Chinese Fakeaway

As part of my current attempt at healthier eating, I've completely cut out takeaway food and, as such, it's been over a year since the last time I ate a chinese takeaway. When it comes to chinese food I'm fairly predictable in regards to what I order, I nearly always have some form of chow mein, because I absolutely love noodles. This weekend my parents had a chinese takeaway and, because I was insanely close to caving in and ordering the house special noodles, I decided to join them by cooking my own. I made a chinese style roasted lean pork loin, marinated and cooked in a sauce made with onion, ginger, garlic, rice wine vinegar, dark soy sauce, oyster sauce, chinese five spice and honey (I actually used a low calorie fruit syrup, as a replacement, to cut the sugar content and the number of calories). I served this over a bed of egg noodles and stir fried vegetables, both of which I flavoured with some of the left over marinade.

Homemade Chicken Doner Style Kebab

So I’ve been playing around with homemade doner style kebabs recently, this is my take on the chicken doner.

You will need:
5 skinned and boned chicken thighs
1 large onion
1 large red pepper

For the marinade:
2tbsp natural yoghurt
1tbsp tomato puree
1tsp oregano
1tsp garlic powder
1tsp onion powder
1tsp smoked paprika
1tsp cumin
1tsp cayenne pepper
1/2tsp ground black pepper
1/2tsp salt
The juice of half a lemon

To serve:
Pita bread/flat bread/tortilla wraps
Mint yoghurt sauce
Salad

Method:
1. Put the chicken thighs in a bowl, add in all the marinade ingredients and give it a good mix with your hands, massaging it into the meat. Allow the meat to marinate for a couple of hours minimum, ideally over night.
2. Fold the thighs over and feed them onto 2 skewers, using 2 will make the kebab easier to turn and handle later on.
3. Place on a raised grill rack over a fairly deep baking tray and put into a 225 degree (Celsius) preheated oven for 30 minutes.
4. After 30 minutes take it out of the oven and turn the kebab over using the skewers, baste with the juices in the bottom of the baking tray before adding the roughly sliced onion and pepper to they tray.
5. Put it back in the oven for another 30 minutes until the meat, onions and peppers have started to caramelise around the edges.
6. Remove from the oven and allow the meat to rest for 5 minutes or so before carving, as seen in your local kebab shop.

Notes:
Serve on a tray with the pita bread/flat breads, mint yoghurt sauce and salad.