One day I’ll be sophisticated enough to know how to add a “jump to recipe” button but today is not that day. You’ll have to do with some backstory first 🙂 I threw this post together immediately after eating it so pictures will be added when I make this again. The quantities are also approximations as I did not use any sort of measuring tools.
If you read my last post you know that I went to a restaurant in Portsmouth, NH called STREET where I tried lamb shawarma for the first time and it was ~life changing~. I’ve had two life changing dining experiences in my life: the first time I ate at a Brazilian steakhouse called Fogo de Chão in Philadelphia, PA, and when I ate at STREET.
So, as soon as I got home I looked up places near me where I could get some more shawarma. Massachusetts hath betrayed me today as the closest place I could find was a 45 minute drive away and that simply will not do. When my mom came home with a rotisserie chicken the light bulb went off and I looked up some recipes I might be able to follow with the things I have on hand. So here is my chicken shawarma inspired recipe! I used this recipe as inspiration (it’s the first one when you google “chicken shawarma”) 🙂
I knew I wouldn’t have everything the recipe called for so I was winging it from the start, using the recipe linked above mainly to get an idea of which spices I would need. I cut off one chicken breast from the rotisserie chicken and shredded it before throwing it in a small Ziplock back with a little drizzle of olive oil. I then proceeded to scamper around my house trying to find all of the spices and other things I wanted to throw into the dish. I found the paprika, cumin, coriander, cayenne pepper, and black pepper, but did not have any cardamom so that didn’t make it into the mix. I threw a spoonful of minced garlic in with roughly 2 teaspoons of paprika and 1 teaspoon each of the rest of the spices. I spritzed a bit of lemon juice in the bag to finish and shook it a little too excitedly while David made fun of me on Facetime. I set that aside and moved on to put together everything else I would throw in.
The wrap at STREET had lettuce, tomato, onion, and a yogurt sauce I’d never heard of before called tzatziki. I decided I wanted to do some seared peppers and onions. I would have preferred fresh red peppers but all I had was canned fire roasted red peppers which did just fine. I spent probably 10 minutes alone trying to find the can I knew we had opened in the fridge already but the cloaking spell was too strong for my low level. I grabbed a new can from the basement and spent another 10 minutes breaking my wrists, trying the rag method, using this blue thing that’s supposed to give you gorilla grip, promising my first born, and finally cursing “the world does not want me to have red peppers tonight”. I was about to give up and add on another reason to cry while cutting the onions when I remembered my secret weapon. My mom. I ran up the stairs and handed her the jar and she had it opened in half a second. I said “I’ll do arms tomorrow” and continued my cooking journey by cutting the onions and peppers into long strips.
I seared the onions and peppers for a few minutes until they were cooked and blackened slightly. I set them aside and threw the chicken into the pan. As the chicken cooked more I said “crap, this chicken is going to be dry as sh*t.” I added more oil then ran to the fridge to see what leftover jar of anything I could throw on it. I saw four different jars of tomato sauces and other such items and settled on a jar waaaaaayyy in the back of Pace picante sauce mild that probably should not have survived as long as it did in the fridge. Perfect. I threw about 2 tablespoons over the chicken and let it heat up for another minute before removing it from the heat. I mixed the onions and peppers back into the chicken.
My mom just happened to come home with some pocket pitas so I toasted one up a tad to throw everything into. I wanted something to cool the spices down just a little and complement the chicken so I shredded up a bit of iceberg lettuce and spotted the holy grail of cool in a drawer in the fridge. ~A bag of cucumbers~. OOOOOH BABY. I love adding cucumbers to sandwiches.
My symphony came together for the final notes: pita pocket opened up, a touch of mayo, a layer of cucumber slices, the shredded lettuce, and the chicken with peppers and onions. My distaste for rotisserie chickens has lessened today. The whole thing, rampant running around for ingredients and my failure to open the can of peppers excluded, took about 15 minutes. I hope you enjoy this as much as I did! I raced back up the stairs to make my mom try it and she actually kept eating it on me lol 🙂
Recipe
Prep time – 5 minutes | Cook time – 10 minutes | Total time – 15 minutes | Serves 1
Ingredients
Please note these quantities are estimations currently. I encourage everyone to alter to taste, that’s the best part of cooking! I tend to use a lot of olive oil and less black pepper than most recipes call for.
- Rotisserie chicken – you will only use one breast
- 1/4 cup onion
- 1/4 cup red pepper
- 1 tablespoon minced garlic
- 1 teaspoons paprika
- 1/2 teaspoon cumin
- 1/4 teaspoon coriander
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper
- Black pepper to taste
- 1 1/2 teaspoons lemon juice
- 3 tablespoons olive oil divided
- 2 tablespoons picante sauce mild
- 1/4 cup cucumber
- 1/2 cup lettuce
- pita pocket
- mayo
Instructions
- Remove one breast from the rotisserie chicken and shred or cut into small pieces. Add to a ziplock bag with 1 tbsp olive oil, the minced garlic, paprika, cumin, coriander, cayenne, black pepper, and lemon juice. Shake well and set aside.
- Cut onion and red pepper into long strips. Add 1 tbsp olive oil to a pan set to high and sear for a few minutes until cooked and blackened to preference. Set aside.
- Add chicken to pan on high with 1 tbsp olive oil. Heat for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add picante sauce and continue heating for another minute or two. Remove from heat, stir in the peppers and onions.
- Shred the lettuce and slice the cucumber. Toast a pita pocket to preference and cut in half to add fillings. Spread mayo on the bottom, add cucumber, add lettuce, and then add the chicken. Enjoy!
I would love to hear from people who try this out! And let me know how you alter the recipe to your own taste 🙂
