An easy and healthy sheet-pan meal with bold flavor.
WHAT IS CHICKEN SHAWARMA?
Traditional chicken shawarma is a Middle Eastern street food of marinated chicken layered up and cooked on a rotisserie. It’s slow roasted until perfectly tender and then shaved off onto a pita.
This recipe gives you the bold flavors of chicken shawarma but is easy enough to make at home!
WHAT YOU NEED
MARINADE. The shawarma marinade is made up of a variety of spices including cumin, turmeric, coriander, all spice, paprika, cayenne, and freshly minced garlic. To make the marinade, you will mix all of the above in with some olive oil and the juice of one lemon. Then pour it over your chicken and onions, make sure it’s coated, let it do it’s magic for 30 min – 4 hours.
PEPPERS. Once the chicken is done marinating, I like to toss bell peppers in the remaining marinade and add them to the sheet pan.
TOMATO CUCUMBER SALAD. I always make a little batch of tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, and parsley in lemon juice to brighten things up a little bit. It has the same flavor profile as tabbouli, if you’re familiar with it.
TO SERVE. You can enjoy the chicken shawarma on its own but my favorite two ways are either on top of rice cooked in chicken broth or in a pita. Either way, I suggest topping the chicken with a big dollop of tzatziki sauce.
Chicken Shawarma
Ingredients
Marinade
- 1 lemon juiced
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 1 TBSP cumin ground
- 1 TBSP tumeric ground
- 1 TBSP coriander ground
- 1 TBSP all spice ground
- 1 TBSP paprika
- 1 TBSP salt
- 1 tsp cloves ground
- 1 tsp cayenne pepper
- 5 cloves garlic minced
Other Sheet Pan Ingredients
- 10 chicken thighs boneless, skinless
- 1 large onion sliced
- 1 lemon quartered
- 2 bell peppers (any color) sliced
Tomato Cucumber Salad
- 2 large tomatoes chopped
- ¼ large red onion sliced thin
- 2 mini cucumbers sliced
- 1 lemon juiced
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 TBSP fresh parsley chopped & stems removed
To Serve
- tzatziki sauce
- pita bread or cooked rice optional
Instructions
- Mix together all the spices with olive oil and juice from one lemon. Pour over the chicken and sliced onion in a large bowl. Let it sit in the fridge for 30min – 4hours.
- Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
- After the chicken has marinated. Spread it out in an even layer on a sheet pan. Take the bell peppers and mix it around in the leftover marinade. Add them to the sheet pan along with the quartered lemon.
- Bake at 425 for 35 min or until the chicken's internal temperature is 165.
- While the chicken bakes, make the cucumber and tomato salad by mixing all the ingredients together in a bowl.
To Assemble a Shawarma Bowl
- Cook 1 cup rice as you usually would but replace water with broth and add 1 tsp of turmeric.
- Place chicken on top of cooked rice, then add tomato cucumber salad, and finish off with tzatziki sauce. Enjoy!
To Assemble a Shawarma Wrap
- Open up the pita bread if possible. Spread a generous amount of tzatziki sauce inside the pita. Add the chicken shawarma and peppers. Add tomato cucumber salad. Enjoy!
Notes
Anjouli is a Midwestern farmwife and mom to two little boys. By day she works within the Healthcare industry and by night she’s always trying something new in the kitchen. Follow along to see what she’s feeding her farmers!
