Despite the fact that street food and all kinds of fast foods are considered harmful, many people like this food. The only negative is that it is never 100% known what is inside, so not everyone decides to buy this kind of food at roadside catering points, despite their inner desire. It is for such sensible people that this article will tell you how to cook shawarma at home in pita bread, and step-by-step photos of the recipe will help in the sequence of actions.
What is shawarma?
Shaverma, shuarma - it's all about the same dish, which is one of the most frequent in the menu of various fast food establishments. Usually it is fried on a spit, over an open fire, meat chopped into small pieces and wrapped in a fresh tortilla with sauce, herbs and various additives.
There is also a vegan version without meat, but with mushrooms, tofu, various vegetables. To cook shawarma at home in pita bread, as closely as possible resembling the original taste, use lamb or pork, but it is easier and more economical to take chicken fillet or thighs. Poultry meat cooks faster, more dietary, which for many is also important.
How to make shawarma with chicken in pita bread at home: a step by step recipe with photos
The simplest recipe is based on such products:
- Armenian thin pita bread - 1 pc.;
- chicken fillet - 500 grams;
- Beijing cabbage - 120 grams;
- 1 pickled cucumber (can be pickled);
- 1 fresh tomato with fleshy flesh;
- mayonnaise and ketchup - 60 grams each;
- 2 tbsp. l vegetable oil;
- 1/2 tsp salts;
- 2 cloves of garlic;
- 1/4 tsp nutmeg and as much black pepper;
- a few feathers of green onions.
Cooking toppings
Before you cook the shawarma at home in pita bread, it is necessary to make the chicken slices and fry it with spices. To do this, cut the fillet into small pieces, sprinkle with a mixture of salt, crushed garlic and spices, leave for 10-15 minutes to reveal the aroma of spices.
Warm the oil in a pan and fry the chicken pieces in it until golden brown, stirring with a spatula to give an even “tan”. While the meat is being cooked, chop the Beijing cabbage with thin strips, chop the cucumber the same way, and the tomato into small slices. Some add an extra fresh cucumber, but this creates an unnecessary disharmony of taste.
Meat Filling Options
To get a faster option that is not loaded with roasting fillets, you can cook shawarma at home in pita bread with chicken in the same way as forever busy people do: buy a ready-made smoked chicken breast and just cut it into pieces. The taste will not be quite traditional, but why not?
You can also fry the whole meat fillet in a pan until cooked, and then cut it into small pieces. This version of preparing meat for the filling is considered the most dietary, so this option will attract people who are overweight. It’s unlikely that anyone can quickly cook home-cooked shawarma in pita bread with chicken, as the classic recipe requires, that is, using grilled meat, so you have to experiment, which often leads to very original taste versions.
How to wrap a shawarma?
If this simple dish is being prepared for the first time, and there are no practical skills on how to make shawarma with chicken at home in pita bread, a recipe with a step-by-step description will come to the rescue:
- Lay out Armenian pita bread on the table. If it is large (side width more than 30 cm), then it is better to cut into two parts. So it will be more convenient to fold it, and the finished shawarma will look more neat.
- Smudge the sauce made from mayonnaise and ketchup over the entire surface, you just need to mix them together to a uniform consistency.
- Leaving free space from the edge of a width of about 3-5 centimeters, put vegetables on the pita in strips: cabbage, cucumbers and tomatoes. Top them with an even layer of fried meat. Sprinkle with finely chopped green onions.
- Wrap a slightly narrow edge of pita bread, then bend along the long edge on both sides and roll the entire layer into a tight roll, making sure that the filling lies flat and does not tear the dough.
You also need to decide on the serving and decide how to cook shawarma at home in pita bread: just roll up it or fry it in an additional pan? In some countries, it is lightly grilled in a street food service to give the product a crispy taste. It is worth recalling that only fresh pita bread, baked on the day of preparation, is used to make shawarma, otherwise when it is rolled, the dried dough may break and the filling will fall out. For this reason, chefs around the world prefer to cook this dish with pita (a variant of Mexican bread) or chapati (Indian bread), which are less demanding on the timing of production.
With cheese
How else to cook shawarma at home in pita bread with chicken? A step by step recipe (with photo) will tell you how to make this dish more satisfying, which is important for people with great physical exertion.
Such a shawarma can be taken with you to work as a lunch (then heated in the microwave) or on a picnic, where everything is often eaten without a trace. For two servings, the following ingredients are required:
- 1 thin pita bread;
- 350 grams of chicken;
- 1 red onion;
- 120 grams of hard cheese;
- 100 ml of kefir or yogurt without sugar and additives;
- 1 pc. fresh cucumber and tomato;
- 50 grams of ketchup and mayonnaise;
- 1/2 tsp hops-suneli;
- black pepper and salt to taste.
Cooking
This method allows you to cook a delicious shawarma at home in pita bread. It is distinguished by the fact that it contains cheese, which is usually not put in shawarma, as well as an original marinade for meat, which makes it especially tender. Mix kefir, suneli hops and salt, add black pepper if desired. Cut the meat into small thin slices and soak in kefir for half an hour along with finely chopped onions. Meanwhile, cut the cucumber and tomato into thin semicircles, grate the cheese on a coarse grater, and combine the mayonnaise with ketchup in one bowl, turning it into a savory sauce. Some add mustard, but according to Turkish cooks (Turkey is the birthplace of shawarma) - it is superfluous in this dish.
When the meat is pickled, squeeze out the excess liquid with your hands (you can dry the pieces with a paper towel) and fry it in 1 tbsp. l vegetable oil until saturated color. Lay out a sheet of Armenian lavash on the table, grease it with the sauce of mayonnaise and ketchup prepared earlier, put the vegetables in a layer closer to one edge, place the fried meat on them, sprinkle with cheese and curl abundantly, using the usual method. Next, place the shawarma on a baking sheet and put in the oven for 8-10 minutes, using a temperature of 230 degrees.
Shawarma for vegans (without meat)
Despite the fact that the traditional version of the meat dish is very popular, clever adherents of the vegan movement invented their own recipe that does not have this product. As an alternative to meat, they use Adyghe cheese or tofu, mixing it with certain spices. A set of products for two pita bread 30-35 cm in size:
- 200 grams of Adyghe cheese;
- 120 grams of Beijing cabbage;
- 100 grams of vegan mayonnaise and ketchup;
- 1 pc. fresh tomato and cucumber;
- a generous pinch of curry seasoning (spicy);
- salt to taste;
- ground coriander or black pepper.
Typically, spices are used to taste, as their presence is optional. That is why in some recipes there is no strict dosage.
Step by step cooking
Before you cook shawarma at home in pita bread, you need to make a sauce for it by mixing mayonnaise, ketchup with all spices and salt in one dish. It is worth remembering that excessive enthusiasm for aromatic herbs will interrupt the natural taste of vegetables, but without them the dish will be too fresh. Cut the cucumber and tomato into long but thin strips, chop the cabbage in the same way. In a pan, heat one tablespoon of vegetable oil and fry a couple of minutes in it, crushed into small pieces, cheese.
Next, do the shaping of the shawarma: divide the sauce into two parts and spread it on the surface of the pita bread, evenly spread on the table. Slightly stepping away from the edge, immediately lay out the sliced cucumbers, then the tomato, and cabbage on it. Put cheese on top of vegetables and roll pita bread, following the instructions described above.
Additional filling ideas
For those who do not have enough of the classic version of the shawarma with chicken, several more options are offered:
- Instead of the usual set of vegetables, use a mixture of spinach, arugula, green salad and onions, which lay on a pita, cover with fried meat and sprinkle with light sesame mixed with your favorite spice. Pour the rest of the sauce and wrap it in an envelope.
- Another version of how to cook shawarma at home in pita bread with step-by-step steps: bake the meat for the filling with a whole piece in the oven, previously coated with a mixture of mayonnaise and garlic. Fry the champignons in a pan in a small amount of oil, onions can be added. Use these ingredients for the filling by adding pickled cucumber sticks, Korean carrots and some fresh parsley for a contrasting color.
Even if you cook shawarma completely without meat, mushrooms, cheese and other "heavy" foods - only with vegetables, the dish turns out to be tasty and satisfying, but very low-calorie. It can even be attributed to dietary, as pita bread is yeast-free bread, and vegetables themselves have a very low energy value.