Chicken Shawarma Doner |

A true classic made at home. Healthy, fresh and with some theatre.

Serves 8 | total time 1 hour 45 minutes (plus 3 hours marinating)

Prep 15 minutes | cook time 1 hours 45 minutes

Ingredients

Marinade

Serve with

flatbreads / pitta breads / wrap – whichever you prefer
fresh salad dressed simply with lemon juice – I went for lettuce and red cabbage
Pickled peppers which can be found at the supermarket
hot sauce (recipe to come)
garlic yoghurt (recipe to come)
Crushed Salad (recipe to come)
Charred onion, peppers and pomegranate salad
hummus

Method

Part one

Grab a pestle and mortar and grind the garlic, ginger and salt (the salt gives it the necessary friction required for grinding).
Pop in the rest of the dry spices and mix.
Put this into a bowl (or a sandwich bag) with all the other marinade ingredients and mix well.
Add the chicken and mix. Leave in the fridge for at least 3 hours but preferably overnight.

Part two

Pre-heat your oven to full whack while you prepare the doner.
Chop the top and bottom off a large onion – this acts as the base of your doner.
Put three wooden skewers or one metal into the onion and secure it.
Begin laying the marinated chicken on top piece by piece until all of it is on the skewer.
Add the pieces of onion on top of the skewer (the juice from these onions will hopefully moisten the chicken as it cooks – so add any other veg you have laying around).

Part three

Turn your preheated oven down to 200C (180C if you have a fan oven) and place the doner inside.
Cook for 1 hour and 15 minutes, checking every now and again to make sure it hasn’t fallen over like mine did.
While you wait prepare the rest of the feast (see above for ideas)

Part four

Take the chicken out of the oven and let it rest for 15 minutes.
Cut straight down the layers of chicken so you have pieces with charred bits and beautiful pale white bits. You should have a real mix of texture and colour.
Lay out your bread, salads and sauces then serve.