Turkey-Chicken Shawarma (with a Nigerian twist)
Before I begin can I just say there is sharwama and there is Nigerian Shawarma! I remember when I left Nigeria for school and I wanted to buy shawarma in Canada, oh my goodness I was so disappointed. I thought it was the same but it was just a wrap packed with raw vegetables and hot sauce (not a big fan to be honest) but oh well. Now each time I go to Nigeria, I must have sharwama - so creamy and hot (my dresses testify when I go back!). I never liked cold wraps, at least not until I got used to 'abroad' sharwama LOL. A few weeks ago, I decided to make this shawarma, when I got fed up with the price of one shawarma(do I hear someone say 'or you became broke'?). I just could not take it anymore. This is how I made mine, and it was definitely pretty close to what you would buy. Now this is not going to be the only recipe of shawarma I will post on here! I plan to make better varieties of shawarma, but till then, let us enjoy this basic Turkey & Chicken sharwama! EASY, CHEAP AND MOST IMPORTANTLY, YUMMY!.
You will need:
1kg boneless chicken or Turkey; or half of each
Shawarma wraps
1teaspoon white pepper
3 small bouillon cubes or 1 tablespoon crushed bouillon cubes (I use Knorr).
1.5 teaspoon dry pepper
1 tablespoon suya pepper (optional)
1/4 teaspoon curry
1/4 teaspoon thyme
1.5 teaspoon salt
7 small carrots.
For the creamy sauce
3 tablespoon mayonnaise
2 tablespoon salad cream
1 tablespoon ketchup
1/2 - 1 teaspoon of red pepper or cayenne pepper (for the cream mixture depending on how spicy you want it).
Note: If you run out of cream, you can make another just make sure the ratio should always be 3 tablespoon (mayonnaise) : 2 tbsp (salad cream) : 1 tbsp (ketchup)
Method
1. Wash and chop your chicken and turkey into chunky pieces.
2. Marinate them with the knorr cubes, curry thyme, salt, pepper and suya spice. Leave to rest for at least an hour or more.
3. You can grill your chicken in the oven and shred after OR place chopped raw chicken peices in a pan with little oil and let it sizzle and stir fry till its golden brown.
4. Grate your carrots and thinly slice the cabbage. You can add other varieties of vegetables as you wish.
5. Mix the ketchup, mayonnaise and salad cream in a bowl. Add your desired amount of dry pepper to give it spice.
6. Now get a medium sized clean bowl, pour in your vegetables in ratio to your desired cream mixture, add in the ketchup mayonnaise mix and add in the grilled turkey and chicken cuts.
7. Mix together and get your wrap ready. Put the chicken and cream filling into the wrap and fold together till its tight and round. Just like it is in the picture above.
8. If you have a barbecue grill place the wrap on a hot grill for two minutes on each side to get it hot and toasted. If you do not have a shawarma or barbecue grill use a flat, wide frying pan and heat on fire (which is what i used)
9. Place the wrap on the hot pan and let it toast on both sides for two minutes till it is toasted.
10. Once it is toasted your shawarma is ready to eat!
Enjoy! As always constructive feedback is welcome & let us know how your shawarma turned out.
ps: pardon my lack of pictures, promise my next shawarma recipe will be much better with pictures!
Love,
Joba