Chicken Shawarma

Occasion: Any		Total servings: 8
Cuisine: Middle Eastern		Calories:
Effort: Easy		Pre-Prep time: 8 hours marination
Best for: All		Preperation time: 30 min
How to serve: Hot

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chicken shawarma
A Middle Eastern dish of garlicky meat or poultry served on pitas. This chicken version is flavored with a savory yogurt sauce.

1 1/2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken thighs or breasts (thinly cut)
1 cup plain yogurt
1/4 cup vinegar
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 teaspoon pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cardamom pods
1 teaspoon allspice
juice from 1 lemon
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FOR THE SAUCE:
1 cup tahini
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1/4 cup lemon juice
2 tablespoons yogurt

Tahini (Sesame Seed Paste)
INGREDIENTS:
5 cups sesame seeds
1 1/2 cups olive oil or vegetable oil
PREPARATION:
Preheat oven to 350. Toast sesame seeds for 5-10 minutes, shaking the seeds frequently with a spatula. Do not allow to brown. Cool for 20 minutes.

Pour sesame seeds into food processor and add oil.
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PITA FILLINGS:
8 loaves of pita bread or 4 large
thinly slice cucumbers
thinly sliced onions
1/2 teaspoon sumac
thinly sliced tomatoes
1/2 cup fresh parsley, finely chopped
pickle slices (optional)

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Combine all ingredients except for chicken, fillings, and sauce ingredients to make marinade. If it seems a little dry, add a little olive oil (a tablespoon at a time). 
Add chicken, cover and refrigerate at least 8 hours, preferable overnight 
Preheat a grill to medium heat. Remove chicken from marinade. 
Grill chicken for about 10 minutes on each side or until fully cooked through. Serve chicken on pita and top with tomatoes and Shawarma Sauce. And it is ready to serve.

Shawarma is most famous in Asia, Middle East, Levant and counted in most delicious recipes. Shawarma is made by alternately stacking strips of fat and pieces of seasoned meat on a vertical spit. An onion, a tomato, or a halved lemon is sometimes placed at the top for decoration. The meat is roasted slowly on all sides as the spit rotates in front of, or over, a flame for hours (see rotisserie). Gas or electric heat is used; formerly, there was a cage holding burning charcoal or wood. Some restaurants offer two or more meat selections; many have just one.

A variety of vegetables come with the shawarma which include: cucumber, onion, tomato, lettuce, eggplant, parsley, pickled turnips, pickles, rhubarb, cabbage or French fries. The meat is shaved off the stack with a large knife, an electric knife or a small circular saw, dropping to a circular tray below to be retrieved. Shawarma is eaten as a fast food, made up into a sandwich wrap with pita or lavash together with vegetables and dressing.Shawarma can be served on a plate (generally with accompaniments), or as a sandwich or wrap. Shawarma is usually eaten with tabbouleh, fattoush, taboon bread, tomato, and cucumber. Toppings include tahini, hummus, pickled turnips, and amba.

 Shawurma is a Levantine meat preparation, where lamb, chicken, turkey, beef, veal, buffalo meat, or mixed meats are placed on a spit (commonly a vertical spit in restaurants), and may be grilled for as long as a day. Shavings are cut off the block of meat for serving, and the remainder of the block of meat is kept heated on the rotating spit. 

If shawarma aren’t good enough alone, this sauce makes them 100x better. This is seriously the BEST and ONLY shawarma sauce you will EVER need. My family and I have been making this sauce for years and it’s never failed on us. And this is coming from a Middle Eastern gal.

The secret to this sauce is the zesty garlic and use of fresh herbs. The sauce keeps well in the fridge for up to 2 weeks and goes great on gyros, burgers, rice bowls, you name it.