When life gives you lemons, make shawarma at home. Seeing as current world events have forbid me from going out to buy shawarma for 2 week, that’s just what I’ll do.
My house opened up to me back in 2018. Located in beautiful Corktown, it truly is a wonderful house full of great foods. The gentleman in the kitchen is a top notch fellow, and a fantastic cook. His hand hygiene is a little questionable, but hey, who’s perfect?
The first step in a good mock shawarma is a good blend of spices. Tumeric, cumin, and allspice are big players here. A bit of cinnamon too. Cinnamon’s an odd duck, here in the west we mostly use it as a desert spice, but in the east they use it on all sorts of meats and such. I’m a fan of both. Take your spice blend, mix it with some oil, and marinate some chopped up chicken in it overnight.
The next day you are going to want to take those marinated pieces and put them on a skewer. If you don’t have any skewers and aren’t allowed in the store to buy some, you can simply sharpen some chopsticks like I’ve done. Take those skewer and head out to the grill. When you realize you’re out of propane, and aren’t allowed in the store to buy some, simply head back in to the oven. I like to cook them for an hour, rotating them often to try to mimic real spit-roasted action.
Gather some other ingredients, I’ve gone with lettuce, tomato, and onion. I was feeling extra ambitious and hand made some toum. If you don’t have any pita bread, and you’re not allowed in the store to buy some, simply make a shawarma salad!
The different ingredients in this shawarma salad play well together. The chicken is crispy and delicious, a convincing imitation of the real deal! The garlic and hot sauces have some intensity and really wrap the whole package up nicely.
If you ever get the chance to try shawarma at my house, I really recommend it! The food is great, and the spectacle of making it is quite fun. I’ll definitely be having shawarma at my house again, probably soon! 10/10
hamiltonshawarma.com 