Paleo Chicken Shawarma

I probably eat chicken shawarma 5-6 times a year and suddenly the world is ending because I can’t eat it for 30 whole days. But then, I got the idea to make it whole30 compliant. Also, I spent an entire morning studying Lebanese cooking to make sure I actually respected the process. Not entirely my recipe but I’ll reference the appropriate websites!

First of all, the toum was the best part. It’s a special garlic dip for the chicken. I will refer to it as “garlic fluff” from now on because that’s essentially what it is. If you make your own mayo, you already have a leg up on everyone else because you understand how oil can sometimes separate from a mixture and curdle it. This is a little more finicky than mayo so I used this video to make sure I didn’t waste anything. I read a lot of comments from people advising not to use olive oil because of the taste but I used a light tasting olive oil to make it paleo and it worked very well. I used fresh lemon because while researching this, I read that using bottled lemon juice will ruin it. Something about enzymes not being active in bottled lemon juice.

Print Recipe

Paleo Chicken Shawarma

Prep Time1 hr

Cook Time45 mins

Servings: 4 servings

Equipment

• Food Processor

Ingredients

Toum

• 1 cup garlic
• 4 cups light tasting olive oil
• 1/2 cup real lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon salt

Shawarma

• Juice of 1 lemon
• 2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
• 3 cloves garlic peeled and halved
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 1 pound skinless boneless chicken thighs
• 1 large red onion peeled and quartered
• 2 tablespoons coarsely chopped flat-leaf parsley

Cauliflower Rice

• 1 head of cauliflower
• 1 cup freshly chopped flat leaf parsley
• 1 tsp sea salt
• 2 tbsp olive oil

Side Salad

• 2 tomatoes
• 1 cup chopped cucumber
• 1 tsp olive oil
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 2 tbsp freshly chopped parsley

Instructions

Toum

• While the toum cooling in the refrigerator with a paper towel, I got ready to marinate the chicken.
• Using dairy to marinate it is undoubtedly the best option for tenderness but we had to kibosh that.
• I modified this recipe for the marinade. Check out her website, she's the real dill.

Chicken

• Marinate chicken for 1 hour up to 24 hours.
• I roasted them all on a sheet pan at 400F for 30 minutes and then on broil for 5 minutes.

Rice

• Finely chop the cauliflower in a food processor. Combine all ingredient in a large frying pan and sautee on medium/high for 10 minutes.

Bring it all in now. Lay the cauliflower rice down, place the chicken on top and scoop 2 tbsp of the toum next to it. Fill in the blank with salad and some homemade sugar-free pickles on the side. Enjoy!