Roast chicken on taboon bread soaked in olive oil and heaped with onions cooked soft with sumac, scattered with pine nuts.
What makes it musakhan
Taboon bread, soaked in olive oil.
A mountain of onions, cooked soft with sumac.
Roast chicken on top, with pine nuts.
Where it comes from
It's often called Palestine's national dish, and it belongs to the olive harvest in autumn, when there's new oil to use and plenty of it. The name is usually traced to the Arabic for heated — the bread, warmed through in the oven.
The bread is taboon, baked on hot stones, thick enough to soak up the oil and the chicken's juices without falling apart; the onions are cooked slowly and turned deep red with sumac.
How it varies
Musakhan rolls
Chicken and onion rolled in thin bread and baked — a party snack.