Grilled Chicken With Sumac and Black Lime. Lauren Bulbin/The Washington Post
For some people, spices smell like a faraway place. For Palestinian chef Fadi Kattan, they smell like home. As a young child growing up in Bethlehem in the West Bank, Kattan writes in his cookbook, he would accompany his grandmother from her workplace to nearby shops, including a tiny one called Orient Mills. There, since 1936, the Lama family has been sourcing, drying, roasting, grinding and blending spices and coffees for restaurants and home cooks.
"It’s magic,” Kattan told me, "because you walk in and first you notice the very strong smell of coffee, but then it mixes with the smell of za’atar, cinnamon, allspice, black pepper. Shelves are stacked with jars filled with every spice. There’s a small grocery section, maybe one shelf with powdered milk, dry goods. It’s not much, but it’s everything.”
Tawfik Lama is the third-generation proprietor of Orient Mills, and a dear friend of Kattan’s. The shop is an almost-daily stop for the chef. "I sit there in the back and have a coffee and smoke a cigarette. The regulars come and go, and everything’s being discussed: olive season, politics, what’s on sale in the market, the complete annihilation of Gaza …” Kattan’s voice seemed to trail off, and I couldn’t tell if there was a break in our phone connection or a break in his voice.
"When the political situation wasn’t the way it was now, when people could travel freely, the people of the diaspora, they would come back to Bethlehem and buy their spices from Orient Mills, vacuum pack them and take them back with them,” Kattan said, noting that Lama’s job is more than just spice master. "He has a social role. Orient Mills, these spices, they are our culinary inheritance. They keep you connected to your people, your home.”
Bethlehem, which means "house of meat” in Arabic and "house of bread” in Hebrew, is also home to a restaurant called Qabar. Since 1974, it’s been known for its chicken. "The sight of mouthwatering charcoal-grilled barbecued chicken is common in Palestine,” Kattan wrote in his cookbook, noting that this dish is just as commonly made at home as it is in restaurants. But, according to Kattan, one restaurant in the city makes the best, and that’s Qabar. That version inspired Kattan’s own.
A base of olive oil and lemon juice is thickened with crushed garlic cloves, salt, sumac, dried red pepper flakes, cumin, cinnamon, allspice and dried white or black lime (loumi, also spelled loomi). Rubbing this mixture onto a whole, spatchcocked chicken transforms it into something sensational. There’s no need to marinate the meat; the spices infuse their flavor into the chicken as it cooks, either on your grill or in a pan on your stovetop and then in your oven.
The first time I made it, I thought it was a fluke. How could a grilled chicken without a sauce, without a long marinade, without even a dry brine turn so succulent? But I made it five more times, so I can tell you: It’s no fluke. Each time I smelled the spices, the garlic caramelizing, the juices running sweet and tart, the smoke rising from the meat, I remembered Kattan telling me about the importance of the smoke.
"Smoke is tricky,” he said. "We need the chicken to be a bit charred, but there’s a difference between the smoke of a fire, the good-tasting smoke, and the smoke from burning. We’re playing with balance, we’re leaning on the acidity of sumac, the heat from red pepper, the grounding cumin. Then, the cinnamon and allspice, their warmth and sweetness, a bit like cake, with a fruitiness from the black loumi.” Enough lemon juice and olive oil, plus that smoke, is what keeps the dryer, quicker-cooking parts of the chicken moist.
In "Bethlehem,” Kattan mentioned dishes he ate when visiting relatives in Gaza. I asked him if he’s been in touch with those relatives. "Some,” he said, as his voice trailed off again. "Some were lucky to make it out.”
I asked him if writing the book was an act of preserving history. "I’m not a historian, I’m not a preserver,” Kattan said. "I’m someone who works with living matter. … Why do we have to justify that we exist?”
Before the Israel-Gaza war, Kattan had a restaurant called Fawda, and ran food tours in Bethlehem. (He still has restaurants in London and Toronto.) "People were coming into the restaurants, asking about Palestine, about Bethlehem. I grew up here, but I realized people had some other image of this place. So I would host these tours, I would take people to Orient Mills, to the market. I was showing them my Bethlehem.”
In the midst of so much turmoil, Kattan is writing another cookbook. "I’m cooking, I’m writing recipes,” he said. "But there’s an ethical question, an uncertainty. I am writing about food, and there are people who have no access to food, right there, 80 kilometers away. People ask, I ask myself, ‘Should I go on doing this?’” Kattan said, a resolve building in his voice. "I can’t stop cooking.”
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Grilled Chicken With Sumac and Black Lime
Loaded with tangy, aromatic spices, this spatchcocked chicken tastes best when charred by a live flame. Adapted from the cookbook "Bethlehem: A Celebration of Palestinian Food” by Fadi Kattan, the recipe features a whole, butterflied bird that does not require a long marinating time. Instead, the chicken is coated in olive oil, lemon juice, lots of garlic and spices - including sumac, cumin and cinnamon - and grilled until the skin is crisp, blackened and very fragrant. If you don’t have a grill, instructions for a combination stovetop-oven method are included. Serve with lots of fresh herbs, vegetables and flatbread for a feast.
Active time: 20 minutes. Total time: 1 hour.
Serves: 4-6
Make ahead: If you like, the chicken can be marinated for up to 24 hours in the refrigerator.
Storage: Refrigerate for up to 4 days.
Where to buy: Ground sumac and ground black lime can be found at Middle Eastern markets, spice stores and online.
INGREDIENTS
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for the grill
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice (from 2 to 3 lemons)
6 garlic cloves, crushed
1 tablespoon ground sumac (see Where to buy and Substitutions)
1 teaspoon fine salt
1 teaspoon ground black lime (see Where to buy and Notes)
1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
One (4-pound) whole chicken, spatchcocked and patted dry (see Notes)
Fresh parsley or other herbs, for serving
Chopped tomatoes, cucumbers or other fresh vegetables, for serving
Warm flatbreads, for serving
DIRECTIONS
In a large, nonreactive bowl, stir together the oil, lemon juice, garlic, sumac, salt, ground black lime, red pepper flakes, cumin, cinnamon and allspice until combined.
Add the chicken and, using your hands, rub the mixture all over, including under the skin, letting some of the garlic cloves get lodged in the crevices between the chicken’s joints. (The chicken can be covered and refrigerated for up to 24 hours at this point.)
To cook in the oven: Position a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 425 degrees.
Heat a large (12-inch) cast-iron grill pan or skillet over medium-high heat until almost smoking. Place the chicken, skin side down, in the skillet, and sear until the skin looks charred, 6 to 7 minutes. Using tongs, carefully flip the chicken and cook until charred on the bottom, another 6 to 7 minutes.
Transfer the skillet to the oven and roast for 25 to 30 minutes, or until the chicken is burnished and an instant-read thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the thigh away from the bone reads at least 165 degrees.
To cook on a grill: Prepare the grill for direct and indirect heat (or a hot zone and a cool zone). If using a gas grill, preheat half of the grill to medium-high (375 to 450 degrees). If using a charcoal grill, light the charcoal or wood briquettes; when the briquettes are white-hot and covered with ash, push them to one side of the cooking area. For medium-high heat, you should be able to hold your hand about 4 inches above the coals for 4 to 5 seconds. Brush the grill grates with oil.
Place the chicken, skin side up, over the cooler side of the grill (indirect heat), with the legs facing the hotter side (direct heat). Cover the grill and cook the chicken for 40 to 45 minutes, or until an instant-read thermometer registers 145 degrees when inserted into the thickest part of the breast away from the bone.
Using tongs, carefully flip the chicken, and transfer to the hot side of the grill, skin side down, to crisp up the skin and finish cooking, 10 to 15 minutes. The chicken skin should be well charred, and an instant-read thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the thigh away from the bone should register at least 165 degrees.
Remove the chicken from the skillet or grill, and let rest for 10 minutes before halving or carving. Serve family-style, with fresh herbs, vegetables and flatbread.
Substitutions:
Whole spatchcocked chicken >> halved chicken or chicken pieces of equivalent weight, with an adjustment to the cooking time.
Chicken >> two heads of cauliflower or broccoli, halved through their stem, with an adjustment to the cooking time and temperature.
Lemon juice >> lime or orange juice.
Fresh garlic >> 1 1/2 tablespoons garlic powder.
Sumac >> dehydrated lemon zest, or serve with lemon wedges for squeezing over.
Red pepper flakes >> crushed dried chile, or skip it.
Ground allspice >> skip it.
Black lime powder >> lime zest, or serve with lime wedges.
Notes:
You can find spatchcocked chickens at well-stocked supermarkets, or ask the meat counter to spatchcock a whole bird for you. To spatchcock a whole chicken at home: Place the chicken, breast side down, on a cutting board. Using poultry shears, and starting at the neck, make a cut along one side of the backbone to the tail. Make a cut along the other side of the backbone. (Save it to make chicken stock/broth, or discard.) Trim the fat just inside the body and neck cavities, and reserve for another use or discard. Turn the chicken over, placing it cut side down. Pressing down firmly with your hands on the skin side, flatten the chicken.
If you can find only whole black limes, you can finely grate their peels with a box grater or rasp-style grater, such as a Microplane.
Nutritional Facts per serving, based on 6 |Calories: 498, Fat: 29 g, Saturated Fat: 8 g, Carbohydrates: 2 g, Sodium: 536 mg, Cholesterol: 173 mg, Protein: 54 g, Fiber: 0 g, Sugar: 0 g
This analysis is an estimate based on available ingredients and this preparation. It should not substitute for a dietitian’s or nutritionist’s advice.
Adapted from "Bethlehem: A Celebration of Palestinian Food” by Fadi Kattan (Hardie Grant, 2024).
