Chicken Shawarma

 

Chicken Ingredients: 

2 pounds chicken thighs 

shawarma spice blend:

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp cardamon

1 tsp coriander

1 1/2 tsp tumeric

1/2 tsp ground ginger

2 tsp smoked paprika

2 Tbls ground cumin

1/4 tsp cayenne

 

Chicken marinade:

Half the spice blend

2 Tbls plain Greek yogurt

2 cloves garlic crushed

2 Tbls lemon juice

3 Tbls olive oil

 

Instructions:

Marinate chicken – combine all marinade items in a large zip lock bag, massage bag to mix ingredients, add chicken thighs to bag and squish the bag to coat all the pieces of meat.  Marinate for at least 3 hours not longer than 24.  Grill chicken on medium heat grill until it reaches an internal temp of 165. 

Serve with pita, sliced tomatoes, pickled onions, shaved lettuce and yogurt sauce. 

To make yogurt sauce stir together ½ cup yogurt ¼ tsp shawarms spice, 1 Tbls lemon juice and 1 tsp olive oil.

 

Fresh pita:

Ingredients:

2 cups of flour

1 tsp kosher salt

1 tsp yeast

¾ cup lukewarm water

1 Tbls olive oil

Instructions:

Mix the dough:

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, and yeast. Add the water and oil. Stir with a spatula until a shaggy dough forms — the mixture will appear dry and unevenly mixed. Use your hands to knead the dough briefly in the bowl just until the flour is absorbed and you have a sticky ball, about 30 seconds. Drizzle a little olive oil over top, turn the dough to coat, cover bowl with a tea towel, and transfer to a warm place to rise for 1.5 hours.

Heat the oven with a baking steel or stone inside at 550. Cut a sheet of parchment paper into 6 small pieces about 6-inches square.

Turn out the dough onto a lightly floured work surface. Knead briefly to form a ball. Use a bench scraper to divide the dough into 6 equal portions. Using flour as needed to prevent sticking, ball up each portion. Let the portions rest for 30 minutes.

1.     Roll out each ball: Flatten one ball, using flour as needed, gently roll it out with a rolling pin until you have a 6-inch round — the key is to not roll too aggressively in order to prevent the air pockets from being forced out. If a round is resisting, set it aside, begin rolling out another one, and return to the stubborn one at the end. Transfer each 6-inch round to a sheet of parchment paper. Let rest for 15 minutes, covered with a tea towel.

2.     Bake the pita: When the oven has preheated, use a pizza peel to shimmy one round at a time, parchment paper and all, onto the preheated Baking Steel.  Set a timer for 2 minutes. If the pita is lightly golden, it’s done. Remove pita, transfer to a tea towel-lined bowl, and close the towel. Repeat with the remaining 3 rounds of pita.