The Delicious Corner

Passport & Plate - Pita bread chicken

Bosnia & Herzegovina | Friday, March 14, 2014 | 5 photos

Ingredients:
- 1 or 2 pieces of chicken thighs

For the marinade:

- 1 tablespoon of ribbed garlic
- 1/2 teaspoon of turmeric powder
- 1 teaspoon of curry powder
- 1 teaspoon of pepper
- 3 tablespoons of yogurt
- salt to taste

For Tahini sauce:
- 1 cup of sesame seeds
- 1/4 cup of olive oil
- 1 teaspoon of minced garlic
- 2 tablespoons of yogurt
- 2 or 3 teaspoons of lemon juice
- salt to taste

For the pita bread:
- 1 cup of warm water
- 2 teaspoons of dry instant yeast
- 3 cups of all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons of salt
- 1 or two teaspoons of olive oil

For the salad:
- 1 cucumber
- 2 tomatoes
- lettuce (optional)
How to prepare this recipe:
1. Wash and clean the chicken thighs and marinade them with the ribbed garlic, turmeric powder, curry powder, pepper, yogurt and salt; leave it in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours.
2. Pita bread: mix the warm water and the dry yeast and leave it for at least 5 minutes. Then mix it all with the flour, salt and olive oil. Stir until a shaggy dough is formed. Leave the dough to rest for 1 or 2 hours.
3. Roast the marinated chicken thighs in a pan and then slice it into cubes.
4. Tahini sauce: dry roast the sesame seeds and combine it with garlic in the mortar and pestle. After forming a smooth texture add olive oil and the rest of the ingredients. The consistency of the sauce should be creamy to liquid.
5. From the prepared dough form 5 small pitas. Make sure your working surface is sprinkled with some flour. Roll the pitas making a 8-9 inches wide circles. Warm a cast iron skillet over a medium-high heat with little or no oil. Then bake each side of the pita circles for about 30 seconds.
6. Chop the vegetables into cubes.
7. Spread the Tahini sauce on the pita breads and place few spoons of chicken and salad cubes and roll it gently.

The story behind this recipe:

The story behind this extraordinary recipe is quite romantic. Because of the inevitable circumstance of me being a student, I could not travel as often as I would like to for the past few years. I always wanted to explore the middle east culture and cuisine, so my boyfriend and I wanted to go one day together. But he got the opportunity to go there when I could not because of my exams. Before he went, I wanted to impress him with my culinary skills. So a couple of weeks before he went I gave myself a mission to make a delicious, spicy and exotic middle eastern dish. But I wanted to be original. So I explore the good, old internet and got a pretty wide spectrum of ideas which I combined in a very special dish for me and my boyfriend. So I made us a fine dinner and we enjoyed it with our families. Everyone was delighted and my boyfriend went to Iran after a couple of weeks. After that I made him several times my Pita bread chicken and he acknowledged that the first taste of it reminded him of the time he spent in the beautiful Iran.