Chicken Schwarma

The first time I ever heard of Shawarma was four years ago in Montreal. We went for the weekend with Marty’s brother Peter. Peter and his wife love Montreal; he was the perfect tour guide. He was excited to take us to their favorite spots to experience all the cuisine Montreal had to offer. 

Schwarma is a Middle Eastern dish where thinly cut layers of meats are piled on a spit into a cone shape and roasted vertically. Thin pieces of schwarma are shaved off with a giant knife. The sliced meat is added to pita bread, then topped with a white yogurt sauce, cucumbers, and onions.

Peter took Marty and me all around Montreal; we had small bites at many different places over the course of the weekend. Shawarma was a late-night stop for us well after midnight while we were walking back to our hotel. I had chicken shawarma, and wow, the flavors were fantastic. The flavors were familiar to me; they reminded me of a Greek gyro and Indian food mixed.

I recently saw on my newsfeed recipes for easy chicken shawarma that you can make at home. Instead of roasting thin slices of meat on a spit, chicken, beef, or lamb, is marinated then roasted in the oven or grilled. It sounded easy enough for a weeknight dinner, especially if you marinate the meat the night before.

As I started looking through shawarma recipes online, I realized that shawarma is actually the method in which it’s cooked. The recipes that I was looking at mimicked the same spices and marinade, giving it that shawarma flavor even though it’s cooked conventionally at home.

I figured out why it reminded me of the Greek gyro and Indian food, the spices used in the marinade have so many Indian spices and flavors. Spices such as cumin, coriander, cardamom, turmeric, garlic, paprika, and cinnamon.

There were tons of chicken shawarma recipes, so I read through a bunch of them, finally picking one that I wanted to try. The only thing I had to change in the recipe was substituting lemon zest for sumac. Here’s the link to the recipe www.dimitrasdishes.com

Earlier in the week, we bought a large package of chicken tenders at Aldi. I never buy chicken tenders, but the 2-pound package was around five dollars, and I couldn’t pass it up. I knew that I wouldn’t be making breaded chicken tenders, but I would marinate and grill them.

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Before I went to bed, I mixed the spice blend and made the marinade, massaging it into the chicken. The chicken would have a long time to marinate before grilling the next day. There is no such thing as gluten-free pita bread where I live, so I looked up a couple of recipes and decided to try one.

I didn’t take any photos while making the pita bread because I honestly didn’t think the recipe was going to turn out. I had to adjust it by adding more flour. I covered it with a towel to rise, hoping it would come out. 

After we got home from making our deliveries in Albany, I checked on the pita dough; it did rise from the yeast. Next, I formed 8 little balls and rolled out eight discs. I followed the recipe, preheating the oven until it was scorching hot along with the baking sheet pans. I placed the pita desks on the hot trays and closed the oven quickly as the recipe said.

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It was a quick bake time of only 3 to 5 minutes, so I didn’t have to hold my breath too long to see if the pitas would puff up. Low and behold, they did! I was actually pretty shocked and pleased.

Next, I made a yogurt and tahini sauce to go on the Shawarma along, then diced tomatoes, cucumbers, and lettuce.

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Marty lit the ceramic grill; once it was hot, I threw on the chicken and carefully avoided overcooking it. I took temps, making sure the pieces were cooked, though. I think that the smell of the chicken schwarma permeated the entire neighborhood. It smelled so exotic and delicious.

For the assembly, I put yogurt sauce on the pita along with chicken and veggies. It was fantastic. The flavors really were like the ones that I experienced in Montreal. 😋

I wasn’t completely thrilled with the pita bread, so I will look for additional recipes and try to make them again. The chicken shawarma will definitely be on the menu often, especially in the summer. It would be delicious sliced up on salad with that yogurt tahini sauce as a dressing.

I urge you to check out the recipe link I used. If you aren’t gluten-free, by all means, buy yourself some pita bread and try it. Yum!