Olive Harvest Icon · Sumac Chicken
Musakhan
Photo: Kokaly / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 3.0
Its name means 'heated' in Arabic, and the dish was traditionally made just after the olive harvest to show off the season's fresh oil, which soaks right through the bread.
Roasted chicken is laid over taboon flatbread soaked in olive oil, piled with onions cooked down with sumac and allspice, 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.
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