Zankou Chicken's Lebanese Garlic Sauce (Copycat)

Sandi (From CA)'s Note:

The BEST garlic sauce on the planet can be found at Zankou's Chicken. Those who know this place know their recipe is a very closely-guarded secret. Serve with a Lebanese (or other Mediterranean) chicken (or beef) dish like Excite Me Tonight! Chicken!. Also great with chicken or beef shawarma. I lined pita shells with this sauce and loaded them up with chicken, lettuce, tomato and roasted peppers and onions. Just make sure you aren't coming face to face with anyone for the next month or so... WHEW! Garlic!

• Total Time: 25 mins
• Prep Time: 10 mins
• Cook Time: 15 mins

Ingredients:

Servings: 10

• 3 small russet potatoes
• 1 head garlic (12-14 cloves. It's a LOT. Be afraid.)
• 1⁄3; cup fresh lemon juice
• ½ tablespoon salt
• ½ cup canola oil

Directions:

1. Peel the potatoes and boil in water until soft. Mash and let cool.
2. Crush and peel a whole head of garlic. Cut into quarters. Place raw garlic in a heavy duty blender with the salt and lemon juice. Pour a light layer of oil onto garlic. Puree the garlic, salt lemon juice on high and begin pouring a slow steady stream of the rest of the oil through the blender's handle hole until everything has mixed.
3. At this point, you'll have extreme garlickiness (new word), which some people like, but for "texturizing" like Zankou's, you'll need the taters.
4. Add the mashed potatoes, about 2-3 tablespoons at a time and mix. Continue adding/blending potato until the sauce is mixed well. At some point in this process, you might consider changing blending vessels. After all this work, my blender was starting to think twice about helping me out.
5. Transfer to a bowl and allow to chill completely in the fridge. After about an hour, the flavors will blend together nicely and the texture will take on that library paste consistency like Zankou's sauce.

Reviews

[Maito]

Extreme garlicness (as you say) and extreme deliciousness! We just loved this, and want to figure out how else to serve it. I halved the salt and oil (so it was thicker, but that was OK with us) and used a really good olive oil, which I think made a huge difference. Served 5 for us, since we couldn't get enough!

[kitchen_kitty]

Sooo good. I have never been to Zankou but I know Grand Chicken in Pasadena is similar and they have garlic spread there that I am addicted to! This recipe is 4 stars as is - I thought the lemon sort of over powered the garlic too much so I added probably about a half to a full head of garlic MORE. I know that sounds crazy but it seriously made the sauce taste exactly like the one at Grand. The texture is a bit different but that doesn't matter to me. Definitely watch the amount of potato you add - use just enough to thicken and make sure you taste it before you put more in! You don't want too much potato flavor. THANK YOU for you posting this.. for real.

[pinkyfood]

Great sauce and very similar to Zankou and other Lebanese places. It's milder than the version we like but just like Zankou's own version, so next time I make it, I'm going to increase the garlic and lemon juice. So good!