Chicken Shawarma

Host a Middle Eastern feast with this chicken shawarma centrepiece. Impress your guests with roasted meat on a striking spike, tantalise their tastebuds with succulent spiced chicken, and dress your table with an array of sumptuous mezze-inspired sides. Chicken shawarma wraps are unbelievably simple to achieve and deliver wow-worthy results on all the levels. 

Shawarma? At a dinner party? OK, so the two don’t seem likely partners, but I am all about laidback chic right now. So yes, I’m serving chicken shawarma wraps and fancy cocktails. Pomegranates are synonymous with Middle Eastern cuisine, so my guests are being treated to a Pomegranate French 75 aperitif. My recipe can also be adapted to mocktails. 

Kebabs get a bad rap in the UK. Throughout the Nineties they were mostly associated with post-pub pint-swilling, football (soccer)-watching, anthem-chanting lads, lads, lads!

They were seen as greasy, fatty and heart-attack inducing. While the excessive lad culture was definitely tough on the old arteries and gut, kebabs can’t really be to blame! 

Subcultures and high street kebabbies aside, if prepared with good quality ingredients, kebabs can be a well-balanced and nutritious meal. And that’s why I’m backing this chicken shawarma!

Essentially, a kebab is roasted meat, with perhaps a grilled tomato or onion, fermented vegetables like carrot, cucumber or cauliflower, on a fresh flatbread or rice. Simple, wholesome, and mouth-wateringly succulent with a bonus hint of smokey char. 

What is chicken shawarma

Chicken shawarma is the Arabic version of Greek gyros or Turkish chicken doner, which are all popular street food options in that part of the world.  Handily (literally), wrapped in bread- a pita or flatbread with some salad, they are the ultimate to-go food. 

The three words; shawarma, gyros, and doner are language variants on the word ‘turn’, because the meat is roasted on a vertical spit. A bit like a rotisserie.

Not familiar? It can be hard to imagine, so visualise an inverted meat mound impaled on a sword (as it was originally) slowly turning against an upright electric heater. 

Against the heat, the outer meat cooks slowly, juices and fat running down the outside keeping it moist, so when it’s ready the cooked layer is shaved off in thin slices.

Again, this would have been done with a sword in the days of Sheherazade, but nowadays it’s an electric-powered rotating blade, a bit like a mini buzz-saw. The meat ribbons are then collected from the tray below and stuffed in the chicken wrap.

But my word! Does that sound like hot and hard work! You’ll be relieved to hear that this chicken shawarma recipe calls for neither a vertical grill nor swords.

You will need two pieces of equipment, however. A vertical This is an affiliate link.kebab skewer– easily purchased online, make sure you select a size that will fit inside your oven! And a sharp carving knife for slicing.

After the chicken has marinated, you will need to glove up and skewer the thighs onto the spike, fashioning your own mountain of meat. Move the shelves out of the oven so the vertical stand can be placed inside. 

If your sense of adventure is in sleep-mode right now, you needn’t miss out on an authentic chicken kebab! Chicken musakhan is all the marinade-slathered, juicy chickeniness and flatbread but without the spike.

Shawarma marinade

What makes chicken shawarma so lip-smackingly tasty and tender is the marinade. This recipe calls for accessible classic Middle Eastern spices:

Equal parts coriander, cumin and paprika bring warm, peppery and earthy notes, while a smaller measure of cinnamon brings sweetness. Allspice is actually a type of dried pepper berry and has a multidimensional flavour profile; nutmeg, fennel, anise, clove and black pepper. 

Dried thyme and oregano have citrussy, grassy profiles that lift the flavours. The juice of two lemons brings a zesty freshness. 

I’ve used garlic powder, rather than fresh. I find it mixes more evenly throughout the marinade and will permeate each piece of chicken thigh.  

Finally, don’t skip the salt! 

It’s vital that the chicken thighs have a long bask in the marinade before cooking. I recommend overnight. This does two things: first, it allows the ingredients to develop and the spices to thoroughly infuse the meat.

Second, the acidity in the lemon juice will break down proteins in the chicken, naturally tenderising it to make it ultimately soft and melt-in-the-mouth once cooked. 

Serving suggestions

To wrap or not to wrap? That is the question. A shawarma will usually come rolled up in a floppy, fresh-baked flatbread or stuffed in a pita, but, in Turkey especially, it can come with rice. Which is a pretty convenient side option for any gluten-free diners. I recommend herbed mushroom rice.

One of my favourite things about a Middle Eastern meal is all the mezze. But it’s easy to get carried away with all the delicious 1001 dishes, so I try to keep it simple (and pot washing down) with one salad, two dips, and a vegetarian option. As well as rice and bread, ofc! Here’s my rundown:

• Greek salad with couscous
• Tzatziki dip
• Muhammara dip
• Falafel with baba ghanoush

If you can get your hands on some, the crunch and sourness of some pickled vegetables (torshi), will bring authenticity and elevate the spread sky high.

Storage and leftovers

Your mouthwatering leftover Middle Eastern chicken can be stored in an This is an affiliate link.airtight container and kept in the fridge for 3-4 days. It’s just as delicious cold a couple of days later served up as a topping to a bean or grain-based salad; Mediterranean farro would be my choice.

This bumper chicken shawarma recipe (it serves 8-10) is an easy get-ahead if you’re hosting. After marinating the chicken thighs, freeze the lot for up to 3 months. The day before your event, defrost the meat thoroughly in the fridge overnight before applying to the spike and cooking as per the recipe instructions.

More chicken recipes to try

• Chicken Burrito Bowl
• Grilled Chicken Kebab
• Instant Pot Shredded Chicken Tacos
• Roast Chicken with Mango Chutney Glaze