Homemade shawarma with chicken in pita bread: a classic simple recipe

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Prepared by: Alexey Marchuk

08/16/2015 Cooking time: 30 min

Why buy shawarma on the street when you can make it yourself? Homemade shawarma with chicken in lavash is a simple and rich dish that will captivate you with its unique taste. I recommend!

How to cook shawarma - easy and simple

Homemade lavash recipe: dough

To make homemade lavash, take:

• 0.5 kg flour
• 0.2 l water
• 20 g fresh yeast
• 1 tsp salt
• 50 g butter

Instead of fresh yeast, you can use dry yeast, in this case 1 package weighing 11 g is enough

Stir room temperature yeast in lukewarm water and add salt. Sift the flour through a sieve and mix with water and butter. The last ingredient is auxiliary and provides the dough with a more delicate consistency, but if for some reason you don’t have oil on hand, you can prepare homemade pita bread for shawarma without it.

Knead the dough until it becomes elastic and easily separates from your hands and the surface on which you are cutting. Cover the finished dough with a towel and leave to rise. If the yeast is fresh, then one hour will be enough to increase the volume of the dough. Divide the dough into several balls of the same size and roll them out into layers 1-1.5 mm thick, the size of which should correspond to the frying pan in which you plan to fry the pita bread.

The rate at which the dough rises is affected by the ambient air temperature: the warmer it is in the kitchen, the faster the yeast will activate and the dough will increase in volume

Shawarma at home recipe with chicken

Ingredients:

• Lavash - 2-3 pcs.
• Chicken meat - 200 gr.
• Korean carrots - 100 gr.
• Cabbage - 100 gr.
• Tomatoes - 100 gr.
• Cheese - 50 gr.
• Onion - 50 gr.
• Garlic - 3 cloves.
• Sour cream - 100 gr.
• Ketchup - 3 tables. l.
• Mayonnaise - 3 tables. l.

Preparation:

1. Finely chop the chicken.
2. Fry the chicken pieces in sunflower oil until cooked. When frying the chicken, salt, pepper and sprinkle with spices.
3. Cabbage, tomato, cheese and onion must be chopped.
4. Prepare the sauce. Mix sour cream, ketchup and mayonnaise. Add chopped garlic and spices, mix well.
5. Place fried chicken, cabbage and onions on a sheet of lavash.
6. Next add tomatoes and carrots.
7. Place slices of cheese on top.
8. Pour sauce over everything.
9. Fold in the front of the pita bread and the sides.
10. Roll the pita bread tightly.
11. Fry in a preheated frying pan for 2 minutes on each side. Or reheat in the microwave.

Shawarma with chicken fillet

Cooking method

Bake or boil chicken meat. Season with salt and hop-suneli seasoning. Use red meat (from chicken thighs or legs) - it is juicier than chicken breast.

Thinly slice the cucumbers, tomatoes and onions. Finely chop the cabbage. Grate the carrots on a coarse grater.

Prepare the yogurt sauce. Grate the garlic on a fine grater. Mix garlic with yogurt, add a pinch of salt. Leave it aside.

Place a sheet of pita bread on the table. Spread sauce on bottom edge. Add shredded cabbage and grated carrots. Then add cucumber and tomato slices.

Add chicken pieces, onions, sprinkle with spices and salt to taste. Brush the ingredients again with sauce.

Roll up the pita bread. Place the shawarma, seam side down, on a hot frying pan. Fry for one or two minutes, then turn over and keep the shawarma on the fire for another minute.

Serve by cutting the shawarma in half. Pour over the sauce.

Homemade shawarma with chicken in lavash

Cooking method:

Step 1: Fry the chicken fillet so that it remains juicy inside.

Step 2: Prepare the sauces. It is best to use garlic and hot sauces for shawarma. For garlic, mix sour cream with finely chopped herbs and garlic. And for spicy, tomato paste should be mixed with cilantro, lemon juice, adjika, herbs and olive oil. Grind all ingredients using a blender.

Step 3: Cut the carrots and cucumber into strips, and the onion into half rings. Cut the fried chicken fillet into pieces.

Step 4: Spread sauces on pita bread, put vegetables, put meat on top, pour sauces over it and sprinkle with herbs.

Step 5: Roll the pita bread tightly and fry it on both sides in a frying pan without oil.

Shawarma is ready. One side can be topped with your favorite sauce. Bon appetit!

Shawarma with chicken and vegetables

The benefits of homemade shawarma

Nutritionists believe that shawarma and other types of fast food are equally harmful. This assessment is fair, but only in relation to food from stalls on the street. A homemade product can be healthy and dietary. It all depends on how and what to cook it from.

How to turn shawarma into a dietary dish?

Shawarma prepared at home will not only not add extra pounds, but will also have a positive effect on your health:

• vegetables and herbs will compensate for the lack of vitamins and microelements;
• spices will fight harmful microorganisms, as they are natural antibiotics;
• The protein contained in meat will improve immunity.

You can make vegetarian shawarma by filling pita bread with vegetables, herbs and cheese. This dish is allowed to be eaten during Lent. Even without meat, it remains tasty, and does not cause problems with the heart and blood vessels, and does not provoke obesity. The main thing is to observe moderation and not overeat.

Shawarma with pork

As already mentioned, any type of meat can be used to prepare this dish. We offer a recipe for shawarma with pork. Take thin pita bread, two fresh tomatoes, 300 grams of pork, which must first be fried or baked in the oven, two cucumbers, 100 grams of cheese (optional), a small head of Chinese or white cabbage, 3 peeled cloves of garlic, 3 tablespoons of natural yogurt, three spoons of sour cream, three spoons of mayonnaise, salt, spices, herbs. First, let's prepare the sauce.

To do this, mix all the liquid ingredients (sour cream, mayonnaise and yogurt). Then add chopped garlic, chopped herbs, salt and spices to this mass. You can use any herbs and spices you wish. Cut the meat and vegetables into strips or into arbitrary shapes. Grind the cheese and mix it with the meat. Now we move on to the formation of shawarma. Grease the pita bread with sauce and place the filling on it. After this, add more sauce at your discretion and roll the pita bread into an envelope. Then fry the shawarma in a frying pan, bake it in the oven, heat it in the microwave or on a convection oven. You can choose any processing option. It is better to eat this dish hot or warm.

Homemade shawarma with chicken

Friday, October 24, 2014

Often, when passing by shawarma stalls, the aroma of what they cook and sell in them makes your appetite work up in earnest, doesn’t it? However, in many cases, the conditions and products from which shawarma is made, frankly speaking, causes a strong feeling of disgust. Let's cook it at home today?

I cook homemade shawarma with chicken quite often: we have a special lover of this dish - our stronger half. It even seems to me that he is ready to eat it every day. That is why I can safely say that the taste of homemade shawarma is absolutely in no way inferior to the street counterpart of this dish.

By the way, you can come up with a huge variety of filling options for homemade shawarma, but today we will prepare it as written in the recipe. Korean-style carrots, pickled or pickled cucumbers, onions... a lot of things are put in shawarma. If you have a large thin pita bread (a detailed recipe is on the website) and the ingredients necessary for the filling, let’s get started

Some tips

Traditionally, the filling for shawarma is wrapped in pita bread, but it is successfully replaced by Armenian thin lavash, which must be fresh. To improve the taste of a dish, you need to cook the meat correctly. It is cut into fillets and lightly beaten. Then it is better to marinate the meat. Pork is marinated in white wine, apple cider vinegar or wine vinegar. Spices are also added (peppercorns, bay leaves). To prepare the beef, use red wine, lemon vinegar, onions and spices. It is better to marinate chicken meat in mayonnaise. It is better to fry meat for shawarma over an open fire, but at home you can use a dry frying pan or air fryer.

The filling of shawarma can be different. To speed up the process, you can use ready-made Korean carrots. Pickled cucumber, cut into thin strips, gives the dish an unusual taste. The sauce occupies a special place. You can use ready-made: Georgian “tkemali” or Chinese sweet and sour. Do not over-mix the sauce as it may leak when reheated.

The composition of shawarma in grams cannot be accurately determined. Everything is done by eye and depends on personal preferences. For those who like spicier food, you can add more sauce and hot spices. Some people like more vegetables and herbs, while others prefer meat products. By the way, greens play a big role in this dish and there should be a lot of it. Cook with pleasure and delight your loved ones with delicious and healthy dishes!

Cooking step by step:

To prepare homemade shawarma with chicken, we will need the following ingredients: chicken breast (I already boiled it in advance), thin pita bread, fresh cucumber and tomatoes, Chinese cabbage (can be replaced with white cabbage), ketchup and mayonnaise.

First of all, let's cook the chicken meat over low heat - the breast will be ready after 20 minutes from the moment of boiling. We will chop all the ingredients into strips. First, cut the Chinese cabbage into long thin strips.

Then wash and dry the cucumber. We also chop it into thin cubes.

If you have very juicy, watery tomatoes, I recommend removing the inside with seeds. Similarly, cut into thin oblong slices.

Chicken meat is ready. It can be disassembled into fibers or cut into arbitrary small pieces.

Now let's assemble homemade shawarma with chicken. Unwrap the pita bread, place it on a work surface and brush with half the mayonnaise and ketchup. How to make homemade ketchup, read this recipe. I have many options for homemade mayonnaise, choose here.

Then place half of the filling on one edge: chicken, Chinese cabbage, cucumbers and tomatoes.

We wrap the pita bread with the filling, folding it on opposite sides.

We do the same with the second pita bread and half the filling. This makes 2 large shawarmas, which is enough for 4 people. If you are very, very hungry, then 2 people. If desired and possible, fry the shawarma on both sides in a dry frying pan to make the pita bread crispy.

Serve homemade chicken shawarma immediately or you can store it in the refrigerator for no more than a day. After the shawarma sits for a while, the pita bread becomes soft and soaked in juice from the vegetables. Cook for your health, friends, and bon appetit!

Required Ingredients

How to choose the right ingredients

• Since all our ingredients will have to be wrapped in a flatbread, pita bread for shawarma at home, according to the recipe, must first of all be soft and fresh. It is best to take thin Armenian lavash for this purpose.
• The taste of the entire shawarma largely depends on the spices in which you marinate the chicken before frying. If you want a more delicate flavor, choose coriander, and if you want a more spicy flavor, choose suneli hops.
• It’s good if the pickles are small, like gherkins - this will make it easier for you to chop them, and they will drain much less.

Recipe for homemade shawarma with chicken in pita bread

Shawarma is a very juicy and satisfying dish that came to us from the Middle East. It is prepared from lavash or pita bread. For the filling, minced meat (chicken, lamb, veal), vegetables, as well as various sauces and spices are used.

What can we say about the fact that shawarma is the most popular “fast food” not only in our country, but throughout the world. Today we will show you how to make shawarma at home in pita bread. It is worth noting that the prepared dish will be in no way inferior to street shawarma, since we will prepare it according to a recipe that was suggested to me by an Arab chef I know.

The first version of shawarma was prepared by steppe nomads who wrapped fried saiga meat in a flatbread.

Ingredients

How to choose the right ingredients

When purchasing bulk chicken, it is best to ask the seller to show you the product documentation. If you buy meat in a package, carefully study it, it must be completely clean, and here you will also find a brand that must include all the information about storage rules, expiration dates, as well as the manufacturer.

Next, press on the fillet with your index finger. If the trace does not disappear, then the chicken was re-frozen. Also, don't trust oversized breasts. Most likely, such a bird was actively fed various growth hormone supplements. So we try to choose medium-sized meat without defects and significant traces of dried blood .

To prepare the dish, we don’t need to look for a recipe for pita bread for shawarma at home, because even a regular store-bought version will do. To choose a good pita bread , we carefully study the composition of the product: there should be nothing else besides water, flour and salt. We also pay attention to the color of the product - it should be slightly pale, without defects or significantly burnt parts.

Step-by-step preparation

1. Let's start with the meat filling. To do this, cut 3 chicken breasts lengthwise, cover them with cling film and beat them thoroughly.

2. Cut the beaten fillet into small pieces.

3. Place the chopped meat in a deep container and add 1.5 tsp. salt, 0.5 tsp. sugar and 1.5 tsp. spices for chicken. Mix well.

4. Let's start frying the chicken. To ensure that the meat sets on top and remains juicy inside, cook in a well-heated frying pan. To fry such small pieces, 7 minutes is enough for us.

5. If the chicken pieces turn out to be quite large, we can chop them a little after frying5. Grate 800 g of cabbage and one carrot on a coarse grater. Place the vegetables in a separate deep container, add a couple of pinches of salt and begin to squeeze them well with your hands to release the juice.

6. Cut 2 fresh and 2 pickled cucumbers into strips. You also need to finely chop 8 cherry tomatoes.

Preparing the sauce

1. First, we need to mix 5 tbsp in a separate container. l. sour cream, 5 tbsp. l. ketchup and 5 tbsp. l. mayonnaise.

2. Press 3 cloves of garlic directly into the sauce.

3. Add 1 tsp. paprika and 5 finely uncut sprigs of dill. Mix well. Grate 150 g of cheese on a coarse grater.

4. Let's move on to rolling up the shawarma. Don’t forget to stick to the 2:1 ratio (2 – vegetables; 1 – chicken). To begin, place the pita bread on the table and grease it with about 1 spoon of sauce.

In the same way, we can easily prepare pita bread roll with chicken.

Cooking video

You will learn more about how to cook shawarma with chicken at home in the video. With it you can follow step by step each stage of preparation. Also in the video you will learn how to wrap shawarma in pita bread , and many other useful tips for preparing the dish.

How to decorate a dish

To complement and decorate the dish a little, use some greens . In this case, you can use not only parsley and dill, but also, for example, rosemary.

The same decoration method is suitable for pita bread with cottage cheese and herbs.

Cooking tips

• To make the meat more juicy and spicy, we pre-marinate it. This can be done in any way. After marinating, the chicken also needs to be dried a little with a towel.
• If you have a cast iron skillet and grill pan , feel free to use it to sear meat. We also use them to prepare pita bread with cheese in a frying pan.
• We choose only fresh pita bread , otherwise we won’t be able to roll the shawarma at all.
• Before placing the rest of the ingredients on the pita bread, you need to sprinkle it with water diluted with lemon juice.
• The secret of delicious shawarma is the filling of several types of meat (chicken, beef and lamb), pre-marinated in a mixture of Arabic spices.
• If during frying it turns out that the meat is dry, sprinkle it with orange juice . This will make its taste juicier and richer.
• To make the sauce more rich and aromatic, first mix the herbs with spices and garlic , and only then mix the resulting mass with the base.

How to serve a dish correctly

Shawarma is an independent dish and must be eaten with your hands. So we serve it on the table on a plate with plenty of greens . Shawarma can also be cut in half or into many small pieces. In some eastern countries, shawarma is served unwrapped.

Garlic sauce for shawarma

This dish can be classified as fast. In such cases, ready-made sauces in the form of mayonnaise or ketchup are used. But if you want to give the dish a spicy, unique taste, then it is better to cook them yourself. This garlic sauce can be used not only in shawarma. It is served with chicken wings and grilled deli meats. Take 4 large spoons of sour cream, mayonnaise and kefir, 6 medium cloves of garlic, ground black and red pepper and any spices as desired. The process of making the sauce is very simple. The garlic must be chopped in any way (garlic press or using a grater). Then mix all the ingredients so that the spices are evenly distributed in the liquid mass. The garlic sauce, which will make shawarma more delicious, is ready.

Classic shawarma with chicken and white sauce

In our country, shawarma has become synonymous with cheap and even dangerous from a hygiene point of view, fast food. But in Turkey and Egypt, shawarma (its other name) is considered a cult food - long lines line up at the most popular eateries, and the owners of the establishments keep their culinary secrets secret, passing them on from generation to generation.

But no matter how much shawarma is criticized, it never ceases to be tastier. And homemade shawarma is also completely safe: all ingredients and process are under our personal control!

Step-by-step cooking recipe

1. Salt and pepper the chicken fillet, season with your favorite spices and place in a hot frying pan to fry on both sides in vegetable oil over low heat.

2. While the chicken is roasting, you can prepare all the other ingredients. Peking cabbage needs to be cut into very small strips, pickled cucumbers - the same, tomatoes - into thin half rings.
3. Grate the hard cheese on a coarse grater, and then start preparing the sauce.
4. For the sauce, in a small bowl, combine mustard, mayonnaise and ketchup and mix it all well.

5. Cool the finished chicken fillet a little and cut into thin slices.

6. And now the fun part - assembling the shawarma! Spread the pita bread on the work surface, first place cabbage closer to one of the edges, on top - chicken, cucumbers, tomato slices, generously pour all this over with sauce and sprinkle with cheese. Wrap the shawarma and place it in the oven preheated to 220°C for 5 minutes . That's all, your wonderful shawarma is ready!