Musakhan

The Palestinian national dish, originating in the West Bank villages around Jenin, Tulkarm, and Nablus, traditionally made at olive harvest in October-November to celebrate and use the season's first new oil. The dish is a test of olive oil quality — bad oil ruins it. Sumac comes from the wild Rhus coriaria shrub of the Levantine hills, dried and ground each summer. The recipe itself predates the modern era by centuries.

Palestinian sumac chicken on taboon bread — peasant dish from the olive harvest, drowned in new-press olive oil and caramelized onion. The sumac to onion ratio is roughly 1:3; less and the dish is sweet, not bright.

A whole roasted chicken, taken off the bone, served on top of taboon bread that has been brushed heavily with olive oil and packed with sumac-stained caramelized onions. The bread underneath is half oil-cake, half sponge for the chicken juices. Sumac stains everything dark red and gives the citrus-tart edge. Eaten by hand, tearing bread, chicken, and onion together.

Onion volume is the surprise — by weight there is more onion than chicken, sometimes two-to-one, and they must be cooked very slowly in olive oil for 45 minutes to an hour until they collapse and turn jammy without browning. Hard-fried onions taste burnt against sumac. The oil left behind is the bread's dressing; skimping on oil leaves the taboon dry and the dish broken.