Easy Chicken Shawarma Salad Bowls — 🧡💚 An EASY version of chicken shawarma that’s fast, HEALTHY, and delish!! Fragrant spices, juicy lemony chicken, fresh veggies, and a tangy Greek-yogurt sauce that’s cooling and PERFECT!!
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I’m not an expert in Middle Eastern cooking but I am an expert at throwing together a 30-minute chicken dinner that’s loaded with flavors and textures galore.
That’s what these chicken shawarma bowls are all about. Fast, easy, delicious! Some of the best and most flavorful chicken I’ve made in ages and the chickpeas are irresistible.
Chicken is quickly cooked on a skillet in a mixture of olive oil, cumin, smoked paprika, turmeric, coriander, garlic, and lemon juice. It’s incredibly juicy, tender, moist, and over the top flavorful. We could stop right here and I know you’d be happy.
The extra pan juices from the chicken are perfect for simmering the chickpeas. You could skip this step if you’re in an absolute hurry but I love the texture and flavor they develop this way. I couldn’t stop picking at them. I should have made a double batch.
Serve the chicken and chickpeas with juicy cucumber and tomatoes, season with fresh parsley, and add the creamy Greek yogurt-based sauce.
Ingredients in This Recipe
To assemble the hearty chicken shawarma salads, you’ll need the following:
- Olive oil
- Chicken breasts
- Spices (cumin, smoked paprika, turmeric, ground coriander, salt, black pepper)
- Garlic
- Lemon juice
- Chickpeas
- Tomatoes
- Cucumber
- Red onion
- Fresh parsley
- Greek yogurt
- Granulated sugar (optional)
Note: Scroll down to the recipe card section of the post for the ingredients with amounts included and for more complete directions.
How to Make Chicken Shawarma Salad Bowls
This is such a quick and easy meal-prep salad recipe!
- Season and cook the chicken in a skillet. Once cooked, transfer to a large bowl.
- To the same skillet (don’t wipe it out!), add the chickpeas and cook for about 5 minutes. Transfer to the same bowl as the chicken.
- To the bowl, add the veggies.
- Whisk together the yogurt dressing, drizzle over the chicken and veggies, and toss to combine.
Storage Instructions
Salad will last up to 4 days in the fridge. Store the yogurt dressing separately from the chicken and veggies to prevent them from softening.
Recipe FAQs
Although traditional chicken shawarma is served with tabbouleh, farro, rice, lentils, or a grain of that nature, I decided to omit the grains in the sake of saving some carbs and we didn’t miss them. Carb up if you prefer, of course. As I prepared the recipe, it’s naturally gluten-free.
Sure, you’re welcome to add an extra can of chickpeas if you’d like to keep this recipe vegetarian.
Go for it! You can add lettuce or greens for some crunch, bell peppers, whatever you want!
I used fresh parsley, but you’re welcome to use fresh mint or any other fresh herb you’d like.
Absolutely! It’s a great meal prep recipe that will get you set up with lunches (or dinners) for half the week. Store the yogurt dressing in a separate container to prevent the veggies from softening in the fridge.
This was delicious! I put in a huge bowl of romaine because I was craving that salad crunch. Yum!!
Paige Young
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Easy Chicken Shawarma Salad Bowls
Ingredients
Chicken
- 3 to 4 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 to 1.25 pounds boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite-sized pieces
- 1 ½ teaspoons cumin
- 1 ½ teaspoons smoked paprika, regular paprika may be substituted
- 1 teaspoon turmeric
- 1 teaspoon ground coriander
- 1 teaspoon Kosher salt, or to taste
- 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, or to taste
- 3 to 4 cloves garlic, finely minced or pressed
- ¼ cup lemon juice
Salad
- one 15-ounce can chickpeas, garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed (I use no-salt added), seasoned with salt and pepper if desired
- 1 to 2 tablespoons olive oil, if necessary
- 2 cups tomatoes, diced if using regular tomatoes or halved if using cherry/grape tomatoes
- 2 cups English cucumber, diced small
- ½ cup red onions, diced small; optional
- 2 to 3 tablespoons fresh parsley, finely minced
Sauce
- 6 ounces plain Greek yogurt, must be Greek yogurt, I used 0% fat
- 2 to 3 tablespoons lemon juice, or as desired for consistency
- 1 clove garlic, finely minced or pressed, optional
- 1 teaspoon cumin
- ½ teaspoon ground coriander
- ¾ teaspoon Kosher salt, or to taste
- ¾ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, or to taste
- ½ teaspoon granulated sugar, optional and to taste
Instructions
- Chicken – To a large skillet, add the oil, chicken, evenly sprinkle with cumin, smoked paprika, turmeric, salt, pepper, and cook over medium-high heat for about 5 minutes, flipping intermittently so all sides cook evenly.
- When chicken is about 90% cooked through, reduce the heat to medium-low, add the garlic and cook for 1 to 2 minutes, or until fragrant; stir intermittently.
- Add the lemon juice (use caution because it will bubble up), and allow chicken to simmer another 1 to 2 minutes, or until done. Cooking time will vary based on thickness of chicken breasts and sizes of pieces. Remove chicken with a slotted spoon (save the pan juices) and place chicken in bowl(s).
- Salad – Add the chickpeas to the cooking juices in the skillet, season with salt and pepper if desired, add oil if necessary, stir to coat, and cook over medium heat for about 5 minutes; stir intermittently. Transfer the chickpeas and any cooking juices to the bowl(s) with the chicken.
- Add the tomatoes, cucumbers, optional red onions, and evenly sprinkle with parsley; set aside.
- Sauce – To a medium bowl, add all ingredients, whisk to combine, taste, and check for flavor balance. Add additional salt, pepper, lemon juice, pinch sugar, etc. if necessary, to taste. Evenly drizzle sauce over bowl(s), to taste. Recipe is best fresh but will keep airtight in the fridge for up to 5 days; do not add the sauce if you’re doing planned leftovers/meal prep and keep separate. Extra sauce will keep airtight in the fridge for up to 5 days.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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This was delicious! I put in a huge bowl of romaine because I was craving that salad crunch. Yum!!
Thanks for the 5 star review and I’m glad you got that salad crunch you were looking for!
This was delicious! I put in a huge bowl of romaine because I was craving that salad crunch. Yum!!
This looks so good! I love the addition of cumin and smoked paprika; in fact today I made sweet potato hummus with smoked paprika – so good! I definitely will be making this sometime soon!
Smoked paprika is so good isn’t it!
Beautiful! I love chicken shawarma (sp?) but don’t necessarily like it as a sandwich. I love perching the flavorful chicken on top of healthier salad fixings. This looks incredible, Averie!
Thanks and I agree, it’s so tasty when paired with some healthier salad fixings!
I am totally going to try this. We just found a middle eastern restaurant we love and they have shawarma on the menu and we didn’t know what it was but it looked SO good!
You’re going to love this! And this is about 10000x healthier than the restaurant. Soooo much flavor. You know how I am with chicken…well this is the best chicken I’ve made in a long time because it’s so flavorful and juicy! LMK if you try this!
I’ve never heard of chicken shawarma. The spice mixture sounds good. Chicken can be a little bland–a little help is always good.
This is the best chicken I’ve made in a long time because it had so much flavor, it wasn’t bland at all! And so juicy. If you need to mix things up, this is perfect!
This sounds delicious and different!! I love cumin and smoked paprika (and everything else in this recipe:). Gotta try this soon!
You are going to LOVE this one Paula! The chicken has soooo much flavor and is so juicy. Best chicken I’ve made in ages!
You were right–we did love this! The spice blend does wonders for the chicken and chickpeas and the sauce is just the right finish–I really like all the lemon. This is a delicious recipe–I made enough for leftovers:)