Chicken Sumac Pinwheel – Msakhan Pinwheel

Chicken Sumac Pinwheel turns a very traditional middle eastern dish into the perfect simple appetizer that comes together in no time!

So if you’re middle eastern, Palestinian in particular, this dish is the ultimate comfort food.  Traditionally it is made with layers of thin pita bread, tons of onions soaked in tangy sumac and rich olive oil with whole chicken roasted on top.  It’s roasted all together and the bread soaks up all the flavor.  The chicken is crispy and flavorful and the onions are tangy.  This famous dish called “msakhan” which means “heated” is not eaten all the time because it is messy.  You really have to get in there with your hands to get the best part of the bread and scoop up the onions and chicken.

This dish happens to be one of my husbands favorites.  My husband lived away from home for years so a home cooked meal was a very big deal to him.  I knew the way to a mans heart, especially my husbands heart, is through his stomach so I stuffed him every opportunity I had.  Well the truth is, I was still so young and actually didnt cook much.  But whatever my mom cooked, I gave him and pretended I had some hand in it.  My mom sympathized with the fact that he was away from home living off of take out and frozen foods for years she would make a feast for him everytime he came over.  She made this dish but in cigar shapes.  She literally made it for him so often that after so many months he couldn’t even get near it.  Thankfully, that time has passed and he’s back to loving it, in fact requesting it.  And after discovering this pinwheel method, I’m happy because I can now make this in no time and not get messy hands trying to eat it.   Win win all around.

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Chicken Sumac Pinwheel

This very famous traditional middle eastern dish turned into a super simple appetizer which has the same great flavors of caramelized onions and tangy sumac.

Author: Nadia Hubbi

Ingredients

• 1 rotisserie chicken shredded and deboned
• 4 cups sweet onion chopped
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• on low heat for 10 mins
• 6 tbsp sumac
• 1 1/2 tbsp salt
• 5 extra large flour tortilla

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350
2. Debone and deskin a store bought rotisserie chicken.
3. Discard the skin and bones.
4. Chop the remaining chicken into small pieces
5. On low to medium heat slowly sauté the onions in half the oil
6. Add 3 tablespoons of sumac and 1 tablespoon salt
7. Stir to evenly distribute the oil and sumac
8. After several minutes add the chicken and continue to mix all the ingredients together over low to medium heat for about 7 minutes
9. Add remaining oil, sumac and salt
10. Continue to stir until all the oil, and sumac and salt are absorbed (several minutes)
11. Once all the flavors are meshed together spread a thin layer onto a flour tortilla
12. ** Do not overstuff because it will not hold when it is rolled
13. Roll the tortilla and cut into 1 1/2 inch pieces
14. Place the pieces snug together on a tray with sides
15. Brush the tops with oil
16. Put in the oven for 5 -7 minutes
17. Broil on high for 2 minutes