This homemade chicken shawarma has everything you love: juicy, spice-marinated chicken, warm pita bread, crisp salad and creamy garlic toum but did you know it's easy to make at home? The chicken is finished with optional upgrades like a herby Green Goddess dipping sauce for extra wow factor. It is a complete meal in one and better than takeaway!
About This Chicken Shawarma
Chicken Shawarma is a Middle Eastern dish that is one of the most delicious, complete takeaway meals you can get. It's a pita bread filled with seasoned, tender chicken, onion, tomato, cucumber, lettuce and a delicious garlic sauce. It's really got everything in it from protein, carb and salad. Did you know that you can make the spice seasoning mix yourself?
You can use all types of meat in a Shawarma like beef or lamb (and these are the most traditional) but chicken is the favourite one in this household and Mr NQN cannot get enough of it. Shawarma refers to a rotisserie where meat is turned and cooked. While I can't claim that this is authentic as it is made in a frying pan in 10 minutes I will say that is is absolutely delicious!
I am also sharing with you an upgrade option (because you know me!). I serve it with a Green Goddess dipping sauce that really makes this pop, upps the protein level and complements the chicken wrap with a fresh herby flavour.
Video How To Make Chicken Shawarma
Video: How to Make Chicken Shawarma
Ingredients For Chicken Shawarma
Chicken Thighs - We use skinless boneless chicken thighs as they remain juicy after cooking and are quick to cook through. Mine weighed around 150g/5ozs each.
Spices - Yes there are a lot of spices here but that is what gives the shawarma it's well rounded flavour. If you cook a lot you'll probably find these spices in your spice drawer and there's nothing unusual. If you don't want to make your own spice mix, the Al'Fez one is really good (and is what I based my spice mix on) and it is available at Woolies.
Lemon - Fresh lemon juice to make that chicken pop with flavour!
Tomato - Thinly slice the tomato. They tend to fall out less when they're thinly sliced (or maybe that's just my theory!)
Cucumber - We use Lebanese cucumbers as they have a thinner skin. Again slice thinly.
Pickled red onions - You can find these alongside the pickles at the supermarket. Can sub with unpickled sliced red onion but I love the extra tang of pickles.
Lettuce - I used oakleaf lettuce but you can also use butter, romaine or bibb lettuce.
Garlic toum - The food of the gods! Seriously, nothing beats garlic toum (see recipe here). You can also buy this at the supermarket now where it is called "garlic dip".
Pita breads - I love Greek pita breads for this as they are a bit thicker and can hold the filling together a bit better. I liked Golden Top (but it isn't available as the factory had a fire) but I used Mr Pitta (but there are only 5 in the packet). There are also Mission Souvlaki breads (5 in a packet).
Ingredients for Green Goddess Dressing
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Baby spinach leaves - One of the things that gives Green Goddess dressing it's green colour!
Herbs - I used 45% parsley, 45% coriander and 10% tarragon as tarragon is quite strong.
Garlic cloves - Yep we like things garlicky here. Fresh garlic cloves!
Sour cream - Full fat or low fat sour cream works.
Greek yogurt - Full fat or skim Greek yogurt.
Tips For Making Chicken Shawarma
1 - The spice mix recipe below is enough for 6 chicken thighs. For bigger appetites I would use around 1 1/2 chicken thighs per wrap. For smaller appetites you can use 1 chicken thigh per wrap.
2 - The chicken takes around 10-11 minutes to fry depending on the size of the chicken thighs. It's super easy to cook them: fry on medium heat for 5-6 minutes on one side, then flip over and fry for 5 minutes on the other side. I cut up the salad while the chicken was frying.
3 - You can also roast the chicken thighs in the oven. Roast at 200C/392F fan forced or 220C/428F conventional on a parchment lined tray for 30-40 minutes or until done. Turn over halfway.
4 - It's easy to test if the chicken is cooked. Just slice through it to check (don't worry about presentation as the chicken is sliced up once cooked).
5 - Make sure to dry the lettuce really well after you wash it. You don't want liquid spilling out the bottom of the wrap.
6 - Make sure to squeeze lemon over the chicken-it REALLY makes it pop!
7 - Wrap up a shawarma using a large sheet of baking paper. Roll up the shawarma and then fold over the bottom so that it is enclosed.
20g/0.7ozs fresh herb mix of parsley, coriander and a little tarragon
2 garlic cloves
125g/4.4ozs sour cream
125g/4.4ozs Greek yogurt
Step-By-Step Instructions
Step 1 MARINATE - Mix spices (coriander seeds, cumin, paprika, smoked paprika, turmeric powder, cinnamon, black pepper, salt, garlic powder, onion powder, cloves and oregano) together in a small bowl. Coat each chicken thigh on both sides in the spice mix and marinate in the fridge, ideally for 3 hours or overnight.
Step 2 DRESSING - While the chicken is marinating make the Green Goddess dipping sauce. Add baby spinach, fresh herbs and garlic to a food processor and pulse. Add sour cream and yogurt and blitz until smooth, around 1 minute. Store in the fridge until needed.
Step 3 COOK - Heat frying pan on medium heat and add oil. Fry the chicken thighs for 5 and a half minutes on each side or until cooked through. Slice chicken up and squeeze lemon generously over the top.
Step 4 ASSEMBLE - Heat pita bread in the microwave for 15 seconds just to soften or pan fry briefly for 30 seconds on each side. Spread generously with the garlic toum. Place lettuce on pita bread covering the entire bread, then add tomato, cucumber, sliced chicken thigh and pickled onions. Enjoy with Green Goddess dipping sauce.
Substitution notes:
You can use substitue the chicken with halloumi as a veg option and coat it in the spice mix before frying it!
Personal Note
I know having two sauces on this chicken shawarma is a bit extra but seriously, life is better with more sauce. My family is obsessed with sauces. I recently went to visit my family in Singapore as my dad is not doing so well. He had a fall a few months ago and ever since then he has been deteriorating. It's hard to tell how long he has, so I wanted to go over and visit while he was still aware of what was happening and who I was.
My sister Blythe lives with my parents along with their helper Del. Del is not quite a nurse but she's has looked after elderly people before and is patient and helpful. I noticed that my father's skin was looking dry so I gave them some of my lotion which was thicker than the one that he had and I thought would be more effective. Del would help apply it, help him with grooming, prepare their meals and help Blythe take them to the doctor.
I didn't realise just how food obsessed my family are until we were talking about our next few meals while eating lunch and then Blythe asked Del if she could get the "sauce" for my father instead of the body lotion!
So tell me Dear Reader, is your family food obsessed? And do you have a lot of spices in your spice cupboard?
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