Back to Snacks
Musakhan Rolls
Serves 4 Prep 30 min Cook 25 min Total 55 min Type Snack Origin Palestinian

Musakhan Rolls

The roll-up version of Palestine's national dish: caramelised sumac onions and shredded chicken wrapped in flatbread, baked golden.

Serves 4 Prep 30 minutes Cook 25 minutes Units Rate

Overview

The musakhan filling: red onions (LOTS, for the dish to work, you need 4-5 large onions) slowly caramelise in olive oil for 25-30 minutes until deep gold and sweet; sumac is stirred in generously (a tablespoon at minimum); shredded cooked chicken is folded through with toasted pine nuts. Markook bread (thin Palestinian flatbread, sold at Middle Eastern shops; substitute thin lavash or large flour tortillas) is cut into rectangles. A spoon of filling is spread on each; rolled tightly; sealed seam-side-down. Brushed with olive oil; either baked at 200°C for 12 minutes OR pan-toasted in a dry hot pan for 2 minutes per side. Served warm with lemon and yogurt.

Ingredients

Filling

  • 500 g cooked chicken (poached or rotisserie; pulled into shreds - leftover roast chicken works ideally)
  • 6 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
  • 5 red onions (large, sliced thin - about 1 kg)
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 3 tablespoons sumac (the tart purple Levantine spice)
  • 1 teaspoon Aleppo pepper
  • 1 teaspoon ground allspice
  • ½ teaspoon black pepper
  • 60 g pine nuts (toasted in a dry pan 3 minutes)
  • ½ lemon (juice)
  • 3 tablespoons fresh parsley (chopped)

Wrappers

  • 6 markook breads (large, Palestinian thin flatbread; sold at Middle Eastern shops)
  • OR substitute 12 lavash sheets, OR 6 large flour tortillas cut in half

To finish

  • 4 tablespoons olive oil (for brushing)
  • 1 tablespoon sumac (extra, for garnish)
  • A few extra pine nuts

To serve

  • 200 g Greek yogurt (with a pinch of salt and a squeeze of lemon)
  • 2 lemons (wedges)
  • A handful of fresh parsley sprigs

Method

Stage 1 - Caramelise the onions

  1. Heat 6 tablespoons olive oil in a wide deep pan over medium heat.
  2. Add sliced red onions; sprinkle with the salt.
  3. Cook 25-30 minutes, stirring often, until very soft and deep golden-mahogany. Don't rush this - pale-onion musakhan is bland; deep-caramelised onion is what makes it.

Stage 2 - Spice the onions

  1. Reduce heat to low.
  2. Stir in sumac, Aleppo pepper, allspice and black pepper.
  3. Cook 2 minutes, stirring.

Stage 3 - Add chicken

  1. Stir in the shredded chicken and ⅔ of the pine nuts.
  2. Add lemon juice.
  3. Cook 3 minutes to warm through.
  4. Off heat; stir in chopped parsley.
  5. Taste; adjust salt and sumac.

Stage 4 - Cut the bread

  1. Cut each markook bread into 2-3 rectangles (about 12 cm × 20 cm).
  2. You should have 12 rectangles total.

Stage 5 - Fill and roll

  1. Working with one bread rectangle at a time on a board:
    • Spoon a heaped tablespoon of filling along the long edge nearest you.
    • Roll up tightly into a cigar shape, seam-side down.
  2. Repeat for all 12.

Stage 6 - Cook (choose one)

Baked:

  1. Heat oven to 200°C (180°C fan).
  2. Place rolls seam-side-down on a lined baking tray.
  3. Brush with olive oil.
  4. Bake 12-15 minutes until golden.

Pan-toasted (fast):

  1. Heat a wide non-stick pan over medium-high heat with a thin film of olive oil.
  2. Place 3-4 rolls seam-side-down; press lightly.
  3. Cook 2 minutes; flip; cook 2 more minutes.
  4. Lift onto a plate.

Stage 7 - Serve

  1. Plate 3 rolls per person.
  2. Drizzle with extra olive oil.
  3. Sprinkle with extra sumac and the remaining pine nuts.
  4. Yogurt and lemon wedges on the side.

Notes

  • Caramelise the onions properly: This is 80% of the dish. Pale onions = bland musakhan. The deep-mahogany 25-30 minute cook is non-negotiable.
  • Generous sumac: Musakhan is defined by sumac. A tablespoon at minimum; some Palestinian recipes use 3-4 tablespoons. Adjust to taste; the dish should be distinctly tart.
  • Markook is the right bread: Very thin, slightly chewy Palestinian flatbread. Lavash or tortillas substitute but the flavour shifts slightly.

Storage

  • Best within 30 minutes.
  • Cooked rolls: refrigerate 3 days; reheat at 180°C 5 minutes.
  • Filling alone refrigerates 4 days, freezes 2 months.
  • Assemble fresh; pre-rolled-but-unbaked rolls go soggy from the wet filling within 2 hours.

Recipes mentioned here

1 / 1

More like this

1 / 4
Samboosa

Samboosa

The Saudi Ramadan staple, the snack that breaks the fast in households across the Gulf when the call to maghrib sounds. You brown minced beef (or chicken) with diced onion and garlic, lifted with a generous spoonful of Saudi spice mix (baharat, black pepper, cumin, coriander, cardamom, cinnamon, allspice), then fold in toasted pine nuts, chopped parsley and a hit of lemon zest, and let the filling cool fully before you assemble. Spring-roll wrappers or samboosa pastry sheets fold into the traditional triangular packets with the long-strip-into-stacked-triangle technique that every Khaleeji household teaches its children, sealed with a flour-and-water paste at the edge. Deep-fried at 180°C in three or four centimetres of oil until they're amber-gold and shattering-crisp. Drained on paper, eaten warm with the first dates of iftar and a glass of laban.

Snacks 45 minutes Serves6
Kibbeh Mqliyeh

Kibbeh Mqliyeh

Same technique as Jordan kibbeh-nayyeh-balls (these snacks are siblings across the Levant). Fine bulgur soaks, drains, squeezes dry. Lean lamb (or beef) blitzes with onion, baharat, allspice, salt and ice water to a smooth paste; the bulgur folds in to make a smooth, slightly tacky dough. Filling cooks separately: fattier lamb mince sautées with onion, baharat, cinnamon, allspice and pine nuts; cooled. Dough divides; each piece shapes into a football (thin walls, pointed tips), filled with cool filling, sealed and re-pointed. Deep-fried for 3-4 minutes; served with yogurt-mint sauce.

Snacks 1 hour 12 minutes Serves4