Chicken Shawarma

I was asked to prepare a meal for people dear to us and wanted it to be both comforting and fun and a little different during these difficult times, so I decided to go with this shawarma recipe. I happened upon it by accident, when at my daughter Batya’s house on a Friday watching her do prep for Shabbat. She was busily mixing up her pargiyot (boneless, skinless chicken thighs) with all sorts of yummy looking things and I asked her what she was making. She looked at me as though surprised at the question and said, shawarma, of course! It’s a fabulous, oh so easy recipe, we make it all the time. Here Mom, I’ll send you the recipe, it’s by an Israeli chef, Ron Yohananov (ronyohananov.com). And she did. Of course I changed it just a tiny little bit but it’s truly so easy to make and so incredibly delicious to eat that you may seriously consider dining in for shawarma in the future, it’s just that good.

So gather your ingredients and preheat your oven to 350 F/180 C.

Btw, if you don’t have shawarma spice at home (although you can now find it everywhere in supermarkets, not specialty shops) you can make it yourself. It’s basically, cumin, garlic powder (granulated), paprika, turmeric, onion powder, ground coriander and salt. Some add cinnamon in the prepared versions, if they don’t add cinnamon, it makes a difference. Put a tablespoon of each spice (except the cinnamon, put in 2 teaspoons) in a bowl and mix it and you’re good to go. If you’ve got the shawarma spice, simply place in a small bowl with the cinnamon and cornstarch and mix well.

Once mixed altogether, set aside. Now take a large bowl and put the oil inside. Then add the boneless, skinless chicken thighs which you have cut in half.

Toss the chicken in the oil till completely coated.

Now take the spice/cornstarch mix and sprinkle over all.

Using your hands (I put on latex gloves for this) toss well together till completely coated, like so:

By now you will see it both looks and smells amazing and it’s still raw! K. Take 2 loaf pans for this, or halve the recipe for dinner for a smaller group. I used a long loaf pan (English cake pan) length 31 cm x width of 10 cm, height 5.5, but you can use a regular loaf pan for this as well, a 9 x 5 works too. Oil or oil spray the pan. Now the next bit is optional but I really loved this addition I made. I lined the bottom of the pan with sauteed onions. You can use your Basic Sauteed Onions, A Kitchen Staple or just take a small onion, peel, chop and sautee in oil till golden brown.

Now lay in the coated chicken pieces in layers. First one layer, then top with another layer and a third till you use up the chicken. Remember, if you make the whole lot you will do this in two pans.

Till the top

K. That’s it! Your oven is ready so pop in the chicken UNCOVERED and bake for about 50 minutes to an hour (mine needed the hour) till top is golden brown and chicken is cooked through. You will have juices in the pan even if you let stand to reabsorb some of the chicken juices, so when ready to serve, lay in a row on a platter and spoon some juices on top and you can either slice up the chicken shawarma style or let people help themselves to the larger pieces. I served this with chopped salad, homemade techina (tehini) My darling eggplant with luscious tehina dressing and flatbreads (homemade laffa – recipe to come in a different blogpost) and pickles Gillian’s 1 Hour Bread and Butter Pickles. Ridiculously delicious.

Chicken Shawarma 

Spice Mixture:

5 tablespoons cornstarch 

4 heaping tablespoons shawarma spice

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon 

2 kilo skinless, boneless chicken thighs, halved

5 tablespoons oil 

Optional: 1 small onion, peeled, chopped and sauteed in oil till golden brown

oil spray for the pans

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 F/180 C.

Combine the cornstarch, shawarma spice and cinnamon, stir in a small bowl till well mixed. Set aside.

In a large bowl, place the oil and the halved chicken and toss till coated. Sprinkle the cornstarch/spice mixture on the oiled chicken and toss till completely coated. If you choose to use the sauteed onion, now’s the time. After sauteeing it, place in two oiled (oil spray or oil coated) long loaf pans (or a 9 x 5 loaf pan works as well) all along the bottom of the pans. Then layer the coated chicken in rows on top, about 3 layers worth. Do NOT cover the pan and place in the preheated oven and bake 50 minutes to an hour or till chicken is golden brown on top and all the layers are cooked through. In my oven it took an hour, everyone’s oven is a bit different.

A note, you can halve this recipe to serve 3-4 people, if you are a bigger crowd or big eaters or want more for the next day (yes, delicious the next day too) make the whole recipe.