Shawarma - With Love, From Oman

Shawarma is an Arabic cuisine and forms an integral part of the Omani food and culture. Omani’s consume Shawarma on a regular basis and is a go-to food choice for most of their meals. I believe that apart from the gorgeous country that it is with very picturesque ocean-side drives, this particular food item is the most prominent memory that I would love to recall my stay in Muscat with. Most of our long drives, day long picnics or even just a regular weekday featured Shawarma in some meal or the other, we never needed a reason for not eating Shawarma.

The Omanis like their food to be simple; firstly, they cannot consume hot (spicy) food and secondly, they dislike spending hours to put their meals together in the kitchen. Shawarma fits the sweets pot. It requires basic ingredients readily available in the kitchen and few store-bought condiments to do the drama. Charring the meat slowly is the most significant step in the process and also the most challenging one when it comes to preparing shawarma at home. Where would one find such a set up of stacking the meat neatly and attaining the perfect balance of cook and char? That really put me to thinking and I noticed the microwave oven sitting right in front of me. So now, heat was sorted and all I had to figure out was a way of achieving the stack. A heightened cake mould came to my rescue! I have used ready-made boneless chicken thighs for this recipe, just to avoid the hassle of de-boning the meat; but please feel free to explore.

Ingredients:

Boneless Chicken Thighs – 450 gms

Oil – 2-3 tbps

Cornflour – 1 tbps

Salt – ½ tbps

Cumin powder – ½ tsp

Coriander powder – ½ tsp

Chili powder – 1 tsp

Chili garlic powder – 1 tsp

Turmeric powder – ½ tsp

Cinnamon powder – ½ tsp

Cloves powder – a pinch

Hot sauce - as required

For the coleslaw

Cabbage – ½ (medium size)

Hung curd – 100 gms

Mayonnaise – 50 gms

Salt – a pinch

Hot sauce - as required

Procedure:

Mix the chicken thighs in the glug of oil and stir. Add all the dry spices and coat the chicken pieces well. Layer the chicken well in a greased tin mould and press them down.

Preheat the oven at 180 degree Celsius and bake the chicken in the oven for 45-50 mins.

Let’s make the coleslaw in the meantime. Chop the cabbage into thin slices and put it in a large bowl. Mix the hung curd, mayonnaise and salt well in a separate bowl and then add it to the chopped cabbage.

Once the oven beeps ready, leave the chicken in the tin for 7-10 mins so that all the juices can go back into the chicken. Tip the meat out of the tin and slice it just like you have seen it happen at the eateries.

Layer your flatbread with a generous amount of mayonnaise & hot sauce and then pile the meat onto the flat breads with coleslaw and crispy french-fries.

Any leftovers can be refrigerated in a container and consumed at a later point. Yummy yum yum

Tips to remember

• Use boneless meat to dive right in

• Thawing the meat completely at room temperature is very important in order to ensure thorough cooking

• If you are making the mayo at home, please ensure to get the right consistency as a runny mayonnaise would make the Qubbus (Arabic bread) very soggy

• You may measure out the powdered spices at a go and store it for ready-mix shawarma masala

Suggested accompaniments

• French-fries

• Aerated drinks