What size should pita bread be for shawarma? Shawarma in lavash: step-by-step recipe

It is believed that shawarma is a national Turkish dish, but in fact it is prepared in almost all cuisines of the world, especially in Arab countries. The classic Turkish recipe includes well-done lamb, but there are many other variations. If you are a fan of this dish, then you should definitely figure out how to cook shawarma at home. Choose your recipe - and then you will always be able to please yourself and your family with this hearty delicacy.

Step-by-step homemade shawarma recipes

Absolutely anyone can make this dish. The cooking process does not require special culinary skills and takes a minimum of time. Homemade shawarma with chicken in pita bread is especially popular, as well as options with pork or vegetables. As for the cooking method, you can bake the dish in a frying pan or in the oven.

1. For this dish, it is recommended to use only very fresh lavash or pita bread.
2. To make shawarma juicy at home, first pour the marinade over the meat. It is best to fry in a regular cast iron frying pan, adding virtually no oil. This will simulate the effect of a vertical grill.
3. If the pita bread doesn't wrap well, try sprinkling it lightly with water. Lemon juice will be even more effective.
4. The most delicious home-style shawarma comes with garlic, spicy sauce or a mixture of both.
5. To make a spicy dressing, use regular sour cream as a base, adding garlic, green onions, salted or pickled gherkins to taste.
6. To prepare hot sauce, use a mixture of tomato paste, cilantro, olive oil, lemon, pepper.
7. Any shawarma dressing is best prepared in a blender.

With Chiken

Ingredients for two servings:

• chicken – 400 grams (preferably fillet);
• fresh Armenian lavash – 2 sheets;
• Korean carrots – 150 g;
• tomato – 1 large;
• cabbage (white, red) – 150 g;
• pickled gherkins – 2-4 pcs.;
• garlic – 2 cloves;
• favorite type of sour cream – 3 tbsp. l.;
• spicy mayonnaise - 3 tbsp. l.;
• citrus juice (lemon, lime) – 20-30 ml (fresh or canned);
• water – 6 tbsp. l.;
• refined oil (olive) – 2 tbsp. l.;
• curry – 2 tsp;
• salt, pepper - to taste.

Step by step recipe:

1. Make a marinade for the meat. Mix lemon juice, water, olive oil and spices.
2. Keep the chicken in the marinade for a quarter of an hour, after cutting it into thin strips.
3. Chop the cabbage. Cut the tomatoes and cucumbers into small cubes.
4. Make the sauce. To do this, you need to mix sour cream with mayonnaise and add garlic. It can be crushed or simply finely chopped. It wouldn’t hurt to add a little cucumber to the sauce to release the juice.
5. When the chicken is ready, fry it in a practically dry and well-heated frying pan.
6. Place the pita bread on the table and brush it with sauce.
7. Lay out the meat, and then layers of vegetables: tomatoes, cucumbers, cabbage, Korean carrots. Top with sauce again.
8. Roll the shawarma and fry on both sides.
9. Serve warm. You can decorate the open part with sauce and sprigs of herbs.

With pork

Ingredients for two servings:

• lavash – 2 pcs.;
• pork pulp – 300 g;
• cucumber – 1 large;
• tomato – 1 pc.;
• cabbage – 200 g;
• sour cream – 4 tbsp. l.;
• low-fat mayonnaise – 6 tbsp. l.;
• dill, parsley, cilantro - a small bunch;
• garlic – 3 cloves;
• salt and pepper mixture - to taste.

Recipe step by step:

1. First, you need to know how to grill pork deliciously. First, it must be washed, dried and cut into small strips. Then the meat is marinated for two hours in 2 tbsp. l. mayonnaise with salt and pepper. To make it even softer, you can add a few drops of lemon juice.
2. Fry the marinated pork in a frying pan in a minimum amount of oil over high heat.
3. Prepare the sauce. Wash all the greens and chop them thoroughly. Mix dill, parsley and cilantro with the remaining mayonnaise, sour cream, and crushed garlic. Add a little salt, blend everything with a blender and leave the sauce in the refrigerator for a couple of hours.
4. Wash the vegetables. Chop the cabbage, cut the cucumber into strips and the tomato into pieces.
5. Brush the pita bread with sauce. Place meat, tomato, cucumber, cabbage on it. Add sauce on top again.
6. Fry the shawarma on both sides in a frying pan. It turns out not only to taste amazing, but also to look very appetizing, which is clearly visible in any photo. Serve it warm, garnish with a little sauce.

Stuffed with vegetables

For those who do not know how to prepare vegetarian shawarma at home, you will need the following ingredients for three servings:

• lavash – 3 pcs.;
• fresh cucumber – 1 large;
• tomato – 1 large;
• Chinese cabbage – 300 g;
• fresh cheese (Adyghe is best) – 250 g;
• sour cream or fermented baked milk – 150 ml;
• ketchup – 150 ml;
• vegetable oil - a tablespoon;
• ground coriander, curry, salt and pepper - to taste.

How to cook shawarma with vegetables at home:

1. Make a sauce from dairy products, salt, curry, pepper, coriander.
2. Cut the washed cucumber into strips.
3. Cut the tomato into cubes.
4. Cut the Chinese cabbage into small strips. Try to use mostly white parts.
5. Mash the Adyghe cheese with a fork and fry in a frying pan with coriander and a little oil.
6. Pour a little sauce onto the pita bread and spread.
7. Distribute the vegetables evenly, then the cheese.
8. Roll the shawarma tightly and then heat it on both sides in a frying pan without oil. Serve in portioned plates, garnish with herbs.

How to properly wrap shawarma in pita bread

If the shawarma is rolled incorrectly, it will become soggy from the sauce and the filling will simply fall out. This point plays a very important role, so adhere to these rules:

1. To learn how to roll a dish, place pita bread on the table and sprinkle with water or lemon juice.
2. Start spreading the sauce by stepping back a few centimeters from the edge.
3. Shawarma will be denser if the meat is placed between two layers of vegetables closer to one of the short sides.
4. When the filling is in place, cover the pita bread with a small edge, then the sides, and then wrap everything in a long one.
5. Always reserve some of the sauce to pour on top of the filling.

Video recipes: how to cook shawarma at home

Have you already realized how popular this dish is? However, if you are not yet sure that you know how to cook real shawarma at home, watch the following videos. Thanks to these recordings, you will learn how to make an amazing dish for yourself and your loved ones, which will perfectly diversify both everyday and holiday tables. Homemade shawarma is a chic alternative to the one that people are forced to buy at kiosks. Eating it is not only incredibly tasty, but also absolutely safe, and cooking it is absolutely a pleasure.

Delicious recipe in the oven

In pita

Shawarma with chicken and vegetables

Many people are used to buying shawarma on the street, and it doesn’t matter where exactly. It's much safer to do it at home. We share some cooking secrets and a recipe.

Everyone knows this dish from oriental cuisine. At least once, everyone bought shawarma in tents. There are several varieties of shawarma - meat with vegetables in pita bread or meat with vegetables in thin pita bread. The first option seems more familiar to some, while others love exclusively the second.

It is believed that real shawarma, a traditional Turkish dish, is deep-fried lamb mixed with salads and wrapped in pita bread. But outside eastern countries, lamb is not so often used as food, so for shawarma you can also use other types of meat - chicken, pork, veal, turkey, beef. It all depends on your personal preferences. Of course, in eastern countries they choose meat only in accordance with traditions, and they prepare this dish somewhat differently than we are used to, but in general the technologies are approximately the same.

Making shawarma at home is not at all difficult, we hope our tips and recipe will help you.

In addition to the main ingredient - meat - tomatoes, onions, pickles, cabbage, lettuce, and mushrooms are added to shawarma. Again, it all depends on personal preference. Some shawarma connoisseurs do not recognize any fillers other than meat and sauce. It is important that various spices are used in this dish - this will add an oriental touch and make the taste more pronounced.

As a sauce, which is also added to the filling, you can use sour cream, cheese (hard or cream), mayonnaise, garlic or sour cream sauce, ketchup, mustard. It’s good to add a lot of herbs to the filling to taste - dill, cilantro, basil, parsley, green onions. If you want to cook shawarma at home, then it depends only on you how complex or simple the filling will be, how many components it will contain and what its taste will be.

A few cooking secrets

Pay attention to the pita bread or pita bread that you plan to use for shawarma. They must be fresh. Dried pita bread is in no way suitable for preparing this dish, because it cannot be rolled without cracks. It is also difficult to put filling into stale pita, as it will crumble and look unpresentable.

In order for your shawarma to be juicy and soft, we recommend marinating the meat first. Lemon juice, kefir, olive oil - any simple marinade will make even the toughest meat tender. It is very important, if you want to get that same shawarma taste, to fry the meat correctly. It is best to use a cast iron frying pan, or a cast iron grill pan.

Before frying, the meat is blotted with a dry towel to remove excess marinade and moisture. Fry it practically without oil in a heated frying pan, stirring constantly until golden brown. It is recommended to lightly fry the finished dish, placed in pita bread or rolled into a lavash roll, in a dry frying pan on both sides.

Preparing sauces for filling

Shawarma with garlic and spicy sauce tastes best. They are very easy to prepare. For garlic sauce, mix sour cream with garlic, green onions and pickled cucumber. And for the spicy sauce, mix natural tomato paste with cilantro, olive oil, lemon juice and adjika.

Grind all the ingredients for the sauces in a blender until smooth and add them to the finished filling in the quantity you like. If you want to make a more traditional dish, then use two of these sauces for the filling. Or add the sauce that you personally like best.

Rolling shawarma from pita bread

In order for the shawarma to be similar in appearance to store-bought and so that meat and vegetable juices do not leak out of it, it is important to learn how to roll it correctly. It is best to unfold the lavash sheet on the table and lightly sprinkle it with water.

We step back a few centimeters from the edge and generously grease the pita bread with one or two sauces. We put the vegetable filling, put the meat on top, and pour the sauce over it. Then we cover everything with the short part of the pita bread, then with the side parts, and at the very end we roll up the roll using the long part of the pita bread.

Recipe for homemade shawarma in lavash

You can add sweet bell peppers, tomatoes, lettuce leaves, and grated cheese to the filling of this shawarma to taste.

• Thin pita bread 1 pc.
• Chicken fillet 1 breast
• Pickled cucumber 1 pc.
• Red onion 1 pc.
• Cilantro to taste
• Lemon juice 1 tbsp. l.
• Water 3 tbsp. l.
• Olive oil 1 tbsp. l.
• Curry 1 tsp.
• Salt, pepper to taste
• Garlic and hot sauces to taste

Prepare the marinade from lemon juice, water, salt, pepper and olive oil.

Thinly cut the chicken fillet into small slices and mix with the marinade. Leave for 15 minutes.

We cut red onion into rings, pickled cucumber into thin slices, and chop cilantro.

Heat a frying pan with a minimum of oil and fry the fillet well. It should remain juicy inside.

Spread the sauces on the pita bread, put onion and pickled cucumber, put the prepared meat on top. Pour the sauces over the meat, sprinkle with herbs.

Roll the pita bread tightly and fry on both sides in a dry frying pan. Place the finished shawarma on a serving plate. One end of the shawarma can be coated with your favorite sauce.

Delicious, tempting, melt-in-your-mouth shawarma, you just want to cook it at home. But not every follower of this snack knows how to make pita bread for shawarma. In fact, there is nothing complicated; all manipulations are carried out at home using available components. Today we will present you recipes for cheese, mustard, Armenian, tomato, yeast, yeast-free and other variations of lavash. Try it and enjoy!

Lavash for shawarma: “classic”

• yeast - 7 gr.
• flour - 720 gr.
• granulated sugar, salt - 8 g each.
• water - 240 ml.
• vegetable oil - 50 ml.

We will first describe how the base (dough) is prepared, and below we will indicate exactly how to bake pita bread.

1. So, combine warm filtered water with granulated sugar and salt, add yeast.

2. Sift the flour into a container, pour in the previously prepared water mixture and oil, and stir at the same time.

3. When the mass is thick and homogeneous and does not stick to your hands, it must be covered with a cotton towel and left to “simmer” for a third of an hour. Then you can start baking.

Lavash for shawarma without yeast

• flour - 720 gr.
• water (can be replaced with whey) - 240 ml.
• salt - 8 gr.

1. If water is used, it must be preheated to 35 degrees. Bring the whey to room temperature.

2. Mix the liquid with salt, add the flour sifted several times in small portions. Stir.

3. The final dough should not tear, because it will need to be stretched a lot before baking. Kneading is carried out until an elastic base is obtained.

4. It’s easy to prepare a flatbread without yeast, just like making pita bread for shawarma according to the classic scheme. After kneading, let the workpiece stand at home for about half an hour.

Lavash with yeast

• flour (sifted) - 480 gr.
• yeast - 7 gr.
• whey - 230 ml.

1. Combine the yeast with flour, add a pinch of salt. Warm up the whey in advance and pour it into the bulk ingredients.

2. Knead, then divide the entire volume into balls with a diameter of about 6 cm. Place separately from each other, cover with a towel and set aside for 45 minutes.

Cheese pita bread for shawarma

• hard cheese (grate) - 90 gr.
• flour - 240 gr.
• granulated sugar - 15 gr.
• butter - 60 gr.
• water - 130 ml.
• yeast - 9-10 gr.
• salt - 7 gr.

1. First, combine the heated water according to the recipe with granulated sugar and yeast. Add salt, cheese shavings, sifted flour 2-3 times. Melt the butter and add it here.

2. Mix the ingredients until smooth, then divide into several equal parts. It is better to distribute it immediately into balls 5 cm in diameter.

3. Time it for 10-15 minutes. Then knead again, start rolling out the flatbreads and further baking (we will describe the technology below).

Armenian lavash with vodka

• eggs - 1 pc.
• flour - 950 gr.
• sunflower oil - 50 ml.
• salt - 10 gr.
• water - 300-320 ml.
• vodka - 25 ml.

This recipe is suitable for those who do not know how to make real Armenian lavash for shawarma. In professional bakeries and at home, it is traditionally baked from dough with vodka.

1. Mix oil and salt, pour this mixture into water. Place the saucepan on the stove and bring to the first bubbles.

2. Separately, sift the flour mixture several times, make a well in the mixture and break the egg into it. Pour in vodka, stir until smooth without lumps.

3. Now slowly pour the mixture from the saucepan into the flour base. Stir at the same time. When the mixture has partially cooled, knead with your hands.

4. Roll into a ball, wrap in film and time for 1.5 hours. During this period, the dough must be kneaded once.

5. When the specified time comes to an end, divide the entire volume into balls the size of a chicken egg. Roll out and get ready to bake.

Lavash with tomato juice

• yeast - 8 gr.
• flour - 450 gr.
• tomato juice - 200 ml.
• spices - to taste

1. If the juice is not salted, season it with salt and spices to your taste. Enter the yeast, wait for it to dissolve and add flour in small portions.

2. Knead the contents, leave in a warm place for half an hour. Then knead in flour and divide into several pieces the size of a tennis ball. Cover, time for another quarter of an hour and roll out.

Mustard pita bread for shawarma

• mustard - 30 gr.
• flour - 250 gr.
• vegetable oil - 50 ml.
• water - 240 ml.
• salt, dried herbs - at your discretion

Since making pita bread for shawarma is quite easy, follow the simple instructions at home.

1. Dissolve mustard, a pinch of salt and oil in water. Place the homogeneous mass on the fire and wait for it to boil. When bubbles first appear, pour the liquid into the bowl of flour.

2. Mix the ingredients thoroughly and wait for it to cool. After this, feel free to roll out the dough as thin as possible. As a result, you will end up with a flatbread that just needs to be baked.

Technology for baking pita bread for shawarma

1. Divide the finished dough into portions. Roll out the dough into thin flat cakes. During this manipulation, do not forget to generously sprinkle the dough with flour. The thickness of the cake should be about 2 mm.

3. Be sure to spray the finished pita bread with water from a spray bottle or cover it with damp gauze. This way the cakes will remain soft. Once the pita bread has cooled, transfer it to a bag to prevent it from drying out.

After studying all the recipes and familiarizing yourself with baking technology, it is not difficult to understand how to make pita bread. This flatbread is ideal for shawarma and preparing other rolls at home.

There are many recipes for making lavash at home. But how to make lavash soft, elastic, and so that the sauce does not leak out if you want to make shawarma from it? This pita bread recipe is ideal for making homemade shawarma.

So, to prepare pita bread for shawarma at home, we will need the products according to the list - as you can see, the simplest ones are always on hand. I prefer to weigh the ingredients for baking on a kitchen scale, then the result is perfect.

Boil the kettle. Sift the flour, add any vegetable oil and salt. Pour in hot water. Knead the dough first with a fork or spoon.

When the flour and water are completely mixed, take out the fork and start kneading the dough with your hand; it will still be very warm, but not hot.

The dough will be very soft and elastic, not sticking to your hands.

Cover the dough with cling film and leave for 30 minutes.

After 30 minutes, remove the film and you can work with the dough.

Divide the dough into 6-7 or 8 parts, depending on the diameter of the pan. I repeat, the dough will be elastic and very pleasant to work with, like plasticine.

Rolling out the dough is easy; you don’t even need to add flour when rolling. I rolled it out on the kitchen work surface. The thickness of the dough should be 1.5 mm.

Heat the frying pan. Place the dough on a hot frying pan and bake the pita bread for a few minutes on each side. As soon as bubbles appear on the surface of the dough, the pita bread can be turned over.

Place the finished pita bread on a wooden board and sprinkle with water from a spray bottle. Cover with a clean linen towel. Do the same with all the tortillas. Leave under a towel until completely cool.

Store the finished, cooled pita bread in a plastic bag to prevent it from getting stale.

The homemade pita bread for shawarma was a success. Have fun!

You will need:

Lavash for shawarma is a very thin unleavened flatbread, which in the East is prepared in a tandoor, but we will use a simple frying pan or oven. The flour must be sifted. The dough can be made with or without yeast. In the first case, it needs to stand for at least an hour, in the second - 20-30 minutes. After such a “rest”, the gluten will swell well, and the mass will become more pliable when rolled out.

The consistency of yeast dough should be airy and soft, while yeast-free dough should be stiff but elastic; knead it until the stickiness disappears.

Finished products are stored in plastic bags for about 4 days.

Choose the lavash recipe at your discretion, but you already know how to prepare shawarma at home.

Yeast

To prepare, take:

• Whey (can be replaced with water) 250 g
• Flour 500 g
• Dry yeast 8 g

Mix flour and yeast, add a pinch of salt, pour in preheated liquid and knead thoroughly.

Divide the mass into several parts. Each of them needs to be rolled into a ball with a diameter of 5 cm, placed in a clean bowl, covered and left to rise for 40 minutes.

Yeast-free

There is no yeast in the original recipe, but this option requires certain skills. Required:

• Warm water or whey 1 glass
• Flour 3 cups
• Salt ½ teaspoon

Heat the water so that it is warm, add salt and gradually add flour, while mixing everything with your hands.
The consistency should be thick and plastic. To prevent the dough from tearing when rolling, you should achieve maximum elasticity at this stage.

Leave the resulting mixture to sit for 20 minutes.

Simple

You can make lavash at home using a recipe that contains sunflower oil, which gives additional elasticity. The following products are needed:

• Flour 3 tbsp.
• Oil 2 tbsp. l
• Water 1 tbsp.
• Yeast 5 g
• Salt 1/2 tsp
• Sugar 1/2 tsp

Heat the water, add sugar and yeast to it. Slowly pour this mixture and butter into the flour and knead until you obtain a soft dough that does not stick to your hands. Then leave everything to brew for 20 minutes in a warm place under a towel.

Armenian

Armenian thin lavash is very easy to wrap and cook without yeast.

• Flour 4 tbsp.
• Water 330 ml
• Grows. oil 2 tbsp. l.
• Egg 1 pc.
• Vodka 1 tbsp. l.
• Salt 1 tsp.

Bring water with salt and oil to a boil.

Beat the egg into the sifted flour, add vodka, and mix. Next, add hot water little by little, stirring all the time. Knead with your hands until the mixture comes off your hands well. Place in a bag and leave for at least an hour. During this period, you need to take it out once and knead it.
Once the dough has rested, divide it into egg-sized portions and roll it out thinly.

Jewish

Prepared from a simple set of products:

• Flour 3 tbsp.
• Water 1 tbsp.
• Salt 1/2 tsp.

If you are afraid that you won’t be able to roll it out thinly, you can add 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil.

Mix flour and salt with hot water and let stand for a while.

Cheesy

Let's not limit ourselves to classic recipes, because there are many variations of lavash. Try making delicious, tender flatbreads based on hard cheese.

• Flour 1 tbsp.
• Water 1/2 tbsp.
• Yeast 10 g
• Grated cheese 80 g
• Butter 50 g
• Salt 1/2 tsp.
• Sugar 1 tsp.

Dissolve yeast in warm water with sugar and salt. Add soft or melted butter, cheese, flour, knead the dough and let it rise. Then divide into parts, cover with a towel and leave for 10 minutes.
On a table sprinkled with flour, roll out into a layer no more than 2-3 mm thick.

Pita breads turn out very cheesy; they can be used not only for shawarma, but also for rolls, burritos, or as an independent dish.

Tomato

Another unusual version of pita bread made with tomato juice and spices.

• Flour 0.5 kg
• Tomato juice 1 tbsp.
• Yeast 10 g
• Salt
• Any spices

Salt the juice, add spices (black and red pepper, dry herbs, etc. as desired). Add dry yeast, stir until dissolved. Then give flour, knead and place in a warm place to rise.

Punch down, divide into balls and leave for another 10 minutes. Roll out as thin as possible.