Finally, we’re back…
I know, its been forever.
Don’t give me that look!
Lets put it behind us, and move on, because boy are you in for a treat!
Today we’ve got msakhan, a delicious traditional Palestinian chicken dish, it is quite heavenly.
The dish is made of, a large piece of Palestinian bread, called taboun bread, covered generously with caramelized onions, and sumac, topped off with the chicken, and toasted almonds.
Many people substitute the Palestinian bread for either afghan bread or chapati bread. I went around the city looking for either, with no luck. So, I then decided to make it on my own, I did so by following a recipe I found on YouTube (click here for the link)
The recipe is in Arabic, so here is all you need to know:
Here’s what:
- 5 cups of all purpose flower
- 3 teaspoons of salt
- A pinch of turmeric powder (for color, not necessary)
- 3 tablespoons of olive oil
- 1 1/2 teaspoons of sugar
- 1 1/2 teaspoons of instant yeast
- warm water
Here’s how:
Mix together the flour, salt, and turmeric powder. Mix in sugar and instant yeast. Then add in the olive oil and mix together.
Start adding in the warm water gradually, you want the dough to be of a soft consistency (refer to the video to see the right consistency). Then you need to knead the dough for about 10 minutes, or until smooth and consistent.
Let the dough stand ,covered, for 1,1/2 hrs.
Then, once the dough is ready, you divide it into small balls, mine made about 7 balls.
Spread them out.
I found that when poking the dough gave it a nice texture.
then take a large frying pan, and place it on the stove top, on the highest heat.
place the dough onto it, and keep flipping it to the other side ever few seconds.
And there you have it, you just made your own taboun bread :)
Place the bread into a kitchen cloth, or towel.
Moving on, back to the main recipe.
Here’s what:
- 3 large onions
- 4 chicken breasts
- lots and lots of olive oil
- slivered almonds
- sumac powder
- Salt, pepper, and all spice
Here’s how:
Take the 2, 1/2 onions, chop them into medium sized pieces, like so:
Then place into your frying pan, and add olive oil, enough to fill in a cm of the frying pan, be generous with the oil.
Then place on the stove top and stir frequently till lightly browned.
Then remove from stove top, add in 1 12 tablespoon of sumac powder, salt to taste, a pinch of all spice, and a pinch of pepper.
Seeing as how browning the onions is time consuming, while waiting, we prepare the chicken.
Chop the 1/2 onion into large pieces, and place into a pot on the stove top, with a drizzle of olive oil.
Stir, till the edges begin to brown, then add enough water to boil the chicken breasts. Then add in the chicken breasts.
Next add pepper, salt, and a cinnamon stick, I didn’t have a cinnamon stick so I just added the powder instead.
Leave to boil.
A few minutes after the water starts boiling, you take out the chicken, and place into an oven proof dish.
Top them off with a generous amount of sumac powder.
Top the chicken breasts with some of the browned onions you prepared earlier.
Drizzle the chicken with olive oil.
Place the chicken into the oven, until the chicken is done.
Finally,
Place your bread into an oven tray.
Spread olive oil over the bread.
Then place some of the onion mixture onto the bread.
And spread out.
Place it into the oven until it lightly browns on the ends, and the bottom of the bread has become lightly crisp.
While the bread is in the oven, take the almonds, and place into a small frying pan on the stove top, with a drizzle of olive oil. Keep stirring them, till they have lightly browned. Remove from stove top.
Once the bread is ready, place two chicken breasts on to each on piece of bread.
Top off with almonds, and sumac powder.
Bon appetit :D
This dish is perfection, trust me. You will fall in love.
Bread recipe:
Here’s What:
- 5 cups of all purpose flower
- 3 teaspoons of salt
- A pinch of turmeric powder (for color, not necessary)
- 3 tablespoons of olive oil
- 1 1/2 teaspoons of sugar
- 1 1/2 teaspoons of instant yeast
- warm water
Here’s How:
Mix together the flour, salt, and turmeric powder.
Add in sugar and instant yeast and olive oil and mix together.
Start adding in the warm water gradually, you want the dough to be of a soft consistency (refer to the video to see the right consistency).
Knead the dough for about 10 minutes, or until smooth and consistent.
Let the dough stand ,covered, for 1,1/2 hrs.
After the dough has risen, divide into around 7 balls.
Spread the dough into a circular shape.
Place the dough onto a frying pan on a stove top.
Flip every 10 seconds until the bread is fully done.
Msakhan recipe:
Here’s What:
- 3 large onions
- 4 chicken breasts
- lots and lots of olive oil
- slivered almonds
- sumac powder
- Salt, pepper, and all spice
Here’s How:
Chop 2 1/2 onions into medium sized pieces.
In a frying pan, place the chopped onions, and add enough olive oil to cover a cm of the pan.
Place onto the stove top, stirring frequently till lightly browned.
Top the onions with 1 1/2 tbsp of sumac, a pinch of pepper, all spice, and salt to taste.
While waiting for the onions to brown, move on to preparing the chicken.
Chop the 1/2 onion into large pieces, drizzle with olive oil, place into a pot on the stove top. stir till edges have browned.
Add water into the pot for boiling. Add in salt, pepper, and a cinnamon stick.
Place in the chicken breasts. Once the water boils, wait a few minutes, then take out the chicken.
Place the chicken into an ovenproof tray.
Top with sumac, some of the onion mix, and some oil. Place into the oven, until the chicken is done.
Place the bread into an oven tray, drizzle olive oil over the bread, and place the onion mixture on top.
It then goes into the oven, till the bread has lightly browned edges, and lightly crisped on the bottom.
Remove from the oven, lay the chicken breasts on top (2 breasts on each piece of bread).
Sprinkle a generous amount of sumac on top, finishing the dish with the toasted almonds.
Enjoy! :)
As usual,
Lots of love,
Artsy
