Middle Eastern Chicken Wraps (Msakhan wraps مسخن رول )

The delicious filling

Msakhan/Musakhan is a famous Palestinian dish. It traditionally consists of whole chicken, fried onions seasoned with sumac, lots of olive oil, and bread. This recipe is for the quick version, it's made with chicken breast cutlets instead of whole chicken. You can prepare the filling in advance as well. You can use marqooq bread (a paper thin bread found in Middle Eastern stores), lavash bread, or any kind of wrap bread you like!

Ingredients: 

2 pounds boneless chicken breast cutlets, cut into small pieces (see photo below)

2-3 tablespoons sumac spice (found in Middle Eastern stores)

1/4 tsp ground cardamom 

1/4 cup olive oil

1-2 Tablespoons toasted pine nuts

4 large onions, thinly sliced

salt and pepper to taste

10 wraps

Instructions:

-Start off by rinsing the chicken and drying it with a paper towel. Then cut into small pieces like shown below. I use my kitchen sheers for this task, they make the job alot easier and quicker.

-In a non-stick pan, add a 1-2 tablespoons of olive oil on medium heat. Add chicken and saute until lightly browned and fully cooked. Season with salt and pepper.

-Remove chicken from pan, now add remainder of olive oil and saute onions until wilted on medium-high heat.

-Once onions start to brown add the chicken back to the pan with the remainder of the spices and cook for a few minutes or until it looks like this:

-Preheat oven to 450 degrees (or if you have a panini press and prefer to use it instead then just press your wraps in it after assembly.

-Assemble wraps then line them in a cookie sheet that's been brushed with olive oil. Brush tops of wraps with olive as well.

I used marqooq/markouk bread.

Wraps are ready to go in the oven.

-Bake for 5-7 minutes or until golden and delicious.

Ready to eat!

They make a yummy addition to a potluck picnic. 

- To enhance your experience I recommend dipping your wrap in whole milk yogurt as you eat it. Or better yet, try making your own yogurt salad (it consists or finely chopped cucumbers, ground dried mint, a tiny bit of fresh grated garlic, a bit of salt and greek yogurt). Another option for dipping would be hummus. Please comment below if you have questions or if you try it and like it! Enjoy :)

Baked Wild Salmon

This is a great dish to make when you have company and are too busy/tired to cook. It's effortless yet at the end you have a gourmet meal. The trick to making delicious wild salmon is to marinate it overnight or at least for several hours.

Ingredients:

Wild Alaskan Salmon Fillets (found in Costco's freezer section)

Marinade:

2 TBs fresh grated ginger

1-2 TBs freshly grated garlic

salt and pepper to taste

red pepper flakes

Juice of 1 lemon

2 TBs honey

1 TBs soy sauce

Crust:

1/2 cup almond flour or finely chopped pecans

1/4 parmesan cheese

1 TBs parsley flakes

-Wash and dry thawed salmon fillets.

-Combine marinate ingredients then place in glass container with salmon fillets and coat generously.

-Place in fridge for several hours or over night.

-Preheat oven to 425

-When read to cook, take salmon fillets and dip top side (without skin) into crust batter then place in baking dish.

-Bake in middle rack for 15 minutes or until salmon is cooked. Do not overcook! you'll end up with dry salmon.

-Serve with salad, or steamed asparagus and maybe some oven roasted or mashed potatoes. Enjoy! :)