Homemade Turkey Shawarma is a simple and quick 3-ingredient recipe to bring the taste of delicious shawarma to your table without leaving the house (or paying for Middle Eastern takeout)!
Tender turkey with that delightful, warm, earthy Middle Eastern flavor.
Just cook slices of dark turkey meat with some oil or fat, and easy-to-make 5 ingredient homemade shawarma seasoning spice mix. That’s it!
And it’s a great way to use leftover turkey!
Shawarma is a wonderful Middle Eastern street food. Nothing compares to the amazing taste of the meat that comes right off the skewer, especially when combined with the pita fillers.
However, it is not always simple to find shawarma where one lives or to just pop out when one has a taste for it. That’s how we started making it at home.
All you need is turkey, some oil or fat, and homemade shawarma seasoning spice mix and voila!
Have it in a pita or just on a plate with sided!
Makes a great lunch or dinner!
Take to work or school and save your lunch money!
A little about Shawarma
Shawarma is a Middle Eastern meat dish that is a popular street food.
Shawarma’s origin is from the Doner Kabab from Turkey, whose modern cuisine developed from the Ottomans of the Ottoman Empire, who adopted and combined different traditional dishes of the countries they ruled.
The Greek version of a shawarma is a gyro, which will often include pork.
Both names (doner and gyro) indicated turning or spinning, and in fact the name shawarma comes from the Turkish form of the Arabic word for turn or spin.
Shawarma is made from different types of meat that can be used together to create it. These include, lamb, turkey, chicken, and beef.
The different types of seasoned meat are sliced and skewered in tight layers on a vertical rotisserie or spit with layers of fat at the top. The skewer rotates vertically and slowly near a heat source, and the fat melts over the meat, giving the meat a wonderful flavor as it lightly roasts on the outside.
Shawarma is a popular street food in the Middle East. It seems that every country has their own traditional way of eating it.
In Israel, it will normally be served in a pita or in a laffa (an Iraqi flatbread that is part of Israeli cuisine) together with a variety of additions, such as tahini, hummus, babaganush (eggplant spread), pickles, Israeli salad (diced cucumbers and tomatoes), French fries, pickled cabbage, and more. Everyone just puts in what they like.
Tips for making turkey shawarma at home
- The shawarma can be put in the oven and baked until ready, but I like using a frying pan and stirring for more control.
- The dominant taste of shawarma seasoning is the cumin. Everyone seems to have their own taste as far as the seasoning is concerned, so feel free to add more of it (or just more cumin) if you like it that way.
- I use schmaltz instead of oil when I can to replicate the fat used on the rotisserie and add more while cooking if I feel the mixture is not greased enough, but oil is fine, and to each his own (I personally don’t eat the shawarma with the extra oil or fat, but my sons – who don’t care about calories – like it that way).
- It is the dark meat of the turkey that is used, and that is why turkey thigh fillets are called for in the recipe. However, in a pinch, if you don’t have turkey thigh (or if you don’t like it), you can substitute strips from another part of the turkey.
- Feel free to use leftover turkey for this recipe–just make sure it is not too dry, or the shawarma pieces may fall apart (yes, that did happen to me). It will still taste good but won’t look as appetizing.
- While shawarma is a street food, many places serve it on a dish or platter with a pita on the side, so feel free to serve it however you like.
A little about Israeli cuisine
Some people complain about cultural appropriation in cuisine when food from one country is attributed to another country.
However, national cuisine in itself is often a mingling of food from a variety of cultures, often due to a change of ruling countries and a shifting of borders.
Turkish cuisine, for example, goes back to the Ottoman Empire and was a combination of several cultures under Ottoman rule.
When people move from country to country, they will take their cultures with them, and their descendants may adapt their traditional cuisine with that of their new home.
When one lives in a melting pot, such as the US or Israel, it is just unrealistic to expect that food from a particular culture won’t mingle with that of other cultures.
That being said, “Israeli cuisine” is basically Middle Eastern (as opposed to Eastern European food) that was brought to Israel by Jews when they fled or were expelled from Muslim countries and moved to Israel mostly after the declaration of the State of Israel (collectively known as Mizrahi Jews).
Recipes were passed from generation to generation, and although decades have passed, the foods are still known by the culture they came from, and everyone seems to have their own way of making them.
That said, there are many variations of pretty much any “Israeli” recipe because of background, custom, or even just taste. When choosing a recipe, one has to know what actually constitutes a main ingredient—what makes the dish what it is—and what is left up to individual taste.
What does it mean when recipes say “to taste” about an ingredient?
When recipes say “to taste,” it means that you can put in as little or as much as you like to your own taste. Some recipes have many ingredients that a cook can adjust to their own taste when cooking (not so much when baking though).
The best way to calculate what your taste is with a recipe that you are not yet familiar with is to first taste the dish and then add the “to taste” ingredient GRADUALLY, a little at a time—a splash of this or a pinch of that—until the dish is just the way you like it. Make sure to stir the ingredient after each time you add it so that the flavor will distribute evenly and become part of the dish. Then taste again. Repeat until you reach your personal preference.
Note: If you plan on using the recipe again, it is highly recommended to make a note of what and how much you added so that you can refer to it next time.
What does it mean when a recipe says that an ingredient is “optional”?
If an ingredient is “optional,” it means that you can add it in or not based on your own preference. An optional ingredient can be flavor related (i.e., salty, sweet, spicy, etc.), appearance related (garnish), or even something like nuts or chocolate chips in baking.
Seasonings and flavoring to keep in your pantry:
- salt (my recipes use regular table salt)
- ground black or white pepper
- granulated garlic or garlic powder (I prefer granulated)
- onion powder
- sweet paprika and/or sweet pepper flakes (paprika is ground dried red pepper, pepper flakes are crushed dried red pepper)
- hot paprika, hot pepper flakes, or cayenne pepper (moderately spicy dried ground chili pepper) for those occasional spicy dishes
- ground turmeric
- ground cumin
- ground cinnamon
- ground ginger
- ground nutmeg
- ground cloves (for pumpkin flavors)
- sugar (granulated)
- brown sugar
- chicken consommé powder / beef bouillon powder (regular or vegetarian)
- onion soup mix
- onion flakes (substitute for fresh onion—3 tablespoons for 1 medium onion).
- various herbs
- additional spices to adapt taste to preference
What is needed for this recipe?
I hardly ever meal plan, so I like to keep a cupboard full of seasonings, spices, veggies, and canned goods in my kitchen to use whenever the mood strikes.
But these are all you need to have on hand to make this recipe even last minute!
skinless, boneless turkey thigh
shawarma seasoning mix*
oil or fat
If you love Israeli street food, you’ve got to try the Sabich!
Easy Homemade Turkey Shawarma
An easy recipe for delicious homemade shawarma using turkey and homemade shawarma spice.
Ingredients
- 1 pound skinless, boneless turkey thigh, sliced into small strips
- 2 tablespoons shawarma seasoning mix*
- oil or fat (I like to use chicken fat)
Instructions
- Place the shawarma seasoning mix in a bowl, add the turkey strips and coat well.
- Grease a frying pan and heat.
- Place the strips in the frying pan and stir as it cooks.
- Cook for approximately 10 minutes or until turkey strips have cooked through.
Notes
*Feel free to add as much as desired (I use more, but we like a strong flavor)
Nutrition Information:
Yield:
4Serving Size:
1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 710Total Fat: 67gSaturated Fat: 7gTrans Fat: 1gUnsaturated Fat: 57gCholesterol: 133mgSodium: 215mgCarbohydrates: 1gFiber: 0gSugar: 0gProtein: 28g