About this Dish
Palestine and Jordan's most beloved dish — roasted chicken pieces layered on flatbread with sumac-spiced onions, olive oil and pine nuts, baked until the bread absorbs all the juices. The sumac is the defining flavour — a tangy, lemony spice that colours the onions deep purple and permeates everything. Eaten with hands, pulling the bread and chicken apart together.
IngredientsServes 4
🍗Chicken thighs and drumsticks, 1.5kg bone-in, skin-on
🧅Large white onions, 6, thinly sliced into half-moons
🫒Good quality olive oil, 150ml
🌿Ground sumac, 4 tablespoons, divided
🫓Taboon flatbreads or large pitta breads, 4
🌰Pine nuts, 60g
🧄Garlic cloves, 4, minced
🧂Salt, 1.5 teaspoons, and black pepper, 1 teaspoon
🫙Ground allspice, 1 teaspoon, and ground cinnamon, half teaspoon
Method
1
Rub the chicken pieces all over with the minced garlic, 2 tablespoons of sumac, allspice, cinnamon, salt, pepper and 3 tablespoons of olive oil. Leave to marinate for at least 30 minutes at room temperature, or overnight in the fridge.2
Heat a large heavy pan over medium heat and add most of the remaining olive oil. Add the sliced onions with a good pinch of salt and cook slowly for 35-40 minutes, stirring often, until they are very soft, golden and jammy. Stir in the remaining 2 tablespoons of sumac and cook for another 5 minutes — the onions will turn a deep purple-pink colour.3
While the onions cook, roast the chicken on a baking tray in a 200°C oven for 40-45 minutes until the skin is golden and crispy and the juices run clear. Reserve any roasting juices from the tray.4
Toast the pine nuts in a dry pan over medium heat for 2-3 minutes until golden, shaking the pan constantly so they don't burn, then set aside.5
Lay the flatbreads on one or two large baking trays, overlapping slightly if needed. Spoon the sumac onions generously over the bread and drizzle over any reserved chicken roasting juices and a little extra olive oil so the bread soaks up all that flavour.6
Place the roasted chicken pieces on top of the onion-covered bread and put the whole tray back in the oven at 180°C for 10-15 minutes until the bread underneath is crisp at the edges but still soft and juicy in the middle.7
Scatter the toasted pine nuts over everything and bring the whole tray to the table. Eat straight away, tearing the bread and pulling the chicken apart with your hands.User Reviews
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