We're gonna make a za'atar chicken shawarma.
So, for the base of the marinade...
I've already got that sitting in this bowl.
I whisked it together here.
All we have in here is the juice of a lemon
and the zest,
tahini or sesame paste, right?
About a quarter cup of that.
You thin it out a little bit with water
until it becomes the consistency of a
salad dressing
and then, I whisked in a couple tablespoons
of good fruity EVOO
for the flavor.
We are going to add a little salt to that
and then we're gonna build the rest of the spice blend
in this little bowl and divide.
So, we're gonna start with
about three tablespoons each of sumac.
So, now we're gonna use about one palm full each
of coriander,
which is really bright.
That was three tablespoons each
of our sesame and the sumac.
We're gonna add coriander's best friend,
cumin, and then up next,
a very kind of mild to moderate heat pepper,
Aleppo.
Any chili powder blend will do.
I like to take Aleppo
or ancho
and put it with a little hot paprika.
I use less of the hot paprika.
Well, because it's hot,
it's spicy
and I don't want this to be too spicy.
Then I use about a half a palm full each
of oregano and thyme.
If you only have one in the pantry,
two teaspoons will do ya,
and about the same amount of granulated garlic.
Now, we've got our blend.
Get your blend on
and we're gonna put about two thirds in here
and reserve the rest for the sauce
that we're going to pass at the table.
So, here's our marinade
and this is not a long marinade.
If you wanna do it the night before,
nothing's gonna happen, okay?
But you can do it as little as 30 to 60 minutes
before you're gonna cook this.
This is two and a half pounds of chicken tenders
or you can of course cut up
three pieces per thigh
of boneless, skinless chicken thigh.
For breast,
I cut it on a bias into four pieces
and then, we just mix this all together with wedged onion
and you get your broiler nice and hot
and I put the rack one above center oven
and it takes 20 to 25 minutes,
turning the chicken and the onions once,
until it's nice and brown and crispy
at the edges
and cooked through, of course.
So, for the sauce,
we're going to take
a quarter-cup of our sesame paste
or tahini.
Then we're gonna add to that
one cup of plain yogurt,
Greek yogurt.
The rest of za'atar spice,
throw that in there.
We made our own.
You can buy it already made online
and we're going to add the juice of a lemon,
cut side up,
so that the seeds, of course,
stay with the lemon
and don't fall into your sauce
and I just keep a little bit of water nearby,
in case the sesame paste is too thick.
Couple of tablespoons of the good EVOO.
(blender whirring)
Here is my rice pilaf
with the broken toasted spaghetti and white rice,
cooked in stock with a little crushed garlic.
This is fresh turmeric.
We grow a ton of it here in the states,
in Hawaii,
but of course,
you can just use turmeric from your spice cabinet, as well,
and that just gives you this beautiful,
bright, yellow color
and extra layer of fragrance to it.
So, basically,
we made garlic rice,
oh, with toasted pasta,
and this is our side dish for the shawarma.
Who looks good?
(crowd cheering)
So, I'm gonna pile this onto a giant board,
and then,
of course,
we're gonna take all that juice...
Oh yeah.
(audience clapping)
And then, we're going to take the dill mint
and parsley
everywhere, right?
I know.
(people laughing)
And then, here's our charred giant pitas
to stack this in. (crowd cheering)
And our chopped hot pickled vegetables,
thinly sliced onion,
diced tomatoes,
and lettuce,
our Israeli pickles, (audience clapping)
and
the special sauce!
(crowd cheering)