Recipe | Sumac Roast Chicken

If you’ve every ventured near a Yotam Ottolenghi recipe book, I think it’s only a matter of pages before one of the never-heard-of-before ingredients that jumps at you is sumac. I too was you, at some stage, as I looked to recreate a breakfast dish in his book, Plenty More, that requires a generous sprinkle of sumac.

So off I went in search of it in Joburg.No mean feat, but I eventually found some and wow! What a taste sensation it is. I love the colour. I kept hearing and reading that sumac is not a spice, but a berry. Berry good then (yes I did), but how do I use it? What does it taste like?

Tart, peppery in a weird way, but it also tastes like nothing you’ve ever tasted before. Even weirdly lemony as it lingers on your tongue. It’s brilliant. I was wary to test it on my family and friends in case they just didn’t want to try it. My palate leans towards the savoury more than sweet, so I knew I could handle it, but not them, not so much. So I introduced it slowly in little touches.

First, I lightly dusted it over an Ottolenghi egg, potato and brinjal breakfast dish which was really wasted on my ex, who was a smoker and did not appreciate the full-flavour sensation that it was. Note to self and all who’ll listen, if they don’t like food and eating, don’t date them.

Then I moved onto using it on a protein. So I tried it on chicken boobs (my good friend and I call chicken breasts that, and well, it always makes me chuckle). I made a special rub with olive oil and some jaggery for sweetness. Jaggery is a kind of unrefined sugar that I discovered through other cooks I follow, but that’s a story for another day.

The sumac again was a stark contrast of flavour and a win.

Sumac is native to mostly traditionally Moorish parts of the world, apparently native to Sicily and the seeds spread across the ocean breeze to North Africa, across the Mediterranean, and other parts of the Middle East. When you look at sumac sprinkled on a dish or in a bowl ready to make a rub, this image of travelling seeds across a sea breeze makes even more sense, you can almost see them.

This berry is known to be toxic if you pick the wrong plant varietal, but the one that I’m talking about has been found to have health benefits as well. But I’m no professional to espouse those virtues, so I’ll stay in my taste lane, thank you.

I was preparing a midweek dinner, and thanks to all those lovely days of lockdown, evening meals can be prepped in the day, in advance, between meetings. Flavours have room to settle into the food, to “meng well” (mix well) as my older sister likes to say. So I played with my spice drawer and made up a new rub for my whole chicken,using sumac as the star of the flavour show.

My darling friend who popped by for dinner that evening is not much of an eater.By that I mean he eats for the purpose of staying alive, but I have not known him to look forward to eating, as I, or other people I know, do. To really sit and savour every sumptuous morsel of food. His eating style is best described as perfunctory, I’d say. So imagine my surprise when he ate almost three-quarters of this chicken I was testing. I knew it must be a clear winner if it could illicit such a response from him. I eventually brought the roasting tray of chicken to the table — and he sat across from me just carving bit by bit, until he eventually just reached in with his hands to get to the spine. Too cute.

And so began my trials with this simple roast chicken recipe.

RECIPE | Sumac, sugar and 5 spice roast chicken:

Preheat the oven to 190º.

For the rub:

• 3 teaspoonssumac
• 2 teaspoonsdemerrera or brown sugar (white sugar will not work, rather leave it out)
• 3 teaspoons 5 spice powder
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• ½ teaspoon salt and a good grind of pepper
• 3 tablespoons of olive oil
• 1 tablespoon of lemon juice

Mix all ingredients well and set aside.

For the chicken:

• A full chicken — insides removed (I prefer organic)
• ½ a lemon — cut in half
• 2 garlic cloves — skin on, smashed with a knife or your palm
• A handful of flat-leaf parsley
• ½ a red onion — cut in half
• ½ thumb piece of ginger — smashed (I find this process strangely fulfilling)
• 1 chilli — cut down the middle
• 1 tablespoon of oil
• 1 sprig of rosemary

Method:

1. Drizzle the olive oil into the chicken cavity, sprinkle a good pinch of salt and two shakes of white pepper in, rub it on the inside.
2. Then place one lemon wedge, 1 clove of garlic, ginger, 1 onion wedge and the parsley and rosemary, then the other onion, then seal with the last lemon wedge.
3. Then take the sumac rub and rub it all over the whole bird thoroughly — don’t skip this step — rub it in!
4. Then let it marinade for a minimum of 4 hours if you’re in a hurry, though 24 hours is sensational
5. Place it in the oven and roast for 1 hour 20 minutes — checking it every 30 minutes or so and turning it twice.
6. Then remove from the oven and allow to rest before carving. Squeeze some lemon before serving and serve with a side of your choice. Maybe those sweet potatoes I’ve mentioned before.