Turkish Street Food Chicken Tantuni

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I am sure that you will make this Chicken Tantuni one of your regulars. It is easy to make, delicious and low cost. No wonder it is a famous Turkish Street Food with long queues.

What is Tantuni?

Tantuni is a type of kebab. It consists of cooking small pieces of meat, either beef or chicken. Generally prepared with chopped tomatoes, and an onion mix and spices. Served in thin wraps and lavash. Tantuni originated from the Turkish city of Mersin, then spread all around. Now it is famous all around Turkey and most of Europe.

Starting from the end of the XVth century, a Mongolian community lived around Mersin. Even today, there is a neighborhood named after them. The word Tantuni might have been derived from the Mongolian word tamturi, which meant to have a snack, to eat in small bites.

What are the ingredients of Chicken Tantuni?

Chicken: the recipe states chicken breast, but you can mix with chicken thighs or use just chicken thighs. The important thing is to cut to tiny pieces. This way the chicken will cook faster and the spices will blend in better.

Oil: Traditionally in Mersin cotton flower is used, but as cotton oil might not be available everywhere, use any oil with a high burning point you see fit. I use light olive oil or a sunflower oil.

Spices: For cooking hot chilli powder and salt is all that is generally used. But why not spice the taste up with smoked paprika, jerk chicken seasoning, cumin and sumac too.

Potatoes: It is not a standard but as I am replicating street food in the comfort of my own kitchen I fried small-cubed potatoes and tossed them into the wrap making it larger and even more filling.

Onion Mix: This is a must. You must slice the onion as thin as possible and mix it with chopped parsley and sumac.

Tomatoes: Fresh tomatoes in season will be a perfect addition to the Chicken Tantuni. If tomatoes leave out too much of their water try not to use them or the wrap might get soggy.

Lemon wedges: Before closing the wrap squeeze some lemon. If you want to leave it for later serve each wrap with lemon wedges.

Wrap: Choose a soft wrap of 8-10 inches. You might want to heat it before the assembly in a skillet.

How to assemble the Chicken Tantuni Wrap

Once the chicken is cooked, the onion mix is ready, the tomatoes are chopped and the potatoes are fried get ready to wrap everything up:

• Wet one side of the warp with the juice of the chicken.
• Then on top of this side sprinkle some red pepper flakes.
• Start with putting the fried potatoes onion mix, chicken and tomatoes on one half of the wrap, leaving a couple of inches free on all sides. Do not fill too much or you will have difficulty in wrapping.
• Add more salt if you choose to.
• Squeeze some lemon if you want to.
• Feel free to add your other wrap regulars such as ketchup, mayonnaise or chilli sauce.
• Fold in the sides of the wrap to make sure nothing will fall out of it.
• Bring up the bottom flap and start rolling until you reach the end.

If you want to enjoy chicken tantuni without the wrap feel free to have everything on a plate. A bulgur pilaf will be a perfect match.

Hope you will try out this delicious chicken tantuni and please let me know in comments.

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Chicken Tantuni Recipe

A recipe for the homemade version of a famous Turkish Street Food! Easy to make quick to eat.

Course Main Course

Cuisine Turkish

Prep Time 20 minutes minutes

Cook Time 20 minutes minutes

Chicken brine 15 minutes minutes

Total Time 55 minutes minutes

Servings 4 people

Calories 330kcal

Ingredients

Chicken

• 600 grams chicken breast
• 1 tablespoon salt for brine
• 1 teaspoon sunflower oil or olive oil
• 2-3 garlic cloves chopped
• ½ teaspoon salt divided
• ½ teaspoon sumac
• 1 teaspoon hot chilli powder
• 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
• 1 teaspoon jerk chicken seasoning
• ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper

Wrap garnish

• 4 large wraps
• ½ teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 4 potatoes
• 3 tablespoon oil to fry
• 2 tomatoes
• 2 onions
• 8 springs flat parsley
• 1 lemon wedged

Instructions

Chicken

• Start with brining the chicken.
• Prepare a luke warm bowl of water with 1 tablespoon of salt.Place the chicken breasts into the water and leave at room temperature for 15 minutes.
• When time is up rinse the chicken to get rid of the excess salt and pat dry the chicken with paper towels.
• Then slice the chicken breasts horizontally and vertically to obtain tiny pieces.
• Heat a tablespoon of oil in a pan. Toss in the chicken, try not to over crowd the pan, if necessary cook in batches. Do not cover the lid.
• Add the minced garlic cloves and the salt, hot chili powder, black pepper, smoked paprika, sumac and jerk seasoning.
• When the chicken has changed color and cooked remove from heat, do not wait until all the juice is soaked up or evaporated.

Assembly

• Chop the potatoes into small cubes and fry.
• Chop the tomatoes to small cubes.
• Slice the onions and mix with chopped parsley and sumac.
• Wet the wrap with the juice of the chicken.
• Sprinkle with red pepper flakes.
• Line up the chicken, fried potatoes, tomatoes and onion mix on the wrap.
• Curl the sides inwards and roll upwards.
• Enjoy while warm.

Notes

The essential spices are hot chilli powder and salt. You can play around with the other spices. I will add cumin next time and more sumac. 

The chicken will cook fast as it is cut into small pieces. 

In some recipes or in market stalls you might notice that the chicken is already broiled. This is done to serve quicker but skipping the broiling will make your chicken tastier as it will have all the juices in it and not left behind in the broiling.

You can serve in wrap, lavash or on a plate.

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