🌯 Saudi chicken shawarma
Saudi-style chicken shawarma is thin saj bread rolled tightly around shaved, spiced chicken from the rotisserie, a generous swipe of white garlic sauce, pickles and a few French fries tucked inside. The wrap is often pressed on the grill so the bread turns lightly crisp. It is one of the most popular street foods in Saudi Arabia, eaten late into the evening.
Diets
Allergens
Contains (in a typical recipe):
What it is made of
Recipe
Ingredients
- 600 g boneless chicken thighs, thinly sliced
- 1 tsp each cumin, paprika, cardamom and garlic powder; juice of 1 lemon; 2 tbsp oil; salt
- 4 saj breads
- 8 tbsp garlic sauce (toum)
- Sliced pickled cucumbers
- 150 g French fries
Method
- Mix the chicken with the spices, lemon juice, oil and salt and leave for at least 30 minutes.
- Cook the chicken in a hot pan or under the grill until charred at the edges and cooked through.
- Spread each saj bread with garlic sauce.
- Add chicken, pickles and a few fries, roll tightly and toast briefly on a hot pan.
How to make it lighter
- Ask for less garlic sauce; it is mostly oil, and 1 tbsp of oil ≈ 120 kcal.
- Skip the fries inside the wrap and add extra pickles or tomato.
- One wrap with a side salad makes a lighter meal than two.
History
Shawarma came to the Gulf from the Levant, where meat roasted on a vertical spit has long been sold as street food. In Saudi Arabia the sandwich took on its own style, with saj bread, plenty of garlic sauce and fries inside the roll.
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Values are estimates per 100 g for a typical recipe; home and restaurant versions vary. Diets and allergens are worked out from the ingredients of a typical recipe — always check with whoever cooked the dish. Not medical advice. Nutrition data: Me Nutrition dish database v13. How we count →