[NineOne]

I recently saw a pizzeria owner friend of mine serve someone a donair (well, what he calls a donair at any rate), with sliced, processed chicken. Much like regular beef or lamb donair meat, it was clearly a seasoned "chicken loaf," rather than sliced chicken breast.

He buys it pre cooked and sliced from the food distributor, so he doesn't know how it's made.

Every chicken loaf I've made has come out both brown and extremely crumbly, while the slices he used (which were about 2mm thick) held together as well as a slice of deli meat.

I imagine part of the trick here is the use of ground chicken breast, rather than just ground chicken, but I don't recall ever seeing ground chicken breast in the supermarket, and I'm rather hoping for a less expensive method.

I've been searching the net and can't find anything conclusive. Most recipes don't have pictures, so I'd like to know ahead of time. Does anyone have any experience with something like this they could share with me?

[ED BUCHANAN]

They make a chicken roll which is made from a chicken paste concoction which is sliceable. Usually your deli has it. The process was developed by a company called Keystone Foods . The meat for the paste was obtained via a machine which they developed which was capable of scraping all the meat off the bones. SOUNDS GREAT DOESN'T IT. Chicken McNuggetts was developed this way

[phatch]

I've seen some places do a "chicken gyro" which is in this same vein. Some are a kabob de-skewered into the pita. One was a chicken loaf on the vertical spit like gyro loaf normally is. And in germany I had a true chicken Donnar which was quite tasty.

You can buy ground chicken, usually in the freezer case in 1-5 pound chubs. Or ground turkey.

Ground chicken breast would be quite dry and more expensive. Thigh meat takes better to being ground and is moister when cooked. Cheaper too. It's easily ground yourself, but sanitation is important when grinding any meat.

Rather than trying to do it as a loaf for a home cook, I recommend seasoning up your ground meat (garlic, oregano, salt, pepper, lemon) and gently patting it out thinly into a rimmed baking sheet greased with some olive oil. Bake it gently until just done. Cool and cut in strips like come off those gyro loafs. Then when ready to serve, brush with olive oil and grill briefly to heat through and give that nice exterior roastiness. Load into the pita with the tzatziki, onions and tomatoes.

Phil