"Mussakhan is a classic Palestinian dish eaten in villages throughout the region," writes Yasmin Khan in her new cookbook Zaitoun, "Traditionally the meat is laid out on a giant piece of bread with the flavoursome roasting juices poured over it so that they seep into the dough. This platter is then placed on the table for everyone to pull off sections of bread and chicken: a wonderful sharing meal."
Make Yasmin Khan’s roast chicken with sumac and red onions
Floury naan provides the perfect base for the sour smack of sumac chicken and the sweet richness of roasted red onions in this classic Palestinian sharing dish
Matt Russell
Serves 4
Preparation time 3 hours
Cooking time 45 mins
Ingredients
- 1kg chicken thighs and drumsticks, skin on
- 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil, plus more to serve
- ½ tsp ground cumin
- ½ tsp ground allspice
- ¼ tsp ground cinnamon
- 1½ tbsp sumac, plus more to dust
- Juice of 1 lemon
- 4 garlic cloves, crushed
- Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 2 large red onions (about 500g), finely sliced into half-moons
- 2 tbsp pine nuts
- 1 tbsp light olive oil
- Naan or Arabic taboon bread, to serve
- Chopped parsley leaves
Method
- Slash the flesh of each piece of chicken diagonally a few times, around 2cm apart, and then place the meat in a large bowl or plastic food container.
- Pour over the extra virgin olive oil, spices, lemon juice, garlic, 1½ tsp salt and ¼ tsp pepper and rub this into the meat. Add the red onions and toss everything together well. Cover and leave to marinate in the fridge for 1–3 hours.
- When you are ready to cook the chicken, preheat the oven to 190°C/fan 170°C/Gas 5.
- Transfer the meat to a baking tray and roast for about 35 minutes, or until the chicken juices run clear when pierced at their thickest part. Once the chicken is cooked, cover in foil and leave to rest while you prepare the toppings.
- Fry the pine nuts in the light olive oil for a minute or so until they turn golden brown, then tip on to kitchen towels to drain.
- To serve, toast the naan or taboon bread and then place the chicken and red onion on top. Finish with a smattering of pine nuts, sumac and chopped parsley.
- Drizzle over any remaining roasting juices so they soak into the bread, then sprinkle over a little more extra virgin olive oil.
From Zaitoun by Yasmin Khan; photography by Matt Russell. Published by Bloomsbury
