Complete the Middle Eastern feast with my recipes for hummus with roasted za’taar chickpea topping, easy flatbread and a vegetarian falafel salad bowl. There’s nothing like an adventure to inspire creativity. A little getaway to Tel Aviv with my husband recently means I’ll be sending all the Middle Eastern flavours! After my first taste of the Palestinian national dish, chicken musakhan, I was captivated by its mystery and exotic flavours and couldn’t wait to make my own. And here it is…
What is Musakhan?
If you’re a kebab fan, you might think you’ve tried all the Middle Eastern chicken recipes out there. Like me, you probably know your chicken shish from your shawarma, but musakhan was a new one for me and I’m excited to share it with you. Essentially, marinated and roasted chicken on flatbread but with an incredibly generous helping of soft, spiced, snappy red onions with pine nuts. A deliciously, finger-lickingly moist alternative to a dry old doner.
Key ingredients and flavours
Olive oil gets a big shout out in this dish. The Palestinian region produces some of the highest quality olive oil in the world. The whole dish was originally created to test the quality of olives and then eaten in celebration of the success of the harvest. So the recipe calls for lashings of it! I’ve used skinless, boneless chicken thighs for convenience. I find the dark meat lends itself well to the spice mixture, and the overall dish is consistently juicy and flavoursome throughout. There are two key spices in the musakhan recipe; baharat and sumac. The two are wildly different- so you need both! They are spices from far-flung corners, but don’t worry, they are readily available in supermarkets. Baharat is a blend of spices used in the chicken marinade. It is warm and earthy thanks to the clove, cinnamon and cumin, while sweet and smoky due to the nutmeg and paprika. Baharat mixes vary, but you could also detect cardamom, black pepper and coriander in there. Sumac is a single spice made from the wine-red berries of the sumac shrub. The dominating flavour is a tangy lemon that brings an insane, almost sour fizz! It’s in the chicken marinade, but features more heavily in the onions. It’s what gives this dish its zing!
Serving suggestions
There’s more than one way to serve a Palestinian chicken! You can either serve it up yourself making sure proportions are even and the presentation is on point. Or you can offer it family-style as a table centre-piece, and let everyone get down and dirty with their own. Either way, begin with your toasted flatbread foundation. This catches all the cooking juices and flavour rich oil. Then mound with the sliced oven-roasted chicken and spoonful of soft red onion. Sprinkle the pine nuts and add a dollop of plain yoghurt on the side. Fold it over, roll it up, tear strips of bread and pinch the filling. Do it your way, just not with a knife and fork! Things are going to get messy so napkins required.
Storage and leftovers
All the components to this dish can be made ahead of time making it an ideal dinner party dish. Any marinated meat improves with time, so you can easily prep your chicken a day in advance. Just store it carefully in an airtight container in the fridge before oven cooking on the day. Same with the onions, cook them the day before and reheat in the microwave just before serving. Any leftovers can go back in the fridge, covered, and keep for 2- 3 days. The cold chicken makes a delicious lunch box salad.
More Middle Eastern recipes
Smoky Baba Ganoush with Sumac Middle Eastern Fattoush Salad Classic Hummus with Roasted Za’atar Chickpea Topping Middle Eastern Salad Bowl Israeli Salad with Lemon Garlic Tahini Dressing
