Slow-cooked shawarma chicken

2 HOURS 50 MINUTES + MARINATING | SERVES 6 EASY | GF

Cooking the chicken low and slow means you can just shred the meat away from the bones ready to pack into warm flatbreads.

whole chicken 1.5kg red onion 1 large, cut into thick discs SHAWARMA SPICE BLEND black peppercorns 2 tsp cardamom pods 1 tsp cloves 1 tsp ground allspice 2 tsp garlic salt 2 tsp ground cinnamon 1 tsp dried oregano 1/2 tsp mild chilli powder 1/2 tsp paprika 1/2 tsp olive oil 3 tbsp lemon 1, juiced

TAHINI SAUCE tahini 2 tbsp natural yogurt 6 tbsp garlic 1 clove, crushed lemon 1 juiced

TO SERVE flatbreads or pittas, warmed pickled turnips and chillies red onion slices cucumber slices tomato wedges shredded lettuce chilli sauce

• Grind the whole spices with a spice grinder or pestle and mortar, then mix with the rest of the spices, olive oil and lemon. Rub over the chicken (including the cavity). Marinate overnight in the fridge (take out of the fridge 30 minutes before cooking) or, if short on time, leave for an hour at room temperature.

• Heat the oven to 160C/140C/gas 3.

Put the onions in the bottom of a roasting tin and sit the chicken on top. Cook for 21/2 hours, covering with foil if the chicken is catching (it will go dark with the spices).

• Mix together all of the tahini sauce ingredients and season. Rest the chicken for 20 minutes then pull into chunks and pile onto flatbreads with the accompaniments.

PER SERVING 381 KCALS | FAT 26.9G SATURATES 6.7G | CARBS 6.5G | SUGARS 5.6G FIBRE 2.1G | PROTEIN 27.4G | SALT 1.4G