Homemade Chicken and Cheese Shawarma in a Skillet
Delicious, juicy, and filling — perfect for dinner or a snack! This homemade shawarma with cheese, wrapped in lavash and crisped in a skillet, is made from the freshest ingredients and comes out far tastier than takeout. Serve it as a main dish, pack it for a picnic, or grab it for a quick bite. It's easy to make and comes together fast.
Cooking method
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Step 1:
How do you make homemade chicken-and-cheese shawarma? Gather your ingredients. This amount makes two large shawarmas, so you'll need two big thin lavash flatbreads. Any chicken works — I'm using breast, but thigh would come out juicier. The basic vegetables are cabbage and tomato; I also added fresh cucumber and Korean-style carrots.
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Step 2:
Start with the chicken. Rinse the fillet and pat it thoroughly dry — leftover moisture keeps the meat from searing and makes it steam instead. Season the fillet with salt and spices; the blend is entirely up to you. I used curry powder, paprika, and ground black pepper — use whatever you like. Rub the seasonings in well and let the chicken sit for 10 minutes.
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Step 3:
Heat a skillet over high heat and add the vegetable oil. Lay in the fillet.
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Step 4:
Sear it 5 minutes on the first side until golden, then flip. Keep the heat high so the chicken browns well. Cook another couple of minutes, then cover the pan, lower the heat, and let it finish for 5 more minutes. Searing keeps the juices inside the meat, and it cooks through under the lid.
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Step 5:
Take the cooked fillet off the heat and wrap it in foil right away. Let it rest for 5 minutes so the meat finishes cooking through.
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Step 6:
While the meat rests, prep the other ingredients. Finely shred the cabbage. You can use green or napa cabbage, like I did. If you go with green cabbage, scrunch it well with your hands after shredding and sprinkle it with lemon juice or wine vinegar.
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Step 7:
Wash the tomato, cut it open, and scoop out the seedy center so the filling doesn't get too wet. Slice the flesh into wedges.
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Step 8:
Slice the cucumber into half-moons. Mine is fresh, but you can use a pickled one.
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Step 9:
Grate the cheese on the medium holes of a box grater. Any cheese works here — hard, semi-hard, or a soft melting one like mozzarella. The key is that it's good quality, made with real milk fat, and melts well.
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Step 10:
By now the meat has rested — open the foil and you'll find plenty of juice. Slice the chicken thinly, return it to the foil, and toss it in the juices. This gives you very juicy, flavorful meat.
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Step 11:
Make the sauce. I made a yogurt-based one, but you could use mayonnaise, sour cream, or tomato sauce as a base. Use plain, unsweetened yogurt.
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Step 12:
Squeeze the lemon juice into the yogurt, grate in the peeled garlic clove, and add salt and pepper. Stir to combine.
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Step 13:
Now assemble the shawarma. Lay a sheet of lavash on the counter with a short side facing you. Spread a strip of cabbage across it and top with the tomatoes.
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Step 14:
Next add the chicken and drizzle it with sauce. Sprinkle the cheese on top, then add the cucumber slices and Korean-style carrots. You can layer the fillings in any order you like.
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Step 15:
Roll up the lavash, tucking in the ends over the filling. You can make the shawarma tight and round or flatter — however you like it.
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Step 16:
Toast the shawarma on both sides in a grill pan until it's nicely marked with golden grill lines.
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Step 17:
Serve the shawarma, cutting it in half if you like. Enjoy!
- Beyond these vegetables, feel free to add others — bell pepper, pickled red onion, or fresh herbs.
- How do you pick good lavash? First, check the production date on the package and skip anything past its date. Fresh lavash should smell pleasant. Look it over carefully for any spots or signs of mold.
- The right pan makes a difference — even a great recipe can be ruined by the wrong one, so choose a good skillet.
- Every oil is only good up to a certain temperature — its smoke point, where it starts to burn and form harmful compounds. Choose a refined oil with a high smoke point for frying.
Caloric content of the products possible in the composition of the dish
- Green cabbage - 46 kcal/100g
- Fresh frozen green cabbage in a package - 45 kcal/100g
- Tomatoes - 23 kcal/100g
- Fresh cucumbers - 15 kcal/100g
- Acedophilin 3.2% fat content - 58 kcal/100g
- 'rastishka ' - 122 kcal/100g
- Danone drinking yogurt - 76 kcal/100g
- Drinking yogurt 'agusha' - 87 kcal/100g
- 'aktimel' natural - 83 kcal/100g
- Danone yogurt with 2.2% fat content - 96 kcal/100g
- 'mazhetel' - 48 kcal/100g
- Ermann fat yogurt - 152 kcal/100g
- Yogurt with 3.5% fat content - 68 kcal/100g
- Natural yogurt with 1.5% fat content - 48 kcal/100g
- Low-fat milk yogurt - 38 kcal/100g
- Dutch cheese - 352 kcal/100g
- Swiss cheese - 335 kcal/100g
- Russian cheese - 366 kcal/100g
- Kostroma cheese - 345 kcal/100g
- Yaroslavsky cheese - 361 kcal/100g
- Altai cheese 50% fat content - 356 kcal/100g
- Soviet cheese - 400 kcal/100g
- Cheese 'steppe' - 362 kcal/100g
- Uglichsky cheese - 347 kcal/100g
- Poshekhonsky cheese - 350 kcal/100g
- Lambert cheese - 377 kcal/100g
- Appnzeller cheese with 50% fat content - 400 kcal/100g
- Chester cheese with 50% fat content - 363 kcal/100g
- Edamer cheese with 40% fat content - 340 kcal/100g
- Cheese with mushrooms of 50 % fat content - 395 kcal/100g
- Emmental cheese with 45% fat content - 420 kcal/100g
- Gouda cheese with 45% fat content - 356 kcal/100g
- Aiadeus cheese - 364 kcal/100g
- Dom blanc cheese (semi-hard) - 360 kcal/100g
- Cheese 'lo spalmino' - 61 kcal/100g
- Cheese 'etorki' (sheep, hard) - 401 kcal/100g
- White cheese - 100 kcal/100g
- Fat yellow cheese - 260 kcal/100g
- Altai cheese - 355 kcal/100g
- Kaunas cheese - 355 kcal/100g
- Latvian cheese - 316 kcal/100g
- Limburger cheese - 327 kcal/100g
- Lithuanian cheese - 250 kcal/100g
- Lake cheese - 350 kcal/100g
- Gruyere cheese - 396 kcal/100g
- Garlic - 143 kcal/100g
- Ground black pepper - 255 kcal/100g
- Vegetable oil - 873 kcal/100g
- Armenian lavash - 236 kcal/100g
- Lavash - 277 kcal/100g
- Salt - 0 kcal/100g
- Spices dry - 240 kcal/100g
- Lemon juice - 16 kcal/100g
- Chicken breast (fillet) - 113 kcal/100g
- Korean carrots - 134 kcal/100g
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