Chicken Shawarma - “Corona Style”
They say that necessity is the mother of invention. Yesterday I wanted to make this Chicken Shawarma recipe that my friend Nancy B had shared but the recipe called for boneless, skinless chicken thighs. Not sure what the grocery store situation has been like for you but the stores by me were completely sold out of chicken thighs. I had bought a whole chicken from Fresh Direct and thought - maybe now would be the time to learn how to butcher a chicken. Sat at my computer and googled it - 2 wonderful videos popped up and I was able to cut my chicken into 10ths…
While the original recipe called for you to make the marinade separately I figured I was going to cook this in my Dutch Oven (LOVE my creuset) so I threw the chicken in and just adjusted the amount of seasoning / then tossed the whole thing right in the oven and threw it in the fridge for the day. It sat there for about 6 hours.
I put the Creuset in the oven with the lid on and preheated it to 425…letting the oven heat slowly heat up the Dutch Oven and chicken at the same time (I know many recipes call for you to let chicken stand out to get to room temperature before sticking in oven - this eliminated that step). I let it cook with the lid on for an hour and 15 minutes and then took the lid off, put the oven to Broil and let it Broil for 15 minutes so it got nice and crispy.
After Broiling …nice & crispy!
I served it up with a white sauce - I combined two recipes I found - one from Epicurious and one from another cooking site, Beets Za’atar Ottolenghi style, Hummus (again Ottolenghi), simple salad of chopped up tomatoes, cucumbers and parsley, quinoa Sam (my son) style, and my favorite orange fennel salad.
The whole meal on my plate
All my sides
I Served it with a nice red….I’m not a stickler on wines and I am more of a red wine drinker but I imagine a crisp Sauvignon Blanc, Sancerre or Chablis would work well. Wine is really up to the drinker, c’est vrai? Bon Appetit!
Chicken Shawarma Corona-style
Ingredients
1 Chicken cut up into 8 or 10 pieces, bone in
Zest and juice of at least 2 lemons
1/2 cup of olive oil
6 - 8 garlic cloves
Cumin - sprinkle generously ontop of the chicken pieces. It should cover all the chicken
Paprika - do the same
Turmeric - I use this very sparingly - in ratio it would be about 1/5 of the amount of the Cumin and Paprika
Ground Cinnamon - double the amount of the Turmeric. I’m a fan of cinnamon so use it liberally in all my recipes
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
Directions
Place chicken in Dutch Oven.
Sprinkle with all the spices, throw in the garlic cloves and make sure they seem to be nestled in with every piece.
Drizzle olive oil on top of it all.
Toss the zest and pour the lemon juice on top. Mix it up. You should end up with a marinade made right in the pot.
Sprinkle kosher salt and grind fresh pepper on top of it all.
Put pot in the fridge and let sit for anywhere from an hour to a day.
When you’re ready to cook it, take out of the fridge and place directly in the oven with the lid on. Heat the oven up to 425.
Leave it in there for an hour and 15 minutes, checking and turning all the pieces at least once while it cooks.
After an hour and 15, check it, turn the pieces again and take the lid off and turn the oven to broil and let it cook for an additional 15 minutes. This will crisp up the chicken and give you that nice blackened look you see in my final dish.
Jo’s White Sauce
Ingredients
1/2 cup of Greek Yogurt (I use Faje 2%)
1/2 cup of Mayonnaise (I use full fat Hellman’s)
1 Tablespoon of Tahini
3 Garlic cloves (more if you like it really garlicky or if the cloves are small)
2 Tablespoons White Vinegar (if you like a higher acid taste you may need to add more)
2 Tablespoons fresh Dill (I just guesstimate and cut off what looks like the right amount since it’s all going in the food processor anyway.
Fresh Mint - optional (note - I did not use)
Kosher Salt & Freshly Ground Pepper
Directions
Throw garlic cloves in food processor and pulse. I always do the garlic first. Add in the yogurt, mayonnaise, tahini, vinegar and pulse. Throw in the dill now and just give it a quick pulse. You don’t want it to be too chopped up. Add salt & pepper to taste. If you like it really hot, add in hot chili flakes.
Beets Za’atar
adapted from Ottolenghi
Ingredients
4 Beets
2 - 3 Cloves of Garlic
3 dried chilis - I like things spicy - maybe start with 2
1 cup of Greek Yogurt (again, I use 2% Faje)
2 - 3 Tablespoons of pomegranate balsamic vinegar (if you can find) or a good balsamic vinegar
1 Tablespoon of Za’atar (you can order from Amazon if you can’t find locally)
Kosher Salt & Freshly Ground Pepper
Directions
Preheat oven to 400 degrees
Cut tops of beets off, clean them off thouroughly - I use a vegetable brush under running water, making sure you get all the dirt off.
Wrap the beets in aluminum foil and salt & pepper them
Place wrapped beets on a tray or ceramic dish and roast for 1 hour. Check - you should be able to push a fork through the beets easily. I sometimes turn off the oven and just let the beets sit in there for another 1/2 hour if they are close. Otherwise you can continue roasting. Either way you are shooting for that easy consistency.
Put garlic and dried chilis in Food Processor and pulse.
Throw in beets, pulse until chopped up fine.
Add yogurt, balsamic vinegar,
Add Za’atar, salt & pepper. Taste and adjust according to your liking.
