Musakhan (Palestinian Sumac Chicken)

Ingredients

• 8 g chicken thigh, bone-in and skin-on
• 5 onion, halved and thinly sliced
• 1½ dl olive oil
• 5 tbsp sumac
• 1 tsp ground allspice
• ½ tsp ground cinnamon
• ½ tsp ground cardamom
• 1½ tsp salt
• 1 tsp black pepper
• 2 tbsp lemon juice
• 80 g pine nuts
• 4 pita bread
• 2 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped
• 1 lemon, cut into wedges

Method

1. 1.

   Rub the chicken with sumac — Pat the chicken thighs dry and rub them all over with 2 tablespoons of the olive oil, 2 tablespoons of the sumac, the allspice, cinnamon, cardamom, half the salt and the black pepper. Work the mixture under the skin as well and leave them on the board while you cook the onions.

2. 2.

   Soften the onions slowly — Warm the remaining olive oil in a wide pan over low heat and add the onions with the rest of the salt. Cook for 25 minutes, stirring now and then, until they have collapsed to a soft, sweet, pale gold mass. They must not brown or catch — this is a stew in oil, not a fry.

3. 3.

   Sharpen the onions and assemble — Stir the remaining 3 tablespoons of sumac and the lemon juice into the onions. They will turn a deep plum colour and smell sharply of citrus. Heat the oven to 200°C and spread the onions over the base of a roasting tin, then settle the chicken on top, skin upwards, so the skin stays clear of the juices.

4. 4.

   Roast until the skin crisps — Roast for 40 minutes, until the skin is crisp and burnished and the juices run clear when a thigh is pierced at the bone. Spoon a little of the sumac oil from the tin over the skin twice during the roast.

5. 5.

   Toast the pine nuts — While the chicken roasts, toast the pine nuts in a small dry pan over medium heat, shaking constantly, until they are the colour of pale straw. Tip them straight onto a plate — left in the hot pan they go from golden to bitter in seconds.

6. 6.

   Warm the flatbreads — For the last 5 minutes, lay the flatbreads directly on the oven shelf above the tin so they warm through and crisp at the edges while staying pliable in the middle.

7. 7.

   Build the platter and serve — Lay the warm flatbreads on a platter and spoon the onions and their sumac oil over them, letting the bread drink it up. Set the chicken on top, scatter with pine nuts and parsley and serve with lemon wedges, eaten with your hands.