Chicken Shawarma

Shawarma, originally a middle eastern fast-food has also become a famous food in many cities of India. Tradionally Shawarma is made using meat, beef or chicken and grilled on a rotating spit, and then, thin slices are cut from the spit and used as a filling for wraps.

And this recipe below, is soo soo easy to prepare and tasted very yummy. I have made few changes in this recipe to suit our taste buds :) and here I used Pita bread for filling the chicken shawarma, but it can be wrapped in a tortilla wrap or home made roti/ chapathi.


CHICKEN SHAWARMA
-slightly adapted from 'Middle Eastern Cookbook' by Maria Khalife

Ingredients:
500 gram boneless chicken breast,
1 large Onion- chopped finely,
3 garlic cloves-chopped,
1/4 cup vegetable oil,
1/4 cup lemon juice,
1/4 tsp ground cloves,
1/4 tsp nutmeg powder,
1/2 tsp red chilli powder,
1/4 tsp white pepper powder,
1/4 tsp Sumac and
1/4 tsp oregano.

For Serving:
Pita Bread,Garlic dip,
Salad and
French fries.
Method:
Cut the chicken into julienne Strips. In a bowl, mix all the other ingredients, add the chicken and mix well to coat the chicken completely with the spices. Cover and marinate in the refrigerator overnight.Preheat the oven to 200° C ? 400°F. Place the chicken with its marinade in an oven proof dish and cook in the oven for 20-30 minutes or until the chicken is tender.
Serve with pita bread, salad, garlic dip and french fries.
For Garlic dip:
Pound 6-7 cloves of garlic with 1/2 tsp salt to a smooth paste. In another bowl, mix together 1/4 cup of lemon juice and 1/2 cup of vegetable oil. Gradually add this to this garlic, blending it to obtain a fluid with consistency of mayonnaise. Mix 1 -tbsp of mayonnaise if required.

Notes:
Instead of pita bread, one can fill the chicken in tortilla wraps or a plain Indian chapati can also be used to fill this chicken.
And instead of vegetable oil , olive oil can be used in the marinade.