World’s largest Musakhan Dish, Palestine. Photo by Travel Palestine.
Why a Guinness World Record Matters
The clout of earning a Guinness World Record often remains limited to the feat itself – at most a symbol of egregious excess (consider the world’s largest pancake, for example – nearly 50 feet across with no other purpose than to … eat). But for Palestinians, the world’s largest Musakhan was a show of pride and honor far beyond simple bragging rights. Making the Musakhan was a critical show of cultural pride during a time of great crisis. More than 40 Palestinian chefs united efforts to cook and assemble the 4 meter loaf. The finished dish weighed nearly 3,000 pounds, including 1,100+ pounds of onion, 550+ pounds of flour, 370 pounds of olive oil, and 150+ pounds of almond (pine nuts may also be used)! To further bolster the cultural emphasis, many of the Musakhan’s ingredients were sourced within Palestine. Indeed, Palestine’s former Prime Minister, Salam Fayad, says: “This great achievement completely depended on Palestinian products, mainly olive oil.” (Source)
“Musakhan is a popular, completely Palestinian food, made in Palestinian villages […] We seek through this festival to distinguish musakhan as part of Palestinian culture.” (Source)
, has wise words when it comes to food and politics:I think cooking is politics. What I’m trying to do here—I wish everybody practiced politics like that. It’s spreading the culture. It’s showing the real face of us and who we are and what we are all about. And I think this is politics. My politics. I think when you speak politics, talk politics directly, you always create a challenge and other opinions. It’s different from accepting the other. Food is taste. They taste, they accept, and it goes from there. It’s as simple as that. I think this is the best way. (Source)
Many ways, one dish
There are many ways to make the dish – often the bread and onions are stacked like lasagna before being piled high with chicken. In other cases, as taught by Clifford A. Wright, the onion and chicken are wrapped in a thin bread like lavash, the end result more like gift wrap. But today I’m making Rawia Bishara’s rendition, which affectionately dubs “Chicken Pizza.” While onion and the lemony smack of ground sumac should be the dominant flavors, sometimes folks add a pinch of saffron and a dusting of cardamom, lending the dish an ethereal quality. In any case, the onions take on a lovely pink-purple from the sumac. I take Bishara’s advice and used naan here.
1/4 cup olive oil
4 onions, sliced thinly
2 Tbsp ground sumac, plus 1 teaspoon for garnish
pinch saffron (optional)
pinch cardamom (optional)
salt & pepper
1/4 cup pine nuts, toasted
Central Market in the city of Ramallah. Photo by Rawan Nassrallah.
| Servings | Prep Time |
| 3-6 people | 20 minutes |
| Cook Time |
| 1 hour |
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Within Palestine’s hotly contested territories there is one thing everyone can agree on: Musakhan. This simple dish doesn’t shout. It’s flavors don’t battle for dominance. No, Musakhan is a quiet meal – a layered preparation of chicken, onion softened with sumac, and doughy pieces of taboon bread. And yet this unassuming dish earned a Guinness World Record in 2010 in the city of Ramallah.
Serve with plain yogurt and olives.
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- 3 whole chicken legs , extra fat trimmed
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 4 onions , sliced thinly
- 2 Tbsp ground sumac , plus 1 teaspoon for garnish
- 1 pinch saffron (optional)
- 1 pinch ground cardamom (optional)
- salt
- pepper
- 3-6 pieces Taboon bread - OR -
- naan
- 1/4 cup pine nuts , toasted
- In a large, heavy-bottomed pot, brown the chicken on both sides in olive oil over medium-high – about 8 minutes per side. Use a splatter guard or, if you don’t have one, simply use less olive oil (add the rest with the other ingredients).
- Remove chicken and set aside on a platter. Add the sliced onions and cook until reduced by half.
- Return the chicken to the pot along with the sumac and seasoning. Loosely cover and continue cooking until the chicken is falling off the bone and the onions are very soft and browning – about 45 minutes. Stir occasionally and reduce heat as necessary to avoid burning the onions.
- To serve, brush the flatbread with olive oil, top with onion mixture and chicken.
- TIP: For lighter portions, cut the whole leg at the joint and divide the leg and thigh pieces over 6 breads instead of 3. Garnish with more sumac. Broil for a moment to heat through. Serve with plain yogurt and olives.
Serves 4 – but only 3 chicken legs and 3 pieces of naan?
That should be 3-6 (You can serve 3 people the whole leg or you can cut the whole leg at the joint and serve 6 people a piece of either the thigh or leg). I updated the recipe. Thanks for letting me know, Nikki!
Living in Oman now, I especially appreciate your earthy, colorful food-ography & cultural story-sharing of the Middle East! I am hoping you’ve included a lot of photos in your Natl.Geog. book!? Omani food seems similar to our experiences living in Kuwait & Saudi…think Mediterranean with unique spices like you reference here: cardamom (have y tried it in coffee yet?), cumin, curry & cinnamon. (alliteration un-intended:-)
I love cardamom in coffee! The book is memoir – the story of why I cooked the world – but I’m sure there’ll be lots of pictures in my next book 🙂
Where do you get ground sumac? Is it the ground berries or the leaves? We have tons of red sumac here, so I could probably even make my own.
I found it at Whole Foods in a small spice jar. Here’s some information on how the spice is made (seems to be the ground flower, but I’d ask an expert to be safe!) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sumac#Spice_and_beverage_flavoring
Hello – I came across your blog when I was looking for a recipe for Krupnikas, a Lithuanian spirit, a while ago. Your blog continuous to astonish me each time I visit. The intelligence, compassion and authenticity are rare in this world of fast, superficial and mundane words and stories. Thank you.
What a beautiful compliment, Jone. Thank you. Hugs to you and yours!
I’ve never heard of musakhan before, but I’ll definitely have to try it now that I have! Looks delicious!
loved the recipe for musakhan which i have had dozens of times in palestinian homes in san francisco, california. i would love to see your recipe idea for two other wildly important palestinian dishes….one is mansaf, often fed to the king of jordan, and the other is mloukheeay, philippine okra stew over rice and bread…i absolutely love the foods of palestine–i am part syrian descent but my mother and other relatives did not make the three dishes above…