Monday, March 28, 2011

Chicken Shawarma and Tahini sauce with some Delicious Naan bread

I have been craving for something "different" for a while now, and I have been eye-ing a Shawarma that "Taste of Pearl" did a few days back. Shawarma means "turning" in English, since the meat is usually cooked on a turning skewer, Shawarma is basically a kebab, but the difference I noticed is that usually when I get a kebab they have a thin yogurt sauce on it, but this one had a more paste like sauce with it. It takes a while to make since you have to marinate the meat and make the bread but overall I don´t think it´s that complicated, and most of the work involves watching the meat marinate :D.
I decided I would serve it with Naan bread, solely because I love Naan bread.
      What surprised me with the Shawarma was that despite the strong flavors of the Tahini sauce and the marinade, it was incredibly fresh and DELICIOUS when it was all in the bread along with crispy lettuce, onion, cucumber and tomatoes, and then I sneaked a little hot sauce in there as well :)
This is the original recipe from http://tasteofpearlcity.blogspot.com, but I changed it a tiny bit, so I´ll write the changes i made below in red :D




Chicken Shawarma and Tahini sauce on Naan
Ingredients:
Chicken- 500 g
Oil - 3 tbsp
Pitta bread or Naan - 4 (click for recipe)

Marination for chicken:
Yogurt- 3 tbsp
Lemon juice- 2 tbsp
Parsley- 1 tbsp chopped
Ground nutmeg- 1/4 tsp
Paprika- 1/4 tsp
Ground ginger- 1/4 tsp (I used fresh grated ginger)
Ground cloves- 1/4 tsp (skipped it - didn´t have it )
Ground cardamom- 1/4 tsp
Ground cinnamon- 1/4 tsp
All spice- 1/4 tsp (skipped it - didn´t have it)
Garlic- 2 cloves grated
Salt to taste
Plus I added white pepper and fennel seeds 
 For the tahini sauce:
Tahini- 3 tbsp
Yogurt- 1 1/2 tbsp
Lemon juice- 1 tbsp
Garlic cloves- 2 grated
Salt to taste
For the filling:
Lettuce- few leaves
Cucumber-  1/2 of 1 medium sized cucumber( sliced)
Tomato- 1 medium sized( sliced)
Black olives- 5 to 6 (skipped it - didn´t have it)
Feta cheese- 2 tbsp
Red onion- 1 medium sized( sliced)

Method:

Marinate your meat:
To get really thin slices of the meat, take the frozen chicken and leave it outside for about 1/2 an hour .  The meat should be in the half defrosted stage, at this stage using a sharp knife  thinly slice the chicken.  Marinate the chicken with all the marinade ingredients and leave it for minimum 2 hours or overnight in the refrigerator. The next time i´ll be making this (and yes there will definitely be a  next time) i won´t be slicing the chicken as thin as described here - when it´s been marinating it gets a bit mushy, and I noticed that the thicker slices were a lot more appetizing and cooked nicer   

 Cook the chicken:
Take the oil in a wide open pan, add all the chicken pieces and cook until it looks dry.
Prepare the sauce:Add  all the sauce ingredients in a bowl and mix it well. I did this when i was preparing the marinate and let it set while the chicken was marinating - I thinned it down with a bit of water since it was very thick - might have been that thick since I used greek yogurt not regular.Assemble the shawarma:
Take the pitta/naan bread, lay it flat.  Spread the sauce in the pitta/naan bread, arrange some chicken pieces on top it then some filling with lettuce, cucumber, tomato, olives, onions and feta cheese.  Wrap the pitta/naan bread and serve immediately.

All of the spices ready for the marinade

This is how I sliced the chicken  -next time i´ll be slicing it a tad bit thicker


The fennel seeds and the white peppercorn




 Everything ready - marinade - Tahini and Chicken

 
At this point the whole house smelled amazing - yumm..




For the recipe of the Naan bread you can check out my website http://www.wix.com/ingabryde/ingashaven#!naan-flat-bread.


I used 1 cup whole wheat to make it a little healthier

Instead of making the naan small, like I at least usually do - I made them big, or as big as my skillet allows.
I think that by making the naan larger, makes it easier to wrap the Shawarma



READY !! SET EAT !!



If you haven´t reached the kitchen yet to make this I strongly advise that you do :D
Bon appétit chers amis !!!

8 comments:

Umm Mymoonah said...

Wow! Looks really yumm. I'm so much tempted to make it again. Love your step by step pictures. I'm glad you liked it. Following your yummy blog :)

Neetu's kitchen said...

looks so yummy, lovely presentation and pic...following you..

Inga´s Haven said...

Thank you guys :) and thank you Umm, the recipe is soooo good - i´ll be making it again very soon :D

Ruth said...

Ooooh! This looks delicious! Love your blog - only just discovered it!

Inga´s Haven said...

nk you Ruth - I took a look at your blog(s) and they look so nice :D

Ruth said...

Thanks for the support Inga - I'm just starting out so its still a bit daunting.

Inga´s Haven said...

haha the feeling is mutual ;D

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