Chicken Doner Kebab

How to make chicken doner kebab.

The ” Döner ” is the most traditional Turkish dish and best known worldwide.

It consists of preparing thin sheets of lamb, chicken or veal meat, which are previously cooked on a vertical lathe. And hence the expression ” döner kebab “, which means ” grilled meat that goes round .”

This meat is then usually accompanied by vegetables and other accessories. It is tasted inside a traditional pita bread , which you can also make at home or in the ” durum ” version , in a kind of rolled pancake.

As a final touch and as a further suggestion, a yogurt sauce or the well-known tzatziti sauce is added .

This “street” dish can be found in many places, since Turkish food has spread throughout Europe, including our country. But there is nothing like preparing it at home, with basic ingredients and that will not take too much work.

This time I have decided on chicken, which is an easy to cook meat, cheap and delicious with the marinade that we are going to make in the recipe.

If you like Arabic cuisine , I recommend other dishes that you can find on the blog, very healthy and that also fit into a vegetarian or vegan diet , in some cases.

These include falafel with a yogurt sauce , hummus or chickpea cream , baba ganoush or eggplant cream or a delicious tabouleh , Lebanese couscous salad. How are you going to make your kebab?

Preparing the chicken for the doner kebab

1. The first thing we will do is to bone the thighs, to be left with only the meat.
2. If you don’t mess around with this, tell the butcher when you buy them. Also remove parts of fat or tendons.    
3. Peel the garlic clove and mince it very fine.
4. In a large bowl, add the Greek yogurt, minced garlic, spices, lemon juice, extra virgin olive oil and salt to taste.
5. We mix everything well, until it turns out a homogeneous cream.
6. We cut the meat into large pieces. We add it to the bowl with the marinade, and mix everything well.
7. So that all the pieces of chicken are well smeared. Cover with a transparent film and leave to marinate in the cold for at least an hour.
8. Peel the onion and cut it into a thin julienne. We cut the tomato into thick slices, and then into quarters. We reserve.
9. In a pan with a little extra virgin olive oil, fry the chicken with the marinade (cream).
10. Round and round, until golden on both sides. We remove and cut it into strips.

Preparation of chicken doner kebab

1. The pita bread comes already prepared, but you have to heat it. You can do it in the oven, but a more practical way is to use a toaster. In 3-4 minutes it will be ready.
2. Assembling the doner kebab: we open the pita bread with a knife (careful not to burn), leaving an opening, where we will fill it. We start with a base of chopped lettuce, then the tomato in pieces, the chicken meat, and a little onion.
3. As a final touch, we accompany a yogurt sauce or the well-known Greek sauce “tzatziti”.

As always, at the end of the entry you have the photos of the step by step. Do not miss any detail of this chicken doner Kebab recipe .

Tips for a Chicken Doner Kebab.

• At home, when I have an occasion, we usually buy free range chicken meat from the Ourensana brand COREN , a cooperative from my homeland, Ourense, that raises animals in semi freedom and fed on cereals. A quality product protected by the Galicia Calidade brand .
• It is recommended to mount the ” doner kebab ” with the hot chicken or at least warm. We will better appreciate the intense flavor of the marinade. You can leave the meat prepared in advance, and then heat it at the last moment, before mounting the dish on the pita bread.
• This recipe I have prepared with a combination of spices that give a delicious flavor to marinated chicken. If there is any ingredient that you dislike, there is no problem in replacing it, although you do not change too many things, otherwise it would not be a traditional Turkish kebab.
• This plate is also perfect to take to work. Wrap it in plastic wrap or aluminum foil, without adding the sauce, and then heat it up when you eat it. Once hot, add a little sauce, which you take apart.
• The “durum” option, instead of pita bread, is with wheat or corn pancakes. The assembly is also very simple. Add a similar filling to the pancake and then roll it up. We cut in half (to make it more manageable) and that’s it.