Musakhan

Before you start

• an oven
• three tablespoons of sumac — it is the dish, not a dusting
• taboon bread if you can find it; a thick flatbread stands in

Ingredients

Serves 4 · dimmer marks are storecupboard

• 800gchicken thighs — bone-in, skin on
• 2large flatbreads
• 4onions
• 4 tbspolive oil
• 30galmonds and seeds — flaked almonds or pine nuts
• 3 tbspsumac
• 1 tspallspice and cardamom
• 1lemon

Method

7 steps

1. chop · 10m

   Four onions halved and sliced thin. It will look like far more than the dish needs, and it is not.

2. fry · 30m

   Onions in most of the oil over low heat until collapsed, sweet and jammy, then two tablespoons of sumac stirred through.

3. fold · 5m

   Chicken rubbed with the rest of the oil, the allspice, a spoon of sumac and salt.

4. roast · 40m walk away

   Skin up in a hot oven until browned and cooked through — the juices at the thigh bone should run clear with no pink.

5. finish · 5m

   Bread laid on a tray, the onions spread over it, chicken on top with all the resting juices poured over.

6. roast · 10m walk away

   Back into the oven for ten minutes, so the bread takes up the juice underneath while the top stays crisp.

7. finish · 5m

   Almonds toasted gold, scattered over with the last of the sumac and a squeeze of lemon.