Chicken Shawarma

Can you spring for another chicken dish? 

Chicken Shawarma

Cook's Notes: The true Middle Eastern way to serve Chicken Shawarma is in pita pockets or wraps with heaps of veggies, chicken and a simple yogurt Tzatziki Sauce. Marinating the chicken for 1-2 hours keeps it moist and adds more flavor. Recipe makes four pita pockets. 
Pair the meal with nutritious basmati brown rice or tabbouleh salad.
I used a shortcut for the recipe above adding coleslaw instead of chopped tomatoes. 

Chicken Marinade Ingredients:

• 3 large boneless chicken breasts, sliced thin
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 3 TB. lemon juice
•  3/4 tsp. each cumin and paprika
• 1/4 tsp. each ground cinnamon and tumeric
• 3 garlic cloves, minced

Directions:

• Place all ingredients in a large zip loc bag.
• Marinate chicken for 1-2 hours, drain in a colander.
• Bake chicken in a covered dish for 30 minutes at 350 degrees or grill chicken pieces on  foil.
• Grill or bake pitas until warm.
• Optional serving suggestions include: diced tomatoes and cucumbers, chopped lettuce and red onions or coleslaw.

Tzatziki Sauce Ingredients:

• 1/3 cup diced cucumber
• 1 container (5.3 oz.) Plain Greek Yogurt
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 tsp. fresh lemon juice
• 1 tsp, olive oil or Lemon Olive Oil
• 1/2 tsp. each dill weed and parsley flakes
• a few grinds of sea salt
• dash freshly ground pepper

Tzatziki Sauce Directions:
Whisk to blend smooth.

Kindness
by Naomi Shihab Nye

Before you know what kindness really is
you must lose things,
feel the future dissolve in a moment
like salt in a weakened broth.
What you held in your hand,
what you counted and carefully saved,
all this must go so you know
how desolate the landscape can be
between the regions of kindness.
How you ride and ride
thinking the bus will never stop,
the passengers eating maize and chicken
will stare out the window forever.

Before you learn the tender gravity of kindness
you must travel where the Indian in a white poncho
lies dead by the side of the road.
You must see how this could be you,
how he too was someone
who journeyed through the night with plans
and the simple breath that kept him alive.

Before you know kindness as the deepest thing inside,
you must know sorrow as the other deepest thing.
You must wake up with sorrow.
You must speak to it till your voice
catches the thread of all sorrows
and you see the size of the cloth.
Then it is only kindness that makes sense anymore,
only kindness that ties your shoes
and sends you out into the day to gaze at bread,
only kindness that raises its head
from the crowd of the world to say
It is I you have been looking for,
and then goes with you everywhere
like a shadow or a friend.

From "Words Under the Words: Selected Poems." Copyright © 1995 by Naomi Shihab Nye. Reprinted with the permission of the author.