Yes, yes. I know. It's been awhile. Where have I been? Oh you know. Just took a trip to Atlanta, studying my little butt off at school, having the flu, dance rehearsals, etc--I've barely had time to cook anything! I went to Atlanta to see my boyfriend a few weeks back and made some of my favorite go-tos for him... cheese curds, crepes and sausage and white bean stew. I don't know why I've never blogged about the crepes before but he's coming to visit this weekend so maybe I'll be able to finally blog about them. Atlanta was great though. The first night I was there Ben took me out to dinner at an Italian restaurant and I had THE best meal of my life. Of course I started looking at the menu at least a week before we went so I would know what I wanted to get. I decided on the sausage, apple and parmesan ravioli in a apple cider reduction sauce. Oh man. It was sweet and savory and salty all at the same time. I was worried that it would be too sweet but it had just the right amount of everything. Ben had the lobster ravioli which was also really good, probably the best lobster ravioli I've ever had. But that sausage and apple ravioli. Oh I have dreams about it. Whenever anyone asks about my trip to Atlanta I start with a 20 minute description of the ravioli. Poor boy. He has to listen to me talk about food for like 5 hours a day. He tried to get the recipe of the ravioli for me (probably so I could make it for him) but wasn't able to get it from them. They laughed at him. So sad. Ahh I guess I'll just have to keep dreaming about this ravioli until I can make it back there to have it again.
Anyways, Chicken Shawarma. There's this restaurant in Madison called Med Cafe that I lovvveee. I'm seriously obsessed. They have the best hummus and pita bread ever. I always get the chicken akin's plate with chicken shawarma, tabouli, yogurt sauce and some hummus and pita. The place only takes cash, it's cheap, always packed and you're in and out within 20 minutes. It's awesome. I decided to try to make some chicken shawarma myself. There's so many different kinds of recipes for chicken shawarma on the internet. All I knew was that it was garlicky and lemony and that's it. I'm not sure what I made was authentic chicken shawarma, but it's still really really good. Chicken thighs were on sale at my grocery store so I got crafty and Youtubed how to debone a chicken thigh in order to save some money. This is probably something I'll continue to do as it's really not very hard and it's a lot cheaper. The chicken is perfectly spiced and not too overpowering. It makes a really nice pita sandwich and pairs perfectly with a simple lemon yogurt sauce. You could get more complicated with the sauce if you want, but I think just the lemon and yogurt works great. I apologize for the novel today, I've just missed blogging. Moral of the longest story ever? Eat chicken shawarma.
Ingredients:
2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
1 tsp curry powder
2 tsp olive oil
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cumin
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 lb skinless, boneless chicken breast, cut into bite sized pieces (I used 4 chicken thighs instead)
1/2 cup plain greek yogurt
1-2 tsp lemon juice
4 pita pockets
spinach
feta crumbles
Directions:
In a large bowl, combine 2 tbsp fresh lemon juice, curry powder, olive oio, salt, cumin and garlic. Mix well. Toss the chicken pieces in the sauce and coat well. Allow the chicken to sit in the mixture for 20 minutes at room temperature. In the meantime, to prepare sauce, in a small bowl mix together 1/2 cup greek yogurt with 1 or 2 teaspoons of fresh lemon juice, depending on your tastes. I really like lemon and wanted a pronounced lemon flavor so I went up to 2 teaspoons. Set aside. Heat a large skillet on medium and coat the pan with olive oil or cooking spray. Cook the chicken in the pan, about 2 minutes per side, or until thoroughly cooked through. Remove from the heat. To assemble pitas, take a pita pocket and slather the inside with the yogurt sauce. Then some of the spinach and feta crumbles. Add some pieces of chicken and then add more spinach and feta (It took me all week to perfect this arrangement). Enjoy!
Yields about 4 servings.
Source: Adapted from MyRecipes.com
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