The robustly spiced kebab shop rotisserie favourite is tricky to reproduce at home, but far from impossible if you stick to a few simple rules
Shawarma, an Arabic word thought to come from the Turkish çervirmek, meaning to rotate or spit-roast, is the Levantine cousin of the Greek gyros and the Turkish döner: skewers of sliced or minced meat, turned in front of a vertical grill, and slowly cooked in its own delicious fat until it’s sliced on to your plate.
It’s unsurprising that such a clever idea has spread so widely, but each version has its own distinct character, and the shawarma, found from Egypt to Iraq, is quite different from the herby gyros or the more mildly spiced, oniony döner – and different again in every country where it’s popular.
The thing that binds them all together, however, is the difficulty in recreating this much-loved street food at home, if one doesn’t live in the vicinity of professionals and, unaccountably, also lacks a metre-long rotating skewer in front of a four-burner gas grill in one’s own kitchen. Happily, I’ve discovered it is indeed possible to get great results without investing in either
Prep 30 min
Marinate 3 hr+
Cook 10 min
Serves 2, and easily upscalable
Ingredients
4 boneless, skinless chicken thighs
For the marinade
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- ½ tsp turmeric
- ½ tsp smoked paprika
- ½ tsp black pepper
- ¼ tsp ground coriander
- 2 cardamom pods, seeds removed and ground
- ¼ tsp cinnamon powder
- ¼ tsp ground ginger
- ¼ tsp ground nutmeg
- ½ tsp salt
- 2 tbsp lemon juice
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 2 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
To serve (all optional)
Flatbreads
Toum or tahini sauce
Zhoug or chilli sauce
Brined vegetables and/or chopped cucumber, tomato and onion
Chopped parsley
Procedure
- Bash out the chicken until it’s all of a fairly even thickness.
- Put a small pan on a medium heat, then add the ground spices and toast until fragrant.
- Whisk into the remaining marinade ingredients then rub the mix all over the chicken and put in a sealed container in the fridge for between three and eight hours.
- Cut the chicken into thin strips, then thread one end of each strip on to a metal skewer. Put a second skewer through the other end of each strip, and push the strips down to the far end of the skewers, so they’re tightly packed.
- Heat the grill to medium and find a tray over which you can balance the skewers so they’re suspended rather than touching the base.
- Grill for five minutes, then turn over and grill for another five minutes – the chicken should be charred and cooked through.
- Rest the chicken in its own juices to cool down a little while you heat any breads and prepare the accompaniments, then serve immediately.