Chicken Shawarma

 I can still remember the very first time I had these shawarma.  First things are always special isn'it. It was the very first Eid fair which I attended in UK with my husband.  Since my husband was helping someone in the stall, me and his friend's wife were going through all the shops.  At one point we got very tired and hungry.  Athough there was plenty of food shops, in each and every shop, there was a very long queue.
Finally my friend managed to get these shawarmas for us.  You know sometimes people used to when your hungry, the taste of the food gets doubled. Why I'm saying this is, it was the best of all shawarmas I ever had.  I don't know weather it tasted so good since I was hungry or it tasted really very good and made me eat a lot.  Whatever it is the next five years when I was in UK , I looked for some shawarma like that and nothing didn't much that.  I think by now you should have realized I'm how fond of these shawarma.

  Right I talked all my old stories about shawarma and I didn't mention what actually a shawarma is.  If you haven't come across this word  Shawarma in your life, here is the explanation for that.   Shawarma is a type of sandwich made with meat and salad.  The special element in this sandwich is the meat, the way how it is prepared. Seasoned meat and fat layers are stacked and keep turning around the heat, which is then sliced from the outer and made as stuffing for sandwich along with salad. You can get a clear view from the wikipedia link here.  I think I have used too much of the word shawarma in this post, so let's stop here and go to the recipe.
Recipe adapted from Titli's Busy Kitchen

Preparation Time:45 minutes
Cooking Time: 20 minutes
Serves: 4

Ingredients:
Chicken- 500 g
Oil - 3 tbsp
Pitta bread or Naan- 4
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
Ground cloves- 1/4 tsp
Ground cardamom- 1/4 tsp
Ground cinnamon- 1/4 tsp
All spice- 1/4 tsp
Garlic- 2 cloves grated
Salt to taste

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
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.
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.
Assemble the shawarma:
Take the pitta bread, lay it flat.  Spread the sauce in the pitta bread, arrange some chicken pieces on top it then some filling with lettuce, cucumber, tomato, olives, onions and feta cheese.  Wrap the pitta bread and serve immediately.


Note:
Instead of chicken you can also use beef or lamb.  The filling ingredients is also your choice, you can also use red cabbage, pickles etc...

This recipe goes to Souper Sunday