Chicken Shawarma with Laffa Bread

The wraps sold on market days in St Albans are what gave me the taste for chicken shawarma, and this is how I make it at home. Thighs are halved, marinated in my own Lebanese spice blend, threaded onto metal skewers and grilled in a 250°C oven, then shredded with a knife. That is as close as a domestic kitchen gets to meat carved off a spit, and it is the part most home recipes give up on.

The bread is the other half, and it is the part almost nobody explains. Shawarma is not automatically a pita wrap: laffa, markook and khubz all turn up depending on where you are eating it. This one uses laffa, made from scratch with plain flour and cooked in a hot pan, and there is a section below on which bread belongs where.

The spice blend is mine and it makes enough for two batches, so the second time you make this it is a much shorter job. It is one of my favourite things to eat standing up, which is why it sits in my 10 Top Street Food Recipes roundup.

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What Makes This Chicken Laffa Shawarma Special?

This chicken shawarma with laffa bread brings the authentic flavours of Middle Eastern street food straight to your kitchen. What makes it stand out?

• Authentic marinade - Warm spices, garlic, and yoghurt keep the chicken juicy and full of flavour.
• Homemade laffa bread - Soft, chewy, and flexible enough for wrapping, with light charring from the pan.
• Stovetop cooking - No rotisserie needed. A hot pan delivers the char and depth you want.
• Flexible toppings - Toum, tahini, pickled vegetables, or sumac onions all work well.

A Closer Look at the Ingredients

A good chicken shawarma comes down to a handful of building blocks, each doing an important job:

• Lebanese spice blend the soul of the dish - warm coriander, cumin, paprika, cardamom and allspice give shawarma its signature flavour.
• Chicken (boneless thighs) juicy and forgiving - they stay tender and take on the marinade beautifully.
• Laffa flatbread soft and foldable, made fresh so it wraps everything without cracking.
• Toum the punchy Lebanese garlic sauce that ties the wrap together.
• Fresh salad & pickles crisp lettuce, tomato and cucumber, plus something pickled for crunch and tang.
• Lemon, garlic & ginger the marinade base that tenderises the chicken and lifts the spices.

What Bread Is Shawarma Served In?

Short answer: a soft flatbread, and which one depends entirely on where you are eating it. There is no single shawarma bread, which is why the question comes up so often, so here are the four you will actually meet.

• Laffa The big, soft, blistered one, and what this recipe uses. It comes from Iraqi Jewish kitchens and is now the standard shawarma wrap in Israel, traditionally slapped onto the wall of a taboon oven. It is large enough to wrap a whole meal without tearing and it stays pliable rather than going crisp, which is exactly what you want around hot meat and wet sauce.
• Pita The everyday one, and honestly what most shawarma in the world is served in. The pocket makes it easy to fill and eat standing up. It holds less than a laffa and it splits more readily once the juices get going.
• Markook, also called saj bread Paper-thin and cooked over a domed metal saj, this is the Lebanese, Syrian and Palestinian wrap. If you are searching for Lebanese bread for shawarma, this is usually the honest answer rather than laffa. It is thinner and more delicate, so it is rolled tightly rather than stuffed.
• Khubz Not a specific bread so much as the general Arabic word for it. On a menu it usually means a pita-style round.

Worth being straight about the geography, because a lot of pages are not. Laffa is Israeli and Iraqi, not Lebanese. The spice blend in this recipe leans Lebanese, the bread does not, and that combination is my own rather than any one country’s tradition. If you want the Lebanese version proper, use markook or a good pita and keep everything else the same.

So: the best bread for shawarma is whichever one you can get fresh and soft. Laffa is the most forgiving to eat because of its size and chew, and it is the one worth making yourself, which is why there is a full laffa bread recipe on the site.

The Spice Blend, the Chicken and the Pickles

How to Make Chicken Shawarma with Laffa, Step by Step

Full quantities are in the recipe card below. There are two jobs here, the laffa bread and the chicken, and the bread wants starting first because of the hour it spends proving.

1. Wake the yeast. Lukewarm water, sugar and instant yeast together, left for ten minutes. Lukewarm is the operative word: hot water kills yeast outright, and cold leaves it sluggish.
2. Make the dough. Sieved flour, salt and olive oil into the yeast mixture, then knead for five to eight minutes by hand or in a mixer until it is smooth.
3. Prove for an hour. Greased bowl, covered with a clean tea towel, until doubled in size.
4. Divide and rest. Six equal balls, then ten minutes more on a floured surface. That second short rest relaxes the gluten so the dough rolls thin instead of springing back at you.
5. Roll thin and cook in a dry pan. A medium-high frying or griddle pan, a couple of minutes a side, or over an outdoor grill if you have one going. You are looking for blisters and dark spots.
6. Marinate the chicken. Halve the thighs and marinate with half the Lebanese spice blend, olive oil, lemon juice and minced garlic. Thigh rather than breast, because it stays juicy under fierce heat.
7. Skewer and roast hot. Onto metal skewers, into a roasting dish, and into a 250C oven for ten to twelve minutes, turning once. The high heat is doing what a vertical rotisserie does in a shop: charring the outside before the inside dries.
8. No oven or grill? Use a cast-iron skillet. A tablespoon of olive oil over a medium-high heat and cook the pieces in batches. Crowding the pan is the only way to get this wrong.
9. Shred it. Off the skewers and shredded with a knife once it is cooked through. Shredding rather than slicing is what gives you the ragged texture shawarma should have.
10. Build the wrap. Laffa first, then the meat juices brushed over the bread, salad, the shredded chicken and your sauces. Tahini or a scatter of sumac if you have it. The juices on the bread are not optional, they are half the point.

Recipe Card for Chicken Shawarma with Laffa Bread

Recipe Card

Chicken Shawarma with Laffa Bread

Juicy chicken shawarma in warm homemade laffa bread, with pickled vegetables, salad and garlic toum. All the char of a street-side spit, done on skewers in a very hot home oven.

★★★★★ 5 from 2 votes · Rate this recipe

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Prep

40 min

Cook

45 min

Total

1 hr 25 min

Serves

6

Per serving

569 kcal

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6 wraps

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Equipment I Use

SkewersCast iron frying pan or Griddle panStand mixer or hand mixer

Ingredients

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Ingredients for the Lebanese Spice Blend (Enough to make this recipe twice)

1 tbsp ground coriander 1 tbsp paprika, can use smoked paprika 1 tsp black pepper 1 tsp ground cumin 1/2 tsp ground fenugreek seeds 1/2 tsp ground allspice 1/4 tsp ground cloves 1/4 tsp ground cardamom Pinch of Cinnamon Pinch of Nutmeg 1.5 tsp salt

Ingredients for the Laffa Flatbread (Makes 6 medium flatbreads)

360 g plain flour, sieved plus extra for dusting 240-260 g lukewarm water, start with 240g and add more if needed 10 g salt 1 tsp sugar 1 tbsp instant yeast 1 tbsp olive oil

Ingredients for the Chicken Shawarma

650 g Chicken thighs, boneless and skinless Juice of half a lemon 3 garlic cloves, minced 1 tsp minced ginger 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil, for the marinade Lebanese spice blend, half of it, the rest keeps in a jar Iceberg lettuce, shredded Cherry tomatoes, quartered Cucumber, halved and sliced Pickles, lacto-fermented cucumbers or red sauerkraut Toum, Lebanese garlic sauce, a whipped emulsion of garlic, oil, lemon juice and salt. No dairy in it at all. Chilli sauce Tahini sauce, optional, to finish, or a sprinkle of sumac instead

Instructions

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1

Activate Yeast

In a bowl, combine 240 g of lukewarm water, 1 tsp of sugar, and 1 tbsp of instant yeast. Let the mixture stand for 10 minutes to activate the yeast.

2

Prepare the Laffa Dough

In a large mixing bowl, combine 360 g of sieved plain flour, 10 g of salt, and 1 tbsp of olive oil with the yeast mixture. Knead for 5-8 minutes by hand or with an electric mixer. If the dough feels dry, add more water (up to 20g) gradually until it’s smooth and elastic.

3

Proof the Laffa Dough

Once the dough is smooth, transfer it to a greased bowl, cover with a clean kitchen towel, and let it proof for one hour or until doubled in size.

4

Shape Laffa Bread

Divide the dough into 6 equal parts, shape them into balls, and let them proof on a floured surface for an additional 10 minutes.

5

Shape and Cook Laffa Bread

Roll each ball into a thin circle, then bake on a medium-high heated frying or griddle pan for a couple of minutes on each side. Alternatively, you can grill them outside for a smoky flavour.

6

Marinate the Chicken

Prepare the chicken thighs by cutting each thigh into halves. Marinate the meat in a bowl with half the Lebanese spice blend, 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil, lemon juice, minced garlic, and ginger. Allow the meat to marinate in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours or overnight (up to 24 hours for optimal flavour).

Oven Cooking Method:

7

Oven Cooking

Skewer the marinated meat onto metal skewers and place them in a roasting dish. Preheat the oven to 250°C. Grill the skewers for 10-12 minutes, turning once halfway, until the meat is charred and cooked through.

8

Alternative Cooking Method

If you don’t have an oven or grill, you can cook the chicken in a cast-iron frying pan on medium-high heat. Heat 1 tbsp of olive oil in the frying pan and cook the chicken pieces in batches until well-charred and cooked through (about 6-8 minutes per side). This method replicates the smoky effect of grilling.

9

Shred the meat

Once the meat is fully cooked, remove it from the oven or frying pan, take it off the skewers, and shred it with a knife.

10

Build Shawarma

Build your shawarma by layering the flatbread with meat juices, salad, shredded chicken, and sauces. For extra flavour, drizzle with tahini sauce or sprinkle sumac. Wrap it up, and for an authentic experience, use paper and tin foil. The blend makes about twice what the marinade needs, so keep the rest in a sealed jar for up to 3 months. It is excellent on roast potatoes, chicken wings or halloumi.

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Chef’s notes＋

Marinate for as long as you can. Two hours works, overnight is better, and 24 hours is genuinely the best of the lot. Do not go past 24 hours, as the lemon starts to break the texture down.

Freeze it raw and marinated, not cooked. Bag the marinated thighs flat and freeze for up to 3 months. The marinade keeps working as it thaws, so it often comes out better seasoned than a fresh batch.

Chicken is done at 74°C (165°F) in the thickest part. Thighs are forgiving, so a few degrees over will not dry them out.

No oven or grill? A cast iron pan gives the best char of the lot, 6 to 8 minutes a side in batches. An air fryer at 200°C for 12 to 14 minutes, in a single layer, is the least smoky option.

It will smoke at 250°C. Use the extractor and open a window. That fierce heat is what chars the outside before the inside dries, so do not be tempted to turn it down.

Nutrition per serving＋

569 kcalProtein 36.8 gCarbs 56.8 gFat 20.5 gSat fat 4.5 gFibre 3.6 gSugar 1.9 gSodium 675.3 mgServing 295 g

Chicken Shawarma with Laffa Bread · https://chefsbinge.com/chicken-shawarma-with-laffa-bread/

Storing, Freezing and Making It Ahead

• Freeze it raw and marinated, not cooked. The single best tip here. The marinade keeps working as it thaws, so the chicken comes out better seasoned than if you had cooked it fresh. Bag it flat, freeze for up to three months, and thaw overnight in the fridge.
• Marinate ahead rather than cook ahead. Two hours is the minimum, overnight is better, and 24 hours is genuinely the best of the lot: a reader on one of the big shawarma sites ran 24 hours against 3 side by side and the longer one won clearly. Do not go past 24 hours, as the lemon starts to break the texture down.
• Cooked chicken keeps three days in the fridge. Reheat it hard and fast in a hot dry pan rather than gently, so the edges crisp again instead of steaming.
• For a crowd, cook it in the morning. Grill or roast it, slice it, spread it on a tray and reheat in a hot oven for a few minutes just before serving. It holds up far better than most roast meats because the marinade keeps it moist.
• Laffa is best fresh but keeps a day wrapped in a clean tea towel. Warm it for twenty seconds in a dry pan and it comes back to life; the microwave makes it tough.
• Do not assemble wraps ahead. Sauce against warm bread turns it soggy within the hour. Lay everything out and let people build their own.

🍽 Build it in warm laffa with the pickled vegetables, plenty of toum or a garlicky yoghurt, shredded lettuce and tomato, and chips tucked in if you are doing it properly. A sharp salad on the side cuts the richness, and cool tzatziki works just as well as toum if you want something milder for children.

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FAQ for Chicken Shawarma with Laffa Bread

A Few Words from the Chef

This is one of those recipes I come back to often. It is straightforward, flexible, and delivers exactly what you expect from a good shawarma wrap at home. If you adjust the spices, toppings, or bread to suit your kitchen, that is exactly how it should be.