Sumac Chicken with Bread Salad
TIME/SERVINGS
Makes: 4 servings
From: Tasty: Get Great Food on the Table Every Day , by Roy Finamore
Traditional in Middle Eastern cooking, the spice sumac brings a clean, tart flavor—think of a flowery lemon—to chicken as well as a deep rose color. As the chicken roasts, it will dye the bread underneath it, too. My friends Zaid and Haifa Kurdieh, organic farmers in Norwich, New York, introduced me to sumac and told me about this recipe.
What to buy: Armenian or Persian cucumbers, if you can find them, are delicious in this salad and, like Kirbys, don’t need to be peeled or seeded. If neither is available, your basic cucumber will be fine—just peel and seed it before slicing. Ripe summer tomatoes are ideal. If you’re making this out of season, substitute halved cherry tomatoes, which usually have some semblance of flavor in winter.
Buy a 1-pound loaf of very crusty bread, carve off the heavy bottom crust, trim edges that are particularly ragged—remember that some crust is nice—and you’ll have just what you need.
You can find ground sumac in Middle Eastern markets or by mail from Kalustyan’s.
Game plan: If you can, start the dish in the morning by seasoning the chicken.
- 1 (3- to 3-1/2-pound) chicken
- Coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 2 tablespoons ground sumac
- 5 tablespoons olive oil, divided
- 2 large red onions (about 1 pound), sliced thinly
- 2 large garlic cloves, minced
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
- 3/4 pounds dense bread (such as farm bread or pane de casa), cut into 1-inch cubes
- 3 Kirby cucumbers, quartered lengthwise, cut into 1/4-inch slices, and tossed with a big pinch of salt
- 1 large ripe summer tomato, cored and cut into chunks
- Juice of 1/2 lemon, or to taste
- Cut the backbone out of the chicken with kitchen shears and flatten the chicken. Season it generously with salt and pepper on both sides. Make a paste with the sumac and 2 tablespoons of olive oil, and rub the paste into both sides of the chicken. Refrigerate on a plate—no need to cover—for about 8 hours. Or, if you haven’t planned ahead, just leave the seasoned chicken on the counter while you prepare the onions and bread.
- Heat the oven to 375°F.
- Put the onions and the remaining 3 tablespoons of olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Salt the onions and cook, stirring once in a while, until they are limp and turning gold at the edges, around 9 minutes. Add the garlic and parsley, and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Scrape the onions into a large mixing bowl and add the cubed bread. Toss.
- Oil a casserole dish large enough to hold the bread in a single layer (I use a 12-inch round terra-cotta dish). Scrape in the bread and onions, and spread them out. Set the chicken on top of the bread and roast for 1 hour.
- Set the chicken on a cutting board and let it rest for 10 minutes.
- Scrape the bread out into a big mixing bowl and let it cool for about 5 minutes. Add the cucumbers and tomato, squeeze in the lemon juice, and toss. Check for salt and pepper, and add more lemon juice if you want.
- Pile the salad onto a platter. Cut the chicken into quarters and arrange it around the salad. It’s ready to serve.
- The leftover salad is great as a snack. Check to see if it needs another shot of lemon.
Beverage pairing: Bodegas Dos Victorias José Pariente Verdejo, Reuda, Spain. The bright, lemony flavor of sumac along with the lemon and garlic ask for a fruit-forward wine, but it needs a little weight for the chicken and bread. Verdejo from Rueda is just such a grape, with the sweetest flavors of Sauvignon Blanc but without the herbaceousness and with more body.
This recipe, while from a trusted source, may not have been tested by the CHOW food team.
COMMENTS | ADD YOUR OWN
This is so exciting! A chicken recipe with Sumac - I love sumac and discovered it through Iranian friends in the 70's. I actually took some to Italy with me, so my parents could try it. However the only way I had eaten it was with ground beef, and since I no longer eat beef, I haven't used it.
Now I can do something with that package of sumac I bought a couple of months ago, not knowing exactly why I did buy it.
Wow, I've been looking around for another way of using sumac in my cooking. I will certainly try this one. I've only used Sumac on my fatosh salads (sorry dunno the right spelling) which is a salad I discovered while living in Lebanon. Thanks for sharing.
This was quite good. Always nice to have something to do with my sumac.
Zaid and Haifa Kurdieh, organic farmers in Norwich, New York, introduced me to sumac and told me about this recipe.
I know these people. They sell produce, plants and eggs at the farmers markets in NYC. Union square and Tonkins square park. Great people and very nice. Zaid helped me plan my garden last year. We got them some Merguez sausage from Astoria last year. Thanks for the recipe.
This was fantastic, the bread picks up such great flavors while roasting. I made it for 4 others who all loved it too. Thanks for sharing the recipe.
Made this last night and I was very impressed. It was really delicious. I added another tomato and I think it could benefit from letting the bread sit in the oven longer while the chicken rests. The contrast between the veggies and crispy bread cubes is really great. The chicken itself was delicious--sumac is a subtly spritely and lemony herb. I'll definitely make it again!
my gam would love it ^=^ and so would i ^=^
Yes, we loved it, too! I almost didn't get to make it, because there was no sumac to be found where we live. I talked to a friend of mine in Houston, and she said there was a Middle Eastern grocery close to her house. Lo and Behold, a few days later, I had a package in the mail from her with a little bag of sumac in it! I will definately make it again, including when my Houston friend comes to visit!
i would l ike to know what is sumac i never used it and kinda scared to cook with it and then i don't like it. can somebody help me with this.
eileencole: please click on the word sumac in the ingredients list and you'll have a bevy of information.
Great dish. The bread salad was amazing - warm cubes covered in chicken jus with delish cooked onion rings. had to cook the chicken 20 min longer than recipe said, but this always happens to me with chicken recipes.
Careful not to slice the onion *too thinly* or they will burn!
Very disappointed. I was so looking forward to this recipe, it sounded amazing, I was salivating at just the thought of it. Bought my sumac at a middle eastern market, made this recipe exactly as written and... Yuck. Sumac added virtually no flavor to the chicken or bread. Parts of the bread were very crisp while other parts were soggy... And to me this crispy/soggy bread was just a total mismatch with the cucumbers... The chicken skin never got crispy at the 375 temperature, so that stayed soggy... Again, I really really wanted to like this but really really didn't...
Maybe using a rack for the chicken to elevate it over the bread, allowing air to pass over it and crisp it up while allowing the juices to drip over will give you a better result.
I made this last night and it may be my new favorite way to make chicken! I loved the mix of dense bread softened by the roasting juices alongside browned, crunchy bread from the edges. And the squeeze of lemon provided married the tartness of the sumac perfectly with the rest of the dish. This one will definitely be going in my rotation!
Two notes:
- I actually halved the recipe and used a Cornish game hen since I cook for one. It was perfect--one fabulous dinner, plus a hearty lunch for today.
- I think it's important to use a really heavy, dense bread. Otherwise, you risk ending up with a truly soggy mess, which I can see would be unappetizing. This may be part of why previous posters were disappointed.