Shawarma Chicken Bowls

Chicken Shawarma bowls are as fun to make as they are delicious to eat! Well-seasoned, juicy chicken, rice, crunchy veggies, and a super-easy sauce. Yum!

Video: Making Shawarma Bowls

What Are Chicken Shawarma Bowls?

These delicious Chicken Shawarma Bowls take everything you love about shawarma but instead of wrapping it up in a pita, it’s served as an easy rice bowl instead. Perfectly seasoned chicken, colorful fresh vegetables, and a tasty sauce to bring it all together. The best part for my family is that each person customizes their bowl so we each get a healthy, delicious dinner that we love.

Type Of Chicken To Use

I use boneless skinless chicken thighs because they have great flavor and stay juicy even with the higher cooking temperature. Also, without the bone, they’re easy to chop or shred to put on the bowls.

You’ll see below that I say to “unroll” the chicken thighs. What do I mean? When butchers remove the bone from the chicken thighs, they often roll the meat back around where the bone was. That makes each thigh into a little bundle. You want to unbundle it though so that it’s a larger flat piece. That gives you more area for the oil and seasoning to touch, meaning more flavorful chicken!

You can use boneless skinless chicken breasts instead of thighs, if you’d l ike. The meat won’t be quite as juicy, but it will still be super-flavorful. If you’re using chicken breasts, use the oil and seasoning mixture from the recipe below, and then either air-fry the chicken breasts like this, or bake them like this.

Spices Vs. Marinade For Shawarma

Some recipes use a marinade, but I don’t think it’s necessary for a quick weeknight meal if you use a great blend of spices. This recipe has cumin, cinnamon, turmeric, cayenne, a pinch of cloves, and salt. So it’s really really flavorful.

If you want to use a marinade though, go with something like this Greek marinade, which has a complimentary blend of flavors, but stir in a few tablespoons of yogurt. Let the chicken marinate for at least an hour or overnight.

Oven Chicken Shawarma

I love to bake shawarma chicken thighs in the oven. Start by heating the oven to 450°F. Add the seasonings and some oil to a bowl, unroll the thighs, and toss them in there to get them thoroughly coated.

Place the thighs on a baking sheet and cook until browned on the edges and cooked through, about 25 minutes. 

Air Fryer Chicken Shawarma

If you don’t want to turn on the oven, you can also cook Shawarma Chicken in the Air Fryer.

Arrange the seasoned and oiled up chicken thighs in the air fryer, making sure that they’re unrolled and are in a single layer. It’s okay if they’re touching a little bit, but you want them non-overlapping as much as possible.. Cook at 400°F until no longer pink inside and well-browned outside, about 18-22 minutes. Super-easy!

If you’d like to cook the shawarma chicken in the Instant Pot or grill it, instructions for making Shawarma Chicken in those and other ways are given here.

The Base

For the base of these bowls, I usually just go with rice. Cooked white or brown rice will work great. But you can alternatively use orzo, farro, quinoa, bulger, or any grain or carb that you all like to eat.

The Toppings

This is really up to you and depends on what you and your family like to eat. Or, take this excuse to use up some cooked or raw produce from your fridge.

My go-to’s are cucumber, tomatoes, bell pepper, lettuce, red onion, and feta cheese.

Hack: Easy Shawarma Sauce

Shawarma is typically served with either a tahini sauce or a white garlic sauce. You can absolutely mix up a batch of either one, but try my little hack to make things easier on yourself.

I discovered this when I needed a quick salad dressing and didn’t have one. What I did have was a half-eaten tub of store-bought hummus. I mixed it with lemon juice and some seasonings, and it was a delicious hummus salad dressing.

So, my advice for making the sauce for these bowls is to get some store-bought hummus or tzatziki, and then thin it down with water, olive oil, and/or lemon juice to get the consistence of a sauce/dressing rather than a dip. Taste it and add salt, pepper, and garlic powder, if needed.

If you’d prefer to make your own sauce, I have a recipe for homemade tzatziki here that’s super-quick and delicious.

Assemble The Bowls

While the chicken is cooking, you’ll cook your rice, get the vegetables prepped, and prepare your sauce.

After the chicken is out of the oven, slice it or shred it on a cutting board with two forks. Now you’re ready to put your shawarma bowls together!

You can get everyone’s bowls started by adding the rice and chicken to them and then let them add their toppings. Or, just do a buffet-style with the rice, chicken, veggies, cheese, and sauce.

Note that for whatever reason, my family has a tradition of eating this from glass pie plates. This started when my kids were younger and didn’t like their food mixing together as much. So if you have little ones who like to keep things apart, don’t use bowls. Instead, use large plates or, do what we do and go for pie plates!

You can add a squeeze of lemon juice or serve the bowls with some wedges of pita bread if you’d like, but your delicious bowls are ready to serve.

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