Oh my sweet Lord, you ain’t had a Shawarma like this before! The Halifax Chicken Shawarma is what I call this and is because it’s made with the Halifax Donair Spice. While there are many kinds of chicken shawarmas, there’s only one kind of Halifax Shawarma. No need for stacking and cooking on a doner either. Because we aren’t going to slice the chicken thin and stack them to cook. Instead, we use bone-in or boneless chicken quarters (juicier meat, especially for Shawarmas) and remove the skin. The chicken will go into a Shawarma marinade overnight to be cooked in the oven the next day. The meat is then stripped off the bone for bone-in meat or chopped for boneless meat. Then crisped before serving with flatbread and a choice of veggies & shawarma sauce/s!
That’s what makes a Halifax Shawarma so great. Because the Chicken Shawarma is seasoned with that unique Halifax Donair Spice, dominant in onion & garlic with a nice kiss of heat. While the Halifax Donair is considered to be both the Meat & Sweet White Sauce, with only Tomatoes & Onions on Lebanese Flat Bread. That Halifax Donair Spice is something of its own too. Perfectly capable of standing on its own and delivering a familiar Halifax note. We do it, right here, for a perfect heavenly chicken shawarma, Haligonian style!
Shawarma vs Donair
As the Donair was introduced, there was also rivalry between Lebanese Shawarmas. Both Greek & Lebanese immigrants were fighting to overtake this new market during the 70s.
- Shawarma: Lebanese meat sandwich wrap, made with any spiced thinly sliced meat and various toppings and sauces. It’s a Lebanese or Arabic word that is the equivalent of a doner, or what the Greeks call a gyro. There are many versions of shawarma that use different seasonings.
- Donair: A Halifax origin dish, created by Peter Gamoulakos. Made from spiced ground beef dominant in onion & garlic flavors with a kiss of heat that would build and level out. Served on Lebanese pita bread with diced onions, tomatoes, and a sweet white sauce made with canned evaporated milk, sugar, vinegar, and garlic powder.
- Halifax Shawarma: Is my very own creation that combines the Halifax Donair Spice originally used to season the ground meat for Donairs but using it for chicken. The chicken is marinated, Doner, or in a shawarma style. The Shawarma sauce is still milk based just the same as the Donair sauce. But emulsified with cream, lemon juice, and oil and not sweet. Instead, a bit of spices and tahini is added. Served with pita bread, tzatziki, diced onions & tomatoes with lettuce for a wickedly good Haligonian shawarma!
Halifax Chicken Shawarma Ingredients
Chicken Quarters, Shawarma Marinade (Donair Spice (or the standard Donair Spice provided in the recipe), Neutral Oil or light tasting EVOO, 18% Cream, Water, Lemon Juice), Pita Bread, Tzatziki (Greek Yogurt, Cucumber, Salt, Garlic, Red & White Wine Vinegar, Lemon Juice, Olive Oil, Parsley, Dillweed, White Pepper, Shawarma Sauce (18% Cream, Water, Lemon Juice, Garlic, Salt, Black Pepper, Tahini, Onion Powder, Garlic Powder, Parsley, Neutral Oil), Toppings (Lettuce, Onions, Tomatoes, can include other toppings as well),
1-2 Tbl of yogurt can be added for the marinade. Especially when using water instead of dairy. Additional toppings covered later in the post can be included as well as various sauces.
Chicken Quarters
What we are really after in chicken shawarmas is dark meat. These cook up juicier and crisp up nicely, more so than chicken breast. You can, however, include a very small amount of chicken breast. Use chicken quarters that have been trimmed and cleaned from any internal organs, with the skin removed. The skins can be placed into a Ziploc bag to freeze and use for recipes that require rendered chicken fat.
For this recipe we are after 3 lbs of bone-in chicken quarters. This is about 1-2 chicken quarters per Halifax Shawarma, depending on size. Breasts can also be included to fill it out more and possibly have some leftovers.
About 30% of the weight is bones for chicken quarters. This means 3 lbs of skinless chicken quarters should yield about 2 lbs of chicken shawarma meat. For this reason, we season for 2 lbs and not 3 lbs. If using 5 lbs of chicken and calculating at 30%, then it would be approximately 3.5 lbs of meat.
Chicken Drumsticks
Another option is 3 chicken drumsticks per shawarma, for a total of 12 drumsticks (about 3 lbs) for four (4) shawarmas. These ones I scored and left the skin on, deciding to remove it when stripping chicken.
Whole Chicken Shawarma
A whole chicken can be used and yields very good sized Halifax Shawarmas, possibly with leftovers, depending on how much you use for each Shawarma. For a whole chicken, use 35% when calculating the meat, instead of 30%, to account for the backbone. So a whole chicken at 5 lbs. yields just over 3 lbs, or 3 1/4 lbs, of meat. A 3-4 lb whole chicken would yield about 2 to 2 1/2 lbs of meat.
Chop the chicken into the following pieces and remove the skin. Check out our post on How To Prepare Chicken for more information and how to chop it into 10 pieces.
- 2 Chicken Legs
- 2 Chicken Thighs
- 4 Breast pieces, each breast chopped in half.
- Wings, backbone, and trimmings can be included or saved for other recipes. Save the skin in a Ziploc and freeze it to render it out later for other recipes.
There are two main ways the chicken can be prepared based on whether you want stripped chicken meat or chopped chicken meat, like the Shawarma Shops.
Stripped Chicken Shawarma
Stripped chicken shawarmas is the easiest method since you don’t have to debone the chicken. Instead, the quarters are chopped to separate the thighs from the legs, the skin is removed, and the chicken is scored to toss into the marinade overnight. The next day the chicken is cooked and then stripped off of the bone to crisp up before stuffing the flatbread.
Remove the skin and optionally score the chicken a few times. This allows the marinade to get in and flavor the meat better. It also helps when it’s time to strip the meat off the bone to crisp the meat before serving and keeping the meat in smaller pieces.
Chicken Quarters
Clean and trim 3 lbs of chicken or 4-5 chicken quarters or a whole 3-4 lb chicken. Chop to separate the pieces and remove the skin. Optionally score the chicken pieces.
Chopped Chicken Shawarma
The chopped chicken shawarmas are more inline with what you would get at a shawarma outlet. With thinly sliced chicken stacked on a doner and sliced off to crisp before stuffing the flatbread. For this method, the chicken needs to be deboned and marinated overnight. Once cooked, it is chopped to crisp up just the same.
Boneless Chicken Quarters
Remove the bones from the chicken quarters, thighs, or legs along with the skin. No scoring for boneless chicken.
With this method there is no guesswork for the amount of seasoning to use. Just weigh out the boneless meat and season with the standard donair spice for however many lbs of boneless meat you have.
Halifax Shawarma Marinade
The Halifax Shawarma marinade marinates meats the same as a doner using oil, dairy, and lemon juice with seasoning.
For the Shawarma Spices, I use my custom blend Halifax Donair Spice. But our Standard Donair Spice can be used just as well to create the Halifax Shawarma, which was used in the below pictured Marinade.
Throw all the shawarma marinade ingredients together in a bowl and mix. Add your bone-in or boneless chicken, cover, and refrigerate overnight.
Halifax Shawarma Marinade Ingredients
Toss into a marinating bowl the following and mix well. Then add the skinless, bone-in, or boneless chicken to toss. Cover and refrigerate overnight. The below mix is for 3 lbs of bone-in chicken. Which yields about 2 lbs of meat. You want to season for the meat yield, not the total weight.
- 1/2 C light tasting EVOO or neutral oil
- 1/4 cup 18% Cream
- 1/4 cup of Water
- or 1/2 C Milk or Water in place of the cream and water above. If using water, add a bit of yogurt.
- 2 Tbl Lemon Juice
- The Standard Donair Spice provided in the main recipe card. This is for 2 lbs of meat.
Scaling the Shawarma Marinade: Use 1/4 C of dairy & oil with 1 Tbl of lemon juice per additional 1 lb of chicken meat. Not including the bones or skin.
You can also use 1/2 cup of 10% cream to substitute for the 1/4 cup of 18% cream & water or just use milk. Water can also be used, but it is recommended to include yogurt if doing so.
Additional Shawarma Marinade Ingredients
The dairy can be exchanged with water as well as additional ingredients added in. Yogurt, about 1-2 Tbl can be added, especially if using water instead of dairy, because you want something in there to tenderize.
Other ingredients such as pimento paste or tomato sauce can be added in and will create a redder tone. The Pimento Sauce can be sweet or hot pimento paste for an even spicier shawarma. For tomato juice and/or pimento paste, use up to 1/4 C per 1 lb of meat. If using hot pimento paste, just a Tbl or more will do. The Donair Spice already carries a decent amount of heat.
Halifax Shawarma Seasoning
The Shawarma seasoning mix is the same seasoning used for Halifax Donairs and is why this recipe is called Halifax Shawarmas. Use 3 Tbl of the Donair Spice for every 1 lb of chicken, not including the bone and skin weight.
Below is the standard donair spice that can be used just as well, but the amounts are different. If scaling for however many lbs of meat you have. Then use the standard Donair recipe below for every 1 lb of meat, not including the bones or skin. For example, 3 lbs (approx. 1362 g) of bone-in chicken quarters will contain about 2 lbs of meat. So the below standard donair spice recipe is doubled.
Standard Donair Spice
For every 1 lb of meat
- 1 tsp of the following
- Black Pepper
- Garlic
- Onion
- Oregano
- Paprika
- Sea Salt
- 1/8+ tsp Cayenne Pepper, depending on the desired heat level
Cooking Shawarma Meat
For at home use, there is no need to have a doner or spit where the meat is stacked and cooked all day. There isn’t even a need to debone the chicken. Since the chicken can be slow cooked in the oven and then stripped off the bone. Which is a lot easier than deboning the chicken. You can debone and cook in order to dice the meat instead of getting strips of meat. But the extra time to do this isn’t really worth it. Although it does produce the diced chicken meat like you would get in Shawarma Outlets.
Stacking the meat is meant for cooking all day, and trimming off the outside cooked meat as people come to order. At home we don’t want this. Instead, we want to eat all together at the same time. Therefore, the cook method used in this recipe is to cook the meat through to the same tenderness that a doner would and then high heat to crisp up just the same as a doner would when shaving the meat off.
Whether you go for boneless or bone-in, the time spent on either is about the same. With Bone in Chicken, you will have to take the meat out and let it cool before handling to strip off the meat. For Boneless, you will spend about that same time deboning the chicken, but there is no wait time after cooking the chicken. Just chop the meat up and back into the oven to crisp.
How to make chicken shawarma
Both the chicken & marinade go into a preheated oven at 300F-325°F for 1 hour while covered. The chicken is then allowed to cool a bit to strip off the bone right there in the pan, while the oven is set to 400°F. The whole pan with the chicken and marinade goes back into the oven to crisp up for about another 30 minutes, or until crisp to your liking. Mix the meat around every so often for even browning.
Slow Cook
Place the marinated chicken & marinade into a roasting pan. Cover and cook for 1 hour at 300°F to 325°F.
Stripped Chicken
Remove it from the oven, flip the chicken pieces over to cool, and increase the heat to 400°F. When cooled enough to handle, strip the meat off the bones, right there in the pan with forks. Wash and save the bones for other recipes.
If using boneless meat, then chop it into bite-size pieces and transfer it back into the oven to crisp; no wait time.
Crisped Chicken Shawarma meat
Place the stripped or chopped chicken and marinade back into the oven for about 30 minutes, or until crisp to your liking. The water will evaporate, leaving behind a wonderful flavored oil that will crisp the meat to perfection. Toss the meat around every so often.
Ready Shawarma Meat
Once crisped to your liking, remove from the oven and use.
The bones can be cooked with the meat during crisping or not. Whether the bones are cooked with the meat or just removed from the meat, they can be rinsed off and frozen to make stock with later for other recipes.
Shawarma Bread
Shawarmas are served on flatbread, and there’s a variety you can choose from. For me, either Samoon Bread or Pita Bread, rolled up like a pita pocket. Naan or Greek pita are sometimes good too, as these are a softer bread. Other breads can be used, like Markouk Bread, tortillas, or lavash bread, just the same.
I find Iraqi Samoon bread is perfect and ideal for Shawarmas. It’s a good bread that holds up well and has a chewy skin on the surface that is pleasing. Pita bread is good too because you can steam them and open them up to create a pocket to stuff, and they can take a lot of meat. Although not as durable as Samoon Bread or even Greek or Naan bread. But the tradeoff for Greek or Naan Bread is they take less meat, still really good though.
Pita Bread
For the Halifax style, we go with pita bread, and it can be prepared in one of two ways. Either pan toasted over medium heat until warmed through, and then everything placed on top.
The other way is to steam the pita bread and open it up to separate and create a pocket. Then stuff it with all the goodies and roll it up. Check out How to Make a Pita Pocket Wrap for more information.
Samoon Bread
Samoon bread is the same as pita bread, where you can either toast it or steam it. In both cases the Samoon bread is sliced open either on the side or sliced in half to create a pocket and stuffed. You can purchase these at a shawarma shop or a local Middle Eastern grocery store. These are really good for Shawarmas. The one pictured below was made with only Mild Mayo Sauce as the sauce of choice.
Tortillas
Tortillas are toasted on both sides in a pan set over medium heat and then topped. Additionally, you can toast one side and fill with the toasted side facing up to roll like a burrito. Then toast in a pan over medium heat with a thin coating of fat to crisp them up.
I just pour the oil into the pan and heat it over medium heat. Then pour it back out of the pan, which leaves a thin coating to toast the tortillas. These too don’t take much meat, but the toasted wrap is very pleasing. You could do the same with Lavash Bread.
Greek Pita Bread
Greek Pitas, whether store-bought or Homemade Greek Pitas are either toasted or steamed and then topped with all the ingredients. These pitas are a bit thicker and hold up well for Shawarmas. Which is another reason why the Samoon bread is so good too; it’s a thick, flatbread.
Naan Bread
Naan Bread can be used too, and just like Greek Pita bread, it is a bit more durable to hold up to the stuffing. Either Homemade Naan or store-bought naan.
Shawarma Toppings
Your go-tos for the Halifax Chicken Shawarmas are diced tomatoes & onions, just the same as the Halifax Donair. In addition, lettuce is added. Pickled Red Onions or sumac onions can be included. Dill pickles or Pickled Cucumbers, which are a really nice addition for Shawarmas, can be added too. So can diced long sweet red peppers or bell peppers. The peppers can be roasted as well. Shredded purple cabbage and pickled turnips too.
Shawarma Sauces
For the Halifax Shawarma, go with the Halifax white shawarma sauce & Tzatziki, this makes for an incredible Halifax Shawarma! If additional heat is desired, srizzle over some sriracha or sprinkle some red chilies over top.
Tzatziki
The Tzatziki with the Halifax shawarma sauce is just simply incredible. Make both of these sauces up the day before at the same time you make the shawarma meat marinade to refrigerate overnight.
White Shawarma Sauce
For Halifax White Shawarma Sauce, add everything into the jar with the oil last. Puree until thick and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.
- 2-3 Garlic Cloves
- 2 1/2 Tbl 18% Cream & Water, each
- 1 Tbl Tahini or 1 tsp sesame oil
- 1 Tbl Lemon Juice
- 1/2 tsp Onion powder, Garlic powder, Parsley, Sea Salt & Black Pepper, each
- 3/4 C Light tasting EVOO (or neutral oil)
Mild Mayo Sauce
Mild Mayo Sauce used by itself or with hot sauce included, is really good for chicken shawarmas and gives them that little extra kick of heat. For a garlicky punch, add a bit of aioli or toum.
Aioli/Toum
Aioli or Toum can be used in a few different ways. It can be brushed onto the flatbread before heating. Added as a sauce by itself or added to the Mild Mayo Sauce for a garlicky kick. It can also be added to yogurt for a garlicky yogurt sauce.
Donair Sauce
Donair Sauce is for a Halifax Donair and possibly should be reserved for the beef shawarma. But it can be used here for the chicken shawarma as well, for those that want that donair spiced meat & sweet donair sauce combo.
Spicy Halifax Shawarmas
The Halifax Shawarma already boasts a decent amount of heat by itself. For additional heat to kick it up. Add a hot sauce like Sriracha, which can be drizzled over the shawarma to add even more heat. Additionally, red chili flakes can be sprinkled over top to make it really spicy. Doesn’t it look gorgeous!
Did you know you can make Shawarmas from Turkey too!
Turkey Shawarmas
Turkey shawarma can be made with both uncooked or cooked leftover turkey. The uncooked turkey is prepared and cooked the same way as your chicken shawarmas, with adjusted cook times to get the turkey cooked through and soft.
The cooked turkey version uses already leftover cooked turkey from your Holiday Turkey Tray or the Butterflied Turkey and just crisps the meat up to enjoy shawarmas or a shawarma rice bowl. Here’s how you can use the leftover turkey meat to make shawarmas.
Broil
Place 1 lb of leftover turkey meat into a casserole and use 1/4 C of dairy & oil, each with 1 Tbl lemon juice & 3 Tbl of donair spice, or the standard donair spice for every 1 lb of turkey meat. Transfer to the oven on broil.
Crisp up and brown
The turkey will soak up the sauce, and the broiling will evaporate any excess liquid and crisp the turkey meat up.
Use the meat to make turkey shawarma wraps or a turkey shawarma platter with rice and vegetables.
Shawarma Rice Bowl
For a chicken shawarma rice bowl, the shawarma meat is served with chopped lettuce, diced tomatoes & onions as the salad or fresh vegetable with rice. Use Mild Mayo Sauce or Halal White Sauce/Pepper Zing Mayo or the Halifax White Shawarma Sauce drizzled over top. Optionally with a side of pita bread. A good rice for this dish is Yellow Cumin Rice or the Adobo Sazon Rice.
Shawarma Pita Pocket Wrap
These are my go-to, but I do tend to switch up whenever the mood arises. These are steamed pita bread opened up along the edge to create a pocket and then stuffed. Check out how to make a pita pocket wrap for more information on how to prepare and stuff these.
Ingredients
- 3 lb Chicken Quarters - skin removed, slightly over is fine
- 4 Pita Bread - Or Samoon Bread, or other flat breads
- As Desired Tzatziki
- As Desired Shredded Lettuce - Iceberg
- 1 Med Onion - Diced
- 1 Large Tomato - Diced
- 1 portion White Shawarma Sauce
Shawarma Marinade
- 1/2 C Light Tasting EVOO - can use sunflower oil or other neutral oils
- 1/4 C 18% Cream & Water - each, can use 1/2 cup of milk
- 2 Tbl Lemon Juice
- 2 tsp Sea Salt, Paprika, Black Pepper, Oregano, Onion Powder, and Garlic Powder - each
- 1/4 tsp Cayenne Pepper - or more for desired heat
Instructions
- Prepare the Chicken: Clean the chicken quarters from any internal organs and trim. Remove and save the chicken skin for other recipes. Optionally, score the chicken and chop to separate the leg from the thigh. If going for boneless chopped chicken, debone the chicken.
- Shawarma Marinade: Add the shawarma marinade ingredients into a marinating bowl or into the same pan you will cook the chicken in and mix well. Add the chicken to toss, cover, and refrigerate overnight. Prepare any sauces and condiments to refrigerate overnight as well.
- Slow Cook: Take the marinated chicken out of the fridge to rest on the counter while preheating the oven to 300°F to 325°F with the rack in the middle position. Cover the roasting pan and place it into the oven for 1 hour.
- Strip or chop the meat: After 1 hour, increase the heat to 400°F and remove the chicken from the oven. Flip the chicken pieces over and leave uncovered for a few minutes. When cooled enough to handle, strip the meat off the bone right there in the pan using forks. If using boneless meat, then coarsely chop and go straight to crisping, no wait time.
- Crisping: When all the chicken is stripped off the bone or chopped, place the tray back into the oven to crisp to your liking, uncovered. About another 30 minutes. Toss the meat around a few times with tongs for even browning.
- Shawarma Bread: Just as the chicken meat is about done, steam or toast the samoon bread or pita bread and transfer them to a plate. Slice one end of the samoon bread and open it up to reveal the pocket, or open up the steamed pita bread along the edge about 40% to create a pocket.
- Shawarma Assembly: Tzatziki on the flapLettuceDiced OnionsDiced TomatoesShawarma MeatWhite Shawarma SauceOptionally hot sauce if a spicier kick is desired. Serve right away. If using Pita Bread, tuck the flap in tight and roll to serve right away. If serving later, wrap in tinfoil or waxed paper.
Notes
- 1 tsp Sea Salt
- 1 tsp Paprika
- 1 tsp Black Pepper
- 1 tsp Oregano
- 1 tsp Onion Powder
- 1 tsp Garlic Powder
- 1/8 tsp or more of Cayenne for the desired level of heat.
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