Cheater Halal Chicken

Update: I've been learning my camera and I think the pictures are turning out much better than the iphone pictures that I had been posting. 

Two years ago I had my first New York City Halal chicken cart meal. It was so good. The magic white sauce makes it delicious. Certainly not the typical meat and potatoes meal I grew up with. We rarely had any kind of ethnic meal, unless you count my favorite,  taco night. However, it didn't contain any Mexican spices whatsoever. Unfortunately here in South Jersey, there are very few restaurants that offer any kind of variety. It's mostly Italian and Chinese, although a few sushi places have popped up lately. Being I lived in Italy for three years, I'm not much of a fan of American Italian food.

I was trying to come up with something different for dinner, because let's face it, you wind up making the same meals over and over again. The halal chicken popped into my head, but every recipe called for marinating the chicken for 6-8 hours and slow cooking it for another 3-4. Well, I'm impatient and didn't want to wait until 3 am to eat dinner. I came up with a quick way to cook it and it turned out great. My boyfriend ate two platefuls and said this recipe was a keeper.

Since this was a new recipe, I measured everything. I want to make it again the exact same way. I sliced the chicken into 1/2 inch slices, because it cooks faster and gets coated with seasonings better. I used a rice cooker and added everything at once, but you can cook the rice on the stovetop as you normally would. 

Halal Chicken
Serves 2 - 3

Ingredients

Chicken
1 large chicken breast
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon curry
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1 - 2 tablespoon olive oil

Rice
1 cup rice
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1/4 teaspoon cumin
1 tablespoon butter

White Sauce
1/4 cup mayo
1/4 cup Greek yogurt
1/4 teaspoon white vinegar
1/4 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
pinch of freshly minced garlic

Salad
lettuce
tomatoes
cilantro

Make the sauce by combining all the ingredients in a small bowl. Refrigerate until you are ready to use. Follow the package for cooking the rice, but add the spices and butter. Slice the chicken breast into 1/2 inch slices. Sprinkle the seasoning mix on both sides and brown on medium heat in a skillet in a tablespoon of olive oil. While the chicken is cooking shred the lettuce, cut up the tomatoes and mince the cilantro for the salad. Once the chicken is cooked thoroughly, it's ready for plating. Rice on bottom, then chicken, then salad on the side or on top. It doesn't really matter since you're going to mix it all together anyway. Drizzle the sauce on top. Voila!

Enjoy!