There's something undeniably comforting about a well-made chicken shawarma. With juicy spiced Halal meat, crisp vegetables, creamy sauces, and warm pita, it’s no wonder that it’s expanded from its Mediterranean roots to become a favorite all over the world. But sometimes a single shawarma just won’t cut it when you have multiple hungry mouths to feed. For that, you need a whole shawarma plate; and what luck that we have just the recipe for you with this weeks Halal Chicken Shawarma Plate recipe!
Jumping right into it, the real secret to great shawarma is in the marinade, to get the star of the recipe, the Halal chicken breast, infused with as much flavor as possible, we used a yogurt-based marinade with a few other choice spices like garlic and onion powder, ground cloves, and cinnamon for a rich and complex blend of flavors that don’t get too savory. The added benefit of it being a yogurt marinade is that it helps tenderize your chicken while the flavor gets infused. This way you’re ready to get cooking sooner and each piece of chicken will be that much more tender and flavorful, ready to be enjoyed with some seasoned veggies and sauce.
What a perfect segue into talking about our veggies, man I’m good at this! Anyway, we made a classic veggie salad of diced cucumbers and grape tomatoes, tossed with a mix of olive oil, lemon juice, and the classic salt and pepper. I’m not always a fan of grape tomatoes, I think sometimes they can be a little too aggressive with their strong flavor. But when they’re paired with the cucumber and seasonings, they offer great freshness to the dish, along with a satisfyingly cool crunch. But you can’t forget the other classics like onion and Arabic pickles, this plate is all about options after all, and some sliced red onion with a little bit of sumac mixed in goes a long way.
For simplicities sake, if you want to buy a tahini sauce, more power to you. It’s a much-appreciated flavor boost, and a good sauce keeps the dish from getting too dry and ties everything together. With that in mind, we made our own tahini sauce with, you guessed it, tahini along with some lemon juice and a few other spices for a sauce that’s rich and flavorful, but also cool and creamy; and is great throughout the final product on whatever it’s on. We also mixed it up a bit by adding maple syrup. An unorthodox addition, sure, but it was crazy how good the maple ended up pairing with the sauce. If you’re going for pure authentic flavors, skip the maple syrup, but if you’re willing to try something new, give it a go and let us know what you think!
With everything else prepped, it’s time to cook that Halal chicken, and it couldn’t be easier! We pan fried ours in just a bit of olive oil, and because it’s already diced into small pieces, each piece cooks in no time, and the marinade gives it a little boost in tenderness when you’re done cooking. And just like that, you are done cooking. Serve this chicken over a bed of jasmine rice along with the veggies, and you and your guests are ready to dig into any classic shawarma flavor they want.
That’s the beauty of this recipe; it gives you the chance to enjoy a tasty Mediterranean classic your way and makes plenty to go around, bringing people together to enjoy great flavors and fresh ingredients for a healthy meal you can feel good about eating too. That’s it for this recipe, we hope you enjoy and this recipe makes plenty, so share the love, and we’ll see you with another great Halal recipe.
