Chicken Doner Kebab

Ingredients

Preparation

Juicy, succulent chicken thigh meat wrapped in a flavourful spice paste and cooked over live fire. This is so good, and for once I’m not going to tell you that you can recreate this using your oven. You just can’t. But you don’t need a rotisserie to cook it either. You can achieve the same tasty results using any BBQ that has a lid.

I first cooked this last summer and was blown away. Since then, I’ve tweaked the recipe and now I’m really, really happy with it. It’s a great recipe if you’re having guests over (or not) and you can easily double the amount of chicken without needing to alter the amount of spice paste. The leftovers are amazing too! Sandwiches, mixed with a bit of mayo and mounded on top of a baked potato, scattered over a crisp, green salad. It’s so versatile.

Less of the chat, I’ll just get right down to the recipe.

1. Set up your BBQ either with a rotisserie attachment, as I’ve used, or for indirect cooking at 190-200˚C/370-390˚F;
2. Place the chicken in a large bowl and, in a separate bowl, mix the rest of the ingredients together really well. Don’t worry about the amount of oil. Its purely there for marinating purposes and won’t all end up in the finished dish;
3. Pour the marinade over the chicken thighs and mix everything together thoroughly. You want every bit of chicken smothered in the paste. I like to get my hands in there but I recommend wearing a pair of disposable gloves if you do. Leave to marinade for at least a couple of hours, overnight is best;
4. If you have a rotisserie I find that attaching one fork, holding the bar vertically and threading the chicken on from the top works best, so far as having a nicely balanced doner goes. When all the chicken has been threaded on, slide on the second fork and make sure both are tightened up snugly against the chicken. I also like to use a bit of ‘scaffolding’, and I take some metal skewers and insert them on each side too. This stops any stray pieces flopping about while it’s on the rotisserie and keeps it nice and neat. If you’re not using a rotisserie, you’ll need 6 large metal skewers. Take 3 of the skewers and lay them side by side. Thread your chicken onto the skewers so that you have one central skewer and one either side. When all the meat is threaded on, insert the remaining skewers from the opposite end, securing everything together;
5. Place the chicken on the rotisserie and cook until the internal temperature reaches 165˚F/74˚C. It took about 1 hour 45 minutes for this particular cook, however cooking times will vary depending on the size of your chicken thighs. I usually check it after 1 hour, and every 15 minutes after that. If you feel it’s browning quicker than you’d like, just wrap a piece of foil loosely around the meat. You want your chicken cooked all the way through but no over cooked and dry. If using the indirect cooking method on your grill, set the meat on the cool side of the grill and place the lid on. Turn the doner over every 20 minutes until you achieve the correct internal temperature. You can finish it off over the coals to get some nice crispy bits.

We serve it sliced straight off the spit into homemade flatbreads stuffed with salad and our favourite sauces.