1
StepSlice the chicken thighs into strips about 1 cm thick and toss them with the yoghurt, lemon juice, olive oil, crushed garlic, baharat, cumin, paprika, cinnamon, turmeric, vinegar and salt. Marinate for at least 2 hours and up to overnight.
Street Food
Chicken Shawarma Wraps
Thigh meat marinated in yoghurt, lemon and baharat, then cooked hard in a pan or on a tray so the edges catch the way they would on a spit. Rolled into warm flatbread with toum, sumac onions and pickled turnip. The finished wrap gets pressed seam-down on the hot pan so it holds together.
55 min
Prep: 30 / Cook: 25
4
servings
Medium
Difficulty
4.7
10 Ratings
Layla Haddad
This content is owned by the author and used with their consent.
Terms ↗March 31, 2026
Ingredients
For the chicken
- 700 g chicken thigh
- 100 g greek yoghurt
- 3 tbsp lemon juice
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- 4 cloves garlic
- 2 tsp baharat
- 2 tsp ground cumin
- 1 tsp sweet paprika
- ½ tsp ground cinnamon
- ½ tsp ground turmeric
- 1 tbsp white wine vinegar
- 1 tsp salt
For the toum
- 60 g garlic
- 1 tsp salt
- 45 ml lemon juice
- 250 ml sunflower oil
- 1 tbsp ice water
To serve
- 4 pieces pita bread
- 100 g pickled turnip
- 2 pieces tomato
- 1 piece red onion
- 15 g flat-leaf parsley
- 1 tsp sumac
Preparation
6 Steps
2
StepFor the toum, blitz the peeled garlic with the salt in a narrow food processor until it is a fine paste, scraping down twice. With the motor running, add the sunflower oil in a very thin thread, alternating every few tablespoons with a little lemon juice, until the mixture climbs the sides thick and white like mayonnaise. Loosen at the end with the ice water.
3
StepHeat a heavy pan or griddle over high heat. Cook the chicken in two batches so it never crowds, 4-5 minutes on the first side without moving it, then 3-4 minutes more, until deeply browned and slightly charred. Alternatively spread it on a tray and roast at 220 C for 20-25 minutes, finishing 3 minutes under the grill.
4
StepRest the chicken for 5 minutes, then slice it across into short strips and toss it back through the juices left in the pan.
5
StepSlice the red onion very thinly and toss with the sumac, chopped parsley and a pinch of salt until it stains pink. Slice the tomatoes and drain the pickled turnip.
6
StepWarm the pitas briefly, spread each with toum, and layer on chicken, sumac onion, tomato and pickled turnip in a line rather than a heap. Roll tightly, then press the wrap seam-side down on the hot pan for a minute to seal and crisp it.
Chef's Tip
Toum splits if the oil goes in quickly, so add it in a thin thread and alternate with the lemon juice; if it does break, start a fresh garlic paste and beat the split mixture back into it a spoonful at a time. Garlic yoghurt is an honest shortcut on a weeknight.
Comments (5)
pickled turnip is worth ordering online, it is not the same without it
made the garlic yoghurt instead and i have no regrets at my age
pressing the seam down on the pan at the end is such a small thing and it changes everything
roasted it on trays for eight people and it held up perfectly
the toum split on me twice. third attempt i went painfully slow and it worked.
thin thread of oil and alternate with the lemon. it is only patience.