This low carb chicken shawarma gets the charred, spit-roasted flavor out of a home oven, with no rotisserie and no pita. The chicken marinates in warm spices, bakes until almost done, then sears hard in a hot pan for the crisp edges, all for about 2 grams of net carb a serving.
Ever since my lunch out at Open Sesame in Long Beach I have become addicted to chicken shawarma. This dish is cooked on a large vertical spit. As much as I would love to own a bbq spit or a rotisserie cooker, it just isn't in my budget right now. Instead I decided to try making chicken shawarma in the oven. The classic Lebanese dish is full of flavor and is surprisingly easy to make. So skip the spit and get to the oven!
The no-spit oven method
The trick to shawarma at home is doing in two steps what the spit does in one. A vertical spit slow-roasts the outside while crisping the edges, so I split that into a bake and a sear: par-bake the marinated chicken until it is almost done, slice it thin, then flash-fry the strips in a screaming-hot pan until the edges char. Finish it to 165°F in the pan. You get the browned, crisp-edged bites without owning a single piece of special equipment.
The spices, and the garlic sauce
My marinade leans on paprika, cumin, turmeric, cinnamon, and garlic, the warm backbone of shawarma. The authentic Lebanese version pushes it further with a spoon of yogurt to tenderize and a baharat seven-spice blend, which folds in allspice, coriander, clove, and nutmeg, so add a pinch of those if you want it closer to the spit-house flavor. Keep the marinade to four to eight hours, since the lemon will turn the chicken mealy past that. Serve it with toum, the Lebanese garlic sauce, which is the classic partner and was the sauce I was chasing when I first made this. For more chicken dinners, see the keto chicken recipes guide.
Sources:
USDA FoodData Central, nutrient reference for chicken breast and spices
USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service, safe minimum internal temperature for poultry
Lebanese baharat and shawarma marinade references
Sugarfreechic test kitchen, oven shawarma notes
