian recipe with few simple ingredients, it is called Musakhkhan, or Msakhkhan which in Arabic means "Heated".
This recipes is prepared in the cities and villages where olive grows. During the harvest time in Oct/Nov freshly squeezed olive oil is widely available and it is used in preparing this delicious meal. Fresh flat bread is baked in the traditional ground ovens using wood fire. To cook this recipe as traditional and authentic as you can you need to use the right and best ingredients, especially good olive oil, but I have cooked it before using light olive oil and it came out ok but not as intense in flavors.
No matter how you cook it, it comes out delicious. Enjoy this new cooking adventure