How to Make Chicken Shawarma at Home (Oven, Pan or Air Fryer)

To make chicken shawarma at home, marinate boneless chicken thighs in shawarma spice, lemon, garlic, yoghurt and oil for at least 2 hours, then roast, pan-fry or air-fry them until cooked through and slice thinly. Serve in warm flatbread with garlic sauce (toum) or tahini sauce, pickles and sumac onions, or on rice. This chicken shawarma recipe serves 4; we also compare the shawarma spices in our spices and herbs range.

What is shawarma?

Shawarma is a street food of the Levant and the wider Middle East: marinated meat stacked on a vertical rotisserie, roasted as it turns and shaved off in thin, crisp-edged slices. Britannica says it originated in Turkey, from the döner kebab, and the name comes through Levantine Arabic from the Turkish çevirme, ‘turn’. In Lebanon and Jordan it is usually lamb, beef or both, and across the Middle East it is also made with chicken. It is typically served with pitta, pickled vegetables, hummus and tahini, often with chips.

Without a spit, home cooks use boneless thighs, a punchy marinade and high heat (oven, pan or air fryer), then slice the meat thinly so every piece has charred edges.

What is in shawarma spice?

Shawarma spice, or shawarma seasoning, is warm and aromatic rather than hot. Blends vary; those below with listed ingredients draw on allspice, cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, nutmeg, black or white pepper, cumin, coriander, garlic and ginger, some with sour sumac or citric acid. Chicken and meat blends can differ: our product page calls Abido’s chicken blend lighter and lemony.

Our shawarma spices include Lebanese Chicken Shawarma Spice and Lebanese Meat Shawarma Spice from Sara; Greenfields Lebanese Shawarma Spice, a mild all-rounder from a London-based spice brand; and, from the family-run Lebanese spice house Abido, Abido Chicken Shawarma Spices and Abido Meat Shawarma Spices.

Allergens: our product pages list none of the 14 major allergens in the Greenfields or Abido ingredients, but Abido’s packs state they may contain traces of wheat (gluten), sesame and mustard, and Greenfields says some of its blends are made in a facility that also handles sesame, mustard and celery. Sara’s packs show allergens in bold in the ingredients. Always check the label.

No shawarma blend? Our product pages suggest Abido Lebanese 7 Spices for shawarma, and for chicken and lamb with garlic, lemon and oil; see our 7 spice (baharat) guide.

Chicken shawarma recipe (serves 4)

Chicken shawarma marinade

• Chicken: 1kg boneless, skinless chicken thighs (about 8–10).
• Spice: 4 tablespoons of Sara’s chicken blend or Greenfields (both suggest 2 tablespoons per 500g), or just 1 tablespoon of Abido Chicken Shawarma Spices, which its page says is enough for 1kg.
• Garlic: 4 cloves, crushed, or frozen crushed garlic such as Taj Crushed Garlic cubes, added from frozen (may contain celery and peanuts).
• Also: the juice of 1 lemon, 3 tablespoons each of plain yoghurt and olive or sunflower oil, and 1 onion in thick wedges (optional).
• Salt: none with Abido or Greenfields, which contain it; with Sara’s, add about 1 teaspoon if the pack doesn’t list salt.

Method

1. Marinate. Mix the marinade in a lidded container, add the chicken straight from the pack and turn to coat. Don’t rinse raw chicken: the Food Standards Agency (FSA) warns that washing it can splash campylobacter onto your hands. Wash your hands after handling it, then cover and chill at the bottom of the fridge for 2–24 hours.
2. Cook it hot. Lift the chicken out, let excess marinade drip off and cook it as below. Throw leftover marinade away: the FSA says not to reuse marinade that has been on raw meat with cooked or ready-to-eat food.
3. Check it is cooked. Cut into the thickest piece. The FSA’s advice is that poultry should be steaming hot all the way through, with no pink meat, and the juices should run clear. With a food thermometer, the middle should reach 70°C for 2 minutes, or 75°C for 30 seconds.
4. Rest, slice and crisp. Rest for 5 minutes and slice thinly, then toss the slices in a hot, dry pan for a minute or two for crispy, takeaway-style edges.

Oven-baked, pan-fried or air fryer chicken shawarma

Times vary with thickness and appliance, so always do the checks above; the FSA also advises following your appliance’s instructions.

Garlic sauce (toum) and tahini sauce for shawarma

How to make toum (Lebanese garlic sauce)

Toum is a fluffy white sauce whipped from raw garlic, oil, lemon and salt, and it is fiercely strong: a teaspoon or two per wrap is plenty. Peel a head of garlic (10–12 cloves), removing any green shoots, and blitz with 1 teaspoon of salt in a mini chopper until smooth. With the motor running, add 250ml of sunflower oil a few drops at a time, then in a thin stream, alternating with the juice of 1 lemon and 2 tablespoons of iced water, until thick like mayonnaise; pouring too fast can make it split. As it is raw garlic in oil, keep it sealed in the fridge: US university extension guidance for home-made garlic in oil is to use it within 4 days or freeze it.

Tahini sauce (tarator)

Whisk 4 tablespoons of Tahini Sesame Paste, stirred well first, with the juice of 1 lemon, a little crushed garlic and a pinch of salt. It turns thick and grainy, then smooth and pourable as you whisk in cold water a tablespoon at a time, about 4–6 in all. Tahini is ground sesame, so the sauce contains sesame; see our tahini guide for more.

How to serve chicken shawarma

• Chicken shawarma wrap: spread warm flatbread or pitta with toum or tahini sauce, add chicken, pickles, tomato, lettuce and a few chips, roll tightly, then toast seam-side down in a dry pan until crisp.
• Shawarma plate: serve over rice with salad, hummus, pickles and both sauces. Abu Kass Mazza Sella Basmati cooks into fluffy, separate grains; allow about 300g uncooked for 4 and follow the bag’s instructions.
• Pickles: Greenfields Mixed Pickles is a 720g jar of pickled carrots, turnip, cucumbers, peppers, lemon, olives, cauliflower and onion; refrigerate once opened.
• Sumac onions: toss a thinly sliced red onion with 1–2 teaspoons of Greenfields Sumac, chopped parsley and a pinch of salt. Our sumac guide has more ideas.

Beef or lamb shawarma

For meat shawarma, cut lamb, or beef such as flank or sirloin, across the grain into thin strips; 20 minutes in the freezer makes this easier. Per 500g, our product pages suggest 2 tablespoons of Lebanese Meat Shawarma Spice with olive oil, lemon, garlic and a splash of vinegar, or 1½ teaspoons of Abido Meat Shawarma Spices with vinegar, oil, garlic and 1 teaspoon of salt, as it contains none. Marinate overnight in the fridge, sear in batches in a very hot pan and serve with tahini sauce, pickles and sumac onions. The FSA says meat minced or skewered all the way through, such as kebabs, should be cooked thoroughly.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best cut of chicken for shawarma?

Boneless, skinless chicken thighs. They have a little more fat than breast, so they stay juicy over high heat and are harder to overcook. If you buy thighs on the bone, cut out the bone and open the meat flat so it cooks evenly, or cut it into 3–4cm pieces for skewers.

How long should you marinate chicken shawarma?

At least 2 hours and ideally overnight, as our Sara and Greenfields pages suggest; our Abido chicken page says 4 hours or more. Keep it covered at the bottom of the fridge, never at room temperature, and cook it within 24 hours and before the chicken’s use-by date. Left much longer, lemon and yoghurt can turn the surface mushy.

Can I use chicken breast instead of thighs?

Yes: our Lebanese Chicken Shawarma Spice page suggests thighs or breast. Breast is leaner and dries out faster, so halve it horizontally or flatten it to an even thickness and cook it for a little less time. Check the thickest piece is steaming hot with no pink meat and clear juices, then slice thinly and serve with plenty of sauce.

What sauce goes on chicken shawarma?

Toum, the whipped Lebanese garlic sauce, is classic with chicken, and tahini sauce with beef and lamb, though both suit either. For a quicker, milder garlic sauce, stir 1 crushed garlic clove, a squeeze of lemon and a pinch of salt into 150g of thick yoghurt with 2 tablespoons of mayonnaise. Shawarma spice is warm rather than hot, so add chilli sauce for heat.

What is the difference between shawarma and doner?

They are close relatives: both are meat roasted on a rotating vertical spit and carved thinly, and Britannica describes döner kebab as similar to shawarma and gyros. Döner is the Turkish dish, named from words meaning ‘rotating meat’; shawarma is the Levantine Arabic version, its name taken from the Turkish çevirme, ‘turn’. Britannica lists coriander, turmeric, black pepper, cumin and sumac as typical shawarma spices.