Recipe
🥙 LUNCH
Chicken Shawarma
Marinated spiced chicken roasted and shaved into flatbread with garlic sauce and pickles, the Levant's great street lunch.
Syrian · medium · serves 4
prep 30 min · cook 25 min
~370 cal · 46g protein · 16g carbs · 12g fat · 2g fiber · 3g sugars · 4g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Shawarma is one of the defining street foods of Syria and the wider Levant, its name derived from the Turkish for turning, describing the vertical spit on which stacked, marinated meat slowly roasts. Damascus is famed for its shawarma, shaved to order into warm bread.
Chicken is marinated in yogurt, garlic, lemon, and a warm blend of spices, then roasted and thinly sliced. It is rolled in flatbread with toum, the fierce Levantine garlic sauce, along with pickles, and sometimes fries or onions. Juicy, garlicky, and tangy, it is fast food at its most satisfying, and a genuine point of regional pride.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally egg-, nut- and pork-free. No swaps needed.
Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
🥕 Vegetarian
🌱 Vegan
🌾 Gluten-Free
🥛 Dairy-Free
🥜 Nut-Free
🥚 Egg-Free
🐖 Pork-Free
Dietary labels are a cooking guide, not allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish; we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, read the label on every product you use, and note that a kitchen can cross-contaminate in ways a recipe cannot control.
Ingredients
US
Metric
Serves 4
1 1/2 lb chicken thighs
1/2 cup yogurt (for the marinade)
4 cloves garlic, finely minced
1 lemon, juiced
1 tbsp white vinegar
3 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp total paprika, cumin, coriander, allspice, cinnamon and turmeric (or seven spice)
1 tsp
Hard to find? pomegranate juice boiled down hard with a squeeze of lemon - reduce it until it coats a spoon and tastes more sour than sweet; the bottled kind keeps for a year and is cheap, so this is a stopgap rather than a plan
to taste salt and black pepper
4 flatbreads
1/2 cup toum (garlic sauce)
to serve pickles and sliced tomato
Instructions
1
Whisk the olive oil, garlic, yogurt, vinegar, lemon juice, pomegranate molasses, spices, salt and pepper into a marinade and turn the chicken through it. Leave it a few hours, ideally overnight.
✎ Chef’s note
Each element does a job: the yogurt tenderises, the vinegar brightens, the lemon freshens, the oil carries the heat. The teaspoon of pomegranate molasses is the Syrian touch: using it on shawarma is specifically a Syrian tradition, and it is what balances the sweet against the sour.
2
Roast or pan-sear the chicken until charred at the edges and cooked, then slice thin.
✎ Chef’s note
Get real colour and char on the chicken, then slice thin. Those crisp, browned edges are what shawarma is all about.
3
Warm the flatbreads and spread with toum.
4
Fill with the sliced chicken and pickles, roll up tight, and serve.
Damascene street-food tradition.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Damascus. Damascus is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities on Earth, and its mezze table shows it: hummus, muhammara, stuffed vine leaves, and kibbeh in many forms. Pomegranate molasses, tahini, and seven-spice give Syrian cooking its sweet-sour depth.
🗺️
Syria. Syrian cooking is a jewel of the Levant, famous for kibbeh, stuffed vegetables, muhammara, and the aromatic Aleppo pepper. Olive oil, pomegranate molasses, and a deep tradition of hospitality shape its generous mezze table.
🌍
Asia. A grain line runs across the continent. Rice dominates the wet south and east, wheat the drier north and west, and the tools follow it: the wok and the steamer where rice is milled, the tandoor and the griddle where wheat is ground. Tea travels the other way, drunk green, black, salted, buttered or with milk depending how far it got from China.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Syria
KibbehTorpedo-shaped bulgur shells stuffed with spiced meat and pine nuts, fried until crisp.
BalilaWarm chickpeas dressed with cumin, lemon, garlic, and olive oil, a simple Damascene breakfast.
Halawet el JibnSoft semolina-and-cheese dough rolled around clotted cream and drenched in syrup, a Damascene sweet-cheese specialty.
Browse all Syria recipes →
Good to know
You’ll need: Oven, Whisk.
Storing it: Best straight off the heat. Leftovers keep 2 to 3 days refrigerated and reheat well in a hot oven rather than the microwave.
Make it a Syria meal
Sous (Licorice Drink)Drink
Halawet el JibnDessert
KibbehDinner
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Frequently asked questions
What is Chicken Shawarma?
Marinated spiced chicken roasted and shaved into flatbread with garlic sauce and pickles, the Levant's great street lunch.
Where does Chicken Shawarma come from?
Chicken Shawarma is a Syrian dish from Damascus, Syria.
Can Chicken Shawarma be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Chicken Shawarma recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions, including several at once such as gluten-free and dairy-free together. Treat them as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Chicken Shawarma safe for people with food allergies?
Our dietary labels and substitutions are a cooking guide, not medical or allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish, but we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, always read the label on every product you use, and remember a home or commercial kitchen can cross-contaminate ingredients in ways a recipe cannot control.
How long does Chicken Shawarma take to make?
About 55 minutes total (30 minutes prep, 25 minutes cooking), serving 4.
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