Chicken Mosakhan Recipe Request

Quoted message said:

A new middle eastern restaurant near me serves an entree named Chicken
Mosakhan that is out of this world. It is a grilled chicken breast with
an onion jam, pine nuts and sumac served with a split pita rolled,
filled with more onion jam and pine nuts and grilled and grilled
veggies. I'll wing it, but does anyone have a recipe?

Below are Paula Wolfert's recipe, from
<http://www.paula-wolfert.com/recipes/musakhan.html>
and Clifford Wright's recipe from
http://www.cliffordawright.com/recipes/musakhan.html

Victor

Musakhan

Recipe from "The Cooking of the Eastern Mediterranean" by Paula Wolfert

Serves 4

1 frying chicken, quartered
1-1/2 Tbs. ground sumac
1/8 tsp. ground nutmeg
1/8 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
Sea salt
Juice of 1 lemon
1 pound red onions, peeled and thinly sliced
2 Tbs. olive oil
1/2 cup rich chicken stock
1/2 pound Mountain Lavash or Syrian Saj bread, torn into small pieces
1/4 cup pine nuts, toasted

1. Rinse the chicken and pat dry. Trim off excess fat.

2. Combine the sumac, spices, and salt. Set aside 2 teaspoons and mix
the rest with the lemon juice. Rub into the chicken flesh and marinate
up to 1 day.

3. Place the onions in a large skillet, toss with 1-1/2 tablespoons of
the olive oil, half the chicken stock, reserved spices, and a pinch of
salt. Cover and cook gently 30 minutes. (Up to this point, the dish can
be prepared 1 day in advance.)

4. Bring the chicken to room temperature and preheat the oven to 400
degrees F.

5. Place the chicken, skin side down, on a nonstick baking sheet. Divide
the onions into 4 parts and spread them over the chicken; cover with
foil and bake 20 minutes.

6. Lightly brush a large ovenproof serving dish with the remaining oil.
Scatter the torn bread in one or two layers on the bottom; sprinkle with
the remaining chicken stock and carefully flip the chicken-and-onion
quarters onto the bread so that the skin side is up. Return to the oven
and bake 20 minutes, until tender and crispy brown. Serve at once with a
sprinkling of the pine nuts.
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Musakhkhan
(Palestine)
Bread-Wrapped Baked Chicken and Onions with Sumac

In Palestine, a favorite dish made by the peasants is musakhkhan, a dish
that one typically eats with one's hands and which literally means
"something that is heated."

I have speculated elsewhere that the Greek moussaka may be derived from
this Arabic word musakhkan. In any case, the dish is seasoned with
sumac, a spice made from the ground dried berries of a bush that grows
wild throughout the Middle East and is sold in Middle Eastern markets in
this country. Sumac has a sour and vaguely lemony taste. Musakhkhan is
made by cooking chicken until tender and succulent with an abundant
amount of onions. Some Palestinian cooks use more spices, such as
allspice or saffron, and garnish the top with fried pine nuts. Once the
chicken is cooked, it is wrapped in thin leaves of shrak or marquq
bread, sold in many American markets today by its Armenian name, lavash
bread. Shrak bread is a thin whole-wheat bread baked on a domed griddle
over an open fire, while marquq is a very thin yeasted flat bread. This
bread can also be called saj, a bread cooked on a convex metal plate
called a surj or saj, hence the name. All of these breads are stretched
until very thin before being cooked.

This simple preparation is one of my favorites and the recipe comes from
my former mother-in-law Leila al-Qattan, whose husband Abdul-Muhsin
al-Qattan, normally a penetrating dinner conversationalist, loved
musakhkhan so much that he never spoke at the table until he was
finished.

1 whole free-range chicken (about 3 1/ 2 pounds)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
3 1/2 pounds onions, peeled and sliced thin
1/4 cup sumac
4 sheets marquq bread (see the Note below) or 2 large khubz 'arabi
(Arabic flatbread or pita bread), split open and separated

1. Cut the chicken into up into two breasts, two thighs, two legs, and
two wings. Salt and pepper the chicken.

2. In a large, deep casserole, heat 1/ 4 cup of the olive oil, then
lightly brown the chicken on all sides over a medium heat, about 20
minutes. Remove and set aside. Add the remaining 1/ 4 cup olive oil to
the casserole and cook the onions until translucent, about 35 minutes,
stirring occasionally. Add the sumac and cook for 2 minutes to mix.

3. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Cover a 9 x 12-inch baking dish with two
overlapping halves of the Arabic bread or 2 sheets of marquq bread.
Spoon half the onions over each, then arrange the chicken on top of the
onions and cover with the remaining onions and the juices from the
casserole. Cover with the two remaining half leaves of bread or sheets
of marquq bread, tucking in the sides crusty side up and spray with
water. Bake until the chicken is very tender and almost falling off the
bone, about 1 1/ 2 hours. Before the top cover of bread begins to burn,
spray with water again or cover with aluminum foil.

Note: The size of marquq bread made and sold in the U.S. or Canada
varies, so use common sense.

Makes 6 servings