Hope you all checked out MrsForensicBBQ’s shawarma post on Monday. I’m finishing up the week with some protein. I bought a whole pile of Costco bird and kind of settled in that I’m going with some boring food for a bit. That “bit” lasted about 10 minutes because I was already looking for something new and fun. I eventually settled on a shawarma recipe. “Settled” – because this is one of my favorite meals to get.
The Prep Table
Came to share my cook idea to my wife and she asked me to help her make a shawarma seasoning. That’s when I thought she was messing with me, because I didn’t know she was also planning to do her variation. The food gods convened and gave birth to the ForensicBBQ Shawarma Week. You saw hers, let’s get going with mine
We mixed up a heavy dose of seasoning consisting of chili powder, cumin, goriander, cardamom, cinnamon, turmeric and salt. Splashed that on top of some greek yogurt and threw in a whole pile of minced garlic. Smelled awesome, but didn’t look that great. Threw it all in a bag and let it sleep overnight.
Funny (sad) yogurt story. If you remember back from my Spicier Chicken Tikka Marsala post, I bought the wrong yogurt. I powered through and used the vanilla anyway. This time, I went out and positively was going to buy regular, unflavored whole fat yogurt. Saw the red container and picked it up. Then I saw a cheaper brand for $1 less and did the swap. Got home and realized I bought strawberry.
Drove my frustrated ass back to the grocer and saw the the plain (red container) right next to the strawberry (red container) and while I admit it was my mistake – poor planning. Anyway.. we’re good. We’re marinading, now lets make our garlic yogurt sauce.
Two cloves and a 1/4 Cup and a splash of lemon juice. Wasn’t a lot of lemon juice, just a bit. This thing was crazy powerful – good luck to my wife’s co-worker when he tries this one
The Process
I chopped up them chicken breasts into nuggets before I bagged ’em in the marinade – now it’s just 400F until 165. I double batched, so we cooked these in waves. Was planning on making a ton of leftovers because it’s the work week.
Throughout the week, I’ll probably throw these on a bed of rice when I run out of pita, but I have my pita wraps today, so I’m going to use them. My local shawarma shop makes a damn good sammich wrap, so I’m going to do my best. We’re going to further nugget these down and throw them on a garlic sauce smeared pita, lettuce, tomato, onion, cucumber pickles.. and fries.
I don’t know if that’s a common thing, but it’s a delicious addition. That’s why I titled it a Street Wrap because when I go to a peddler, that’s the sandwich I’d want to walk around with and eat.
Took a bite, and knew I could do better. Wrapped it and put it on the smoker.. and thought I could definitely make a better finishing pic for y’all. Let’s go full street wrap.
The Result
This one I microwaved the wrap and made it very pliable, wrapped it tightly. Got a little grill on there and then wrapped it in foil.
That’s what I wanted. See how that thing is packed, all the flavors. Garlic sauce and chicken.. can see the fries, onion, pickle tomato.. that’s what I envisioned and that’s what I got. Did I eat both wraps? I did not. Got close, but these things were slammed packed. The other shawarma shop I went to serve it with way more filling but you can’t possibly eat it like this – it’s more open faced. Dare I say sacrificing the protein and making something that’s easy to eat like this is much better.
Shawarma week has concluded! “My Shawarma is so much better than MrsForensicBBQ’s because animals were used in the making of it” 😉
Bonus
Had leftovers for days – Don’t sleep on the idea of Shawarma Fries! Lay a bed of fries down and top it with all the fixins