Chicken Shawarma

Method

1. Squeeze the lemon and grate the garlic; set aside half the lemon juice and about a third of the garlic for the sauce. In a bowl, mix the yoghurt, the rest of the lemon juice and garlic, three-quarters of the olive oil, the baharat, cumin, paprika, turmeric and salt. Add the chicken and massage the marinade in well. Cover and refrigerate for at least 1 h; overnight makes it even more tender and flavourful.

   Add in this stepBoneless, skinless chicken thighs 400 gPlain yoghurt 3 tbspLemon ½Garlic cloves 3¼Olive oil 1½ tbspBaharat (Lebanese seven-spice mix) 2 tspGround cumin 1 tspPaprika 1 tspGround turmeric ½ tspSalt 1 tsp

2. Take the chicken out of the fridge 30 minutes before cooking. Preheat the oven to 220°C for 15 min and line a baking tray with baking paper.

   oven

3. Spread the chicken thighs on the tray, marinade and all, without letting them touch, and roast in the oven at 220°C for 24 min. They are done when the edges are charred in spots and the thickest part shows no pink, with clear juices (75 °C in the centre).

   oven

4. While the chicken roasts, make the garlic sauce: stir the reserved garlic and lemon juice into the mayonnaise. Raw garlic is strong, so taste and adjust. Cut the pickles into long strips, slice the tomato into thin half-moons and roughly chop the parsley.

   Add in this stepMayonnaise 4 tbspLemon ½Garlic cloves 1¾

5. Move the chicken to a board, rest it for 5 min, then slice it into thin 1 cm strips. Heat the remaining oil in a 24 cm frying pan over medium-high heat, add the sliced chicken and the juices from the tray and fry for 2 min, until the edges crisp up. This gives you the toasty edges of spit-roasted shawarma.

   Add in this stepOlive oil ½ tbsp

   medium-high heat

6. Lay out a flatbread, spread it generously with garlic sauce and line up chicken, pickles, tomato and parsley down the middle. Fold in the sides and roll up tightly from the bottom. Heat a dry pan over medium heat, put the wrap in seam-side down and toast for 1 min per side until crisp, working in batches if the pan is small. Cut in half and eat straight away.

   Add in this stepThin pita or Lebanese flatbread (large) 2Tomato 1Pickled cucumbers 4Flat-leaf parsley 10 g

   medium heat