sumac chicken

This warm, savory Musakhan sumac chicken with caramelized onion flatbread will wow your taste buds in the best way possible! A Traditional Palestinian roast chicken dish, perfectly flavored and roasted to tender perfection, served with sweet caramelized onions, flatbread, and pine nuts.

Be sure to check out the step-by-step photos above.

Musakhan: Sumac Chicken and Caramelized Onion Flatbread

tbsp allspice

tbsp cinnamon

coriander

tsp black pepper

¾ tsp ground cardamom

nutmeg

chicken legs, bone-in, skin

Extra virgin olive oil

Kosher salt

sumac

tsp of spice mixture above

Extra virgin olive oil (Greek Private Reserve EVOO again)

yellow onions, chopped

Kosher slat

sumac,

tbsp cumin

Toasted pine nuts,

flatbread

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees F (or 190 degrees C)

Make the spice mixture

In a small bowl, combine allspice, cinnamon, coriander, black pepper, cardamom and nutmeg. Mix well.

Prepare and cook the chicken

Pat chicken pieces dry and place them on a lightly oiled sheet pan (or roasting pan). Drizzle generously with extra virgin olive oil, season with kosher salt on both sides. Add 1 tsp sumac and 1 ½ tsp of the spice mixture. Give the chicken a good rub with your hands, making sure to get the spices underneath the skin. Arrange the chicken pieces skin side up and place on the middle rack of your heated oven. Roast for about 1 hour or until fully cooked (internal temperature should register 165 degrees F.)

Prepare caramelized onion mixture for flatbread

While the chicken is roasting, work on the caramelized onions. In a large cooking skillet, put just over ½ cup extra virgin olive oil, chopped onions, kosher salt, 1 tbsp sumac, 1 tbsp cumin, and 2 tsp of the spice mixture. Cook over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, adding a little bit of water (2tbsp or so at a time) as needed, until the onions have softened and cooked completely (about 30 to 40 minutes). Remove from heat.

Check on the chicken, and if ready, remove from the oven

. Pour any roasting pan juices into the caramelized onions. Cover chicken loosely with aluminum foil for about 15 minutes, while you assemble the flatbreads.

Assemble Musakhan Flatbreads

Turn on your broiler. To assemble flatbreads, dip the edges of each bread in the oil on the surface of the onion mixture. Arrange flatbreads on a large baking sheet (you may do a couple flatbreads at a time). Spread enough of the caramelized onion mixture on the surface of each flatbread, leaving a small border around the edge (like pizza). Add a generous sprinkle of sumac. Add toasted pine nuts. Place under the broiler briefly (2 to 4 mins), watching carefully, until edges and onion mixture are nicely browned.

To Serve Musakhan

When flatbreads are ready, top each with a chicken portion and serve along with a side of olives and simple Mediterranean salad.

I was a little nervous going in to this recipe as I'm not the best cook but it came out really well and we all enjoyed it! Will be making it again for sure, very tasty!

Goodness, this is so so good. Just follow the directions - the flavors are amazing!

This sounds perfectly flavorful! A great way to get us out of our normal chicken dinner rut. Thank you!

We make this all the time and it's always a huge hit! Thank you!

I love chicken and flatbread, and this recipe is so awesome! Thanks so much for sharing. :)

I'm always looking for new flavors and this one HIT THE SPOT! My whole party loved it and wanted the recipe.

Made this flatbread for lunch and it is the best thing ever! So good!

This flatbread has the BEST flavor! It was so so so yummy!

Packed with the most amazing flavor! My family really enjoyed it - I will make it again soon!

I'm always looking for more ways to use sumac and this is on the menu for next week!

I just made this recipe three weeks after getting back to Jerusalem from the UK following lockdown, which feels very appropriate for this recipe! 
It was absolutely divine, I have to say. I try to be low carb so i avoided most of the pita bread that I had used to serve it on, but then it looked so tempting with the chicken &amp; onions juices that I couldn't resist - and it was worth every bite! 
I discovered this recipe by googling uses for sumac and following a link, and am so pleased it brought me to this website, as I have just had a quick look at another cooking website's version and it doesn't look anywhere near as good as this one was!
Although it's a few steps to prepare, it's worth every bit of effort. Can't recommend it highly enough!

This is delicious!! I made my own naan to use as the flatbread and although it all took a while to come together it was totally worth the effort. The Mediterranean salad was a lovely accompaniment. I can't wait to have dinner parties and serve this meal to guests! It's my favourite thing I've made from your site so far. Thanks so much Suzy. :)

This recipe is wonderful! But I think there's something wrong with the scaling calculator. I tried doubling and tripling the recipe on the calculator up there and most of the values didn't change. That's probably why we all have excess spice mix (and caramelized onions too), I think the calculator default is set at 3X.

My husband is Palestinian so this brought his back home eating this. It was so delicious. I made this for Iftar today. Wonderful.

This Sumac Chicken recipe with lemon and potatoes is bursting with flavor! A delicious one-pan Middle Eastern meal your whole family will love! Allow 1 hour of marination time for the best flavor!

 Sumac Chicken Recipe

Meyer lemon juice,

extra virgin olive oil

allspice

thyme

cumin

black pepper

garlic- grated, pressed

salt

chicken thighs, bone-in (about 6 thighs) or use legs

potatoes, thin-skinned, sliced 1/8 inch rounds (potatoes are optional)

red onion,

Aleppo pepper- garnish

parsley leaves

Make the marinade

In a small bowl mix olive oil, Meyer lemon juice, sumac, allspice, dried thyme, cumin, pepper, garlic and salt.

Marinate the chicken

Pat chicken dry. Cut 2 small slits in the skin of each thigh to allow the marinade to fully penetrate. Rub each piece of chicken, coating all sides well with the sumac marinade. Cover and let marinade in the fridge 1-3 hours. Let chicken rest at room temp for 1/2 hour before baking. 

Assemble

spread lemon slices on the bottom of the baking pan. Add a few springs of thyme over the lemon slices. and place the chicken pieces, skin side up, over the sliced lemons and thyme.

Optional potatoes

In a medium bowl, toss potatoes and onion slices with salt and a drizzle of olive oil. Tuck in the potato slices and onion in between the chicken. 

Bake the chicken

Place in the middle of a hot oven and roast for 25 minutes, rotate the pan, and bake 20 minutes more, until chicken is cooked through, reaching 170F in the thigh, and skin is brown.  To increase crispiness, broil for a few minutes under careful watch so as not to burn.

To serve

spoon a little of the sauce from the pan, over the chicken, garnish with fresh parsley, thyme sprigs and sprinkle with Aleppo pepper (optional).

This was absolutely amazing! It is comfort food at it's best. I loved the hint of lemon on the potatoes.  When I make it again I might even double the potatoes! DELICIOUS!

I made this tonight, it was delicious!  I left out the potatoes,  sauteed broccoli, and had brown basmati rice with it.  My husband loved it too.  Will definitely make again.  Thanks Syvia!!!!

Delicious! 
It would help if the oven temperatures were given in centigrade as well as Fahrenheit and adjusted for fan ovens.
I have tried many of your recipes and none have failed to please.😁
Thank you.

This is unbelievably easy, oh so lemony and just perfect.

This recipe was so delicious!  The chicken was flavorful in every bite.  I can't wait to make this again for friends.  Thank you Sylvia for your incredible recipes!!!

So easy and delicious.  With minimal hands-on time, this recipe is a hit.  The lemons and potatoes are a must. I followed the roasting instructions as written and it was beautifully done in 45 minutes.  Served over your Middle Eastern rice.  Both were winners! Thank you.

I had never tried sumac before and it was wonderful in this recipe. I will most certainly make it again.

Great flavor and the chicken was moist and tender.  I only had yellow onions so I used purple potatoes for color.   Yummy!  Will definitely make this  again.

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Top 3 sumac chicken recipes from across the web

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The most viewed sumac chicken recipes by Recipe Cart users, saved from over 20,000 sites. Or, go to our Recipe Search Engine