Egyptian Chicken Shawarma & Aish Baladi

 I have loved Egyptian culture since I saw The Mummy in the late 90s. I am also just realizing a lot of my love for things comes from movies...probably because movies are another HUGE love/influence of mine. I believe I was in 6th or 7th grade when it came out and needless to say I was OBSESSED. I wanted all the books on Egypt so I could learn more and more. I even wanted to become an Egyptologist, but that didn't happen. Egypt is definitely on my travel bucket list and hopefully I can make it happen in 2023! I had actually never had any type of Egyptian food til I decided to make something myself. I chose chicken shawarma because it seemed relatively easy for my first go, and it was! I took it a step further and decided to make my own bread, so I searched and found aish baladi, which is like an Egyptian flatbread. Very similar to a pita. Also a friend described Egyptian food to me like this: "it is like a mix between Greek food and Indian food" and that was spot on y'all!

Egyptian Chicken Shawarma

Ingredients:

2 lbs boneless skinless chicken thighs

5 garlic cloves minced

2 tblsps coriander

2 tblsps cumin

1 tblsp cardamom 

1/4 tsp cayenne

2 tsp paprika

3 tsp salt

3 tblsps lemon juice

3 tblsps olive oil

Put chicken in bowl and cover with all ingredients/marinade, and marinade for minimum 8 hours to 24 hours.

When ready to cook, cook on grill, or in skillet on the stove til done! Then cut into strips

Yogurt Sauce:

1 cup greek yogurt

4 cloves garlic minced

1 tsp cumin

squeeze of lemon juice

salt & pep

mix together

To serve: 

flatbread/pita/aish baladi

lettuce

tomatoes

red onion

greens 

etc.

You will assemble like a taco/gyro. bread then fill with chicken, veggies, yogurt sauce. enjoy!

If you want to take it a step farther like me, here is the Aish Baladi. I found it pretty similar to making my homemade sourdough tortillas. 

Aish Baladi

Ingredients:

1 tblsp active dry yeast

2.5 cups warm water

5 cups whole wheat flour or einkorn flour or mix of 2

1 tblsp salt

1 tblsp canola/veg oil

Directions:

Whisk yeast and water until foamy..about 10 mins. add 1/2 flour and stir til smooth. Cover and let rest for 30 mins. Uncover dough, using hands stir in salt, oil and the remaining flour until it all comes together. Knead the dough until smooth and elastic. put dough into greased bowl, cover with plastic wrap and let sit until doubled in size...about 1.5 hours.

Place baking stone/pizza stone in cold oven and preheat to 500 degrees. While that is preheating, separate dough into 16 equal pieces. Roll each into a bowl and roll into a flat disk. Let stand for 30 mins. 

Working in batches, place about 3 or so at a time onto hot stone. Bake 6-8 mins until puffed and golden. 

 

Let cool before serving.

Let me know in the comments if y'all make this!

xoxo