Thursday, April 16, 2015

Chicken Shawarma Recipe

TOTAL TIME
35mins
PREP 20 mins
COOK 15 mins
Shawarma is an Arabic pita wrap overflowing with shaved chicken or lamb. A crunchy tabooleh or fattoush salad accompanied by either tahini or hummus completes this Middle Eastern street food.Skip to Next Recipe INGREDIENTS
Nutrition
SERVINGS 6 UNITS US
Meat

2 tablespoons canola oil
1/2 cup yogurt
1 egg, beaten lightly
1 lemon, juice of
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon cardamom powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
salt, to taste
1/2 teaspoon red chili pepper flakes
1/2 teaspoon garam masala
2 teaspoons garlic paste
1 teaspoon ginger paste
1 teaspoon cardamom powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 lb boneless skinless chicken breasts or 1 lb lamb, cut into 1 inch cubes
Salad

1 cup lettuce, finely sliced
1 cucumber, chopped
1 tomatoes, chopped
3 tablespoons cilantro, chopped
3 tablespoons pomegranate seeds
Dressing

1/2 cup yogurt
1 lemon, juice of
2 tablespoons cilantro, chopped
2 tablespoons mint, chopped
salt, to taste
Assembly

6 pita breads
Tabasco sauce, to taste


DIRECTIONS
Combine all of the ingredients listed above the chicken/lamb. Marinate the chicken in mixture and set aside for an hour or two.
Heat a non stick pan on medium to high heat and add the marinated chicken. Stir fry the chicken/lamb until it has cooked through and is dry-less than 10 minutes. Make sure you break up the chicken/lamb with a wooden spoon and keep stirring as it cooks.
In a separate bowl, mix together all the dressing ingredients.
To assemble the shawarma, heat the pita bread on a skillet to warm it. Divide the salad amongst the six pita breads. Top the salad with the chicken.
Drizzle the yogurt dip over the chicken and add a dash of Tabasco sauce. Roll the pita bread tightly and wrap in baking paper. Serve immediately.

Best Shawarma in Dubai

The famous Levantine sandwich is as ubiquitous on Dubai's mean streets as the cheeseburger.

Yet, the shawarma is somehow immune to the sort of rampant commercialism that has seen the burger morph into the double whopper and the mighty zinger. Of all the vendors that dole out this staple wrap, none have dressed it up as some mutant version of the original. Subtleties account for the variance in shawarmas from place to place around the city; each has its own discernible flavour and it's difficult to figure out why.

The ingredients are by and large standardised, leaving pitta pushers to concentrate on substance - the quality of produce and attention to detail. Also of monumental importance is the chef's sense of proportion: nobody wants too little sauce, too many tomatoes or a morsel of chicken buried in a wall of bread.

So if next time your favourite shawarma spot serves up a plate of tosh, you could assume it's training day for the cook's nephew, and not a general decline in food standards. The construction of the shawarma, after all, is as important as the materials it comprises.

A crowd favourite, Automatic is perhaps the best known fast(ish) food Lebanese joint in Dubai. Lebanese is the default shawarma of Dubai. It's easy in this city to forget that many a nation dotted around the Mediterranean came up with unique versions. Nevertheless if there were to be an ambassador of the Dubai shawarma, it would be Automatic. It is in the meat department that this restaurant excels. The chicken here is tender with a texture consistent with that of brown meat found on the bird's leg or thigh. Pickles, garlic, onions and tahini sauce are detectable. The insertion of French fries into the wrap itself is a winning move.

The alternative is the succulent lamb shawarma in which parsley is the dominant undertone. A generous quantity of lamb is squeezed into thin Saj bread to make a fulfilling ensemble.


Rating: 4/5

Price: Dh6 (Dh16 for large)

Location: Various

Contact: 04 434 2355

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The relatively upscale and cosy furnishings of Café Blanc in Marina Mall and Dubai Mall are the setting for another Lebanese spot that has received rave reviews of late. Presentation is emphasised here but thankfully not at the expense of anything else. The options are chicken and beef and the chicken takes it by a long shot. Seasoning on the chicken seems signature - hints of cinnamon, nutmeg and cardamom are ever present, more so than at other shawarma spots. The bread is thick in comparison to other restaurants as well. The garnish - veg and sauce - is of the typical variety.

Overall it's not the type of shawarma that will blow your socks off, and at Dh45 it is extortionate compared to other options. But for those who appreciate basics done well, Café Blanc more than suffices.

Rating: 3/5

Price: Dh45

Location: Dubai Mall, Marina Mall

Contact: 04 434 0828

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This Dubai Mall food court resident represents a shift away from the norm in Dubai. The Jimmy the Greek Gyros Pitta comes from Greece. A gyros is a type of shawarma made from rotisserie-roasted lamb thinly sliced into thick pitta bread. It is then drizzled with tomatoes, onions and fresh tzatziki sauce.

It is similar to a doner kebab, but not nearly as overbearing and the ingredients here have no trans fats. After trying one of these incredibly hearty wraps, one wonders why there aren't more places like this in town. It's a little pricey, but it blows everything else out of the water.

Rating: 5/5

Price: Dh20

Location: Dubai Mall

Contact: 04 339 9979

Shawarma Time Abu Dhabi

Best Shawarma In Abu Dhabi

The shawarma is a mighty beast indeed. Although it amounts to little more than meat, potato and unleavened bread, it has the power to make grown men babble incoherently, comparing the properties of their preferred sandwich in a way they’d usually reserve for their cars. Debates rage over the perfect ingredients, but a standard shawarma ought to include chicken or lamb sliced from a spit, a sauce of some kind (yoghurt or houmous are common), a nod to the vegetable community, and possibly a scattering of French fries. Minimalists will tell you that less is best. For what it’s worth, we say it’s all in the wrapping.

Seashell Cafeteria
4/7
During a recent outing, an Abu Dhabi local currently studying in the UK admitted feeling at his most lonesome when dreaming of this colourful little eatery. They knock together a tasty little treat, heavy on the tahini, rammed with large chunks of freshly cut veg. The tangy red sauce was a happy surprise, though unlikely to please the purists, and with so much going on inside, there was little room to let the juices run free.
1 chicken shawarma, 4Dhs. Located just behind Khalidiya Tower, Khalidiya. 02 621 5234

Zawak Al Sham
7/7
Unsurprisingly, the best was off the beaten track. The owner seemed genuinely amazed to find a western face peering through his window, but the shock didn’t put him off his mission. ‘You don’t like it, you don’t pay,’ he intoned as he dropped an innocent looking flatbread on our table. The contents appeared to be little more than meat and herbs, but what a work of art. So tender, we almost cried.
1 chicken shawarma, Dhs5. Located nr Fit Worx, Khalidiya, 02 665 9935

Al Ramla Coast Restaurant
2/7
As is so often the way, this little wrap suffered at the hands of a spud tyrant. Much of the meat was banished in favour of stodgy fried potato, and what remained was driven to an anonymous yogurt reservoir, and drowned. A tragic story best forgotten.
1 lamb shawarma, Dhs4. Located in Khalidiya, near Baskin Robbins, 02 633 3515

Beirut
3/7
The yuppie of the shawarma world, Beirut’s meat special was born and raised in a mall. Not that it’s any less tasty for it - the sandwich was nicely sauced, if not a little tightly packed. Putting the French fries on the side was an interesting decision; although in retrospect, perhaps a little cowardly. Unfortunately, this sarnie can only be had at Abu Dhabi prices. Best go elsewhere.
1 lamb shawarma, Dhs18. Located in Al Wahda Mall, 02 443 7655

Jabel al Noor
6/7
A wonderful critter. Chunky meat, a rich tahini taste, the tantalising hint of spice and just the right amount of potato. All this and still as loose as a goose. He gave us a healthy pack of free pickles, too. What a talented fellow.
1 chicken shawarma, Dhs4. Located behind Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank, Khalidiya, 02 666 5959

Al Safadi
4/7
You can probably see the green neon sign from the moon. The produce had a good meat-to-spud ratio and the toastiest bread, sadly drowned in a vat’s-worth of yoghurt sauce. Disappointing.
1 chicken shawarma, Dhs5. Located opposite Berlitz language school, Khalidiya, 02 666 0201

Sonbolat Lebanon
5/7
We could sense the shawarma pride from across the street, as the jolly owner called upon us to try his wares. He’s a big fan of Chelsea, Man Utd, Man City; anybody you like, provided you’ve got your hand on your wallet. And he’s good, too. Loose and meaty with tangy pickles, though possibly a little too free with the spuds.
1 chicken shawarma, Dhs5. Located nr Zayed Mosque, 02 631 9780

Lebanese Flower
6/7
As any long-term inhabitant of the capital will tell you, Lebanese Flower is legendary. The taxi driver lost control of his eyes and tongue when we gave him the address. ‘You hungry?’ he asked. ‘You’ll eat the best in Abu Dhabi!’ And he was almost right. The meat was long and loose, still bubbling in its own juices, and the sauce it bathed in could be replicated and marketed in a souk of its very own.
1 chicken shawarma, Dhs5. Located behind the blood bank, Al Salam Street, 02 645 633

Monday, December 8, 2014

Chicken Shawarma Recipe: How to Make Shawarma at Home

Chicken Shawarma is a prominent gourmet sandwich that you can get at Middle Eastern restaurants. Marinated chicken lumps are mounted on an extensive pivoting stick and afterward broiled gradually to flawlessness against a gas smoldering barbecue. Because of the inaccessibility of such modern roasters at homes, Chicken Shawarma has ordinarily remained a restaurant dish. In any case we've taken in a couple of traps that can present to you the delightful flavor of Chicken Shawarma home without the need of such roasters
We've explored different avenues regarding no less than 3 formulas; 2 of them tasted great however were closer to "Shish Tawook" (an alternate chicken dish) than they were to Chicken Shawarma. So what we're going to peculiarity here is our third formula which was embraced from a family companion whom was before a Chef at a Lebanese Restaurant in Michigan.

The fundamental idea in our formula is to have a pleasant marination that copies a decent chicken shawarma flavor and afterward flame broil the chicken in such a path, to the point that keeps it succulent. We've discovered that our companion's recommendation of utilizing a panini or George Foreman barbecue is the best as it cooks quick and it keeps the chicken clammy. Don't overcook the chicken, we've discovered that 13-15 minutes on medium hotness was bounty, particularly that we were cooking meager cuts of chicken.
The Chicken Shawarma Sandwich

When the chicken shawarma is barbecued, place the chicken bosoms on a cutting board and shred into slim cuts according to the photograph above. Spread those cuts along the breadth of a pita bread, include a bit of Lebanese Garlic Paste (check formula) , some salty cucumber pickles, a bit of broiled tomatoes, french fries, move it and voila.. you've got yourself a pleasant chicken shawarma sandwich, made at home! The picture underneath is of our Chicken Shish Tawook sandwich only for representation purposes, so you can see the chicken pieces are like kabobs where as in the Shawarma they're destroyed.

Recipe type: lunch
Cuisine: Middle Eastern, Lebanese
Prep time:  25 mins
Cook time:  15 mins
Total time:  40 mins
Learn How to Make a Delicious Chicken Shawarma Recipe at Home Using Your Panini Grill.
Ingredients

·         2.5 lbs of thinly cut skinless boneless chicken breast
·         ½ cup of lemon juice
·         2 tablespoons of tomato sauce
·         4 tablespoons of plain (Greek) yogurt
·         3 tablespoons of white vinegar
·         1 head of garlic, crushed
·         2 tablespoons of olive oil
·         1 to 1.5 teaspoons of salt (or to taste)
·         ½ teaspoon of ground oregano (or thyme)
·         1 teaspoon of paprika
·         ½ teaspoon of ginger powder (optional)
·         A pinch of nutmeg powder

Instructions

1.    Rinse the boneless chicken breasts with fresh cold water then cut horizontally into thinner cuts of about ½ inch (each breast could possibly be split into 2 slices depending on thickness).
2.    Mix all ingredients in a blender, add to a bowl and mix well with the chicken, cover and let marinate in the fridge overnight.
3.    When ready, grill the marinated chicken using a panini/George Forman grill for about 15 minutes on medium heat. You can also cook the chicken on a BBQ grill if so you wish.
4.    Once cooked, shred the chicken thinly as in the photo and it's now ready to be wrapped into a Shawarma Sandwich. Spread the chicken shreds along the diameter of a pita bread, spread a bit of Lebanese Garlic paste, add some salty cucumber pickles, some French fries, and some grilled tomatoes, roll and enjoy.

Notes

Try marinating a mix of 75% chicken breast and 25% skinless boneless chicken thighs. The fat in the thighs gives the chicken a nice kick when grilled. Add grilled tomatoes in the sandwich instead of raw tomatoes Some restaurants add french fries in the sandwich, others add a cabbage/mayo salad to the sandwich. Baking or broiling in the oven will rid the chicken of its juice and must be avoided if possible. We found that using a panini grill cooks faster and keeps the moisture inside the chicken You can find salty middle eastern cucumber pickles from Middle Eastern grocery stores.


What is Shawarma

Shawarma is presumably a standout amongst the most conspicuous Middle Eastern ethnic sustenance names in the West, behind Falafel and Hummus. The name originates from the Turkish word çevirme which signifies "turning," and where you have some profoundly marinated layers of hamburger, sheep or chicken stacked on a vertical spit and gradually turning  against a delicate flame broiling blaze for hours. The meat is then destroyed and wrapped in a pita bread with garlic glue (chicken shawarma) or Tahini sauce (hamburger shawarma) and different goodies, for example, barbecued tomatoes, cleaved parsley, french fries, flame broiled onions, and salted Lebanese pickles.

Shawarma (Arabic: شاورما) is additionally spelled as schwarma, shwarma, shawrma or shawerma relying upon how people hear their ethnic brethren say it! This delicacy may get mistook some of the time for the Greek Gyro however there is a major contrast in the flavors utilized and how meat is prepared. In this post we're going to peculiarity our refined and decently tried Beef Shawarma Recipe. (You can check our Chicken ShawarmaRecipe Here)

Instructions to Make Shawarma at Home

Experiencing childhood in Lebanon, we practically never needed to make Shawarma at home since it was a basic piece of Lebanese Street Food and was in this manner promptly accessible. However in the US its not as basic, at any rate not in Upstate NY. So my wife and I set out on a little voyage of calibrating the specialty of making Shawarma at home, and I think we got it! We had the capacity duplicate an exceptionally tasty Shawarma formula that is so near to a brilliant restaurant Shawarma both in flavor and surface, you can't even tell. Furthermore we had the capacity perform that utilizing two separate strategies for cooking the meat.

Setting up the Meat

Pick your favorite meat cut and guarantee it has a lot of fat in it. Our photographs here peculiarity a meal cut, notwithstanding you can do this with any steak cut, Ribeye, or much margarine steak. Any fat in the cut will extraordinarily upgrade the flavor of the Shawarma. Also on the off chance that you like sheep, you can likewise blend some leg of sheep meat with the hamburger.


Cut the meat into pieces of around 3 to 4 inches long and close to 2/3 inch in thickness. You would prefer not to have little removes following they'll dry and won't be as soggy as you'd adore them to be. Furthermore on the off chance that you make bigger cuts, it may work in the event that you cook it, however not on the Panini barbecue.
Blend the flavors with the lemon squeeze and vinegar in a blender (we utilize MAGIC BULLET for such brisk blends) then rub meat cuts with the marinade. It's important to not mix the olive oil with the flavors and lemon/vinegar on the grounds that it has a tendency to emulsify and cover the flavors, for some reason. Rather, after you have rubbed the meat with the marinade you simply made, sprinkle some olive oil toward the end, rub some more and you're carried out. Spread compartment and refrigerate overnight (it needs a few hours of marination)

Two Cooking Methods That Work

On the off chance that you don't have much time staring you in the face, utilize a panini or George Foreman barbecue on medium/high and flame broil the Shawarma pieces for 10-15 minutes, no more. On the off chance that else you are in no hurry, put the Shawarma pieces in a pyrex tray with a bit of marinade, wrap it firmly with aluminum foil, and tenderly prepare at 270-300f for 2 hours. The Pannini barbecue system yields a more flavorful Shawarma, where as the broiler technique yields juicier and more delicate meat.


When cooked, shred the Shawarma into little pieces on a cutting board then wrapp in pita bread with some Tahini sauce, barbecued tomatoes, fries, and some salty Labanese Pickles.