Chicken Shawarma

I have always been fond of lamb shawarma but now after trying this version with chicken I like it equally. Some folks may not know what "mixed spice" is- not to be confused with pumpkin pie spice. My tried and true Lebanese mixed spice is as follows: In small bowl stir together 1/4 tsp. powdered allspice, 1 tsp. black pepper, 2 tsp. cinnamon, 1/4 tsp. ground cloves, 1/4 tsp. nutmeg, 1 tsp. fenugreek and 2 tsp. powdered ginger. You can adjust the proportions to your preference. The spices must then be ground together in either a clean coffee mill or a pestle and mortar. All of these spices are readily available in health food/ethnic food stores or any grocer that sells herbs and spices in bulk. Thank you for sharing your version of a truly delicious dish.

That was one of the best recipes to try. i come from the Arab world and i know what an authentic Shawerma is. And this is one but with one little modification which is replacing the chicken with beef. Cuz where i come from we eat tahini with the meat shawerma and garlic mayomaise with the chicken one. it was fantastic.

First, let me say I love shawarmas. I've had them in many restaurants and even had them in Israel. This tasted nothing like any shawarma I've ever had. I'm not particularly a big fan of hummus so the sauce in this meal really turned me off and infact made me gag. Besides the sauce, the chicken came out great except for there was too much of something in the spices that over powered the entire flavor. If you want something interesting, try this. If you want shawarma, then don't. Oh yeah, because we were over powered by some spice in this recipe, we had to drown it in BBQ sauce(blasphamy I know.)

I gave this a 4 star only because my hubby didn't like the tahini sauce, BUT I loved it! I've had this before at a resturant, and this recipe is right on. The kids and the hubby ate it without the sauce. I grilled the chicken (I used boneless breasts) and brushed the flatbread lightly with olive oil and grilled them just until warm when the chicken was done. A keeper for me...maybe I'll turn the tahini sauce into salad dressing for future use??

This was absolutely incredible! Used rice vinegar instead of malt and only marinated for 15 min or so, but the combination of the tangy chicken with the yogurt sauce was unbelievable. Reminded me so much of NYC except this was FRESH.

My chicken would not cook in the marinade, perhaps because it went straight from the refrigerator to the oven. I had to transfer it to a wire rack and finish it off at 400F. Other than that hitch, the shawarma turned out nicely and the tahini sauce was very tasty. I look forward to trying this recipe with lamb. Thank you for sharing.

I have had Shawarma from several restaurants. Each place taste a bit different. I am sure there are better chicken shawarma recipes out there! This recipe did nothing for me. I followed the recipe exact as printed. My daughter and I both were disappointed with this recipe. I will not be making this recipe again.

The marinade was great! I also added pickled turnip and some parsely to the pita before serving.

I haven't tried the restaurant version, so I can't compare. I couldn't find boneless thighs, so I used regular ones, but had to increase the cooking time since chicken was still raw when I checked it at 30 minutes. Didn't care for the tahini sauce topping, felt it detracted from the sandwich. Chicken tasted pretty good, but had a dominant vinegar flavor. Instead of pita bread rounds, I used Greek-style pita fold-up rounds. Interesting, different sandwich.

Great recipe. My family loved it. Thankyou.

I think I'll keep looking for a better shawarma recipe. The chicken was just ok and I really didn't like the Tahini sauce at all. I've had good shawarma, so I know the taste I am looking for - this wasn't it. Thanks anyways for the recipe>

Great recipe! I marinated the chicken overnight and cooked on the grill and it turned out awesome! I also brushed the pita with olive oil and put those on the grill for 90 seconds or so to get them nice and warm. Served with french fries and it felt like we were at my favorite Coney! Thanks for sharing.

good recipes...i like it

This didn't taste like schawarma I'm used to getting in restaurants. But it was still a pretty good sandwich.

This made a great, if messy, lunch. I found the tahini spread a little too bitter for my taste, and ended up doubling the yogurt and lemon juice to counter it. It was good that way, but next time I think I'll just use hummus and top with some tzatziki and hot sauce.

Dear Wendy, thanks for a super recipe. It was sooo good, hubby did everything but lick his plate. This is in my keeper file. Thanks again. Bev

Had to tinker a bit with the Tahini sauce. Added extra garlic, garlic powder, salt, and some other spices to give it more pizazz. Otherwise very good

This was pretty good although I did end up making a bunch of adjustments. First, instead of the tahini mix I used some Tzaziki which tasted really good on the chicken. I also couldn't find the malt vinegar so used red wine vinegar instead which didn't over power the chicken.

I marinated the chicken overnight and it came out way too vinegary. After baking the chicken, the dish was very "beige." I ended up grilling the chicken on the stovetop. This was a good base recipe but needs some doctoring up....needs more flavor- like some garlic or cardamom.

Very good! I think the only thing I would do differently next time is finish it off on the grill - I'd like the chicken to have a crispy exterior. But the flavor was great. Thanks!

Tasted very delicious but very light! I served with a cucumber salad.

Explorer wouldn't work for this website anymore, so I had to improvise with the ingredients and the preparation. Regardless, they were DELICIOUS!!! I added Tabbouli to my sandwich.

This was FABULOUS! I was craving this sandwich but couldn't find a restaurant so decided to try it myself. I have never written a review but felt I had to after this. The only change I made was adding cut-up mini dill pickles rather than the tomato. Thank you for sharing this recipe!!

This was a really good shawerma recipe.. I think I'll try it next time with chicken breast instead of thighs, I don't like all the fat in the thighs, I wouldn't change a thing except that I would substitute 'mixed spices' with actual shawerma spices next time and see how it turns out, I found the tahini sauce to need a bit more lemon juice, it's not supposed to be thick. Otherwise very very good and super easy to make.

I made the recipe just as stated, except I didn't know what the mixed spice was, so I added "Greek spice" I had bought. I thought it tasted good and loved the tahini sauce. I would not marinate it next time, as I really couldn't taste any subtle marination flavors under the powerful tahini sauce, so I thought it was a waste of time to marinate. Overall very good though!

I loved this recipe! I am always looking for more international recipes other than mexican and italian & this was fantastic. We used boneless chicken breasts & I added fresh mint to the sauce just because I love the taste of mint in greek food. Very good!

What a wonderful blend of flavors. The tahini sauce enhances the chicken quite well. We're going to grill the chicken thighs the next time we make this. Thanks for the great recipe Wendy!

Excellent dinner! My husband is a recovering vegetarian, and he loved this dish! we have eaten this a couple of times, and it tastes great. I had trouble finding tahini, so I left it out, and it still was tasty. I had to cook the chicken almost an hour, even boneless, but it came out perfect.

the sauce for this was really bad tasting. I followed the recipe exactly and oh boy i had to throw it away.I love Shawarmas and this did not taste anything like it should have.

I can't vouch as for the authenticity of the flavor I got, never having had authentic shawarmas, but it was very tasty, and less work than I thought it was at first. The other half absolutely loved it; the only changes I made was in using breast meat as opposed to thigh, and spinach in place of lettuce. The roommates thought it was fantastic, too, so this one will definitely be on the menu again.

I can't vouch as for the authenticity of the flavor I got, never having had authentic shawarmas, but it was very tasty, and less work than I thought it was at first. The other half absolutely loved it; the only changes I made was in using breast meat as opposed to thigh, and spinach in place of lettuce. The roommates thought it was fantastic, too, so this one will definitely be on the menu again.

I marinaded the chicken for about 12 hours, but wish I'd left it longer. A little more cardamom wouldn't have hurt either. We thought it was good but not amazing. I'd be interested to try it at a restaurant though.

This was delicious! Most definitely a keeper!

this shawarma is very delicious and authentic tasting. i made it using a beef roast instead and it came out wonderful!

Not good. I also have had many shawarmas and the prominent vinegar flavor was enough for me to toss in the garbage.

Very good recipe. I served it with toum. Make your own flatbread, it makes it fantastic! I am going to try it again with shawarma spice blend.

This is a good recipe. The taste is very similar to shawarma. One thing I would not do is cook it in the oven, the chicken comes out way too dry. What I did was cook part in the oven and part on my stoptop grill to see which method came out best. I also used boneless chicken breast.

Great flavor!

I made this last night and followed the recipe exactly. The tahini sauce wasn't good at all, and the chicken was pretty bland to boot. Takeout to the rescue. We've had a w-o-n-d-e-r-f-u-l shawarma at a local family-owned lebanese restaurant, and this was nothing like it. I'll be trying a different recipe tonight and I'm hoping for better results.

Yummy, thanks! And thanks for the baharat recipe, Marco Salmon, it was good.

I cut back on the vinegar per some suggestions, but perhaps too much. I was missing some of the more "exotic" spices, but it turned out well. I also grilled the pitas before filling them.

This was really good. I haven't been out for this type of food to know what to compare it against, but I'll definately make it again.

Tried the recipie last night and my husband loved it! He thought it was better than the middle eastern resturants we have here in Toronto. I marinated the chicken with garam masala, chilli powder, garlic and olive oil. Sauteed it with onions. Wrapped it in a pita with hummus, tzatski, iceburg lettuce, chilli sauce, cilantro & tomatoes. It was sooo good!

I stumbled across this recipe because I had some Naan bread that I wanted to use up. Weird, right? But that's how I roll! So I had all of the ingredients except Tahini and plain yogurt so bought those just for this dish. Am glad I did. This was so flavorful, easy and a fun dish for an easy meal. I had chicken breasts on hand so that is what I used. My hubby had eaten this kind of food when he served in the military during VietNam. He loved it and said it tasted almost exactly like the Shawarma he had over seas (except they used a lot of lamb). I thought it was very good but will use Pita bread next time...Naan gets a bit thick for this dish.

Nice change of pace for chicken

I had to adjust the sauce quite a bit because it was too sesame pasty to me. I added more yogurt, lots more garlic and a small squirt of bbq sauce. Once I had the the whole put together, this was quite good. The chicken was very tasty.

I don't know if it's authentic, but I think this recipe is delicious.

Absolutely delicious.

The tahini sauce was a gaggy paste. I learned later that if you add lemon juice you need to add water.

Delicious recipe. BUT the chicken takes way longer than this recipe says. Like a good 30 minutes longer. Tasty and worth repeating nonetheless.

I hate when people do not use weights for chicken, as the individual pieces can vary widely. I used 2 pounds. It's been so long since I had shawarma I cannot attest to this recipe's authenticity, but it was good! My OH is not a big fan of sour, so I halved the vinegar and lemon juice. The tahini sauce was very thick, so I added 3 T of water to make it saucier.

Was lovely. Served with some hummus and pita chips!