Chicken Shawarma Recipe

TOTAL TIME
35mins
PREP 20 mins
COOK 15 mins
Shawarma is an Arabic pita wrap overflowing with shaved chicken or lamb. A crunchy tabooleh or fattoush salad accompanied by either tahini or hummus completes this Middle Eastern street food.Skip to Next Recipe INGREDIENTS
Nutrition
SERVINGS 6 UNITS US
Meat

2 tablespoons canola oil
1/2 cup yogurt
1 egg, beaten lightly
1 lemon, juice of
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon cardamom powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
salt, to taste
1/2 teaspoon red chili pepper flakes
1/2 teaspoon garam masala
2 teaspoons garlic paste
1 teaspoon ginger paste
1 teaspoon cardamom powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 lb boneless skinless chicken breasts or 1 lb lamb, cut into 1 inch cubes
Salad

1 cup lettuce, finely sliced
1 cucumber, chopped
1 tomatoes, chopped
3 tablespoons cilantro, chopped
3 tablespoons pomegranate seeds
Dressing

1/2 cup yogurt
1 lemon, juice of
2 tablespoons cilantro, chopped
2 tablespoons mint, chopped
salt, to taste
Assembly

6 pita breads
Tabasco sauce, to taste

DIRECTIONS
Combine all of the ingredients listed above the chicken/lamb. Marinate the chicken in mixture and set aside for an hour or two.
Heat a non stick pan on medium to high heat and add the marinated chicken. Stir fry the chicken/lamb until it has cooked through and is dry-less than 10 minutes. Make sure you break up the chicken/lamb with a wooden spoon and keep stirring as it cooks.
In a separate bowl, mix together all the dressing ingredients.
To assemble the shawarma, heat the pita bread on a skillet to warm it. Divide the salad amongst the six pita breads. Top the salad with the chicken.
Drizzle the yogurt dip over the chicken and add a dash of Tabasco sauce. Roll the pita bread tightly and wrap in baking paper. Serve immediately.

Best Shawarma in Dubai

The famous Levantine sandwich is as ubiquitous on Dubai's mean streets as the cheeseburger.

Yet, the shawarma is somehow immune to the sort of rampant commercialism that has seen the burger morph into the double whopper and the mighty zinger. Of all the vendors that dole out this staple wrap, none have dressed it up as some mutant version of the original. Subtleties account for the variance in shawarmas from place to place around the city; each has its own discernible flavour and it's difficult to figure out why.

The ingredients are by and large standardised, leaving pitta pushers to concentrate on substance - the quality of produce and attention to detail. Also of monumental importance is the chef's sense of proportion: nobody wants too little sauce, too many tomatoes or a morsel of chicken buried in a wall of bread.

So if next time your favourite shawarma spot serves up a plate of tosh, you could assume it's training day for the cook's nephew, and not a general decline in food standards. The construction of the shawarma, after all, is as important as the materials it comprises.

A crowd favourite, Automatic is perhaps the best known fast(ish) food Lebanese joint in Dubai. Lebanese is the default shawarma of Dubai. It's easy in this city to forget that many a nation dotted around the Mediterranean came up with unique versions. Nevertheless if there were to be an ambassador of the Dubai shawarma, it would be Automatic. It is in the meat department that this restaurant excels. The chicken here is tender with a texture consistent with that of brown meat found on the bird's leg or thigh. Pickles, garlic, onions and tahini sauce are detectable. The insertion of French fries into the wrap itself is a winning move.

The alternative is the succulent lamb shawarma in which parsley is the dominant undertone. A generous quantity of lamb is squeezed into thin Saj bread to make a fulfilling ensemble.


Rating: 4/5

Price: Dh6 (Dh16 for large)

Location: Various

Contact: 04 434 2355

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The relatively upscale and cosy furnishings of Café Blanc in Marina Mall and Dubai Mall are the setting for another Lebanese spot that has received rave reviews of late. Presentation is emphasised here but thankfully not at the expense of anything else. The options are chicken and beef and the chicken takes it by a long shot. Seasoning on the chicken seems signature - hints of cinnamon, nutmeg and cardamom are ever present, more so than at other shawarma spots. The bread is thick in comparison to other restaurants as well. The garnish - veg and sauce - is of the typical variety.

Overall it's not the type of shawarma that will blow your socks off, and at Dh45 it is extortionate compared to other options. But for those who appreciate basics done well, Café Blanc more than suffices.

Rating: 3/5

Price: Dh45

Location: Dubai Mall, Marina Mall

Contact: 04 434 0828
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This Dubai Mall food court resident represents a shift away from the norm in Dubai. The Jimmy the Greek Gyros Pitta comes from Greece. A gyros is a type of shawarma made from rotisserie-roasted lamb thinly sliced into thick pitta bread. It is then drizzled with tomatoes, onions and fresh tzatziki sauce.

It is similar to a doner kebab, but not nearly as overbearing and the ingredients here have no trans fats. After trying one of these incredibly hearty wraps, one wonders why there aren't more places like this in town. It's a little pricey, but it blows everything else out of the water.

Rating: 5/5

Price: Dh20

Location: Dubai Mall

Contact: 04 339 9979