Ingredients
- Chicken thighs (I got mine from Philip Warren online butchers)
- Angus & Oink Shawarma rub
- Belazu Shawarma paste
- Lemon juice
- Sunflower oil
- Tortilla wraps (I like the small ones, but big ones would work just as well)
- Cabbage/Carrot/Chipotle coleslaw
- 6-8 fat mild chillis
It all got a bit noughties food fusion here this week as I merged middle eastern Shawarma flavours with Mexican street food. This made a great after-work meal – as quick and simple as Forrest Gump – but you can do as much chicken as you have room on your grill to serve at a suitably social distanced gathering in your garden of up to 6 people (as long as you are reading this after March 29th 2021).
For 2 people, marinate 4 good sized boned chicken thighs with Belazu shawarma paste, Angus & Oink Shawarma rub, a glug of sunflower oil, a squeeze of lemon and salt and pepper. Cover your bowl with cling film and rest in the fridge while you light your Egg/Smoker/BBQ/Griddle, aiming for a pretty fierce heat (250C or so). I used the cast-iron grate in my Egg as I was keen to get some really good black bar marks on the chicken.
While your grill is heating up, make a portion of Cabbage, Carrot and Chiplotle Coleslaw which I’ve covered in a previous post – this will be one of the veg elements in your finished tacos.
When you’re ready, put your chicken thighs onto your grill and resist the temptation to move them for a good few minutes; this will help develop the grill lines we’re aiming for. One way of judging when to flip is when the meat stops sticking to the grill (I guess there’s some Maillard-related science to this where proteins denature and change shape). Once both sides have had 2-3 minutes, you can flip them more frequently. More flips = more grill marks = more deliciousness. After a few turns each side, give the fattest part of each chicken piece a poke with a meat thermometer. You are aiming for 75C to make sure it’s safely cooked. If you don’t have a meat thermometer, you can just slice through the fat part and see how pink it is. If it’s pink, keep on cooking…
Once you are happy they are done, take the thighs off the grill and cover with foil to rest.
Now take your chillis, remove the grill and drop them directly onto your embers. The aim here is to blacken them all over but not to cook them so much that they lose their texture. To achieve this, they need to be turned frequently and you either need long tongs or a heat proof mitt. Or both. It only takes 4-5 minutes and when they are done, take them off and rest them on a plate. While they are resting, put your grill back over the fire and warm your tacos through – this will take only 30 seconds each side. Any longer and you will get a blackened frisbee; it will still be delicious, but harder to wrap into the finished product. After 5 minutes or so, the blackened skin of the chillis should peel away pretty easily and once you’ve got it off, chop the stalk off, slice each one in half, scrape the seeds out and chop into smallish chunks. Slice your chicken into bite-sized pieces.
Build the tacos by layering the coleslaw, then the chilli, then the chicken. If you have it, top them off with a bit of green coriander and maybe a squeeze of lime. Roll your sleeves up, because they are JUICY! If, as I am, you are the proud wearer of a beard then paper towels are a must. If you have children, make sure you have a hanky up your sleeve that you can spit on and wipe their chops with afterwards (do people still do this or was it just 70’s Mums that built this skill at Mum school?). All in all this was a great meal which was fun to cook and delicious to eat. From raw ingredients to full, satisfied tummies was no more than an hour which might a stretch for some on a school night, but would work brilliantly for the Fam while watching Saturday Night Takeaway…
While you are here…
…I have a favour to ask.
I have found the process of writing this blog a very cathartic one. It’s taken my mind away from the stresses and strains of COVID, lockdown and work and has focussed my weekend attention on meal planning and trying to take better food pictures. I hope you’ve enjoyed reading what I have written. Having done as I intended and set up an Instagram and Twitter account, I have felt the incessant lure of social media and, like the Millennium Falcon caught in the Death Star’s tractor beam I am being dragged further in. I’m not sure I like it. It’s nice to get a good comment or two, but it is less fun fighting off the junk messages, the scammers and the trolls.
I’d like to build up this site a bit more – I’m in control of what is here and I would like to be less reliant on other platforms. I’m not looking to turn any profit or start a new career as an influencer but writing is making me happy, less fraught and a bit calmer. I hope it’s not too narcissistic to hope that a few more folk will read what I’ve written. To that end, once you’ve finished reading this can I ask you to follow the site – scroll to the bottom of the homepage and enter your email address. Each time I post something new, you’ll get a notification in your inbox. If you have friends or family that like food, maybe it wouldn’t be too much of an imposition to share the site’s URL with them.
Happy cooking and grazie mille,
Sam
Live Fire Journal 