- Yield: 4
- Prep Time: 60+ minutes
- Cook Time: 50 minutes
Chicken Shawarma
After dropping the Babes (it's her 1st birthday today) off at daycare (and by 'babes', I mean my 5lb Parti Yorkie lol), I stopped at the market to grab some of those key things I was missing... fresh mint, eggplant... you know.
Home - and marinate the meat. I used two large chicken breasts, cut into 3-4 large pieces each. Now, most marinating instructions tell you to put it in a bowl and cover in the fridge. I'm too lazy for that.
I put it all in a Ziploc bag, squeeze out the air, and then put it in the fridge. NO CLEAN UP! Let that sit for a few hours (you could always set it in the morning and then cook it at night).
About an hour before you are serving it, preheat your oven, spray a roasting pan with a olive oil non-stick spray, layer a handful of red onion on the bottom, remove your chicken pieces from the marinate and place them on top of the onion. Into the oven for about 45 minutes.
Then, sit, relax. Pour another pot of tea (try a white one... great for metabolism boosting and fat burning). About 15 minutes before, heat a non-stick pan on the stove, spray with the evoo spray, put about a cup of thinly slices eggplant in there, sprinkle with seas salt and pepper, and let them brown on both sides, flipping once.
Set aside until ready to use.
While that's going on, chop up 1/2 cp red onion, 1 cp peeled cucumber, 1 tomato and toss in a bowl with salt, pepper and garlic powder. Put in the fridge until you're ready to use it.
Next, mix up all of your sauce ingredients. Man, it smells sooooo good! Use fresh mint! I love it! Into the fridge with it.
Once the timer has gone off on your chicken, remove it from the oven, chop it up into small pieces and you can use as is, or you can crisp them just a little more if you like by putting them into your non-stick pan to get them all toasty.
(That nice golden colour - that's from the turmeric... It's the smokey pepper ingredient that also makes curry it's yellow colour... but without the curry taste.)
Heat your pita in the microwave, or if you're lucky enough to have a gas stove, over open flame. Keep the flame lower and keep a very close eye on them so they don't burn.
Layer your warm pita with 2 tbs sauce, 1/4 of the chicken, 1/4 of the tomato blend and 1/4 of the eggplant each.
If you wanna be really fancy, roll it nicely in foil or a good quality parchment paper... or you can toss everything into a bowl and eat it with a fork! Use up the rest of the sauce portion for a little messy dipping as you go!
When you make your own, don't forget to take a photo and share it online at Facebook, Twitter or Instagram with the hashtag #recipesbyjenn and by tagging @recipesbyjenn. That way, I can see your photos and share them with all my friends! Plus, I get to feature them on this site along with all my other photos!
Ingredients
- Meat Marinade
- garlic - 6 large cloves, smashed coarsely chopped
- lemon juice - 4 tbs
- cumin - 2 tsp
- paprika - 2 tsp
- turmeric - 1/2 tsp
- cinnamon - dash
- crushed red pepper flakes - dash
- ground black pepper - 2 tsp
- sea salt - 1 tsp
- Meat
- boneless skinless chicken breast - x 2 large
- Garlic sauce
- 0% plain greek yoghurt - 1 cp
- lime juice - 2 tsp
- garlic - 6 large cloves, smashed coarsely chopped
- dill - 2 tsp dried
- fresh mint leaves - 10
- sea salt - 1 tsp
- evoo - 3/4 cp
- Veggies
- eggplant - 1/2, sliced thin
- tomato - 1, diced
- cucumber - 1 cp, diced
- red onion - 1/2 cp, diced
- garlic powder - sprinkle
- sea salt & cracked black pepper - sprinkle
- Extras
- whole wheat pita - 4, look for the thin variety
- light feta cheese - sprinkle, optional
- red onion - handful for the bottom of the roasting pan
Instructions
- Marinate the meat - place all marinade ingredients into a large ziploc bag and mix together. Add large chinks of your chicken breast to the bag and set in the fridge for at least 1 hour.
- About an hour before you are serving it, preheat your oven to 425°F. Spray a roasting pan with a olive oil non-stick spray, layer a handful of red onion on the bottom, remove your chicken pieces from the marinate and place them on top of the onion. Into the oven for about 45 minutes.
- Blend veggie mix together in a bowl. Put in the fridge until you're ready to use it.
- Mix together all of your sauce ingredients. Put in the fridge until you're ready to use it.
- Once the timer has gone off on your chicken, remove it from the oven, chop it up into small pieces and you can use as is, or you can crisp them just a little more if you like by putting them into your non-stick pan to get them all toasty.
- Heat your pita in the microwave, or if you're lucky enough to have a gas stove, over open flame. Keep the flame lower and keep a very close eye on them so they don't burn.
- Layer your warm pita with 2 tbs sauce, 1/4 of the chicken, 1/4 of the tomato blend and 1/4 of the eggplant each. Roll it nicely in foil or a good quality parchment paper... or you can toss everything into a bowl and eat it with a fork.
(Green = 2, Red = 1.5, Yellow = 1, Tsp = 3 + Blue = 1 if using Feta)
I am including the container values for my own reference (and anyone else wanting to do this)... but keep in mind, these are my recipes and not provided by or approved by or associated with, or anything else 'with', the 21 Day Fix. In fact, it may be a little generous at times, or ingredients may be different based on what we like to eat. It's meant to be a guide.
A couple of amazing recipes from a few sources:
- meat marinade modified from nytimes.com
- garlic sauce modified from gimmedelicious.com
