For six magnificent months in 2017 I lived by myself in central London, while taking classes as an affiliate student at UCL. Being a broke college kid, my favorite activities to partake in after a few pints were talking girls with British accents and devouring cheap ethnic foods. Clearly only one of those activities came natural to me, and thus began my love affair with the London kebab shop. Upon returning home to the US I longed for chicken shaved from those mesmerizing towers of rotating meat I had become accustomed to watching spin in a drunken stupor, and I knew I had to come up with my own version that I could replicate in my kitchen.

In my opinion, kebab shops in London are synonymous with pizza-by-the-slice shops in NYC. It's like a reliable beacon, always there for you during a lonely walk home from the pub, serving up both affordable and delicious food no matter the time or where you are in the city. Both cuisines arrived with transplants during the mid-20th century, when the UK was experiencing increasing immigration from the Middle East. These kebab shops brought together a delightful mix of dishes from various cultures, but one dish that stole the hearts of locals was shawarma. Upon entering any kebab shop it’s hard not to notice the inverted cone of thin slices of meat stacked high on a rotating spit, creating a mouthwatering masterpiece just waiting to be sliced into a hot pita bread. As the 20th century progressed Londoners developed a deep love for these flavorful and convenient dishes, leading to the rise of these late-night and fast-food joints specialized in kebabs and shawarma.

Back to my days at UCL, where my tiny student accommodation on Bidborough Street was so close to the humble Valencia Cafe that I could practically smell the roasting meat through a cracked window. The local kebab shop was nothing special other than the fact that for £5 I could walk out of there full and satisfied, which on my budget was a game-changer. I quickly became a familiar face, and at least once a week could be found parked at the table in the back near the TV savoring an Alibaba Kebab and a Carlsburg. It was a simple dish: chicken shawarma freshly shaved off of the spit, stuffed into a pita with salad and their signature sauces, sat beside a heap of chips. The consistency was astounding as the chicken was always juicy and flavorful, sauces on point, and chips golden and crispy. I loved having such an affordable, reliable, and delicious staple right in my backyard.

Fast forward to being back in London in December 2021, en route to Iceland for a trip to see the Aurora Borealis [unsuccessfully]. As I’m strolling through the old neighborhood taking note of all the storefronts that had changed hands from Covid or otherwise, I noticed the same, familiar red awning of Valencia Cafe. Through the window, I saw that unnamed man who shaved my shawarma off the spit five years prior stoically at work; and behind him the same piece of computer paper stating ‘ALIBABA KEBAB’ with the price adjusted up to £7. Despite it being 11am and knowing I was basically signing up for a day of acid reflux, I could not resist going in for one more Alibaba Kebab. And yes, it was just as satisfying as it was all those years ago.

From questionably early plates at Valencia Cafe to late-night Doordash to my Manhattan apartment, I’ve enjoyed chicken shawarma around the clock and around the globe. As far as I see it the key factors for a fantastic shawarma experience are the following:

• Chicken: heavily seasoned and marinated, roasted so that the outside gets charred and crisp but the inside remains moist

• Pita: thick and fluffy, durable enough to be split open and stuffed with all the essentials without falling apart

• Sauce: the classic ‘white sauce’ and almost-too-spicy chili sauce, who had both left their distinct stain on most of my going out shirts

I knew that if I could figure out a way replicate those three key tenants I could make a serviceable at-home version of the kebab shop classic, so I devised some tactics to create duplicates without any fancy machinery.

Chicken
The biggest challenge I came across with this dish was recreating the rotating spit of chicken without the use of special equipment. To tackle this, I came up with a creative makeshift solution. I take about 1/3 of the root side of an onion and stick two chopsticks through it so they stand vertically upright. I then put a baking tray over it, which helps stabilize our shawarma. We also want our pieces of chicken to be pounded thin and marinaded with a ton of spices for at least 24 hours so they are packed with flavor. From there the pounded-thin chicken pieces are pierced with the chopsticks and stacked on top of each other, creating a tight tower. Protruding up into the air allows the chicken to get 360 degree exposure to the heat while it roasts. We also use two-temp cooking to achieve that charred outside effect while making sure the middle is cooked-through and moist. I know the chopstick method is far from elegant and looks like a bad arts & crafts project, but it is the most effective system I’ve been able to come up with for the effect I am after.

Pita
If you want to take yeast and make dough and let it rise and knead it out, I respect that. I personally have a method of making fluffy pitas with just a few ingredients that are a little heavier, so they can stand up to being stuffed to the max. This quick-and-dirty version uses only greek yogurt, baking powder, and flour so it can be done right before cooking and serving. The result is a thick, bubbly pita that is the ideal glove for shawarma and salad.

Sauce
No trip to a kebab shop is complete without a healthy serving of white sauce. You don’t need to know what it is to know what it is, it’s creamy, it’s white, and it’s garlicky. All kebab shops have some version of this sauce, but generally it is a derivative of one of two traditional sauces depending on where your kebab man comes from: the Lebanese Toum and Turkish Cacik. Toum is essentially just a garlicky aioli, while Cacik is the Turkish version of Greek Tzatiki. For my white sauce I choose to use the yogurt base and add some dill much like Cacik, but skip the cucumber and add the juice of a lemon and tons of garlic similar to Toum. I found that this gives the sauce the right consistency and garlicky punch that I’m after without being too rich and heavy like an aioli can be, because I want to be able to smother my shawarma in white sauce.

My confidence after a few pints would always tell the kebab man to go heavy on the chili sauce, and my lips would be on fire for the rest of the night. Widely varied from place to place the chili sauce comes down to some combination of tomato, vinegar, cumin, garlic, and hot peppers. I throw a red bell pepper in mine to add some additional sweetness, and a whole roasted shallot for additional depth. I’m also fairly light on the vinegar; I don’t need too much additional sour punch as this is used in tandem with the punchy white sauce. You can also use your favorite chilis here and adjust the heat level to your taste, I’ve had success with jalapeno, Thai chilis, birds eye, and even habanero.

While this dish is simple on the surface, it contains a lot of painstaking efforts to get all of the elements right. It’s a great meal to make in bulk, invite your friends over, let the drinks flow, and all make your own pitas while sharing a laugh. I hope you’ll give this late-night staple a shot, and let me know how it turns out!

Chicken Shawarma Pitas

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Ingredients

Chicken Shawarma
-1.5lbs Boneless, Skinless Chicken Thighs
-150g Greek Yogurt
-Juice of 1 Lemon
-4 Cloves Garlic
-1/4 Sweet Onion
-2 T Smoked Paprika
-2 T Chili Blend
-2 T Adobo Blend
-1 T Oregano
-1 T Honey

Pita
-150g Greek Yogurt
-120g All-Purpose Flour
-2 T Baking Powder
-1 t Salt

Chili Sauce
-1 Red Bell Pepper
-1 Large Tomato
-1 Shallot
-4 Cloves Garlic
-3-4 Hot Peppers of your Choosing, to your desired spice level
-1 T Cumin
-1/4 c Red Wine Vinegar
-1 T Honey
-Fistful of Parsley
-Splash of Olive Oil

White Sauce
-2 Clove Garlic
-Pinch Salt
-170g Greek Yogurt
-2 T Dill
-Juice of 1 Lemon

Salad
-Iceberg Lettuce
-Tomatoes
-Red Onion
-Cucumber

Method

Chicken Shawarma

1. Take chicken thighs and slice as thin as possible, we want to maximize surface area here. Once sliced, lay between two pieces of saran wrap and pound them even thinner.

2. Slice the onions thin, and mince or crush your garlic.

3. Add to a bowl the chicken, onion, garlic, spices, honey, and lemon juice. Toss to combine.

4. Cover and let marinate in the refrigerator for at least 24 and up to 48 hours.

5. Preheat an oven to 375 degrees.

6. Take an onion, peel it and cut it in half. Lay it root side up and stick into it two chopsticks, place on an oven-safe tray. This will be your shawarma spit.

7. Take your marinated thighs and cut into manageable, pieces, about 4×4 inches. Pierce the chicken with the chopsticks, and push all the way down to the base. Repeat with all of the chicken and keep pushing each piece firmly into the last. You should have a stack of chicken at least 6 inches high.

8. Adjust your oven racks as necessary, and put your shawarma stack into the oven. Bake at 375 degrees for 40 minutes.

9. Turn the oven up to 450 degrees, and cook another 20 minutes until the outside gets charred.

10. Remove from oven and slice the whole stack right off of the chopsticks. The result will be flavorful, bite sized pieces.

Pita

1. If you can start this process a couple hours before you want to cook/eat, that’s preferred. If not no big deal, they will still be great.

2. Measure out your flour, and add in your baking soda. Whisk to combine.

3. Add in salt and yogurt, and mix until it becomes like a dough. If it is too wet/dry, add flour/water as needed.

4. When the mixture is dough-like, switch to your hands and kneed the dough for a few minutes. If resting, cover and refrigerate for up to 12 hours.

5. Take rested dough and split into two pieces. Knead each piece into a ball.

6. Using a floured surface, roll out to ¼ inch thick circles.

7. Get a non-stick skillet or pan ripping hot. Add pita to dry skillet.

8. Let cook for 3-5 minutes until bubbles start to become visible. Flip and cook other side until cooked through and browned.

9. Pitas can be filled and rolled like a wrap, or have a knife inserted into the middle and cut open to form a pocket.

Chili Sauce

1. Preheat an oven to 400 degrees.

2. Seed the bell peppers and the hot peppers, chop in half.

3. Peel garlic and keep whole, peel shallot and cut in half. Slice tomatoes in half.

4. Add veggies to a baking tray and drizzle with olive oil. Bake for 45 minutes.

5. Put roasted veggies in a blender. Add the remaining ingredients to the blender and blend until smooth. Taste and adjust seasoning as needed.

White Sauce

1. Take garlic and salt, grind with a mortar and pestle. Alternatively, you could use a box grater it or put in a blender until it is a paste.

2. Add garlic to the yogurt, and juice in the lemon. Add the dill.

3. Mix thoroughly. Taste and adjust as necessary.

Salad

1. Shred iceberg, and slice other vegetables as thin as possible.

Assembling and Serving

1. Take a hot, fresh pita and insert a knife into it to split the pocket open.

2. Insert a fistful of salad, then top with the sauces of your choosing. Stuff with chicken, then add more sauce to taste. Serve with fries if possible

3. Take a bite and savor those spices while sauce drips down your chin. Best enjoyed with a cold beer, or after several.