Chicken shawarma
One of the most popular recipes on my blog is definitely the classic version of shawarma. And what works very well with beef or lamb also works perfectly with tender chicken. With chicken shawarma, however, there are a few differences in the preparation and especially in the components. I’ll tell you what they are, of course 🙂
The main difference between the two types of shawarma is the sauce. While the beef/lamb version tends to use tahini sauce , chicken in Levantine cuisine is always accompanied by toum. If you now have three question marks on your face or above your head (hehehe), that’s quite normal. Toum means “garlic” in Arabic. And the name for the toum sauce is more than appropriate, because it is basically a mayonnaise with a very large amount of garlic. You can expect to eat almost a whole clove per teaspoon of Toum 😀
So if you want to make chicken shawarma yourself, make sure you don’t have any important appointments in the next few days – or always have a supply of chewing gum with you. But the taste makes up for any social isolation.
Your spice rack should also be well stocked for chicken shawarma. You will definitely need cumin, caraway, cumin, cardamom, coriander, paprika, cloves, harissa and garlic. Then mix everything with fresh yoghurt and marinate the chicken overnight.
For the meat, you can use chicken breast or chicken thighs (boneless). I usually use the breast. After marinating, the meat is either put on the grill or in a pan. Depending on how thick the meat is, you can either cut it in half, cut it directly into strips before marinating or put it in the oven to finish cooking after roasting.
Either way, chicken shawarma is super easy to make yourself. The recipe is also great if you’re having a small party and each guest can make their own sandwich. In addition to the chicken and the mayo, you only need fresh tomato, some parsley and pickled vegetables. You can simply use pickles or serve it authentically with red pickled radish.
So, now try the deliciousness and let me know in the comments how you liked it.
Ingredients
Chicken & Marinade
- 600 g Chicken breast
- 3 TBSP Olive oil
- 2 Garlic cloves
- 1 TBSP Apple cider vinegar
- 1 TBSP Lemon juice
- 1/2 TL Cloves ground
- 1 TSP Coriander seeds ground
- 1,5 TSP Salt
- 1/2 TSP Cumin
- 1/2 TL Cardamom ground
- 1/2 TSP Cinnamon
- 1/2 TSP Nutmeg
- 1/2 TSP paprika powder noble sweet
- 3 TBSP Yogurt
- 1 TL Harissa optional
Toum
- 1 Recipe for Toum
Wrap components
- 4 Lebanese flatbreads
- Pickled cucumber / pickled radish (at will)
- 1/4 Iceberg lettuce
- 4 Tomatoes
- Fresh parsley (to taste)
Zubereitung
For the marinade
- Peel the garlic and crush it properly in a mortar.
- Wash the chicken and pat dry. Optional: Cut the chicken into strips.
- Mix all the ingredients for the marinade together and mix the chicken well with the marinade.
- Marinate chicken in marinade overnight in the refrigerator. If you need to marinate it quickly, you should let it marinate for at least 2 hours.
Garlic mayo
- Prepare the toum according to the recipe.
Wrap craft
- Cut the vegetables into the desired shape. I recommend thin slices or sticks.
- Fry the chicken in a pan or grill it on a barbecue.
- Spread your desired amount of garlic mayonnaise on the pita bread.
- Cut the chicken into mouth-sized strips (if you haven't already done so) and place them in the middle of the pita bread.
- Top the strip with parsley, tomato, lettuce and pickled cucumber / radish.
- Roll the pita bread into a sandwich.
- Bon appétit 🙂
