Chicken shawarma picnic loaf
Serves: 6
Prep time: 20 minsTotal time: 
Recipe photograph by Kris Kirkham
Chicken shawarma picnic loaf
Layering up succulent Middle Eastern-style spiced chicken with harissa veggies, spinach, whipped feta and a drizzle of tahini, this flavour parcel is going to be on picnic rotation all summer
Serves: 6
Prep time: 20 minsTotal time: 
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Nutritional information (per serving)
Calories
377Kcal
Fat
17gr
Saturates
7gr
Carbs
24gr
Sugars
5gr
Fibre
3gr
Protein
30gr
Salt
1.7gr
Sarah Akhurst
Our Food Director Sarah is a food obsessive, and spends most of her time scoping out the latest food trends, experimenting in her own kitchen, or making her family wait to eat while she photographs every dinner she makes for the 'gram! A complete Middle Eastern food junkie, she is never far from a good shawarma marinade, a pinch of Aleppo chilli or a sprig of dill
See more of Sarah Akhurst’s recipes
Sarah Akhurst
Our Food Director Sarah is a food obsessive, and spends most of her time scoping out the latest food trends, experimenting in her own kitchen, or making her family wait to eat while she photographs every dinner she makes for the 'gram! A complete Middle Eastern food junkie, she is never far from a good shawarma marinade, a pinch of Aleppo chilli or a sprig of dill
See more of Sarah Akhurst’s recipes
Ingredients
For the loaf
- 1 tbsp olive oil, plus extra to grease
- 1 tbsp rose harissa paste
- 1 large aubergine, thinly sliced
- 200g feta
- 150g thick Greek yogurt
- 10g dill
- 1 x 400g white farmhouse loaf
- a couple of handfuls of spinach leaves
- 1 tbsp tahini, stirred
- 200g drained roasted peppers
For the chicken shawarma
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- 1 tsp smoked paprika
- 1⁄2 tsp ground coriander
- 1⁄2 tsp ground turmeric
- 1⁄2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1⁄4 tsp ground ginger
- juice of 1 lemon
- 1 tsp garlic paste
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 500g chicken thigh fillets from a 640g pack (see ‘Waste not’ tip), trimmed
Step by step
Waste not
Blitz the discarded inner bread into crumbs and freeze for later use. The recipe doesn’t use the whole pack of chicken, but there’s enough spice mixture to coat and cook it all – add the extra to a salad.
- Preheat the oven to 200°C, fan 180°C, gas 6. For the chicken shawarma, mix all the ingredients apart from the chicken together in a bowl, to make a paste. Add the chicken and a small pinch of salt and toss to coat. Spread out on a baking tray and roast for 25-30 minutes, or until cooked through.
- Meanwhile, mix the oil with the rose harissa and brush the aubergine slices with the paste. Place on a greased baking tray and roast for 20 minutes, or until soft. Leave the chicken and aubergines to cool.
- Crumble the feta into a food processor, add the yogurt and snip in the dill. Blitz until smooth, season with freshly ground black pepper.
- Slice a lid off the loaf and scoop out the soft crumb from it, then spread with a little of the whipped feta.
- Scoop out the inside of the loaf, leaving around a 1cm-thick shell of bread inside the crust (see ‘Waste not’ tip, above). Spread around one-third of the remaining whipped feta in the bottom of the loaf, then top with a handful of spinach. Add a layer of chicken and a drizzle of the tahini. Add a layer of peppers and aubergines then repeat layers until the loaf is full. Replace the lid on the loaf and wrap it all very tightly in clingfilm. Chill overnight, weighted with a plate and a heavy jar or tin.
-
Remove from the fridge an hour before serving. Cut into chunky slices to serve.To storeKeep in the fridge until shortly before eating. Best eaten within 48 hours of assembling.
