Cooking shawarma is very easy and no special culinary skills are required to prepare a delicious dish at home.
This dish can now be purchased literally everywhere. It consists of thin lavash or pita, in which fried meat (lamb, chicken), vegetables (cabbage, cucumbers, tomatoes) are wrapped, and all this delight is poured with ketchup, mayonnaise. You can often find a similar dish - shawarma, its main differences from shawarma: only chicken, cabbage and tomatoes are used, and everything is seasoned with a spectacular sour cream sauce with a good dose of garlic.

But this is only one type of excellent Arabian delicacy in pita bread, the exact name of which is impossible to figure out - every nation has its own name for a meat cake. So, what does the shawarma consist of and how to cook it at home with your own hands?

Step by step recipe with a photo. Cooking shawarma in thin pita bread with chicken fillet, vegetables, herbs and spices:

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The meat for this dish should be fatty, the ideal option is chicken, lamb, turkey (pork is not for Arabs). Before frying, it should be infused in a mixture of oriental spices for a couple of hours. The meat must be fried on a special skewer, which is located vertically.

It is necessary to string the whole tenderloin, which, during the cooking process, turns on its axis and at the same time around the heating mechanisms. When the meat is fried at the edges, it is cut off with a long sharp knife, the mouth-watering slices fall into the pan.

There are countless variations on the theme of salads and sauces for shawarma, but there are those that chefs use more often. Among the sauces, takhinny is the palm, among salads - tabuli.

Classic recipe:

Ingredients: thin lavash, chicken, onions (3 pcs), 3 sweet peppers, 2-3 tomatoes and pickled cucumbers, mayonnaise.

Preparation: Separate the meat from the bones, finely dice and fry in a pan using butter. Onions and peppers are also diced and fried. Then we mix everything in one frying pan, add spices (hops, suneli, basil and others) to taste and wait until the mixture is fried to condition.

Then we put the tomato cut into circles on it. We lay out pickled cucumbers on tomatoes, also in circles. Next, take a few tablespoons of the fragrant fried chicken that makes up the next bowl.

Lubricate everything with a light layer of mayonnaise, to which garlic is added if desired. You need to wrap pita bread very carefully, you can do it before eating, although it is more interesting to do it with the whole family, right at the table. Garnish is not required, you can only stuff the shawarma with vegetables.

In fact, shawarma is prepared quickly and easily at home. Even a beginner can easily make a delicious dish according to the classic recipe.

♦ VIDEO. STEP-BY-STEP RECIPES FOR BEGINNERS:

Considered fast food in Europe, shawarma is actually a traditional food in eastern countries. Even the ancient Arabs wrapped finely chopped meat in a piece of flat unleavened bread (pita or lavash). Salads and sauces were added to it, turning shawarma into a full-fledged dish.

Today this snack is often sold on the streets, where it is popular due to its cheapness and ease of consumption.

Shawarma ingredients and methods

Any meat for shawarma is taken: lamb, beef, chicken, pork. It is the main component of the dish. The rest of the ingredients (vegetables, sauces, additives) can vary according to seasonality and taste.

In public fast food outlets, cucumber, tomato, onion, cabbage are often added to chicken meat. Cheese and mushrooms can also become components of shawarma. Flavor it instead of traditional sauces with mayonnaise and ketchup.

The usual preparation of shawarma is reduced to vertical frying of meat, cutting all the components and rolling them into pita bread. According to the rules, meat should be grilled vertically. Skewered on a spit, it rotates around an axis and is evenly fried on all sides. Finished top cuts of meat are cut into thin layers and then finely chopped.

Calorie content: how many calories are in shawarma

Such a nutritious dish is not considered a dietary one. The average number of calories in it is from 240 to 290 kcal per 100 grams. Selected meat, vegetable additives, special sauces directly affect how many calories in shawarma will turn out.

The most dietary snack will be chicken breast with vegetables and low-fat sauce - 150-170 kcal.

Features of recipes in different countries

There are many recipes for making shawarma, so there is no definite answer on how to cook shawarma correctly. Each country has long brought its own culinary traditions to this dish.

Azerbaijanis usually serve sweet and sour white sauce with shawarma, pouring fat tail fat on lavash. In Israel, dairy additives are completely absent, and the favorite seasoning is pickled mango, hummus, sesame sauce.

In Mexico, shawarma meat is marinated in a hot red pepper sauce. And the Germans often use minced sausage fried on a spit instead of pieces of meat.

The simplicity of shawarma preparation contributes to its street sales in large volumes. However, rancid or burnt meat, store sauces, low-quality vegetables can ruin any snack. But in order to fully enjoy this juicy and tasty dish, it is easier to make shawarma at home. It will be much cheaper, safer and tastier than any street version.

How you can wrap shawarma: wrapping rules

Before you start creating a snack, you need to decide on the bread component. It is much easier to make a dish with pita, but for classic products, you should know how to wrap shawarma in lavash.

This is necessary so that all products are evenly distributed over the pita bread and do not fall out, so that the appearance of the product is neat and beautiful.

Before the folding process itself, you also need to remember a few rules:

1. The lavash sheet is smoothed on a flat surface.
2. The tortilla is greased with a special sauce.
3. All filling is laid out with indents from the edges.
4. The product is being rolled up.

How to wrap a shawarma will look more clearly in the photo:

Open shawarma

This type of curling of shawarma is classic.

• Put the meat filling with vegetables on an unfolded sheet of rectangular lavash closer to the right edge.
• Start folding the sheet from right to left, covering the filling with it.
• Roll the pita bread to the middle, completely covering the filling.
• Tuck the bottom of the flatbread close to the filling and overlap it.
• Continue rolling the shawarma in the form of a "tube".

Closed shawarma

This method is less common, but it is convenient for take-away options. keeps the filling warm longer.

• Lay out a square thin sheet of pita bread with a diamond.
• Put the filling in the middle of the sheet.
• Tuck the bottom edge of the pita bread back to back with the filling, covering it with the end of the cake.
• Collapse the right and left corners of the pita bread, connecting them in the center of the product over the filling and the bottom edge of the cake.
• Roll up the shawarma "roll" to the remaining open top edge of the lavash.

Shawarma with chicken at home

Chicken meat, as the most affordable and fastest in frying, is the leader among fillings. Therefore, homemade shawarma with chicken in lavash is a common dish. And all kinds of flavors, sauces and spices allow you to diversify it, creating new options.

Simple shawarma with chicken and vegetables

Even without special skills, you can please the family with a snack. And store sauces greatly facilitate the cooking process.

Required Ingredients:

• lavash - 3 sheets;
• chicken fillet - 400 gr;
• carrots - 1 pc.;
• tomato - 2 pcs.;
• cucumber - 2 pcs.;
• salt, pepper - to taste;
• mayonnaise, ketchup - to taste.

How to cook:

Usually, meat for shawarma at home is not cooked on a vertical grill. This process replaces conventional pan frying.

Cut the chicken breast into small oblong pieces. Fry it in a pan until cooked with salt and pepper.

Chop the cabbage finely. Cut the carrots into strips or grate coarsely. Mix vegetables by crushing them with your hands until juiced.

Cut the tomatoes into thin halves, and the cucumbers into strips.

For the sauce, mix 1 to 1 mayonnaise with ketchup. Lubricate pita bread with it, retreating 1 cm from the edges of the sheet.

Put cabbage and carrots in the bottom layer in pita bread. Sprinkle with chicken on top. For juiciness, pour the sauce over the fillet. Put cucumbers and tomatoes on top of the meat. If desired, pour the sauce over the filling again and wrap it in pita bread.

Poultry shawarma with french fries

An original recipe for homemade shawarma with chicken and fried potatoes. It is not intended to be stored and must be eaten immediately. The spicy crispy crust of potatoes and pickled cucumber in the sauce add a new flavor to the dish.

Do you want something interesting?

Required Ingredients:

• chicken meat - 500 gr;
• onion - 1 pc.;
• cabbage - 200 gr;
• tomato - 1 pc.;
• french fries - 100 gr;
• salt, pepper - to taste.

• yogurt, sour cream, mayonnaise - 100 g each;
• pickled cucumber - 1 pc .;
• garlic - 3 cloves;
• dill - 2 sprigs optional;
• salt, curry to taste.

How to cook:

Grate the cucumber. Press the garlic through a press. Mix them together with mayonnaise, sour cream, yogurt. Season with salt to taste and add chopped greens if desired.

Cut the onion into thin rings. To remove the bitterness, sprinkle it with sugar, sprinkle with vinegar and pour boiling water over it.

Cut the poultry into pieces of any shape, fry in a pan.

Thinly cut the tomatoes into half rings or circles. Chop the cabbage with a cobweb.

Put the filling in the middle of the pita bread: cabbage, tomatoes, hot fries, onion rings and meat. Pour sauce over everything. Roll the pita bread tightly in any way.

Country shawarma recipe

A delicious and juicy way to prepare meals in the open air. The smell of smoke, a large number of vegetables make the charcoal shawarma an unforgettable snack.

Required Ingredients:

• chicken thighs - 3-4 pcs.;
• bulgarian pepper - 1 pc.;
• cucumber, tomatoes - 2 pcs.;
• cabbage - 200 gr;
• cheese - 100 gr;
• garlic - 1-2 cloves;
• parsley - 3 branches;
• mayonnaise, ketchup - 2 tbsp. spoons;
• sauce - any.

How to cook:

Prepare chicken thighs for marinating. Remove the skin from them and remove the bones.

Finely chop the garlic. Mix mayonnaise with ketchup, add garlic and salt to them. Leave the meat in this marinade from 30 minutes to 2 hours.

Fry the pickled thighs over a fire on both sides using a grill.

Prepare the rest of the food. Grate the cheese coarsely, cut the tomatoes into cubes, finely chop the cabbage. Cut the cucumbers with bell pepper into strips, and chop the herbs.

Mix all vegetables with cheese and herbs in a bowl. Cut the fried meat into cubes and also pour into a bowl. Mix everything.

Put the filling in the center of each pita bread, pour over it with any sauce. Roll up the shawarma in a convenient way and lightly fry the lavash over charcoal.

Homemade shawarma recipes from other types of meat

You can deliciously cook shawarma at home not only from chicken. Pork, beef or lamb add their own flavor and aroma to the dish. And while cooking with these types of meat sometimes takes longer than chicken, the amazing results are well worth the effort.

Lamb shawarma with tkemali in pita

The whole essence of the Caucasian dish boils down to aromatic meat with spices in a plum sauce. The small amount of food is more than offset by spices and herbs.

Required Ingredients:

• lamb - 800 gr;
• vinegar - 250 ml;
• cinnamon, paprika, nutmeg - 1 tsp;
• cardamom - on the tip of a knife;
• garlic - 4 cloves;
• cucumber, tomato - 1 pc.;
• salt to taste;
• tkemali sauce.

How to cook:

It will take a long time to cook shawarma according to this recipe, because lamb takes time to marinate and bake.

First, the meat should be soaked in the marinade to make it soft and juicy. Clean a piece of lamb from bones, hymen and veins. rinse it, cut into thin steaks. Put them on the bottom of a dish, pour vinegar. Sprinkle with cinnamon, nutmeg, paprika, cardamom. Pass the garlic through a press, mix with salt and also add to the marinade. Gently mix the lamb with the marinade with your hands. Leave it covered for 12 hours.

Dry the pickled steaks and fry in a pan. Cut the finished meat into oblong pieces. To give it more juiciness, the lamb should be baked in the oven for 30 minutes. 20 minutes under foil, and the rest of the time without it.

Cut fresh vegetables into slices. Cut each pita in half. Put cucumbers with tomatoes in the middle of the flatbread. Spread the pieces of meat on top. Pour the whole filling generously with sweet and sour tkemali. Sprigs of herbs or lettuce can be used as decoration and additional freshness.

Hearty shawarma with pork and mushrooms

Homemade shawarma in pita bread with pork loin, fried in spices with mushroom julienne, vegetables, herbs and sauce, will become a central dish at any feast.

Required Ingredients:

• loin - 400 gr;
• champignons - 300-400 gr;
• sour cream - 200 gr;
• cucumber - 1 pc.;
• tomato - 1 pc.;
• cabbage - 250 gr;
• greens - optional;
• sauce - any;
• salt, spices to taste.

How to cook:

Cut the pork pulp into thin pieces. Fry in oil with your favorite spices and herbs. If desired, the meat can be pre-soaked in the marinade, which will significantly enrich the taste of the finished product.

Cut the champignons into plates, lightly fry, and then simmer in sour cream until cooked and thick julienne consistency.

Cut the cucumbers with tomatoes into thin rings. Chop the cabbage into strips, wrinkle it with your hands.

Put the cabbage in the middle of the lavash greased with sauce. Lay cucumber circles on top. Sprinkle vegetables with spiced pork. Lay tomatoes on top of the meat, pour over the sauce. Wrap the filling in pita bread, which then fry in a pan.

Shawarma sauces: the best recipes

Any idea for making shawarma at home will be helped by a special sauce for this dish. Even the vegetarian version will be very appetizing, because a variety of sauces and dressings emphasize the taste of the product, giving it juiciness, pungency and new flavors, depending on the option chosen. They can be either neutral in taste or with a bright garlic or lemon shade.

The main thing is that the shawarma sauce matches your taste preferences and is combined with the filling.

Traditional plain white sauce for a snack. It can be applied to any shawarma recipes.

Required Ingredients:

• kefir - 2 tbsp. spoons;
• sour cream - 1 tbsp. the spoon;
• lemon juice - 1 tsp;
• turmeric / saffron - on the tip of a knife;
• black pepper to taste.

How to cook:

Dairy products for this sauce should be taken with a high fat content. Mix sour cream well with kefir. Add saffron or turmeric to give them a pleasant yellowish tint. Pour in lemon juice, add black pepper. Beat everything thoroughly until smooth. Let the ingredients brew, and then add the sauce to the shawarma.

The freshness of cucumber and juicy greens give this sauce a special charm. An ideal option that will significantly reduce the calorie content of shawarma.

Required Ingredients:

• yogurt (low fat) - 200 ml;
• cucumber (fresh) - 1 pc .;
• dill - 50 gr;
• garlic - 4 cloves;
• pepper, salt - to taste.

How to cook:

Peel the skin of the cucumber and grate the pulp on the middle side of the grater. Squeeze the garlic cloves through a press. Rinse greens, chop finely.

Add cucumber, herbs, garlic to yogurt. Season with salt and pepper mixture. Whisk all ingredients thoroughly. Let it brew a little before using the sauce.

Turkish spicy with tomatoes

Required Ingredients:

• tomato paste - 3 tbsp spoons;
• onions - 2 pcs.;
• sweet pepper - 1 pc.;
• olive oil - 2 tbsp. spoons;
• ground black and red pepper - ½ tsp;
• ground coriander - 1 tsp;
• dill and cilantro - ½ bunch each;
• salt to taste.

How to cook:

Chop the peeled onions with a blender. Grind the bell pepper without the stalk, seeds and partitions together with the onion.

Put green leaves without branches in a bowl with vegetables.

Pour olive oil and tomato paste into it. Grind everything with a blender. Add salt, pepper and coriander to the sauce.

With curry for chicken shawarma

Curry pairs well with poultry, which is why this vibrant sauce is often used for homemade chicken shawarma.

Required Ingredients:

• fermented baked milk - 2 tbsp. spoons;
• sour cream - 2 tbsp. spoons;
• mayonnaise - 2 tbsp. spoons;
• garlic - 3 cloves;
• curry - ½ teaspoon;
• salt, pepper - to taste.

How to cook:

Turn the garlic into a homogeneous grated mass. Mix all dairy products with mayonnaise. Add garlic, add curry, season with salt and pepper. Mix everything thoroughly until smooth.

Lemon Potato Sauce Recipe

Pretentious for Europeans, but usual for Eastern countries, sauce based on lemon juice and potatoes.

Required Ingredients:

• greek yogurt - 140 ml;
• vegetable oil - 120 ml;
• potatoes - 1 pc.;
• lemon - 1 pc.;
• garlic - 1 head;
• salt to taste.

How to cook:

Chop the peeled garlic on a grater. Squeeze the juice out of the lemon. Peel the potatoes, wash, boil until tender.

Beat 60 ml of butter with a mixer thoroughly with garlic and lemon juice until white. Add the rest of the oil and continue whisking. Pour in yogurt, beat until the mixture thickens.

Mash boiled potatoes in mashed potatoes. Put a few spoons to the sauce and beat. Salt to taste. Insist the finished dressing in the refrigerator for 30 minutes. It can be used not only for spreading pita bread or pouring over the filling. If you dip the open end of ready-made homemade shawarma into it, then the sauce will help you understand the subtlety of the oriental taste.

Alexander Gushchin

I can't vouch for the taste, but it will be hot :)

19 Mar Feb 2016

Content

One of the most common types of "fast" and satisfying food is shawarma (doner kebab). In almost every city, you can find a grill stall selling this oriental dish. The appetizer is loved by all those who do not have time for long dinners. Homemade shawarma is a good way to please yourself and your friends with the extraordinary taste of oriental national cuisine. A hearty snack will become a table decoration at any party. The wide distribution of this dish gives gourmets the opportunity to prepare doner according to all kinds of recipes to their liking.

Features of cooking

There are no special secrets on how to make shawarma at home - all ingredients can be selected and combined depending on personal preferences. However, you should pay attention to some important aspects: the peculiarities of marinating meat, making sauce and choosing a good pita bread. The main condiments used in shawarma are cardamom, paprika, turmeric, curry and different types of peppers. Sometimes black coffee or cinnamon is added, but some people do not stop there and are looking for new sources of taste.

The main advantage of cooking doner at home is health safety. Unfortunately, not all fast food stalls comply with sanitary standards. Therefore, after eating a shawarma in an unfamiliar place, various stomach diseases may occur, such as: poisoning, heartburn or gastritis. A home-made snack made from fresh and thoroughly washed ingredients can help you avoid any health problems, as well as reduce excess calories for your body.

How to marinate meat

The main filling of shawarma is meat. It can be anything: chicken, pork, lamb, or turkey. It is advisable to marinate the meat before cooking so that it acquires a soft, pleasant taste. To do this, you need to grate it with your favorite spices, sprinkle with herbs, spread chopped onion rings on top. Add vinegar if desired and cover with dry wine (white) for one hour. After marinating, the meat should be fried in a pan.

How to make filling sauce

Correctly mixed sauce is the secret of any shawarma. The main ingredients of this irreplaceable supplement are the following products: sour cream, homemade mayonnaise and kefir. In order to make a shawarma sauce at home, you need to: mix the main ingredients in equal proportions, add grated garlic, curry, dried herbs (basil, parsley, dill), ground black pepper and coriander. After preparing the doner blank, it is necessary to leave it in the refrigerator for one hour until it thickens.

How to wrap in pita bread

Before wrapping the shawarma, you need to choose the right pita bread. It should be tight, elastic and flexible. It is important to choose pita bread that is not dry, without cracks, so that it does not break and the filling does not fall out or the sauce does not leak out. Armenian thin lavash is often used, but doner can also be made in pita bread. Homemade shawarma is wrapped like this:

1. Unroll the pita bread on a hard, level surface.
2. Apply a specially prepared sauce.
3. With a small indent from the bottom, lay out the ingredients closer to either edge of the pita bread.
4. Start folding the pita bread on the side where the filling is.
5. Turn a few turns so the pita bread is completely wrapped around the ingredients.
6. Tuck the bottom and top edges of the pita bread over the filling.
7. Roll all the way into a tight roll, closed on all sides.
8. Shawarma is ready to be heated in a pan or oven.

The best step by step homemade shawarma recipes

Absolutely anyone can cook shawarma at home - this dish does not require a lot of time. The ingredient composition of the doner depends on the wishes of the gourmet himself. However, for those who do not know what the shawarma is made of at home, there are many different step-by-step recipes. For each of them, a certain composition, amount of ingredients, seasonings are selected. Let's consider some of them.

With Chiken

If you use chicken breast for doner, you get diet shawarma. List of ingredients needed for two servings:

• thin Armenian lavash - two sheets;
• chicken meat - 300-350 g;
• fresh cucumbers and tomatoes - 1 pc.;
• fresh white cabbage - 70-150 g;
• homemade garlic or cheese sauce;
• greenery;
• salt pepper.

Cooking method:

1. Cut the cucumbers into thin strips and the tomatoes into small cubes.
2. Chop the cabbage and mix together, season with salt and pepper.
3. Chop greens and onions.
4. Cut the marinated chicken into slices one centimeter wide.
5. Fry them in a hot skillet.
6. Brush the pita bread with the sauce to taste.
7. Spread all the mixed ingredients on the pita bread close to one edge.
8. Roll into a tight roll, heat in a frying pan with a little oil.
9. Delicious classic shawarma is ready at home.

With pork

There are a lot of doner recipes, and they are interesting in their own way. In order to cook shawarma with pork at home in the Russian way, you need to take:

• lavash or pita;
• pork - 200 g;
• tomato - 1 pc.;
• chinese cabbage - 40 g;
• potatoes - 150 g;
• dill - 1 branch;
• sauce or mayonnaise;
• salt pepper.

Cooking method:

1. Cut the meat into small pieces and the potatoes into wedges.
2. Fry potatoes and meat in a skillet until golden brown.
3. Cut the tomato, cabbage into strips.
4. Spread meat, potatoes on pita bread.
5. Add a sprig of dill, tomatoes, and Chinese cabbage.
6. Pour the sauce of your choice.
7. Wrap the pita bread in a tight tube.
8. Heat in a frying pan or in a waffle iron press.

With turkey

Turkey is one of the most delicious and healthy foods. As the main ingredient in shawarma, it goes well with vegetables. To make turkey doner for 4 servings, you need to take:

• minced turkey - 250 g;
• cabbage -100 g;
• korean carrots - 30 g;
• pickled cucumbers - 1 pc .;
• tomatoes - 2 pcs.;
• ground pepper and salt - to taste;
• green salad - 2 leaves;
• garlic - 1 clove;
• red onion - 1 pc.;
• homemade mayonnaise - 60 g;
• armenian lavash - 2 pcs.

Cooking method:

1. Mix homemade mayonnaise with garlic.
2. Fry the minced turkey over low heat with a little oil.
3. Chop the onion into rings, finely chop the cabbage.
4. Cut the tomatoes into half rings thinly and the cucumbers into slices.
5. Cut the pita bread in two.
6. Brush it with mayonnaise.
7. Put the minced meat on the pita bread, stepping back from the edge about two fingers.
8. Put cabbage, onions, tomatoes, cucumbers on top.
9. Fold gently, folding the edges to the side to form a closed shawarma.
10. Heat in a skillet without oil until the pita is crispy.

How to cook with lamb and feta cheese

You can cook shawarma at home in Turkish with lamb and feta cheese. The recipe assumes the presence of such ingredients:

• pita;
• sesame oil;
• tomato - 2 pcs.;
• lamb - 100 g;
• feta cheese - 70 g;
• vegetable oil - 150 ml;
• garlic - 2 cloves;
• salad mix - 30 g;
• matsoni;
• cucumber - 1 piece;
• cardamom;
• bulb onions;
• egg - 2 pieces;
• curry;
• salt pepper.

Shawarma is one of the most popular Middle Eastern dishes, which is popular almost everywhere. Chopped juicy meat, pre-grilled and wrapped in soft lavash with vegetable salad and sauce, is a real delicacy of Arabian cuisine. Since shawarma is fast food, many people are afraid to buy it on the street or in eateries. However, such precautions will not hurt. However, if you find yourself in an Arab restaurant, be sure to order a real shawarma made from lamb, beef, veal, chicken or turkey - you will not regret it! And even better - homemade shawarma, the recipe with a photo of which looks so appetizing that you can eat it every day. Let's try to make this dish, delight loved ones with homemade fast food and plunge into oriental cuisine, where there are so many spices and aromatic herbs ...

Shawarma: origin story

They say that the very first version was invented by the steppe nomads, who wrapped saiga meat fried on a fire in a cake. And in Europe, this appetizer appeared in the 70s of the last century, when the Turkish chef Kadir Nurman decided to introduce the inhabitants of Berlin to oriental cuisine and began to wrap fried meat in lavash, successfully selling this unusual sandwich to the ever-rushing townspeople. Thus, Turkish kebab (the so-called shawarma in Turkey) was liked by the inhabitants of Berlin, and by the end of the 20th century in the capitals of many European states one could see vertical skewers with rotating meat. Oriental chefs mixed meat with raw vegetables and sauce, then wrapped it in flat cakes. Shawarma became popular with Europeans, as this dish was quickly prepared, it was hearty and tasty.

How to cook meat for shawarma

In oriental cuisine, any meat is used for this snack, except pork, but in non-Muslim countries shawarma is prepared from any moderately fatty meat, including pork. The meat is strung on vertical skewers that rotate on their axis - they are called vertical grills. As soon as it is ready, the meat is cut with a sharp knife in very thin pieces, then they are additionally chopped.

The meat fillet is cut into pieces, slightly beaten off, immersed in the marinade and placed in the refrigerator for 2 hours, or better for 5–8 hours, depending on the hardness of the meat. The marinade can also be made with kefir, pomegranate juice, soy sauce, apple cider vinegar, or wine - add more spices as you like.

After the marinade, the meat is lightly dried with a towel, cut into thin strips and fried on the grill, in the oven or in a cast-iron skillet with a ribbed bottom, without adding oil and with constant stirring. The meat turns out to be rosy and with a crispy crust, but inside it remains juicy and soft if it is not dried out during frying. Interestingly, many use sausages and sausages instead of meat, and some cooks fry the meat with onions and stew it in broth with a small amount of vinegar.

The ideal shawarma cake is a thin pita bread or half an Arabian pita bread. The most important thing is that the cake is fresh and soft, otherwise the dish will not turn out very tasty, moreover, dried pita bread or pita crumbles when rolled up, and cracks appear on them. You can roll up shawarma only with very fresh lavash.

The vegetable filling can be different - thinly chopped white or Chinese cabbage with mayonnaise or ketchup, cabbage with Korean carrots, lettuce, onions, fresh or pickled cucumbers or tomatoes, eggplant and zucchini. Cucumbers are usually cut into cubes or cubes, and onions are usually cut into half rings or small cubes. Do not spare greens - green onions, dill, cilantro, parsley and basil, because the more herbs, the tastier the shawarma. The filling with fresh or pickled mushrooms, bell peppers, hard or soft cheese is very pleasant, although many fans of Arab cuisine do not recognize any other ingredients except meat and spices. Well, tastes differ!

Making shawarma sauce

The sauce not only saturates the shawarma with new flavors, but also makes it more juicy. You can take sour cream, mayonnaise, cream, milk, fermented baked milk, kefir, yogurt, vegetable oil, tomato sauce and ketchup as a base for the sauce. The base is usually supplemented with other foods such as spices, cheese, vegetables, nuts, seeds, eggs, and herbs.

The simplest not-to-cook sauces are mayonnaise and ketchup, but if you want to make a really tasty shawarma, only use your own sauces. The difference is immediately felt! The most popular sauces are white garlic and spicy tomato. Garlic sauce is made from medium-thick sour cream mixed with chopped garlic, chopped green onions and grated pickled cucumber.

For tomato sauce, mix tomato puree, tomato paste, spicy adjika, cilantro, olive oil and lemon juice, after which the mass is thoroughly chopped in a blender. Other sauces are also very tasty - cheese, creamy, mushroom, cucumber and mustard. However, oriental chefs claim that a real shawarma sauce is made from sour cream, kefir and homemade mayonnaise, taken in equal proportions - a few chopped cloves of garlic, salt, black and red pepper, coriander, curry, cilantro, parsley and dill are added to the mass. ... When the sauce has stood for an hour, you can use it.

How to roll pita bread correctly

After the ingredients are ready, the pita bread is spread on the table, lightly sprinkled with water mixed with lemon juice. Next, the surface of the cake is smeared with white sauce, while, of course, you need to step back a little from the edges, then vegetable salad and meat are laid out on the pita bread, and the filling is poured on top with red sauce. This is how shawarma is made in a cafe, but you can use any sauces according to your tastes and preferences.

The vegetables are covered with the edges of the flat cake in the form of an envelope and rolled into a roll - this is necessary so that the filling does not fall out of the shawarma, and it is more comfortable and tasty to taste it in this form. Pita is usually hollow on the inside, so you need to make a cut in the side and fill the pocket with filling and sauce. If you fry the finished shawarma a little in a pan without oil before serving, it will turn out tastier and more appetizing.

According to one oriental chef, one of the secrets of delicious shawarma is the use of several types of meat, such as chicken, pork and lamb, which must be seasoned in a mixture of Arabian spices before frying.

If the meat is dry, sprinkle it with orange juice during cooking, or add a little oil or fat tail fat to the pan during frying. The meat will acquire tenderness and piquant aroma.

For the sauce, grind the herbs along with the garlic and spices, and then mix these ingredients with the base. The sauce will turn out to be more tasty and aromatic. If you want to liven up the pale color of the sauce, add bright paprika, curry, or herbs to it. It will turn out to be a very beautiful and festive dressing!

Never heat shawarma in the microwave, as the lavash in it becomes sour and loses its texture. Finished shawarma can be additionally greased with sauce on top for juiciness and piquancy.

Homemade shawarma with chicken

A very simple recipe and the result will delight you! Cut 600 g of chicken fillet into strips and fry it in a little vegetable oil, salt and sprinkle with chicken spices. Chop half a head of napa cabbage, tear half a head of iceberg lettuce with your hands, dice 2 tomatoes, 2 cucumbers, 1 bell pepper and 1 stalk of celery, mix vegetables with meat.

Make a sauce with 200 g sour cream, 2 tbsp. l. mayonnaise, a bunch of dill, parsley and green onions, also squeeze a couple of cloves of garlic into it. Now combine the sauce with meat and vegetables, mix well. Put the filling on the pita bread, first roll it up with an envelope, and then roll it up. You can heat it in a frying pan or eat it like that - bon appetit!

Vegetarian shawarma with spinach

Vegetarians can also enjoy shawarma - with vegetables and cheese, it is even easier to prepare. Finely chop a bunch of any greens (dill, cilantro or parsley) and a bunch of basil. Mix about 400 g of defrosted spinach with 1 clove of minced garlic and cook in the microwave for 10 minutes, then break the egg into hot spinach and stir until it curls and hardens.

Brush 2 sheets of pita bread with butter, drain the spinach and place on the flatbread. Crumble 100 g of any cheese on top - hard or soft type of Dorblu, feta, Adyghe or mozzarella. Wrap the shawarma in a roll and lightly brown on both sides in a dry skillet to melt the cheese. This is a real delicacy!

Now you know how to cook shawarma at home. More precisely, the cooking technology, because there can be many options - it all depends on the meat, filling, spices and sauce. In this dish you can show your imagination, how many housewives - so many shawarma recipes, and they are all successful!

Oriental dishes are so firmly established in our cuisine that it is already impossible to imagine your life without these savory delicacies. One of the popular oriental dishes is homemade shawarma with chicken in pita bread, this is a very unusual treat that is easy to cook at home with your own hands. For those who do not know how to make a delicious filling for shawarma and how to properly wrap it in a flat cake then we offer tips that can make cooking easier.

Before considering a step-by-step recipe for preparing an oriental dish, let's find out: what is shawarma, and what does it have in common with shawarma? Surely, each of you has heard both names, but many still do not know whether this is one dish or 2 completely different ones.

So what does shawarma mean? Shawarma is nothing more than a dish made from lavash / pita (pita is half a round lavash) stuffed with spices, fresh vegetables, finely chopped fried meat and, of course, sauce.

What is shawarma? This is the same as shawarma, the only difference is that these 2 words are dialectically pronounced differently. It happens that shawarma and shawarma are distinguished by the lavash used in their preparation: if the cake is whole, then shawarma is obtained, if pita was used, then shawarma.

Differences in the names of the same dish are associated with different dialects of oriental culinary experts, who, in fact, brought the recipe for a delicious dish to our area. And to this day, in different countries where oriental cooks once visited, there are completely different versions of the pronunciation of your favorite snack, sometimes completely unrecognizable to us (for example, in Israel, shawarma is called shuarma or shvarma; in Kazakhstan - donner kebab, etc.). ).

Homemade shawarma recipe with chicken in lavash

Ingredients

• Armenian thin pita bread - 2 pcs.
• Chicken meat - 400 g
• Fresh cucumbers - 2 pcs.
• Favorite greens - to taste
• Mayonnaise - 6 tablespoons
• Bulb onions - 1/2 pc.
• Korean carrots - 200 g
• Tomatoes - 2 pcs.
• Seasonings to taste
• Ketchup - 6 tablespoons

Cooking homemade shawarma

Such a quick snack easily lends itself to everyone, even novice housewives, just need to know what to do and why, and most importantly - how to properly wrap the shawarma in lavash.

1. We wash the chicken fillet, cut it into small pieces.
2. Cut half the onion into half rings, fry the slices until blush in a small amount of vegetable oil.
3. We shift the chopped fillets to the fried onions, fry the products until tender.
4. Add spices to the pan. Choose the types of spices at your discretion.
5. Cut tomatoes, cucumbers, fresh herbs into small pieces.
6. Mix the ketchup with mayonnaise in equal proportions (that is, add 6 tablespoons of both). If you like spicy dishes, then you can chop some garlic into the sauce.

How to wrap shawarma with chicken in lavash

The process of wrapping the filling in ready-made pita bread is no less important than the process of its preparation. In what sequence to stack the products - each housewife decides for herself, this is not important, the main thing is to initially grease the lavash so that it is not dry, and then properly twist it into the shawarma.

How to wrap shawarma in pita bread

1. We cut each Armenian lavash across into 2 equal parts.
2. We put all the parts on the table, grease the edge of each cake with a mixture of ketchup and mayonnaise.
3. Put the previously cut products on top of the sauce mass. The sequence may be different, but we suggest making the layers in the following order: chicken, cucumbers, tomatoes, Korean carrots, finely chopped greens.
4. We begin to bend the edges of the pita bread a few centimeters from 3 sides: first from the bottom, then from above, then to the right.
5. Now we twist the filling into the pita bread from one side to the other, like a roll of wallpaper.
6. That's all - homemade shawarma with chicken in lavash is ready. You will spend no more than an hour on cooking, and when you “fill your hand”, you will make your favorite shawarma with chicken fillet even faster, in just 20-30 minutes.

Secrets of delicious homemade shawarma in lavash

• The recipe for shawarma with chicken in pita bread can be very diverse. The ingredient composition of the oriental dish contains the most unusual combinations of products, not only cucumber, Korean carrots and tomatoes can complement the taste of tender chicken fillet. You can easily decorate shawarma with chicken with white cabbage and green lettuce leaves.
• You can also use any spices with herbs. Once allow yourself to add paprika, onions, oregano, next time use Provencal herbs, for the third time add ground pepper, basil, a little chili. You always need to experiment with shawarma, what you like best, then you will often cook for your family.
• The sauce for lubricating lavash is also completely under your control: if you want - take sour cream and garlic, if you want - Georgian tkemali, you can use just one mayonnaise or ketchup, in a word, be guided exclusively by your taste.
• To give the chicken fillet a spicy taste, marinate it a little before cutting. To prepare the marinade, you need to mix: 3 tbsp. l. refined sunflower oil, 0.5 tsp. ground cinnamon, 2 pinches of salt and 1 pinch of ground pepper. In such a marinade, the fillet should lie for at least 2 hours, then you can start frying and chopping it.

Homemade shawarma with chicken in lavash is a quick and delicious snack. If you have nothing to serve for lunch / dinner or for the arrival of unexpected guests, then here's an idea for you how to pamper yourself and your family without spending too much on cooking. Time will also take a little, but the aroma of your dish will be remembered for a long time by your household and guests. Experiment - and may your cooking only be successful.