Muhammar

Muhammar is a dish that has 4 main ingredients; Chicken, Onion, Bread and Sumac. Sumac is a sour spice made from a plant that has small brown/red round shaped hairy fruits on it which have a very hairy and sticky texture to them. Check out the Wiki page here. Muhammar in Arabic means something like "Slightly Charred" and it is related to the word "Ahmar" which means red. When you slightly burn something in the oven, that is the act of making something "Muhammar".

Time: 1 Hour 30 Minutes

Servings: 8

Ingredients:

8 Halved Chicken breasts

2 Big Onions

4 Flat/Pita Bread

4 Big spoons of Sumac

1 Lemon

1 Big spoon of cooking oil

Spice mix

Water

Directions:

1. Place the Chicken Breasts in a pot and add spices. A good mixture would be Cumin, Coriander, Black Pepper, Garlic Powder and Salt.

2. Add water to the pot until Chicken Breasts are completely covered.

3.Cook on high heat for an hour.

4. Chop the 2 onions into thin slices and cook them in a closed pot with some cooking oil on low heat for about 15-20 minutes until they change color and then remove from heat.

5. Spread some cooking oil on an oven tray.

6. Place the flat bread on the tray and pour some of chicken broth on top of both sides of it using a ladle.

7. Spread out the bread on the tray and spray some Sumac on it.

8. Spread out half of the onion quantity on the bread and spray some Sumac on it.

9. Place the chicken breasts on top of the onions and spread out the rest of the onions on the chicken. Spray some Sumac on it all.

10. Squeeze half a lemon on everything.

11. Put the tray into a pre-heated oven on maximum temperature (~240 degrees Celsius) for 15-20 minutes or until you see that the onions and chicken start burning a little bit on top.

12. Squeeze the other half of the lemon on everything and serve.

Tips and comments:

*You can always squeeze more lemon juice on everything, it depends on how sour you like it to be. The dish is supposed to be sour!

*I like to serve this dish with a refreshing salad on the side because a lot of chicken and bread can feel a bit heavy sometimes.

*Many people put cooking oil on the bread itself along with the chicken broth but i try to minimize the use of cooking oil.