Olive Harvest Icon · Sumac Chicken
Musakhan
Photo: Kokaly / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 3.0
Its name means 'reheated' — it began as a way for farmers to make day-old taboon bread taste good again, and only later became tied to the exact weeks each year when the season's fresh olive oil is pressed.
Roasted chicken is laid over taboon flatbread soaked in olive oil, piled with onions cooked down with sumac, allspice, and saffron, and finished with a scatter of toasted pine nuts. Irbid's bakeries and home kitchens make it a fixture especially during the autumn olive-pressing season.
Why it's made this way: Irbid's large Palestinian community carried the dish north, and the city's own olive groves and presses keep it tied to the annual harvest that gives musakhan its defining oil and timing.
More from Jordan
Part of World of Street Food — 3248 dishes from 118 countries.
Something wrong here? Tell us in the comments below.
Photo credits.