Arabic Shawarma, Greek Gyro, and Turkish Doner kebab are different sandwiches, built around a similar concept: meat towers rotating around the central axis, enabling the fixed vertical broiler to quickly grill the surface meat. The charred meat on the surface is then thinly cut into long and thin slabs, with the charred meat finally being wrapped in flat-breads to make the sandwich. To provide a homemade alternative, I here present a quick pan seared Shawarma spiced breast. The pan-seared breast can be finely chopped and then used in a sandwich, or alternatively, served over rice. The technique can be extended to Greek Gyro, by using Greek seasoning to coat the breast.
Ingredients:
2 boneless skinless chicken breasts
½ TSP allspice
½ TSP cumin powder
½ TSP coriander powder
½ TSP granulated garlic
2 TSP Kashmiri chili powder (or paprika or any chili powder of choice)
Pound each breast with a meat tenderizer. Cut lengthwise to hopefully achieve two even fillets. Pound each fillet with the meat tenderizer to ensure a further thickness uniformity.
Mix all the spices, garlic powder, and chili powder. Pat dry each fillet (it is important, or else, the spice mixture will not coat the surface uniformly). Season the meat with salt before coating with the spice mixture. Evenly spread the spice mixture on both sides of each fillet. The amount of spice might seem excessive... that's where the flavor comes from. Set a large pan (capable of holding all the pieces in one layer) on medium-high heat. When the pan is hot, pour in 2~3 TBSP vegetable oil. Do not skimp on oil, as the used spices are oil soluble; the flavor will not be as good if the chicken is grilled with no oil. Cook each side for 2 minutes.
Served with
Persian rice.
Comments