‘Falastin’ Chicken Musakhan

If, by some chance, you are trying to decide whether to make this dish, don’t hesitate: It’s one of the best thing’s we’ve eaten in ages. The recipe is adapted from Falastin: A Cookbook, by Sami Tamimi and Tara Wigley, which we reviewed in July 2020.

In the headnote, Tamimi and Wigley mention that it is the national dish of Palestine, traditionally made in olive-oil pressing season to celebrate the freshly-pressed oil, but now it’s hugely popular year-round. “Growing up, Sami ate it once a week,” they write, “pulling a piece of chicken and sandwiching it between a piece of pita or flatbread. It’s a dish to eat with your hands and with your friends, served from one pot or plate, for everyone to then tear at some of the bread and spoon on the chicken and topping for themselves.”

Traditionally, taboon bread is used in the dish. Baked on pebbles in a conical oven, it has a pock-marked surface that are great for catching the juices. But the Falastin recipe allows for any flatbread, such as Arabic flatbread or naan; we used pita with extremely happy results. Don’t think about it: Part of what makes the dish great is the way the bread soaks up all the chicken’s delicious juices mingled with onion and olive oil. Even the leftover soaked bread was fabulous the next day.

Serves four.

Ingredients

1 chicken (about 3 3/4 to 4 /14 pounds), cut into 4 pieces

1/2 cup olive oil, plus 2 or 3 tablespoons (divided)

1 tablespoon ground cumin (divided)

3 tablespoons sumac (divided)

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground allspice

Salt and black pepper

1/4 cup pine nuts

3 medium red onions, thinly sliced 1/8 inch/3 millimeter thick (500 grams)

4 flatbreads, such as pita or naan (or taboon, if you can get it)

1/4 cup parsley leaves, roughly chopped

1 1/4 cups Greek yogurt

1 lemon, cut into wedges

Instructions

1. Heat the oven to 425 degrees. Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper, and line a small bowl with a paper towel.

2. Place the chicken pieces in a large mixing bowl with 2 tablespoons of the olive oil, 1 teaspoon of the cumin, 1 1/2 teaspoon of the sumac, plus the cinnamon, the allspice, 1 teaspoon of salt and a good grind of black pepper. Mix well to combine, then spread lay the chicken pieces on the prepared baking sheet. Roast until the chicken is cooked through, about 45 minutes. Remove it from the oven and set aside. Don’t discard any juices that have collected in the pan.

3. Meanwhile, put 2 tablespoons of the oil into a large sauté pan and place over medium heat. Add the pine nuts and cook for 2 to 3 minutes, stirring constantly, until the nuts are golden brown. Use a slotted spoon to transfer them to the paper-towel-lined bowl, leaving the oil in the pan, and set aside. Add the remaining 1/4 cup of olive oil to the pan, along with the onions and 3/4 teaspoons of salt. Return to medium heat and cook for about 15 minutes, stirring from time to time, until the onions are completely soft and pale golden but not caramelized. Add 2 tablespoons of the sumac, the remaining 2 teaspoons of cumin and a grind of black pepper and mix well, until the onions are completely coated. Remove from the heat and set aside.

4. When ready to assemble the dish, preheat the broiler. Slice or tear the bread into fourths or sixths, place the pieces on another baking sheet and slide it under the broiler for 2 to 4 minutes, until the bread is crisp. Arrange the bread pieces on a large platter and strew half of the onions over it, followed by the chicken pieces and any chicken juices left on the baking sheet. Either keep each piece of chicken as it it or roughly shred each into two or three large chunks as you plate up. Strew the remaining onions over the top and sprinkle with the pine nuts, parsley, remaining 1 1/2 teaspoons of sumac and a final drizzle of oil oil. Serve at once, with the yogurt and lemon wedges alongside.

Recipe notes

• Tamimi and Wigley’s original recipe calls for either a whole chicken (about 3 3/4 pounds) cut up or 2 pounds, 2 ounces of chicken breasts. We used a whole chicken slightly over 4 pounds that we then cut up. We shot the dish before tearing the chicken pieces into two or three pieces each, but tear them we did after, which feels like the right move — it’s so nice to be able to grab a bit of dark meat, then a bit of white meat, and so on. For that reason we’ll probably always make the dish with a whole chicken.

• Many of Tamimi and Wigley’s recipes throughout Falastin start with a parchment-lined sheet pan. In future, we’d probably use a Silpat instead, as the parchment soaked up some of the juices. Also, we transferred the chicken pieces and their juices to a bowl when they came of the oven, so we could use the sheet pan to crisp the bread.

• The original headnote suggests you can replace the chicken with eggplant and/or cauliflower for a vegetarian alternative, which sounds wonderful, too. “If you do this,” Tamini and Wigley write, “toss the slices or florets in the oil and spices, as you do the chicken, and roast at 425 degrees for about 25 minutes for the cauliflower and about 35 minutes for the eggplant. If and when we get around to trying that, we will update this with the results.

• We were so excited by the look and smell of the chicken that we forgot to serve the yogurt and lemon! We didn’t miss it, but won’t skip it next time.