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If you’ve visited Midtown Manhattan, you must have seen the food carts featuring Halal-style chicken and rice. Moist, savory chicken pieces are cooked right on the cart griddle, deftly chopped with the side edge of the long, wide metal spatula. The edges of the chicken near that crunchy-crispy-fried stage and then tossed with a white, tangy sauce. This is served over golden-colored and cumin-spiced rice with a side of salad and wedge of flatbread.
The lines at lunch can be excruciatingly long, as the delicious smell of the chicken being grilled can travel far and wide.
This recipe for Halal Chicken and Rice with White Sauce comes from Serious Eats’ brand new book, Serious Eats: A Comprehensive Guide to Making & Eating Delicious Food Wherever You Are. (whew… that was a long title)
I’ve hacked their recipe touse your leftover Thanksgiving turkey – because we all know that next week you’ll quickly tire of turkey sandwiches.
Halal Cart Style Turkey and Rice with White Sauce Recipe
-If turkey's not your thing, try this with cooked rotisserie style chicken.
-If you can't find Harissa-style hot sauce, regular ol' Tabasco will sub just fine. Serious Eats suggests to toaste the pita or flatbread, but I prefer my flatbread soft and warmed through via the microwave instead. To keep the bread steaming hot (i.e. not dried out), I wrap them in a barely damp towel and then put them in the microwave.
-For Gluten-Free, substitute with GF flatbread of your choice.
-For a healthier version, substitute light olive oil for the butter and use non-fat Greek yogurt and low-fat mayonnaise (or skip the mayo altogether and use Greek yogurt only)
Print Recipe
Prep Time 10 minutes mins
Cook Time 30 minutes mins
Servings 4 - 6
Ingredients
FOR THE RICE:
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1 1/2 cups long grain or Basmati rice
- 2 1/2 cups chicken broth
- salt and pepper
FOR THE WHITE SAUCE:
- 1/2 cup mayonnaise
- 1/2 cup Greek yogurt
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 2 tablespoons white vinegar
- 1 teaspoon lemon juice
- 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
- salt and pepper
FOR THE TURKEY:
- 2 tbsp butter
- 1/2 onion, thinly sliced
- 1/2 cup turkey drippings (or chicken broth)
- 2 pounds cooked, leftover turkey, shredded
TO SERVE:
- 1/2 head iceberg lettuce, shredded
- 1 large tomato, cut into wedges
- 1/2 red onion, thinly sliced
- flatbread or pita bread, cut into wedges
- Harissa-style hot sauce (or hot sauce of your choice, like Tabasco)
Instructions
To cook the Rice: Melt the butter over medium heat in a large pot. Add the turmeric and cumin and cook 1 minute. Add the rice and stir to coat. Cook, stirring freqently, until the rice is lightly toasted, about 4 minutes. Add the chicken broth, season to taste with salt and pepper. Raise the heat to high and bring to boil. Cover, reduce to simmer and cook for 15 minutes without disturbing. Remove from heat, keeping the cover on, and let rest for 5 minutes.
For the White Sauce: Combine all the ingredients together.
For the Turkey: Heat a large saute pan or frying pan over medium-high heat with the butter. When bubbling, add in the onion and cook for 5 minutes. Pour in the turkey drippings (or chicken broth) and bring to simmer. Add in the leftover turkey and cook for 1 minute just to warm through. Remove from heat, stir in 1/2 of the White Sauce.
Wrap the stack of pita bread or flatbread in damp towel. Microwave on medium for 60 seconds to soften and heat through
To serve, divide the lettice, tomato and red onion amongst each plate. Spoon rice onto each plate and top with the turkey. Add a spoonful of the remaining White Sauce onto each plate (you can use this as salad dressing for the salad or just spoon on top of the turkey). Serve with Harissa-style hot sauce.
Notes
Adapted from Serious Eats Cookbook
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!
About Serious Eats book:
(from back cover)
“Ed Levine and the editors of food blog SeriousEats.com bring you the firstSerious Eatsbook, a celebration of America’s favorite foods, from pizza to barbecue, tacos to sliders, doughnuts to egg sandwiches, and much more.Serious Eatscrackles with the energy and conviction that has made the website the passionate, discerning authority on all things delicious since its inception in 2006.
Are you a Serious Eater?
1. Do you plan your day around what you might eat?
2. When you are heading somewhere, anywhere, will you go out of your way to eat something delicious?
3. When you daydream, do you often find yourself thinking about food?
4. Do you live to eat, rather than eat to live?
5. Have you strained relationships with friends or family by dictating the food itinerary—changing everyone’s plans to try a potentially special burger or piece of pie?
Ed Levine, whom Ruth Reichl calls the “missionary of the delicious,” and his SeriousEats.com editors present their unique take on iconic foods made and served around the country. From house-cured, hand-cut corned beef sandwiches at Jake’s in Milwaukee to fried-to-order doughnuts at Shipley’s Do-Nuts in Houston; from fresh clam pizza at Zuppardi’s Pizzeria in West Haven, Connecticut, to Green Eggs and Ham at Huckleberry Bakery and Café in Los Angeles,Serious Eatsis a veritable map of some of the best food they have eaten nationwide.
Covering fast food, family-run restaurants, food trucks, and four-star dining establishments, all with zero snobbery, there is plenty here for every food lover, from coast to coast and everywhere in between. Featuring 400 of the Serious Eats team’s greatest food finds and 50 all-new recipes, this is your must-read manual for the pursuit of a tasty life.
You’ll learn not only where to go for the best grub, but also how to make the food you crave right in your own kitchen, with original recipes including Neapolitan Pizza (and dough), the Ultimate Sliders (which were invented in Kansas), Caramel Sticky Buns, Southern Fried Chicken, the classic Reuben, and Triple-Chocolate Adult Brownies. You’ll also hone your Serious Eater skills with tips that include signs of deliciousness, regional style guides (think pizza or barbecue), and Ed’s hypotheses—ranging from the Cuban sandwich theory to the Pizza Cognition Theory—on what makes a perfect bite.”
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Uncle iqbal on 4/8/13 at 7:57 am
Woww the dishes looks so yummy Turkey and Rice with White Sauce Recipe are one of my favourite dishes these dishes also can cooked in home .This dish with such Lovely and Excellent garnishing is mesmerizing 🙂 I just loved it. Its creation is too cool.
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liz on 12/8/11 at 10:47 pm
omg! I just made this recipe and it’s SO delicious! I love your blog SO SO MUCH! every recipe I’ve tried is both super easy and INCREDIBLY delicious!
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Food on the Table on 12/1/11 at 11:57 am
Yum! This recipe is amazing, and ends up so beautifully on the plate with all those colors. I bet your boys are ecstatic to have all those other yummy sugars in the house 😉
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Vicky Farrel on 12/1/11 at 12:22 am
This looks delicious. I will have to try this recipe on Christmas eve.
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Kim Bee on 11/28/11 at 11:38 am
Okay so this little Canuck has no idea what a choco-taco is but I must say I am incredibly intrigued. I now want one and have no clue what they are. Lol!I think it’s cool to be bad sometimes. Some days I go in the store and I swear I have junk food blinders on. Other times it seems like it’s all I put in the cart.
This recipe is amazing. And again the sheltered Canuck has never seen a Halal cart. We don’t get carts or trucks here. Apparently I need to get out more as this looks killer good.Reply
brenda s 'okie in colorado' on 11/23/11 at 12:40 pm
YUMMERS!
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Jenn on 11/23/11 at 10:15 am
Yum! Greek yogurt adds such a nice flavor to meat and rice recipes.
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gulfdice on 11/22/11 at 8:38 am
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provides diet, nutrition, and health solutions. Use our free tips, healthy recipes, and customized weight loss programs to meet your dieting goals today”Reply
kyleen on 11/21/11 at 11:22 pm
“But wait….that goes against my house rules and all the hard work training the boys not to buy things not on sale or brand-name cereal because the generic ones in the bag are just the same.
Oh.”
LOL you’re obviously the kind of parent kids love. My mom doesn’t buy junk food or things not on sale.
Reply
Yuri - Chef Pandita on 11/21/11 at 11:11 pm
Your kids must be very happy with all that food 🙂 in my house my dad loves all kinds of junk, it’s me who’s always nibbling on salads and celery ribs.
I got the serious eats cookbook on preorder, love it 🙂
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Jen on 11/21/11 at 9:59 pm
yum! will give that a go:)
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Kiran @ KiranTarun.com on 11/21/11 at 8:53 pm
Mmmmm… I LOVE middle eastern or turkish foods. That looks like a platter that I would definitely fix for myself after Thanksgiving – thanks for sharing 🙂
Reply
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