Homemade German Döner Kebab (Chicken Recipe)

Döner Kebab has officially overtaken the famous Currywurst as the most popular street food in Germany. [Source DW.com] Seasoned, thinly sliced, roasted meat in a sandwich filled with salad and topped with a yogurt sauce. Although you can now eat Döner kebab everywhere in the world, in my opinion, it usually tastes better in Germany.

Let's try to find out what makes it different, know how to make German Döner Kebab at home, and discover why and how it became so famous in Germany.

What is a German Döner Kebab?

A Döner kebab is a type of special type of kebab where marinated meat is stacked up on a larger skewer and then grilled on a vertical rotisserie. The meat is then very thinly sliced. What makes this dish "German" is if it is served as a bread sandwich. Authentic Döner Kebabs from Turkey, where they originate from are served on a plate with rice or potatoes, and not as a sandwich. [Source Wikipedia]

Four components of a German Döner Kebab:

• The bread - There are three different types of Döner bread you can find in Germany: Dönertasche (translated as Dönerpocket) is a larger pita bread-like bread. Dürum Döner bread, which is a tortilla-like flan, where the Döner is rolled up, and Fladenbrot (in English Pide), which is a rough yeast flatbread.
• The Doner meat - Döner Meat is traditionally lamb or mutton. However, in Germany, you can find different types of meat such as beef or poultry. It is stacked up on a skewer and then roasted vertically. Most Döner shops will use a "minced /ground" meat mixture, that is flavored and frozen before being grilled. In Germany, this kind of meat is only allowed to be "Döner-Style meat".
• Döner sauces - The most popular sauces are a white Döner sauce, normally a yogurt garlic sauce, and a spicy red chili Döner sauce. Sometimes tzatziki is used. You can also find variations such as a cocktail sauce, herb sauce, or mustard sauce. The chilli sauce often is a version of "Acili Ezme" a Turkish Chilli Sauce.
• The salads - The Döners are filled with red cabbage, white cabbage, raw onions, feta cheese, tomatoes, and optionally a spicy pepper.

History

The story of the Döner Kebab in Germany starts in the 1970s with Turkish immigrants. They came over as "guest workers" in the 60s. The term guest workers (Gastarbeiter) originated from the belief, that the workers would only stay in Germany for a limited period of time, and then return to their home country. Little did they know, at the time, that Berlin would become the city with the third-largest Turkish population in the world.

There are many people who claimed to have invented the modern Döner Kebab. According to a legend, a cook in Berlin in 1972 called Kadir Nurman was the first to have added sliced meat to bread, hence the term Berlin Döner Kebab. At first, it was plain meat and bread, years later the salad was added, and in the end the sauce.

Today it is one of the most popular street foods in Germany, and you can find about 16,000 Döner kebab shops around the country.

How to make German Döner Kebab

This homemade Döner kebab is not grilled on a rotisserie but fried in a pan. In our homemade version, we freeze the meat, which will enable us to slice it very thinly. Let's try my chicken doner recipe.

Ingredients:

Meat: Boneless chicken thighs or chicken breast

Döner Spice Blend:

• Sweet paprika
• Ground cumin
• Oregano
• Thyme
• Salt
• Black pepper
• Cayenne pepper

For the Döner Sauce

• Yogurt (thick full-fat Greek yogurt or Turkish yogurt)
• Mayonaise - adds a little sweetness to the sauce
• Garlic clove - finely grated. You can adjust the quantity according to how much garlic you want to use
• Dill - dried or fresh
• Olive oil
• Lemon juice - adds a citrusy, tangy flavor to the sauce

For the Bread (Pide/Fladenbrot)

• Flour
• Water
• Salt
• Sugar
• Yeast
• Olive oil
• Nigella seeds
• Sesame seeds

German Döner Kebab Recipe (Step by Step)

Marinating the Meat

1. Slice your chicken breast into smaller slices. Mix the ingredients for the marinade in a large bowl and coat the chicken in it. Leave to marinate for at least an hour for the flavors to infuse.
2. Now place the meat on a large sheet of cling film. Roll the meat in the film into a large roll, twisting the ends so it resembles a large candy. Fasten the rolls with kitchen twine, or bag clips and place them in the freezer for at least 3-4 hours.

Preparing the Doner Bread

3. Mix in instant yeast and sugar to the lukewarm water and let the yeast activate for 10 minutes. You should see bubbles forming on the surface. If they don't your water might have been too hot and you should start over again.
4. In the meantime preheat your oven to the lowest setting.
5. Combine the flour and the salt in a large mixing bowl. Add the yeast water and knead the dough for approximately 5 minutes to a sticky dough.
6. Turn off your oven, and open the door for the heat to escape. Cover the bowl with a tea towel and place it in the oven to rise for about an hour.
7. Line a baking tray with parchment. Remove the dough from the oven. Cover your hands with some flour, as the dough is very sticky, and briefly knead again to remove any excess air. Now divide the dough into three parts.

8. You want the bread to be quite thick, so you will later be able to cut it and fill it. Form three oval-shaped pieces of bread directly onto the baking parchment, with a thickness of 2-3 cm. Dust the top with a little flour, as otherwise the top will be sticky, and place it back in the turned-off, but warm oven for another hour.
9. Remove the tray from the oven and preheat the oven to 200°C/ 392°F top to bottom heat. Brush the top of the bread with some olive oil and sprinkle with nigella seeds and sesame. Bake the bread for 12-15 minutes.

For the white garlic Doner Kebab Sauce

Mix all the ingredients in a small bowl and grate in the garlic clove and leave the rest in the fridge for an hour for the flavors to infuse.

For the red spicy chili Kebab sauce

This is a recipe for Acili Ezme, that I received from my Turkish friend Gülyer.

10. Quarter the tomatoes deseed the red peppers, and a quarter, peel the onion and garlic cloves and roughly chop them. Remove the stem of the chilies and deseed them (optional) if you do not like them too spicy. Add all into a food processor and blend until you get a smooth paste.
11. Add the olive oil and tomato paste and stir until combined. The sauce will be very watery so leave it to drain in a fine hole sieve for an hour.
12. Finely chop up the parsley and mix it into the sauce before serving.

Frying the Meat

13. Remove the meat from the freezer.
14. With a long sharp knife, slice very thin strips of the meat. Should the meat still be too hard to cut, wait 5 minutes, and try again.
15. Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a frying pan, and fry the chicken until it crisps up.

How to serve your homemade Döner Kebab?

This dish can be served at home as a "make your own" buffet. Add bowls of shredded iceberg lettuce, sliced tomatoes and cucumber, finely sliced red and white cabbage, and some raw sliced onions. Slice the pide bread in half and slice an opening pocket on each side. Now you can fill those pockets to your heart's content.

Fill the bread as deep as possible, to max out the filling. Add the garlic sauce and chili sauce between the stuffing and adjust everything to your own taste.

An alternative way to serve this dish is to make a "Döner plate". This is not the traditional German way, but more how it is served in Turkey. Add some rice, and the vegetables on a plate with the sauces. The bread can optionally be served on the side. You can also add some other Middle Eastern sauces to it like baba ganoush or hummus.

Shortcuts

Making all of these Döner ingredients from scratch is time-consuming, but it will be worth your time, I promise you! However, being realistic about today's time constraints I have a couple of shortcuts to suggest

• Buying the bread! These pide bread can be bought in most Turkish shops and bakeries. However, you can also replace it with products that are widely distributed such as pita bread or tortilla wraps.
• Omit to freeze the meat. The purpose of freezing the meat is to enable you to slice the chicken extra thin. It helps the meat crisp up when you are frying it. But you could also omit this step. The chicken tastes similar, but the meat will be softer.
• Replace the garlic sauce with store-bought Tzarsiki.
• Replace the red sauce with Sriracha or dried chili flakes

Make Ahead

You can make the sauces and marinate the meat up to two days in advance. The pide bread tastes best freshly made, however, you could make this also two days in advance and just crisp it up in the oven before serving.

Storage Requirements

The cooked chicken and the Döner Sauces will stay good for three days in the fridge. Keep in airtight containers.

The pide bread tastes best fresh, as is the case with most yeast bread. Keep leftover bread wrapped airtight in a plastic bag. Crisp up in an oven or toaster if you like before serving.

Recipe