Oven-Roasted Chicken Shawarma Recipe (2024)

• White sauce = plain yogurt, scant 1/4 c. mayo, 1/2 lemon juiced + lemon zest, basil/parsley/zatar/sumac/minced garlic. Chill for 4-5 hours.
• Marinade meat overnight & cooked with peppers & onions. F
inish with broil for 2-3 minutes
• Serve with tortillas instead of pita + sliced cucumbers & tomatoes + feta. (Hummus is overkill side)
• Serve with chickpeas salad (olives, tomatoes, red onion, parsley/basil)

Trim eggplant and cut it into long slices. Salt the slices and let them sit for 20 minutes or so, then pat them dry. Line a rimmed baking sheet with paper towel and place a wire rack on top. In a large, deep skillet, heat 1/2 cup oil until a drop of water flicked into pan sizzles. Working in batches, fry eggplant until just tender, 20 to 30 seconds per side. Transfer fried eggplant to rack to drain. Nice with shawarma!

I've lost track of how many times I've made this amazing dish since I first cut it out; there's some in the fridge right now. I have made the following additions: more onion - it's so good. More chicken - it goes so fast: 3 pounds. Two pounds of carrots, which I toss in the marinade and roast with the extra red onion. An astonishing recipe!

I used chicken breasts to cut some of the fat here and reduced cook time to about 20 minutes so the chicken wouldn't dry out. It was delicious, juicy and light!

One of my favorites!!! Sometimes I buy extra chicken thigh packages and freeze the raw chicken thighs in the marinade 1 pound at a time. This way during a busy weeknight, I have an easy homemade recipe ready to go. I usually thaw it out first thing in the morning or even overnight. Works great!

2 1/2 tablespoons of oil is enough - 1/2 cup is way too much !

All dry ingredients have been combined and stored with a label "Shawarma Mix". Awesome.

I second the suggestion to double the onion. If you have tasty lemons (like Meyer) cut them into eighths and roast along with the chicken -- exceptional!

This is a superb and easy supper. Marinated boneless thighs about 8 hours in fridge and cooked exactly according to recipe with the additional pan frying. Added a Greek salad made with seeded, English cucumber, mini San Marzano tomatoes (Trader Joe's), Kalamata olives, Greek feta, sherry vinegar and olive oil. No pita needed. Also made a yogurt sauce using 2% fa*ge (the best!) with lemon zest & juice, a couple cloves of garlic put through a press, and salt and pepper. Marvelous!

Very easy, absolutely delicious. Combined the following to make a tahini sauce: 1 c plain yogurt, 2 T tahini, 1 T lemon juice. 1/2 t. salt.

Excellent for a party...I used 10 lbs of trimmed boneless chicken thighs, reducing the oil, and cutting onions into 8ths. Meat sliced nicely after the 10 minute post-cooking rest. Marinated for 24 hours, cooked the chicken in the marinade, & the meat held up fine. I used a lipped cookie sheet, to avoid spills in my oven. Everyone asked for leftovers to take home. Wonderful flavor, and easy to prepare. I served it with marinated feta, pita, couscous, moroccan carrot salad, etc.

A flawless dish, and yet a couple of tips: no need to use a dish for the marinade. I put everything into a large ziplock, massaged the ingredients to blend, and then added the chicken. No mess and easy to store while the birds marinates. I also used chicken breasts, bone in, skin on. Unbelievably juicy and tender, and easy to cut into smaller pieces after roasting.

Agree with most everyone here - there's a reason this is a favorite! Followed the recipe to a "t" and everything came out perfectly - and served on Christmas Eve. Even the little ones (4 and 5) loved it! Two days later I'm out for more chicken thighs to make another batch. Served with chopped tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, lettuce and a Tzatziki, Hummus, Sweet Chili sauce (all from Trader Joe's) and the NYT Rice Pilaf with Pistachios and Almonds. Delicious!!! Loved it!

The pan crisping at the end of this recipe really made this taste like the Schwarma I used to get in Jerusalem. Brought out the flavor more.

Made this for dinner last night. Amazing. Used half the olive oil and the juice of one lemon, but kept the other herbs/spices the same. Served with white sauce (1/4 cup mayo, 1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt, juice of half a lemon, 1 clove garlic, minced), chickpea salad, and toasted (in a skillet) pita bread. Yum, yum, yum. Watch the chicken carefully the last 20 minutes. Even though I turned the heat down, it would have over-cooked if I'd left it in the oven for the full 40 minutes.

As noted, great recipe. Definitely recommend crisping the meat in a pan just before serving. This makes a huge difference. Also, one time I used bone-in chicken thighs, without the skin. I don’t recommend this. The marinade didn’t penetrate and the meat wasn’t as crisp and browned. The bone does no favors in this recipe. Stick with boneless.

I followed another cook’s suggestion to use 2.5 tbsp of olive oil in the marinade instead of 1/4 c. I may add the full amount next time, as most of the flavor ended up in the pan juices and not on the chicken itself. If your lemons aren’t soft and juicy, maybe increase from 2 lemons to 2.5 lemons worth of juice. Cut the black pepper in half because I’m feeding small children. They ate it all. Served in pita pockets with diced tomatoes and cucumbers, rice on the side. Drizzled juices over rice

Really good. Make it. Cheap, can be made in advance and minimal effort. Make the white sauce (yogurt, mayo, lemon, grated garlic, a bit of fresh dill). Add extra onions (I went the 1st 10 min before adding the onions and I liked it). If you plan on the pan sear step (you should), keep the oven time closer to 30 min. If you go 40, it will overcook. Use a blistering hot pan with a bit of oil and cook for 1 minute without turning.

Make extra marinade and toss with vegetables (I do cauliflower and carrots, might try eggplant sometime) and roast them alongside the chicken. Serve with chopped cucumber, tzatiki, pita bread or rice.

Tried making this for the first time. At the end of 30 minutes the baking sheet was full of liquid almost half way up the side. Didn't match the dry pan in the NTY video and was note remotely crispy. Any idea what went wrong? Too much marinade on the chicken?

Really good flavor, and came out great.

This should be "marry me shawarma" -- delicious. Served this on pita with white sauce, cherry tomato chunks and cucumber chunks. It's easier to cut the meat up before cooking. Otherwise, you have to let it cool, then cut up, then reheat. So easy to marinate overnight and throw in the oven for lunch or dinner. Next time I'll add fresh mint to the white sauce for more of a tzatsiki flavor. Thank you!

marinated with some fingerling potatoes to use up the extra marinade and it was absolute bomb, sprinkle some extra lemon juice over the potatoes and serve with a simple sauce of yogurt, lemon juice salt, pepper, paprika.

Love this marinade. I use it to make kabobs with the chicken, tomato and onion, grill them and service with traditional butter rice and naan - outstanding!

A lot of reviews said this is too much olive oil - I used more chicken, due to the packaging, about 2.67 pounds. Then I quartered some small red potatoes to cook alongside the chicken so that took care of any extra oil. I also sliced the onion thinner, and was happy with how it turned out. We didn't use any toppings or pita, I thought it was fine as is. I'll definitely make this again.

Two red onions

I substituted, as I often do, 1/4 cup of minced preserved lemon for the lemon juice. Gives a more complex but still bright flavor. Otherwise followed recipe exactly and broiled the last few minutes as other commenters recommended. Served over basmati with curried coconut cauliflower, https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1019911-cauliflower-cashew-pea-and-coconut-curry. Huge success and will make again.

If prepping for the week make a double batch

Also made a chickpea salad with cut up cucumber, canned diced tomatoes, olive oil, lemon juice, and parsley

I should have trusted my instincts/experience and taken this out of the oven at 25 minutes. It doesn’t get crispier by sitting longer in the oven. The thighs get dry and rubbery and the onions burn. For next time:-2 Tbsp of salt in the marinade (the meat was so undersalted that we couldn’t really taste the other seasonings until we added salt to our servings). -Bake for 25 minutes and then crisp up the edges on the stovetop in oil after cutting. I see potential here.