Musakhan v. 2.0

Oddly I have been completely uninspired in the what-to-make-for-dinner department lately. When things are good, I have about three things lined up that I want to make. But a sale on bone-in, skin-on chicken breasts reminded me I had not made this in a while. Middle Eastern/Lebanese/Palestinian food is on our crave radar pretty much any time.

In an older post, I used boneless, skinless breasts and cooked them on the stove top. But this is way better: brine the breasts first in a large stockpot for 12 hours. I used 10 in all. Yes, 10. And they were enormous. I wanted leftover meat for...whatever. Mix up a paste of sumac, za'atar, coriander, cinnamon, cardamom, nutmeg, black pepper, lemon zest and olive oil. Dry the meat, smear on the paste and have husband grill them in a raging thunderstorm for extra flavor. Chill the breasts, and shred the meat off 6 of them. Take the bones and make a quick (by quick, I mean about 45 minutes as opposed to 3 hours) stock by simmering them in a little chicken broth and water in a saucepan.

Mix the shredded chicken with sumac, cinnamon, nutmeg, a little coriander and cardamon, black pepper and lemon zest. Salt is optional, since the meat was brined. I found the final dish did need a bit more salt after all.

Caramelize a buttload of Vidalia onions. Not quite down to the onion jam stage, but so they have plenty of color.

Start building: take the biggest baking dish you have (I love my giant, red lasagna pan from Cost Plus World Market) and drizzle a couple tablespoons of olive oil in the bottom. Take two packages of thin, whole wheat pita breads and cut them in quarters or 6ths. Lay the pieces in like shingles or fish scales. Top with a layer of onions. Add the shredded, seasoned meat. Squeeze the juice of one or two lemons over the meat. Top with another layer of onions. Finish with a shingled layer of pita bread pieces.

Pour about a cup or so of the hot stock/broth mixture over the whole thing (use the rest to pour over bulgur for an accompanying tabbouleh salad). Drizzle with a little olive oil and top with pine nuts. At this point I refrigerated the dish, to be baked later for dinner. I baked it uncovered for about 30 minutes at 375, then blasted it at 400 for a final 15.



As you can see, moisture was not a problem (recooked chicken can get pretty damn dry). And the top was crispy and crusty, and the pine nuts browned without burning. The bottom layer of pita browned in the oil, just like I wanted. Very satisfying accompanied by blobs of smoky, creamy baba ghannouj (the eggplants used in that were also grilled in the same thunderstorm. For extra flavor.)