My favorite baked doughnut recipe infused with sencha green tea and topped with a fresh strawberry glaze and sprinkles.
Welcome to nerd month here on the blog! For the month of May, instead of doing our usual once-a-week themed recipe series, every single recipe this month is inspired by a favorite film, book, or television show!
Basically, it’s an excuse to write about and try to convince you to watch/read all of my favorites through food. And I’m so excited for it. I’ve already photographed a bunch of them, and I think May is going to be a lot of fun (for me at least 😉 ).
We are starting with a show that just happens to be returning to television for its fifth and final season tomorrow, Person of Interest .
Person of Interest is such an entertaining show. If you follow me on Twitter , or read my Weekend Posts , you’ll know that I spend 90 percent of my waking hours trying to convince people to watch it.
It’s a genuinely great procedural for people who like crime dramas, but it’s also a pretty delightful romance , a fascinating critique of the modern surveillance state, and secretly, the best hard core sci-fi on television right now (no seriously, the main plot of the show deals with dueling A.I. gods!!).
Most importantly though, there is a dog named Bear. Bear speaks dutch , is scuba certified, and is basically the greatest character on this or any other show on television. And Bear likes strawberry doughnuts.
CBS via Gallifreyan-detective
His co-owner and the show’s co-lead, Mr. Finch has a penchant for sencha green tea. So today, we’re making, Strawberry Glazed Sencha Green Tea Doughnuts.
These are some darn good doughnuts, but before we start, I have to say: baked doughnuts are not bakery doughnuts! They are glorified muffins and I think it’s a disservice to everyone involved to pretend otherwise. BUT, holy cow, these glorified muffins might actually give cake doughnuts a run for their money.
They are dense and soft, none of that light and airy nonsense. When you pick one of them up, there’s some heft to it. Green-tea-infused butter in the batter gives the doughnuts a gentle, fresh taste that goes so well with the strawberry glaze.
And that glaze, it’s made with three ingredients: fresh strawberries and two types of sugar, but IT SETS, as doughnut frosting is meant to set. Sticky, syrups glazes have their place, but it is not on my sencha green tea doughnuts!
Top the doughnuts off with a heavy coating of rainbow sprinkles and you have a perfect easy breakfast for your guard dog. <3
*No doughnuts were licked in the taking of this photograph.
Ingredients
Special Equipment
- ▢ Doughnut Pan
Glaze
- ▢ 1 1/2 cup ( 6-7 oz) sliced strawberries
- ▢ 2 tablespoons ( 25 g) granulated sugar
- ▢ 1 cup ( 120 g) powdered sugar sifted
Doughnuts
- ▢ 3 tablespoons ( 1 1/2 oz) unsalted butter
- ▢ 1 teabag sencha green tea
- ▢ 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
- ▢ 1/4 cup ( 50 g) granulated sugar
- ▢ 3 tablespoons ( 38 g) brown sugar
- ▢ 1 large egg
- ▢ 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ▢ 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
- ▢ 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- ▢ 1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ▢ 1/4 teaspoon salt
- ▢ 1 1/3 cups ( 160 g) all-purpose flour
- ▢ 1/2 cup milk
Instructions
Start Glaze
- In a small bowl, pour granulated sugar over strawberry pieces and smash slightly with a fork. This will help draw the juice out of the strawberries to use in the glaze. Cover and set aside.
Doughnuts
- Preheat your oven to 425°F and grease doughnut pan.
- Melt butter in a small microwave-safe bowl. Immerse tea bag in the butter. Allow the tea to seep for about ten minutes. Squeeze as much butter out of the tea bag as possible before discarding the bag.
- In a medium bowl, combine 2 tablespoons of the tea-infused butter (this should be almost all of what’s left, discard the excess), vegetable oil, granulated sugar, and brown sugar. Whisk until well combined.
- Whisk in egg and vanilla extract.
- Add baking powder, baking soda, ground nutmeg, and salt. Whisk until smooth.
- Add half of the flour, whisking until just combined. Add all of the milk. Mix, and then the rest of the flour. Whisk until just combined.
- Place a large plastic bag over a cup and pour batter into the bag. Seal the bag and snip a small piece off of one of the corners. Use the bag to “pipe” batter into your doughnut pan, filling 3/4 of the way full (this should make exactly 6 standard-size donuts).
- Bake for 9-11 minutes until donuts are lightly golden and the tops spring back if you press into them. Allow to cool in the pan for 5 minutes before transferring to a rack to cool completely.
Finish Glaze
- Pour sifted powdered sugar into a smallish bowl (you want one that is just large enough to mix the sugar in and fit a doughnut for dipping). Give strawberries another good mash and add 2 tablespoons of the juice to your powdered sugar. If you want seedless, completely smooth icing, run juice through a fine mesh strainer. Whisk until a thick, smooth glaze forms. Dip the doughnuts, rotating them so the glaze covers the entire top half of them.
- Add sprinkles to each doughnut immediately after frosting, because this glaze sets quickly and sprinkles may not stick otherwise. Allow glaze to set for 10 to 15 minutes and enjoy!
Notes
Nutritional Information Doughnuts Adapted From: King Arthur Flour Strawberry Glaze Adapted From: A Happy Food Dance
If you make these, I would love to see them! Tag me @bakingmischief onTwitteror #bakingmischief onInstagram!
Saturday Morning Snapshot
Putting the leftover cheesecake whipped cream from my “Captain America” parfaits to good use after Saturday’s photo shoot…
State of the Blog
On the blog this week, we finished up the April Hot Sandwich series with my favorite panini and a roundup filled with some of the most beautiful sandwiches I’ve ever laid eyes upon. Friday I posted a Captain America: Civil War dessert, and I’m particularly pleased with the way that one turned out. Also, scroll down to the bottom of that post to see some more awesome Marvel desserts by some equally awesome bloggers.
I briefly broke the blog on Saturday afternoon, so if you were visiting yesterday and the site suddenly went wonky, no worries. That was just me playing around with things beyond my ken. On a very related note, I’m doing some behind-the-scenes work to improve site speed and usability, so if the site is down or looks strange in the upcoming week, I’ve probably broken things again. 🙂
Next week is the start of a new month which means it’s time for a new blog series. I’m SO excited for this one. Recipes for the week will include a tasty breakfast with plenty of sprinkles, dinner worth fighting an alien hoard for, and some Cap-inspired cupcakes!
Recipes/posts released this week were:
Chipotle Turkey Panini – Quick weeknight panini with chipotle aioli, crunchy red onions, sliced turkey, melty cheese, and avocado.
24 Delicious Hot Sandwich Recipes – A round up of 24 delicious hot sandwiches, including beef, poultry, and vegetarian recipes!
Captain America: Civil War Cheesecake Parfaits – Captain America, Iron Man, and Winter Soldier cheesecake parfaits. Delicious tangy cheesecake whipped cream piped between layers of fresh fruit make a quick and easy Captain America dessert perfect for parties!
Pop-culture Corner
Captain America: Civil War premiered almost everywhere except America this Friday. I’m bitter. (If you’ve seen it, 1, I’m so jealous, and 2, no spoilers please! <3 )
Did you watch the Game of Thrones season opener? I’m happy to have the show back, but honestly, I’m even happier for the return of a million and one think pieces to browse every Monday morning and my favorite Game of Thrones podcasts .
Speaking of returns, Person of Interest comes back this week for its final season. If you start now and don’t break for sleep, I think you can just about binge all of the first four seasons over on Netflix before the premiere on Tuesday. I mean, doesn’t this trailer make you want to never watch anything else ever again!?
Also, a POI recipe will be here (very) shortly.
Meal Planning
Saturday: Homemade Panini Sunday: Easy Creamy Chicken Pasta with Bell Peppers Monday: Sherry Pork Chops Tuesday: Simply Delicious Asian Chicken Salad Wednesday: Pretzel Sausages Thursday: Easy and Comforting Ham and Potato Soup Friday: TBD
An easy chicken shawarma recipe with tender, smokey and flavorful chicken and a garlic and lemon yogurt sauce served over crisp veggies and warm pita bread.
Looking for an easy chicken dinner that’s packed with flavor? Chicken shawarma is just what you’re looking for.
Give the meat a quick marinade while you prep the rest of your ingredients, and then the shawarma cooks up super quick and simple and is a total crowd-pleaser.
What is Shawarma?
Shawarma (also spelled shaurma, shoarma, shwarma, and shawirma) is a Middle Eastern dish made by roasting a cone of meat on a vertical spit. To serve, the meat is shaved off the cone and wrapped in flatbread.
And just in case you’re wondering, yes, the cooking process and presentation is very similar to gyros, but the two differ in toppings, seasonings, and type of meat traditionally used.
Full disclosure, since I don’t have a roasting spit in my kitchen (and I’m guessing you don’t either), we’ll be cooking our shawarma meat on the stovetop, so it’s not technically authentic shawarma, but it is authentically good.
Ingredient Notes
- Boneless, skinless chicken thighs: Thighs are great here because they cook up moist and tender without a ton of fuss or babysitting.
- Pita bread: If you can’t find pita bread, any flatbread will work just fine.
- Plain Greek yogurt: I call for Greek yogurt for the sauce because it’s thicker and creamier than regular yogurt, but you can use any plain, unsweetened yogurt. The sauce will just be slightly thinner.
How to Make Chicken Shawarma
- Marinate the chicken thighs. Give the thighs at least 30 minutes in the marinade but no more than 2 hours as the acids in the marinade can start to make chicken a little mushy if it sits too long.
- In a large skillet, cook the marinated chicken until brown and beautiful.
- Deglaze the pan with a bit of chicken broth or water and give the red onions a quick sauté in the drippings.
- Wrap the chicken and onions in flatbread, add veggies, and then you’ll just need a bit of yogurt sauce to finish things off.
Shawarma Sauce
This garlic yogurt shawarma sauce is just unsweetened yogurt, a bit of lemon juice, garlic, and salt and pepper. It’s a perfect light and tangy topping that really complements the rest of the flavors in the shawarma.
And if you prefer a richer shawarma sauce, stir a couple spoonfuls of mayonnaise into your sauce, which adds a really satisfying richness (and makes the yogurt sauce even better on fries if you’re serving some as a side).
If you have any leftovers, you can thin the sauce with a bit of milk and use it as a creamy dressing for your lunch salad the next day.
Can I use chicken breasts instead of thighs in shawarma?
You can. While I prefer chicken thighs for shawarma, you can use chicken breasts here. Pound 2 medium chicken breasts out to an even thickness (check out my post how to cook chicken for salads and sandwiches if you want step-by-step photos of this process) and then marinate them and follow the recipe as written.
They will take longer to cook than chicken thighs, but should still be cooked to 165°F.
Can I make this ahead of time?
Yes. You can cook the meat and the onions and cut all the veggies up to two days in advance. When you’re ready to serve, reheat the meat and onions, assemble the shawarma, and enjoy.
Can I double the recipe?
Yes. This recipe doubles with no preparation changes needed. To change the recipe yield, hover over the serving size in the recipe card below or click if you’re on mobile, and slide the slider. No other cooking changes are needed.
Can I freeze chicken shawarma?
You can freeze some of the ingredients for shawarma. The cooked chicken thighs freeze well and the onions can be frozen, but will have a softer, slightly mushy texture after reheating. Freeze both in air-tight containers and keep up to 4 months.
To store leftover pita bread, wrap in foil, freeze in a freezer bag, and defrost on the counter or in the microwave, sprinkled with a bit of water. Frozen pita should be used as soon as possible because it will dry out the longer it’s kept in the freezer.
The fresh veggies and yogurt sauce are not good candidates for freezing.
What to Serve With Shawarma
As a popular street food, shawarma is often served wrapped up with french fries. I highly recommend the french fry option, and the yogurt sauce doubles as an excellent fry dipping sauce.
If you’re looking for something a little lighter, try serving it with a side of tabbouleh and some sliced cucumbers (which are also great dipped in the yogurt sauce.)
More Easy Chicken Dinners
- Shawarma Salad
- Chicken Francaise
- Crispy Lemon Chicken Thighs
- Creamy Chicken Noodle Soup
- Creamy Chicken Pasta
Ingredients
Marinade
- ▢ ¼ cup olive oil
- ▢ 3 tablespoons lemon juice
- ▢ 3 cloves garlic pressed
- ▢ 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- ▢ 1 teaspoon paprika
- ▢ ½ teaspoon salt
- ▢ ½ teaspoon black pepper
- ▢ ¼ teaspoon turmeric
- ▢ 4 boneless skinless chicken thighs
Pita & Toppings
- ▢ 1 small red onion cut into wedges
- ▢ ¼ cup chicken broth or water
- ▢ 4 pita bread loaves
- ▢ 4-5 leaves romaine shredded
- ▢ 1 cucumber chopped
- ▢ 1 large tomato chopped
Yogurt Sauce
- ▢ 5 to 6 ounces ( ⅔ cup) plain Greek yogurt*
- ▢ 1 teaspoon lemon juice
- ▢ 1 clove garlic pressed
- ▢ ¼ teaspoon salt or to taste
- ▢ Pepper to taste
Instructions
Marinate Meat
- In a small bowl, combine marinade ingredients. Place chicken in a plastic bag and pour marinade over the top. Shake to coat and allow to marinate for at least 30 minutes, up to 2 hours.
Make Yogurt Sauce
- In a small bowl (or the disposable yogurt cup), combine all yogurt sauce ingredients and stir until well-mixed.
Cook Meat
- Preheat your oven to the warm setting (or lowest setting).
- Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat, add chicken thighs (dispose of the marinade) and cook for 2 to 4 minutes until first side is seared and darkly golden. Flip and cook for an additional 2 to 4 minutes, until an instant-read thermometer inserted into the center of the thighs reads 165°F. Turn down the heat if at any time the chicken seems to be burning.
- Transfer chicken to a plate and place a piece of foil over the thighs to keep them warm. Set aside.
- Over medium high-heat, deglaze your pan with a little chicken broth or water (about a quarter cup), scraping the burned and blackened pieces off the bottom while the liquid simmers.
- Add onions to your pan.
- Place your pita bread into the warm oven to heat while your onions cook.
- Cook onions until your they reach your desired level of doneness (for me, about 4 minutes for fairly soft onions). Remove from heat.
Assemble
- Slice thighs into strips and serve over warmed pita bread. Top with cooked onions, romaine, tomatoes, cucumbers, and yogurt sauce.
Notes
Marinade Adapted From: NYTimes
This post may contain aff iliate links, which means I receive a small commission if you make a purchase using them. There is absolutely no additional cost to you.
Strawberry Glazed Sencha Green Tea Doughnuts
Ingredients
Special Equipment
- Doughnut Pan
Glaze
- 1 1/2 cup ( 6-7 oz) sliced strawberries
- 2 tablespoons ( 25 g) granulated sugar
- 1 cup ( 120 g) powdered sugar sifted
Doughnuts
- 3 tablespoons ( 1 1/2 oz) unsalted butter
- 1 teabag sencha green tea
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 1/4 cup ( 50 g) granulated sugar
- 3 tablespoons ( 38 g) brown sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 1/3 cups ( 160 g) all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup milk
Instructions
Start Glaze
- In a small bowl, pour granulated sugar over strawberry pieces and smash slightly with a fork. This will help draw the juice out of the strawberries to use in the glaze. Cover and set aside.
Doughnuts
- Preheat your oven to 425°F and grease doughnut pan.
- Melt butter in a small microwave-safe bowl. Immerse tea bag in the butter. Allow the tea to seep for about ten minutes. Squeeze as much butter out of the tea bag as possible before discarding the bag.
- In a medium bowl, combine 2 tablespoons of the tea-infused butter (this should be almost all of what’s left, discard the excess), vegetable oil, granulated sugar, and brown sugar. Whisk until well combined.
- Whisk in egg and vanilla extract.
- Add baking powder, baking soda, ground nutmeg, and salt. Whisk until smooth.
- Add half of the flour, whisking until just combined. Add all of the milk. Mix, and then the rest of the flour. Whisk until just combined.
- Place a large plastic bag over a cup and pour batter into the bag. Seal the bag and snip a small piece off of one of the corners. Use the bag to “pipe” batter into your doughnut pan, filling 3/4 of the way full (this should make exactly 6 standard-size donuts).
- Bake for 9-11 minutes until donuts are lightly golden and the tops spring back if you press into them. Allow to cool in the pan for 5 minutes before transferring to a rack to cool completely.
Finish Glaze
- Pour sifted powdered sugar into a smallish bowl (you want one that is just large enough to mix the sugar in and fit a doughnut for dipping). Give strawberries another good mash and add 2 tablespoons of the juice to your powdered sugar. If you want seedless, completely smooth icing, run juice through a fine mesh strainer. Whisk until a thick, smooth glaze forms. Dip the doughnuts, rotating them so the glaze covers the entire top half of them.
- Add sprinkles to each doughnut immediately after frosting, because this glaze sets quickly and sprinkles may not stick otherwise. Allow glaze to set for 10 to 15 minutes and enjoy!
