Middle Eastern Shawarma
Mildly spiced yet packed with flavor, Middle Eastern Shawarma is a tempting Arabian recipe made with high-quality dry powdered spices from Mastercookfoods.
Servings - 15
Difficulty Level - Medium
Preparation Time - 4 Hours
Cook Time - 4 Hours
Ingredients
For the Shawarma Meat:
- 1 kg Chicken Leg Boneless
- 200 gm / 1 cup Yogurt
- 20 gm / 1.5 tbsp Ginger-Garlic Paste
- 20 ml / 1 Lime, juiced
- 6 gm / 2 tsp Paprika Powder
- 3 gm / 1 tsp Mastercook Dhania, powdered
- 1.5 gm / 1 tsp Mastercook Jeera, Powdered
- 30 gm / 10-12 garlic cloves, finely minced
- 5 gm / 1.5 tsp Mastercook Pepper, Powdered
- Salt to Taste
For Assembly:
- Middle Eastern Garlic Sauce
- Pita Bread
- French Fries
- Cucumber Pickles
- Cucumber, tomato and onion, small dices
Procedure
- Marinate the chicken with the yogurt, ginger-garlic paste and the spices for a minimum of 2-3 hours, overnight is preferred.
- If you have a rotisserie option in your oven, feel free to use it while preparing this recipe, it will be quite authentic otherwise baking or pan frying the chicken in a tray works just as well.
- Add the egg and the yeast mixture.
If using rotisserie:
- Preheat your oven to 220C and stack the chicken pieces carefully on the skewer, pressing them down to ensure that they are tightly stacked together.
- Place it in the rotisserie motor mount and cook for 1 hour until the outermost layer becomes golden and crispy.
- Carefully take the skewer out using the provided tongs and using a sharp knife, slice off only the outermost part of the entire skewer, keep the slices relatively thin.
- Repeat by putting the skewer back into the oven and cooking till the layers are golden, slicing and putting it back until all the chicken is browned in this way.
If using oven or pan frying:
- Simply pan fry the chicken until browned well on both sides and cooked through. Slice into thin slices and set aside.
To Assemble
- Heat up your pita bread and spread a small amount of your garlic sauce on top. Add about 10-20 gm or 1-1.5 tbsp of your cooked chicken, followed by a few French fries, a slice of cucumber pickle and a few cubes of the cut vegetables. Tightly roll the shawarma and set on a plate, it may help to roll it in butter paper or sandwich paper to hold it together.
Tips for Cooking
- The rotisserie option gives you an authentic browning and cooking of the chicken like is done in a shawarma spit roaster. But this method is slightly messy as you have to keep a tray underneath to catch the spills, as well as time consuming to wait for each layer to cook. But it is well worth it.
- It may help to add a few pieces of chicken skin in between the layers of the shawarma skewer to keep it moist. This step is not required in pan frying.
- This recipe produces a shawarma that is mildly spiced, but you can choose to add a lot more spice according to your taste.
- This recipe works great for parties as well, as you can set out all the ingredients on their own and have your guests make their own shawarma’s!
