Shawarma

Shawarma is marinated chicken stacked on a vertical spit and shaved into thin strips, wrapped in flatbread with garlic sauce, pickles and tomato. This article describes the Lebanese chicken version, shawarma djaj, sold from stalls at any hour. Shawarma as a whole belongs to the wider Levantine and Middle Eastern tradition of rotating spit-roasted meat, in the same family as döner kebab and gyros — a cooking method that spread widely across the region and beyond, with each country shaping it into its own distinct version.

What it really is

Thin slices of chicken, or sometimes lamb or beef, marinate for hours in a mix of yoghurt, vinegar and warm spices before stacking onto a vertical rotisserie that turns slowly in front of a heat source. As the outside layer cooks through and browns, a long knife shaves it away continuously, and the shaved meat wraps into flatbread with a garlicky toum sauce, pickles, tomato and sometimes fries, rolled tight and often pressed briefly on a hot griddle to seal the wrap.

Toum, the garlic sauce, is the classic partner of chicken shawarma in Lebanon. Traditional toum is just garlic, vegetable oil, lemon and salt, with no milk or egg, whipped into a thick, pale emulsion whose sharp punch does much of the flavour work in the wrap. It is very common with chicken, while Lebanese meat shawarma often comes with tahini sauce instead; a different sauce doesn't make it another country's shawarma. If a kitchen uses a mayonnaise-based garlic sauce, check it for eggs.

How it's served

• Wrapped tight in flatbread, often pressed briefly on a griddle to seal it, eaten by hand.
• With toum, pickles, tomato and sometimes fries rolled inside.
• As a street food snack or quick meal, sold at any hour from dedicated stalls.

How to write it on the menu

• Flag the wheat from the flatbread and the milk from the yoghurt marinade.
• Say whether chicken, lamb or beef is used, since all three are common but different orders.
• Note if fries come rolled inside the wrap as standard, since not every guest expects that.
• The nutrition values are per 100 g of the whole wrap: bread, chicken, sauce and pickles.