Middle Eastern Marinated Chicken

This month for Secret Recipe Club I was paired with Denise from Eat Laugh Love, who loves cooking for family and friends and even teaches cooking classes, which is something I would love to do one day. And since writing that last sentence I’ve had to stop and have a little day dream!

As always, I spent a while browsing through her recipes but it was one of the first ones I looked at that most caught my eye and that I kept coming back to.  Denise named it chicken shawarma as her chicken was thinly sliced, but as I cubed my chicken I feel I’ll have to give mine a more generic name and so am sticking with Middle Eastern Marinated Chicken, which is a bit long, but never mind.

Anyway, however the chicken is cooked, the marinade is absolutely delicious and I loved the tahini sauce too.  I altered some of the quantities slightly from Denise’s recipe and I also missed the crushed garlic out of the tahini sauce as I’m finding pregnancy has altered my taste buds and garlic is much more powerful than usual at the moment.   I made some humous a couple of weeks ago using the same amount of garlic as usual but found it completely overpowering.    Luckily my husband was happy to finish off what I couldn’t eat.  And luckily with this meal, nothing was too overpowering, the chicken was full of flavour and I would say definitely rivaled the kebabs from my local  kebab shop.

To see Denise’s original recipe click here.

Ingredients for the Marinade

1 tsp dried parsley

1/2 tsp crushed chilli flakes

1/2 tsp ground allspice

1/4 tsp ground ginger

1/4 tsp ground cumin

1/4 tsp ground coriander

Pinch salt

Pinch black pepper

2 tbsp plain yoghurt

1 tbsp lemon juice

1 garlic clove, crushed

Ingredients for the Tahini Dressing

2 tbsp plain yoghurt

1/2 tbsp tahini

1 tbsp lemon juice

1 clove crushed garlic (optional)

Black pepper

Salt

Other Ingredients

2 chicken breasts

2 pita breads

shredded lettuce

How to make Middle Eastern Marinated Chicken

1. Make the marinade for the chicken by mixing all the marinade ingredients together.   Taste it and adjust any flavourings if necessary.

2. Chop the chicken and cover with the marinade.   Put in the fridge for at least an hour.

3. Make the tahini dressing by mixing all the ingredients together and again taste and adjust if necessary.

4. Put a little oil in a pan and add the chicken.   Alternatively you could grill it.

5. To serve, warm the pitta breads.  Open them along the side, add the chicken, the sauce and the lettuce.

To see what other Secret Recipe Club Participants have made, click on the link below:

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