Chicken Shawarma Recipe | Homemade Chicken Shawarma

Shawarma, a popular street food of the Levant region, refers to thinly cut slices of meat rolled inside a flatbread with pickles, hummus, green salad. etc. It won't be wrong to call Chicken Shawarma a roll or a wrap recipe made the middle-eastern way. The best chicken shawarma recipe comes alive with perfectly marinated and cooked meat. As you bite into the shawarma you get a nicely grilled juicy slice of chicken, garlicky hummus, fresh salad, and sour pickles, all in one bite. Pack it for your office lunches, serve it on weekends or at parties, this is a Chicken Shawarma recipe to keep and is a crowd-pleaser, always!
 

▲ Serve the chicken shawarma with extra hummus, salad, and pickled vegetables

Chicken shawarma recipe ingredients

The ingredients needed in our homemade chicken shawarma recipe start with the two marinades. For the first marinade, you need lime juice, olive oil, minced garlic, and boneless chicken thighs. For the second marinade, you require sea salt, red chilli flakes, and Lebanese seven spice powder. You can find our easy recipe for a homemade Lebanese seven spice powder here. To make the salad for the shawarma, you need shredded lettuce, diced tomatoes, chopped parsley, salt, black pepper powder, and chopped coriander leaves. The other ingredients needed include pickled vegetables and hummus. And of course, to wrap your chicken shawarma you need any Lebanese flatbread. We used khubz but you can use other Arabic flatbreads too.
 

▲ Stir well to mix the marinade then add chicken and turn till coated well with the marinade.

How to make Chicken Shawarma

Once you have your ingredients at hand our chicken shawarma recipe video above shows you the simple process of making chicken shawarma. The basics steps are marinade the chicken in the first marinade overnight. Then the second marinade for an hour or so. While the chicken is marinating make the salad and set it aside. Grill the chicken or cook it in a pan for a few minutes till golden brown all over. Slice it. Heat the flatbread. Once this is done, then it’s just assembling the chicken shawarma. Fill with ingredients as described in our detailed recipe below, roll, and serve immediately.
 

▲ Add ingredients for the 2nd marinade including Lebanese seven spice powder.
 

Chef’s suggestion: Make all the elements of our chicken shawarma recipe and pack them separately for an outdoor picnic. Deploy the kids to put together the wraps while you sit and relax. You can also serve shawarmas as DIY wraps for parties or office get-togethers.
 

▲ Make the salad for the shawarma in a large glass bowl and set aside

The origin of Shawarma

The word Shawarma comes from Turkish 'çevirme' which refers to 'turning', indicating the rotisserie on which the meat is cooked or grilled. Cooking meat on a vertical rod was first done in the Ottoman Empire in the 19th Century in the making of what we now know as the Doner Kebab. Shawarma is thought to have originated from the same method.
 

▲ Grill the chicken in the pan till golden brown all over
 

We have used chicken as the meat to make our shawarma but marinated and seasoned lamb, turkey, mutton etc. are also used to make it. Slices of marinated meat are pushed into a vertical rod or skewer on a motorized spit which keeps rotating the meat. The meat gets cooked with heat from a heating element behind this rod. Cooking of the meat for a shawarma is a long-drawn process which may take up to several hours. Our homemade chicken shawarma recipe shows you how to do this easily and quickly in a pan over a flame with the same street food flavour and result in just a few minutes.
 

▲ Place the chicken on a cutting board and thinly slice against the grain
 

Or see all our Street Food Recipes right here!
 

▲ Place slices of chicken and other ingredients in a 2-inch strip in the center of the lightly toasted Lebanese bread

How to make shawarma well with homemade instant pickled vegetables

You can get store-bought pickled vegetables or make your own at home. While we will be posting a detailed recipe for pickled vegetables shortly, let me give you a brief how-to for making them instantly at home. Choose your vegetables - such as carrots, beans, cucumber, radish, beetroot, turnips, green chilies. Cut them into thin batons or slices and blanch them in salted water till fork tender for 2 to 4 minutes. Drain. Add sugar, salt, white vinegar, and water in a bowl and mix till dissolved. Place blanched vegetables in a sterilized jar and pour the vinegar-sugar solution over them. Set aside for 1 hour and your pickles are ready. Refrigerate and use as needed. These pickled vegetables are perfect for our chicken shawarma recipe or to brighten any other sandwich, wrap, or meal.
 

▲ Place remaining ingredients in the center of the lightly toasted Lebanese bread and tightly wrap to make your chicken shawarma

How can I make Shawarma without the rotisserie?

To make shawarma at home without the rotisserie you can cook the meat in a heavy skillet or pan on medium heat. Ensure the pan is not crowded with chicken and cook it in batches so that it gets cooked evenly and golden brown all over. Once cooked and rested for five minutes, slice it thinly across the grain with a sharp knife to mimic the results you get at street food outlets.
 

▲ Serve the chicken shawarma hot with extra hummus and salad on the side
 

We have used boneless chicken thighs for this preparation as they remain juicy and moist and work well for this recipe.

If you are serving the shawarma to a larger gathering you can easily double or quadruple our chicken shawarma recipe. If you don’t have khubz you can make the shawarma with any Lebanese flatbread. You could even use the thin variety of naans or rumali rotis as a substitute to the Lebanese flatbreads though we strongly recommend you try having the original version as recommended in the recipe.
 

▲ Looks appetising! Enjoy the incredible taste of homemade chicken shawarma

Serving Suggestions for Chicken Shawarma

Serve the Shawarma hot with a side of tabbouleh salad, fattoush, falafels, pickled vegetables, and some extra hummus or tahini sauce.

Learn how to make chicken shawarma at home by following our easy step by step photos or follow the detailed chicken shawarma recipe video which handholds you through the process. Find the easiest way to make this recipe, its simple ingredients, and top tips to make it right here.