Musakhan rolls
Middle Eats · ♥ 40.7K likes · 550.8K views · 9 min video
Read about breast in the BrightCulinary Book
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Ingredients
Method
Techniques
- 30 ml olive oil
- 4 cloves garlic
- 2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp black pepper
- ½ tsp ground cinnamon
- ½ tsp ground cardamom
- 1 kg chicken breasts
Make the wet rub: olive oil, minced garlic, salt, black pepper, ground cinnamon and ground cardamom mixed in a bowl.
The warm-spiced wet rub
Cut the chicken breasts horizontally into two to three evenly thick fillets.
Toss the fillets in the wet rub to coat and leave 15 to 30 minutes.
Heat a high-walled pan over medium high and lay in three to four fillets; cook about two to three minutes.
- 2 tbsp water
When the edges change colour, flip, pour in a couple tablespoons of water and cover with a lid to trap the steam.
Cook two to three minutes more, check with a thermometer for doneness, then pull the chicken out and cover it with a lid to stay juicy while the rest cooks.
- 6 whole onions
Slice the onions into strips about 3 mm wide.
- 1 tsp salt
- 30 ml extra virgin olive oil
Add the onions to the browning left in the pan so it dissolves into them, turn the heat to medium, add salt and the extra virgin olive oil.
Toss, cover with a lid and cook about 20 minutes, mixing halfway, until the onions are soft and completely wilted.
- ¾ tsp black pepper
- 27 g sumac
Add the black pepper and the sumac, mix, cover and leave 10 to 20 minutes to infuse.
Tear the cooked chicken into small bite sized strips rather than shredding it completely, so it does not dry out.
- 27 g sumac
- 70 ml fresh lemon juice
- 10 g pomegranate molasses
- 4–5 whole saj bread
Add the chicken to the jammy onions, then the second lot of sumac, the lemon juice and the pomegranate molasses, and mix thoroughly.
Finishing the musakhan filling
Cut each saj or markouk into eighths: in half, then quarters, then eighths.
Saj or markouk bread and the flour binder
Lay a triangle of bread with the base towards you, trimming any thick chewy edge, spread a couple tablespoons of filling near the bottom to an even thickness, tuck the sides over and roll forward; dab binder on the tip and finish the roll to seal.
Rolling the rolls
- 2 tbsp olive oil
Coat the bottom of a large baking dish with a couple tablespoons of olive oil and lay the rolls seam side down.
- 100 g yoghurt
- 10 g tahini paste
- ½ whole lemon
- ¼ tsp salt
- 0.125 tsp cayenne pepper
For the sauce, combine the yoghurt, tahini paste, lemon juice, salt and cayenne, then thin with room temperature water a little at a time to a creamy consistency.
- water
- chopped parsley
- pomegranate seeds
Garnish the rolls with a sprinkle of sumac, or chopped parsley and pomegranate seeds, and serve with the sauce for dipping.
Tahini yogurt sauce and garnish