Chicken Shawarma

By Foodguy on August 6th, 2008

Chicken Shawarma Shawarma is a Middle-Eastern sandwich. Its made of thinly shaved pieces of lamb, goat or chicken, topped with parsley, onions and garlic sauce, and then wrapped with a pita. The word shawarma comes from a Turkish word meaning “turning” or the turning of the meat on the spit. The shawarma is slowly cooked on a rotating vertical spit. As the meat is cooked, its shaved off with a large knife. Since most people do not have a rotating vertical spit in their kitchen, the next best thing is either grilling the chicken outside or indoors using a grill pan.

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Watch and Learn!

Serves 5
Chicken Shawarma

INGREDIENTS:

Marinade for chicken
1 lb. boneless chicken breasts
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon allspice
1/4 teaspoon ground red pepper
1/4 teaspoon sumac
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/2 teaspoon salt
Juice of 1 lemon
5 pita rounds

Garlic Tahini Sauce
1/2 cup tahini
1/2 cup plain yogurt
3 gloves garlic, crushed
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
2 tablespoons olive oil
Juice of 2 lemons

Garnish
Equal amounts of freshly chopped parsley, tomato, and sliced onion. Hot red pepper paste.

DIRECTIONS:

step1 Mix all of the marinade spices in a mixing bowl with the lemon juice.

step2 Cut the chicken into small bit size pieces and add it to a large zip-lock bag. Pour marinade over chicken, seal bag and mix marinade into the chicken using your hands. Refrigerate for 1-2 hours.

step3 While the chicken is marinating, prepare the garlic tahini sauce.
In a food processor, combine garlic, tahini and kosher salt. Slowly add the oil and lemon juice (1 teaspoon at a time until desired consistency). Place in a bowl and add the yogurt, mix well and set aside.

step4 Heat a grill pan over high heat. Cook the chicken until done, about 8-10 minutes. Remove from heat.

To assemble the sandwich: Place one pita on a plate, top with red pepper spread, parsley, onion and tomato mixture and a tablespoon of the garlic tahini sauce. Wrap sandwich and grill for a few minutes on each side using your grill pan. Serve Hot!