Molly Yeh's Roasted Sumac Chicken with Zhug

I'm making my roasted sumac chicken with zhug. It's juicy tender meat with a crispy fatty shell and finished with a spicy Yemeni sauce. To get going on the marinade I'll start with a quarter cup of olive oil. It's going to be the tastiest shell on the chicken. And then grate in a couple of cloves of garlic. Just enough to make it taste good but not so much that you have garlic breath. Although if you both have garlic breath it cancels each other out. It's the rule of garlic on Valentine's Day. And I'm grating it in with my fine zester to help it really incorporate with the mix. It sticks better to the chicken that way. And then I'll zest in a whole lemon and juice it in. I'm using chicken thighs so they're fattier than chicken breasts and the counterpoint of all the bright flavors with fatty thighs is what makes this dish irresistible. The very second thing Nick ever cooked for me at his little apartment in Washington Heights after we first started dating was chicken breasts. It was totally inedible. He didn't season it or anything. I think he just took it out of the package and put it in the oven for like forever. It was still a great date though. Nothing has changed. I don't think he would know how to make a chicken if it whacked him across the face. But it's fine. I love cooking obviously and he loves doing the dishes. The acidity from the lemon juice will tenderize the meat. I want a tender thigh. Some chopped cilantro will add beautiful freshness. A tablespoon of honey will balance out all of these bright flavors and then it'll also caramelize on the skin of the chicken. Oh chicken skin is the best. And then a tablespoon of sumac which is one of my favorite spices. It has kind of a vinegary vibe. It's also a pretty red and it's Valentine's Day. It all makes sense. A teaspoon of smoked paprika, a teaspoon of cumin. Cumin and sumac are really lovely together. Two teaspoons of kosher salt and then half a teaspoon of freshly cracked pepper. Just whisk this all together. The flavors here are inspired by Middle Eastern cuisine. There are a bunch of ingredients that I keep on hand at all times and these flavors go so well with the herby juke that I'll be topping it with. So between the sumac and the olive oil and the cumin, these flavors live in the same world as juke. And then get my chicken thighs in here. They're bone and skin on. I'm gonna rub this marinade all over so the flavors can make full contact with the meat and then I'll let it marinate in the fridge for two hours. I'll bring it to room temperature and then roast at 425 degrees for 30 minutes until the skin is so crispy and in that time I'll make my juke. Juke is a Yemeni sauce that is both hot and fresh all at the same time because it's loaded with peppers and tons of fresh herbs. It's great on chicken. I also make it whenever I make hummus. It's good on eggs. It's a little bit deceptive because it kind of looks like pesto but you want to eat it in much smaller quantities than pesto. For my peppers I'm using jalapenos which is a nice middle-of-the-road spiciness. It's a heat that I can handle and I'm removing the seeds and the pith and I'm chucking everything into my food processor. And next my herbs, a combination of parsley and cilantro and I'm not even going to pick them off the stems. I'm just gonna coarsely chop these leaves and the tender stems off because the tender stems are totally fine to use in this. The juice of a lemon, four cloves of garlic, some kosher salt, and then cumin and coriander make it citrusy and floral. Okay I'll pulse this all together until it's pasty and then I'll let the processor run while I drizzle in a quarter cup of olive oil. There's so much flavor in this sauce. I'll pour it into a serving bowl. Oh I'm smelling that chicken so let me check on that. Oh man that is some good looking chicken skin. True love is Nick not caring if I peel all of the skin off of one of these. You can hear how crispy it is. The brightness of the jugue with that crispy fatty chicken is a match made in Valentine's Day romantic heaven. Talk about some sexy thighs, know what I'm saying? Chicken looks cute too. This side dish is just like Nick, always there for you when you need it most and it makes me so happy. I'm making madbouka which is a cooked tomato and pepper salad that's common in Moroccan cuisine and it is so delightful. It's sweet and smoky and I'm nestling it on a bed of fluffy whipped feta and scooping it up with fresh pita. I can't wait. I'm starting with a good glug of olive oil in my pot here and to this I'll add loads of garlic. The ingredients to this madbouka are really quite simple but the magic comes from how they all meld and mingle together and they get cooked for kind of a while so their flavors truly develop. And then a tablespoon of sweet paprika to bring the smokiness. I'll let this sizzle for just about a minute and allow the paprika and the garlic to bloom. Madbouka is a cooked salad literally in Arabic means cooked. It's sort of like a thicker dip that you can get away with eating just by the spoonful. I make this all the time, especially in the winter. I get my vegetables by reaching for a can of tomatoes and a jar of roasted red peppers and cooking them together into the salad. It's simple but it's very comforting. Okay I'm smelling that paprika and that garlic. I'll add in my tomatoes now. I have a 28 ounce can of whole peeled tomatoes and then I'll break them up with my spoon into little bits. And I like using the whole peeled tomatoes because they taste a little better than the crushed tomatoes. And then two roasted red bell peppers. I'm just dumping them out of the jar here. A teaspoon of sugar will caramelize as this cooks and balance out the acidity of the tomatoes. A couple of good pinches of salt and then a few cracks of pepper. I'll bring this to a boil and reduce to a simmer. And cook it uncovered for a good 35 minutes to allow this to reduce and thicken. And you never want to rush it because it truly needs all of that time for its flavors to meld and for this to transform into magical metbouka. In that time I'll get going on my feta. This spread is smooth and so tangy from the feta. It is the ideal platform for my metbouka. And I'm just tossing it all into a food processor. It's so easy. I love the way that feta, which is such a crumbly cheese, transforms into a fluffy cloud-like consistency in this. So this is eight ounces of feta. It's briny, it's tangy, and it's so salty in the best way. Three quarters of a cup of whole milk Greek yogurt. I'll add that creamy element and more tang. This is like tang on tang. I'll often add just a plop of yogurt to metbouka for that creamy element, but I'm going the extra mile and making it super special with the feta spread. Clove of garlic. And the zest of half a lemon. Lemon and feta. Never been better. And then a drizzle of olive oil. That extra bit of richness goes a long way in this. I'm not adding salt because there is quite a bit of salt in feta. And I'll just whiz it up until it's creamy. Looks great. I'll plate it up. I've got my pita for dipping and some veggies and olives and then all the different snacks and the girls can just go wild. This is like an ideal weeknight dinner for us. And I like to serve this in a shallow bowl and spread a thick layer of feta along the bottom. Okay. This is so flavorful. That's awesome. My metbouka has become super nice and thick. I'll spoon this right over the feta. When the feta and the metbouka mingle and mix together on your plate, it'll kind of become a pink color. This is perfect for Valentine's Day. A drizzle of olive oil will look really pretty and taste good. Oh yeah. Got some cilantro and parsley. I mean, this is just begging to be dunked with a pita. I'm gonna do like a half spoon half dunking sitch. Those tomatoes are so sweet paired with that briny tangy feta. This marriage is gonna last.