Chicken Shawarma: Bold Middle Eastern Street Food at Home

⏱ Marinate: 2 hrs, overnight 🔥Cook: 15 min 👤Serves: 4–6 🌡Heat: Medium-high

Chicken shawarma recipe is the Middle Eastern street food that the entire world has fallen for, and for good reason. Chicken thighs marinated in a deeply spiced blend of cumin, cardamom, coriander, turmeric, sumac, cinnamon, paprika, lemon juice, yogurt and garlic, then cooked over high heat until the edges char and the inside stays impossibly juicy, sliced thin and stuffed into warm pita with garlic sauce, pickled vegetables, tomato and onion. The marinade takes ten minutes. The overnight rest does everything else.

Traditional shawarma is cooked on a vertical rotating spit for hours, the outer layers continuously shaved off as they crisp. This version uses a cast iron skillet and produces the same charred edges, the same layered spice, the same juicy interior, in fifteen minutes. Nobody who has eaten it has ever complained.

Ingredients

For the chicken and marinade

• 2 lbs (900g) boneless skinless chicken thighs, thighs only. Higher fat content than breast means they stay juicy at the high heat needed to produce char. Breast dries out before it caramelizes. This is the one non-negotiable in this recipe.
• ¼ cup (60ml) full-fat plain yogurt, tenderizes the chicken through lactic acid and creates the slightly charred surface coating during cooking
• 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice, plus zest of 1 lemon for extra brightness
• 6 cloves garlic, finely minced or grated, fresh only. Garlic powder is a pale substitute here.
• 2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 1½ teaspoons ground coriander
• 1½ teaspoons sweet paprika, or smoked paprika for extra depth
• 1 teaspoon ground turmeric, adds the golden color visible in properly made shawarma
• 1 teaspoon ground cardamom, the spice that most identifies shawarma as distinctly Middle Eastern. Do not skip.
• ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
• ½ teaspoon ground allspice
• ½ teaspoon sumac, adds a bright fruity tang. Available at Middle Eastern grocery stores and Whole Foods.
• ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper, adjust to heat preference
• 1½ teaspoons salt
• ½ teaspoon black pepper
• 1 tablespoon avocado or vegetable oil, for cooking

For the garlic yogurt sauce (toum-lite)

• ½ cup (120g) full-fat Greek yogurt
• 2 cloves garlic, finely grated
• 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
• ¼ teaspoon salt

For the wrap

• 4–6 pieces warm pita or Arabic flatbread
• 1 cup shredded purple cabbage, or iceberg lettuce
• 2 Roma tomatoes, finely diced
• ½ red onion, very thinly sliced, tossed with 1 teaspoon sumac and a pinch of salt
• Pickled cucumbers or turnips, the acidity cuts through the richness of the chicken
• Fresh flat-leaf parsley, roughly chopped

Now cook

1. Make the marinade. Combine yogurt, olive oil, lemon juice, lemon zest, minced garlic, cumin, coriander, paprika, turmeric, cardamom, cinnamon, allspice, sumac, cayenne, salt and black pepper in a large bowl. Whisk until completely smooth. Taste the marinade directly, it should be bold, warmly spiced, tangy and complex. This is the most important moment to adjust, more lemon for brightness, more cardamom for depth, more cayenne for heat.The marinade should smell extraordinary at this stage. If it does not smell extraordinary, add more garlic.
2. Marinate the chicken. Add the chicken thighs to the marinade. Press and turn every piece until completely coated, every surface covered. Cover tightly and refrigerate for a minimum of 2 hours. Overnight produces the best result, 8 hours allows the spices and yogurt to penetrate completely through the thigh rather than sitting only on the surface.Do not marinate more than 24 hours, the lemon and yogurt acids begin breaking down the proteins too aggressively and the texture becomes slightly soft rather than firm and juicy.
3. Make the garlic sauce. Combine Greek yogurt, grated garlic, lemon juice, olive oil and salt. Stir until smooth. Taste, it should be sharp, creamy and garlicky. Cover and refrigerate until needed. It improves after 30 minutes as the garlic mellows into the yogurt.
4. Bring chicken to room temperature. Remove the marinated chicken from the fridge 30 minutes before cooking. Room temperature chicken cooks more evenly, cold chicken from the fridge produces steamed rather than seared exterior.
5. Cook the chicken. Heat a cast iron skillet or heavy pan over medium-high heat until very hot, 2 full minutes of preheating. Add the avocado oil. Add the chicken thighs in a single layer, work in batches, do not crowd. Cook 5–7 minutes per side without moving until deeply golden brown with charred edges and an internal temperature of 165°F (74°C). The yogurt and spice coating will caramelize and char at the edges, this is correct and is exactly what you want.The batch cooking is important. Crowding the pan drops the temperature and produces steamed grey chicken rather than charred golden shawarma. Give each piece space.
6. Rest and slice. Transfer cooked chicken to a cutting board. Rest 5 minutes. Slice very thinly across the grain, thin slices are essential to replicating the texture of spit-roasted shawarma. The sliced chicken should show the charred dark edges with a juicy interior at each cut.
7. Build the wrap. Warm the pita over the same pan for 30 seconds per side. Spread garlic sauce generously over the pita. Add shredded cabbage, diced tomato, sumac-dressed onion and sliced chicken. Add pickled vegetables and fresh parsley. Roll tightly. Serve immediately.

The difference

Cardamom is the spice that separates authentic shawarma from any generic spiced chicken recipe. Its specific floral, slightly citrusy warmth is what makes shawarma taste unmistakably Middle Eastern rather than just well-seasoned. Western versions of shawarma often leave it out or reduce it to a trace amount, and the result, while good, does not taste like the real thing. Use the full teaspoon called for here. The marinade will smell more complex and slightly perfumed before cooking, exactly right. Full guide to the spices used across the Middle Eastern collection is in the Lebanese spices guide.

The variation worth trying

Claire’s note

Oven sheet pan shawarma: preheat oven to 425°F (220°C). Spread the marinated chicken thighs on a foil-lined baking sheet in a single layer. Roast for 25–30 minutes until cooked through. Switch to the broiler for the final 3–4 minutes to char the edges, watch constantly, the line between charred and burnt is 60 seconds under a broiler. The sheet pan method produces more consistent results when cooking for a large group and is significantly less hands-on than the skillet method. The skillet produces a better individual char. Both are excellent.

Serve with

Chicken shawarma belongs with warm pita, garlic sauce, pickled vegetables and the sumac-dressed red onion, this combination is the complete shawarma experience and none of those components should be skipped. Served as a platter rather than a wrap it sits alongside hummus, muhammara, Lebanese mezze and a fattoush or tabbouleh salad. For everything that belongs on a full Middle Eastern table the Lebanese recipes guide have it all.

Add chicken shawarma to your weekly meal planner, marinate Sunday night, cook Monday in 15 minutes. Leftovers reheat in a hot pan in 3 minutes and are excellent over rice the next day. And for more recipes, follow us on Pinterest.

Chicken Shawarma

---

5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Star

No reviews

• Author: Claire Bennett
• Total Time: 135 minutes
• Yield: 4–6 servings 1x
• Diet: None

Print Recipe

Pin Recipe

Description

A delicious Middle Eastern street food made with marinated chicken thighs cooked to perfection and served in pita with garlic sauce and fresh vegetables.

---

Ingredients

Scale 1x2x3x

• 2 lbs (900g) boneless skinless chicken thighs
• ¼ cup (60ml) full-fat plain yogurt
• 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• Zest of 1 lemon
• 6 cloves garlic, finely minced or grated
• 2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 1½ teaspoons ground coriander
• 1½ teaspoons sweet or smoked paprika
• 1 teaspoon ground turmeric
• 1 teaspoon ground cardamom
• ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
• ½ teaspoon ground allspice
• ½ teaspoon sumac
• ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1½ teaspoons salt
• ½ teaspoon black pepper
• 1 tablespoon avocado or vegetable oil
• ½ cup (120g) full-fat Greek yogurt (for sauce)
• 2 cloves garlic, finely grated (for sauce)
• 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice (for sauce)
• 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil (for sauce)
• ¼ teaspoon salt (for sauce)
• 4–6 pieces warm pita or Arabic flatbread
• 1 cup shredded purple cabbage or iceberg lettuce
• 2 Roma tomatoes, finely diced
• ½ red onion, very thinly sliced, tossed with 1 teaspoon sumac and a pinch of salt
• Pickled cucumbers or turnips
• Fresh flat-leaf parsley, roughly chopped

Cook Mode Prevent your screen from going dark

---

Instructions

1. Make the marinade by combining yogurt, olive oil, lemon juice, lemon zest, minced garlic, cumin, coriander, paprika, turmeric, cardamom, cinnamon, allspice, sumac, cayenne, salt, and black pepper in a large bowl. Whisk until smooth and adjust seasoning.
2. Marinate the chicken by adding the thighs to the marinade, coating them completely, and refrigerate for a minimum of 2 hours, preferably overnight.
3. Make the garlic sauce by combining Greek yogurt, grated garlic, lemon juice, olive oil, and salt. Stir until smooth and refrigerate.
4. Bring marinated chicken to room temperature 30 minutes before cooking.
5. Cook the chicken in a hot cast iron skillet with avocado oil for 5–7 minutes per side until golden brown and charred.
6. Rest the cooked chicken for 5 minutes, then slice thinly across the grain.
7. Build the wrap by warming pita, spreading garlic sauce, and adding cabbage, tomato, onion, sliced chicken, pickled vegetables, and parsley. Roll tightly and serve immediately.

Notes

Overnight marination improves flavor. Avoid marinating for more than 24 hours to maintain texture.

• Prep Time: 10 minutes
• Cook Time: 15 minutes
• Category: Main Course
• Method: Skillet
• Cuisine: Middle Eastern

Nutrition

• Serving Size: 1 wrap
• Calories: 400
• Sugar: 6g
• Sodium: 600mg
• Fat: 20g
• Saturated Fat: 5g
• Unsaturated Fat: 14g
• Trans Fat: 0g
• Carbohydrates: 32g
• Fiber: 4g
• Protein: 25g
• Cholesterol: 75mg