No Smoke without Fire: Chicken Shawarma

First, make the marinade for the chicken by combining the yoghurt, salt, lemon juice, ground spices and garlic together in a large shallow dish. Add the boneless skinless chicken thighs to the dish, turning them gently to coat them in the marinade, then cover the dish and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes, and up to 24 hours.

While the chicken marinates, get ahead by making of the accompaniments; make the minted yoghurt by putting all the ingredients into a small mixing bowl and stirring together until well combined, then mix the prepared salad ingredients together and put them into a serving bowl. Cover the yoghurt and salad bowls, then put them both in the fridge to chill until you’re ready to serve. The flatbreads will need some time to prove, so if you start making them now, they can prove while the chicken is marinating. If you are using the dried active yeast, mix it with the tepid water and honey and leave for five minutes until it foams, then combine it with all the other ingredients in a large bowl and mix thoroughly until you have a ball of a soft dough (if using instant yeast, just mix everything together in one go). Put a clean tea towel or some clingfilm over the bowl and leave it to rest in a warm place for about an hour, until the dough ball has doubled in size. Split the dough into six equal balls, then place on a floured surface and roll each one out thinly to give a roughly round shape. Place the rounds between sheets of greaseproof paper so they are ready to cook in quick succession when you need them.

When the chicken thighs have had at least 30 minutes’ marinating time, lift them out of the marinade and roll them, then push two skewers through each thigh (you can probably get 4-5 thighs on each pair of skewers, depending on skewer length) until you’ve made a sort of ‘ladder’ of chicken thighs - put half an onion at either end of each skewer to keep the meat in place. If – like me - you have a kebab stand, you can use it here instead of the skewers; push the chicken thighs on to the spike in a ‘criss-cross’ pattern, again using half an onion at either end to hold the meat in place. Cook the meat over prepared hot coals at a medium-high heat (or on a hot gas BBQ) for 30 minutes, turning periodically, until the chicken is cooked through and has reached a temperature of 74⁰C (for best results, use a meat probe to check this). If, like me, you use a kebab stand, the cooking time will be considerably longer, and you’ll need to cover the chicken with tinfoil for the first hour.

As the chicken nears the end of its cooking time, cook the flatbreads on the hot grill, as many at a time as will fit. Use tongs to turn them as soon as you see bubbles appearing in the dough (usually after a minute or so, but keep an eye out as you’ll need to move quickly). Wrap the cooked flatbreads in foil to keep warm until you’re ready to serve.

When the chicken is ready, remove it from the skewers and slice thinly (or slice the meat down from the kebab stand, if using), then pile it all on to a serving platter and take it to the table together with the minted yoghurt, the beetroot salad and the warm flatbreads.