It is more economical to buy the whole chicken – Chicken Shawarma

It is more economical to buy the whole chicken – Chicken Shawarma

In this current health crisis we have been trying to make better use of our food and make fewer calls on our food suppliers.  One area that this has worked well with is chicken.  So often an ‘also ran’ meat – but from well reared chicken, a fantastic source of healthy meat protein.  We would normally always buy free range chicken – but at times in this crisis that has not been easy, but I don’t think this is the time to take the moral high ground, but rather be grateful for what is available.

Which ever sort of chicken you get, there is so much you can do with it.  Clearly you can roast a chicken whole, but often you don’t want that much at a single sitting especially if there are just 2 of you.  Routinely, if we were to buy portions we would buy chicken thighs or breast as neither Jackie or I are that fond of the drumstick or wing.   However, from a cost point of view, if you want 2 chicken thighs and 2 chicken breast it is cheaper to buy a whole chicken and get the wings, drumsticks and carcass thrown in free!  There are other advantages too.  When you butcher down the carcass you can chose to leave the skin on, (it is easy to take off later if you change your mind) or you can butcher the breasts to leave the first wing joint attached (the so called chicken supreme) often difficult to get hold of or an expensive cut.   Butchering a chicken is very easy and there are loads of YouTube videos to show you how – we are yet to make ours!!!

So with a standard break up of the chicken you will get: 2 breasts, 2 thighs, 2 drumsticks, 2 wings and the carcass for stock!  We have been getting large free range chickens for as little as £6.00.  If corn fed, and organic you can double this price but if you think what can be done with that it is still really economical!  We have already published a couple of dishes combining a pan roasted breast with either boned and stuffed wings or drumsticks.

The carcass is always used to make homemade stock for soups and other cooks – and this is a truly valuable and versatile product (more of this later).  So from our basic chicken the only part we haven’t used are the chicken thighs – which I have to say is the most adaptable of cuts.  Great uses for chicken thighs include Mediterranean or Root Vegetable tray bakes, Coq au Vin and of course a Chicken Shawarma

As we had just butchered our 3rd chicken since lock down we now had 6 chicken thighs. We had also bought a new Shawarma Spike which we wanted to tryout – more details below.  On this occasion therefore we chose to make the Chicken Shawarma using the recipe we have published previously The details for this can be found by clicking this link and the recipe can be found below.

The Shawarma Spike is short enough to use in the Minimax as can be seen here, but can also be extended and then you would need to use it in the Large.  You may get away with it in the Medium but we have not been able to verify that.  The base is a flat mirror finish stainless steel.  As there is no rim to the base this needs to be sat on a baking tray or other cooking surface with a raised edge to contain the cooking juices.

The chicken was left to cook at around 160-70C for around one and a half to 2 hours.  The internal and the oven temperature were monitored with a Meater+.

When nearly cooked with a core temperature at 74C the vents were closed on the Egg and the chicken left until we were ready to eat – whilst this is not quite ‘resting’ in the true sense it worked very well and is really convenient.  The

Chicken was being served with Pitta bread, a green salad and a coleslaw.
The chicken was staggeringly tender and moist and rather than carve it straight off the spike the chicken was removed and sliced on a cutting board, then placed on a serving platter on a bed of salad.

The results were vary moreish!  the 6 large chicken thighs comfortably fed 2 of us with enough left over for a generous cold lunch the following day.  Packed into a small Pitta bread with the salad and coleslaw – just fabulous!

 

……………………….do give it a go!

 

Footnote:  We have been trying to trace a supplier for a Shawarma spike in the UK and we found one a few weeks ago.  This was it’s first outing.  It is really well made and the spike comes in two sections so could be used on the large or the MiniMax (and if you are carful I am sure on the Mini).  They refer to it as a Gyrospike.  I have to say it is very good – you need to sit it in a pan or on a tray, but I am delighted we have bought it.  Money well spent –  I did add a link but that failed a few times so you will need to Google gyrospike

Shawarma Chicken

May 28, 2020
: 2-3
: 1 hr
: 2 hr
: Straightforward

Roasted stacked chicken thighs in spicy yogurt

By:

Ingredients
  • 6 large boneless skinless chicken thighs
  • Half an onion
  • 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
  • 3 tbsp wine vinegar
  • Juice of a lemon
  • 125g of greek yogurt
  • 1 tsp cumin
  • 1 tsp paprika
  • 1/2 tsp allspice
  • 1/2 tsp turmeric
  • 1/4 tsp garlic powder
  • 1/4 tsp cinnamon
  • 1 pinch cayenne
  • 4 cardamon pods ground (husks removed)
  • Salt and black pepper
Directions
  • Step 1 Mix the spices with the yogurt, vinegar, olive oil and lemon juice.  
  • Step 2 Into this mix stir in the boneless chicken thighs.  Cover the dish and allow to marinate for around 14 hours in the fridge
  • Step 3 When ready to cook, add half an onion to the spike then assemble the meat on top. Top off with half a lemon (optional)
  • Step 4 Set up the BGE for indirect cooking with the platesetter in the ‘feet up position’.  Once at 200C add the chicken tower. Allow the temperature to fall over the first hour to around  170C. Cook until the core temperature approaches 74C. Hold for at least 10 mins
  • Step 5 Remove the shawarma from the EGG and wrap loosely with foil and leave to rest for 5-10 mins or so.  
  • Step 6 Slice the chicken and serve with a green salad, coleslaw and Pitta breads

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