Harissa and Za'atar Marinated Chicken Kebab with Chilli Raita

Harissa and Za'atar Marinated Chicken Kebab with Chilli Raita

• 6 skinless, boneless chicken thighs, cut into small bite sized chunks
• Juice of 1 small lemon
• 1 tbsp harissa paste
• 1 tbsp Za'atar
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 4 flatbreads or large pitta breads
• 1 head of round lettuce, chopped
• Handful of fresh coriander, roughly chopped
• Handful of fresh parsley, roughly chopped

Tomato & Onion Salad

• 2 tomatoes, roughly chopped
• 1 red onion, roughly chopped
• 2 birds-eye chillies, chopped
• 1/2 cucumber, deseeded and finely chopped
• 1 tbsp white wine vinegar
• Big pinch of sea salt

Chilli Raita

• 200g natural yoghurt
• 1/2 cucumber, deseeded and finely chopped
• 1 green finger chilli, finely chopped

Method:

Mix the chicken with the lemon juice, harissa and Za'atar.  Cover and marinate in the fridge for at least 1 hour, or longer if possible.

To make the salad, mix all the ingredients together and leave to sit for 10 minutes.

Mix together the ingredients for the raita, add a pinch of salt and leave to sit.

Drain the chicken well.  Heat the oil in a non-stick pan or griddle pan and cook the chicken for 3-5 minutes on each side until cooked through, with piping hot juices that are clear when the largest piece is cut in half.

Heat the breads, smear the chilli raita all over, top with the lettuce, salad, chicken and herbs, wrap and enjoy!

This recipe serves four - or two very hungry people!  We both really enjoyed this, fresh and tasty and would be ideal to cook on the BBQ in the summer as it was so quick and easy to prepare.  I had never heard of Za'atar before, turns out it is an eastern spice mix and I managed to get mine from Ocado, no doubt it is also available from most other supermarkets.

The recipe comes from Let's Eat Meat by Tom Parker Bowles, great cookbook with some tasty looking recipes, another one of which I will be making later so keep your eyes peeled as that will be featured soon on the blog.

Chipotle Pork Pittas

Chipotle Pork Pittas

• 4 wholemeal pitta breads
• Kankun Mexican Chitpotle Sauce
• Kankun Mexican Habanero Sauce
• 4 pork loin steaks (1 per pitta)
• Handful of grated cheese
• Rocket & pea shoots
• 1 tbsp Jalapeno peppers finely chopped
• ½ red onion, finely diced
• Handful of cherry tomatoes cut into quarters
• Vegetable/Rapeseed oil

Method:

Place the pork steaks into a container and cover with the Kankun chipotle sauce, mix well to ensure all of the steak is covered and then place into the fridge for at least 30 minutes.

Add a dash of vegetable/rapeseed oil to a frying pan and put on a medium heat. Cook the steaks for a few minutes each side, you will know when they are done when the steaks change colour from pink to a white colour. Remove from the pan and place onto a chopping board and allow to rest for a few minutes. Whilst the steaks are resting, pop your pittas into the toaster and once done cut a slit into each one to make a pocket.

Stuff each pitta with the rocket and pea shoots and then top with cheese. Thinly slice the pork steak and put this into each pitta along with a sprinkle of jalapeno pepper, red onion and some of the quartered tomato and then a good few dollops of Kankun habanero sauce.

I had the pork steaks in the fridge, they were destined for another recipe, I'm so glad I changed my mind and came up with this instead, it was so tasty and quick and easy to make, an ideal mid week dinner for all the family.