Chicken Shawarma (Egyptian)

Chicken shawarma is Egypt’s favorite grab-and-go meal, stacked on a rotating spit in shop windows and shaved into warm bread with pickles and tahini. At home, the same magic comes from a good marinade — yogurt, lemon, garlic, and a long list of warm spices — and a very hot pan. Egyptian cooks marinate the chicken overnight whenever they can, because the flavor only deepens, and the result tastes like it came from a street cart but needs only thirty minutes of cooking.

Spit-roast flavor from a home skillet

The marinade does the heavy lifting: yogurt tenderizes the thighs while cumin, coriander, paprika, and turmeric build a deeply savory crust as the chicken sears. Sliced thin against the grain, the meat turns out juicy and fragrant, ready to be piled into warm baladi bread with garlicky tahini, sliced pickles, and a squeeze of lemon. Messy, smoky, and completely moreish, it is the weeknight dinner that feels like an outing. Double the marinade if you like your shawarma extra saucy.

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