Easy Authentic Shawarma Completely From Scratch 

Can u turn this into a series? Like do a whole big meal of one type/ style/ culture of food? I think some African regions could result in a really cool and fun challenge.

I know pretty much nobody will end up buying the rotisserie machine, but if you'd still like to make shawarma, the youtube channel Middle Eats has an excellent video with a few suggestions on how to make shawarma or any other kebab style meat with pretty minimal equipment in the oven (great channel overall for anyone who wants to try any traditional Arab dishes btw). The results are pretty great and I no longer go to shawarma/kebab spots and instead make it at home. As Joshua pointed it out, it's a pretty great meal for family or even a group of friends coming over.

More non fast food recipes like this one please! Those are the ones that made me love this channel

Being Lebanese I am partial to our traditional shawarma; flatbread, toum and hummus, pickles (specitically Mouneh), fries, onion and chicken. Just awesomeness to go! Toast that rolled up shawarma in a pan for a bit, making the flatbread crispy, nothing beats it!

As an Arab I approve this

As someone who's Turkish, this warms my heart completely! Hats off to sticking to the traditional recipes and nailing them, thank you!

Amateur Lebanese Chef here. Your Toum is on point. Glorious. PS: We add a couple drops of orange blossom water in the halva, makes a world of difference. Much love & pitas from Beirut!

As a Türk, I have a couple comments. Cacık is often made by adding water to what you made and served in a bowl to drink alongside the meal Helva made from flour is the least exciting of all helvas. It is much better made from semolina. Bazlama is often thicker and much harder to wrap things in. Flat bread used to wrap things is called pide, and the thinner one is called lavaş Optionally adding kaşar cheese, raw onions or yoğurt+mayo+garlic sauce to the wrap could improve the flavor. Raw meatballs would be a great addition to the table. They are made with bulgur, lots of spice and optionally raw meat. Served with lettuce leaves and pomegranate sauce, or optionally as a wrap.

As a turkish i wanted to thank you. When our so called chefs don't give a crap about our own cuisine you are making some of the turkish foods. Again thank you

I been missed the longer cooking videos. This video definitely satisfies

That’s an almost perfect pronunciation of Gözleme, as a Turkish I approved it 🎉

Love these new recipes. I've attempted to duplicate some of them at home, but a few of the more exotic spices are difficult to locate in my local groceries. Wish there was some guide as to the best places to shop for ingredients.

the toum part made my lebanese heart melt

I saw the Amazon mention and I immediately threw all my children into the sea.

As a Syrian I'm totally surprised that an international chef like you making the most traditional dish of my culture, I feeling so proudly

I want to give a round of applause to you as a Turk. Most of these dishes were accurately made and only few pieces were differently made than what I personally am used to. My mom personally doesn’t make gözleme with garlic and I also haven’t seen a restaurant do that, it still looks good though. Cacik was made well, don’t really have anything to say about that. Most of the times our shawarma isn’t made with garlic and onion in the middle but some might do it like that. We normally don’t eggyolk the bazlama and just let it kind of cook on a superhit pan for like 30seconds. The helwa/helva was done really well but it isn’t the only helva and there are more interesting flavors is what I personally think. All and all a great video with great things!

I just wanna say thanks for doing alllll this stuff in one vid! So many killer recipes I literally watched vid 2x in a row to absorb it all. Schwarma my fav and we have some good stuff in Detroit/Dearborn area with largest Arab pop in country but I don’t cook it enough

The efforts exerted to make this meal is outstanding. Keep up the good work

Fun fact: In Mexico, it can be said that it is a copy and paste of Shawarma, the difference is that they usually use marinated pork with a piece of pineapple on the tip so that it also cooks, just like using a tortilla as is customary to make tacos and goes very well with the hot sauces.

I lived in the Middle East for about 10 yrs and shawarma is one of my favorite foods! I’ve got that verticals rotisserie too and have to say it’s NOT optional if you want the real flavor 😝 Never layered the onion and garlic and will use that for my next cook. Nice job

The only thing i'd add would be pickled turnip, but that probably would definitely add to the time needed

As on Ottawan! Which is considered to be the best place to have shawarma in North America, I approve this.

I’ve been waiting for this video my whole life & I didn’t even know it. You made authentic Arab food AND YOU KNOW HOW TO PRONOUNCE IT 😭😭😭 I’d pay anything to eat this.

Drink every time Josh calles something 'that bad boy'

I’d love to see Josh do a Lebanese version with our spices and sides. We do it best 🇱🇧

the narration on this episode especially was beautiful so many parts and ingredients

Sajj bread is also amaaaazing with shawerma! So so so good! Also adding fries and toum and pickls into it and rolling it like a burrito and grilling it so the bread gets a bit crispy is yuuuuummmmmmmmm

I am from Turkey and I have to say you are very very good! The Turkish meals/salads/rice were excactly how we do it at my home.

finally after so many iterations of meat on bread we finally have the greatest one of them all

Never seen a RU-vidr in Illinois, let alone Naperville of all places!! That is awesome.

Toum is a gamechanger. Thankfully I learned how to make it at the Lebanese restaurant I used to work at. I actually add it to white rice sometimes, when I want to spice it up with flavor, but don't have time to chop up my own garlic.

Very nice to see some Turkish cuisine featured on the channel. Absolutely delicious choices you made :)

I'm retired now, but I was a profession cook for many years, so you can only begin to imagine how picky I am. Now for me this is high praise, but you are a good cook, and an excellent teacher!

thank you brother joshua, jazak allah khayr for this beautiful meal ma sha allah

I think a retail food store series needs to start. Like “Who has the best cheesecake? Cold cuts? Bagged vegetables? Creamiest cream cheese!?” And I wanna see it go down between Walmart, Target, Whole Foods, Bucky’s, BJ’s, ya get the vibe!

Ulises' grandmother is amazing! I love how she sends you nice towels and so forth.

Finally, a Joshua Weissman recipe that I can find all of the ingredients natively

The shawarma place near me puts an onion and a lemon on top. They serve it with some of the lemon zest and it goes perfectly with it

Amazing recipe , looks tasty 😋

Israeli here - schwarma here is very very different. Same with the pita and other dishes. This seems much more Turkish and Greek than middle eastern but still amazing job!

Idk if youll ever notics this but Joshua itd be so cool if you could look into the cuisine of the carribean most notably trinidad or at least Jamaica as a persom raised around it and who love our food. Its a real crime that no big food channel really seems to ackowledge us

As someone who knows middle Eastern food very well this is approved👍

I'd keep the garlic germ when it comes to making toum. I like my toum to have a bit of a kick to it. 😀

Joshua has to be THE hardest working RU-vidr ! Appreciate all you do JW !!

How cute is that shawarma spit?! Your recipes never disappoint! 🤤

Tip for a better toum, drop the garlic in cold ice water for few minutes, the toom will be less bitter

Dang i like this video. I like the big feast recipes cuz i love to shake things up in my kitchen like that and spend alot of time on whole courses and feasts, and not just try a new dish. More of that please. Also i like the new kinda style, b-roll at the end. I like new stuff so i love it

New game idea, take a shot every time Joshua says "bad boy"

Hey Josh, love your vids! I've been watching them for a couple years but am going to comment on this one because it's shawarma. I'm from Ottawa, Canada arguably one of the biggest shawarma places in the world, where we have basically more shawarma shops than McDonalds here. For me, the two most crucial elements of the shawarma is the toum (garlic sauce) and nice rotisserie chicken shavings that are crispy and browned on the outside and juicy and amazing on the inside. I think you nailed both in this video so hats off to you my man. Being picky, my only two things would be that most of the good shawarma spots here actually use pita rather than flatbread (which is more of a gyro thing in Ottawa from my experience); however, I know a lot of authentic recipes use flatbread so it doesn't really matter. Also the big "pickled-shawarma-vegetable" around Ottawa is pickled turnip (my personal fav), but glad you included a pickled element (cucumbers, carrots, pepper). Good job dude, I'm tired of all the shawarma recipes/shops out there with mayonnaise or sour cream based garlic sauces and chicken that is not in the form of beautiful rotisserie style shavings. 10/10

Shawarma is really popular where I live with the entire community so watching this made me so happy

Love the video. Good mix of a lot of things. However, you can’t have a spread like that without baba ganoush and garlic potatoes. Show us a recipe for something like that.

If I could say one thing, it's that your recipes are the absolute easiest to understand. The best structure. The best ideas. I made your bagels yesterday and they were soooooo fire!

Please put again the temperatures in Celsius also.

This is the stuff I subscribed for 🤤

THE GARLIC IS SO MUCH HOLY MOLY.

I'll never go to an Amazon Fresh store as long as I fucking live. If anyone actually heeds this ad, you will be doing harm to their soul and body. Great video tho!

I don't care about all the other additions but I was waiting to see how you made the toum like 🤨🤨🤨 AND THEN YOU NAILED IT. This is the *best* and most authentic way to make toum aka the best sauce in the world. Kudos Joshua!

This was great. I am waiting for someone to make beef shawarma. Also, keep in mind that often times food processors aren't the best for toum as the heat from the machine can break the sauce. I have used two sets immersion blenders that have been sitting in the freezer.

Josh is absolutely maximizing the use of this new kitchen and i love it

Pls make a proper Turkish Shish Tawook and Lahmejun one day. Sick vid as always, we all know we ain't doin this at home.

as a middle eastern my typical homemade halva is just a roux with a metric ton of sugar lmao. once that floury caramel is mixed throw some walnuts on top and score it slightly to make pre slices

I love your videos they are so amazing✨

8:03 In Turkish cuisine, water is added to the yogurt and usually no oil is added.

As someone who lives in the shawarma capital of Canada (and allegedly the world), I will never do this but thank you anyway😌

Crazy how, I always watch your videos. But never actually cook this. So pleasing to just watch you cook bud haha

As a turkish follower you did a great job 🎉 it looksss yummy 🥰

I love how he makes theese videos super quiet so they are 3am friendly.

all of this is basically Russian street food and I absolutely LOVE these recipes :3 though the shawarma could be wrapped like a burrito, it goes even harder that way

I’m dying for these videos! Greece (my country) stole the half of these and named them “Greek food”

Daddy josh always impresses me

Didn't know one day chef Josh was gonna make jagik but glad it happened, we loves jagik in Iraq, everything else looks delicious

Not enough channels make real Turkish food, thanks so much for diversifying Josh!!!

أهلين بالعرب عند جوشوا 😄💚💚💚 So good as usual

Shawarma Meat: 3-4lbs (1360-1814g) chicken thighs, boneless 1.5 tablespoons (15g) kosher salt 1.25 tablespoons (8g) sweet paprika 1 teaspoon (>1g) turmeric powder 1 teaspoon (5g) granulated sugar 1 tablespoon (8g) ground cumin 1.5 teaspoons (4g) ground cinnamon 2 teaspoons (3g) ground cardamom 1 teaspoon (2g) ground black pepper 1 large tomato 1/3 cup (70g) extra virgin olive oil 1 white onion, thinly sliced 10 cloves garlic, thinly sliced Bread: 2.5 teaspoons (10g) instant yeast 1 tablespoon (15g) granulated sugar 1 cup (236g) water 2 tablespoons (24g) extra virgin olive oil, plus additional for brushing 2 teaspoons (8g) kosher salt 3/4 cup (175g) yogurt 3.5 cups (525g) all-purpose flour Pickles: 3 cups (709ml) white distilled vinegar 1 cup (236ml) water 2 teaspoons (10g) sugar 1.25 tablespoons (5g) kosher salt Cheesecloth, 2 x 2” Kitchen twine 1 teaspoon (2g) cumin seeds 1 tablespoon (3g) coriander seeds 3 large carrots, sliced 2 large cucumbers, sliced 3 red Fresno chilies, sliced Rice: 2.5 tablespoons (35g) unsalted butter 1/3 cup (60g) orzo 2.5 cups (220g) rice 2 cups (240g) chicken stock Toum: 1.25 cups (120g) garlic cloves 2.5 teaspoons (7g) kosher salt 3.5 tablespoons (52g) lemon juice 3 cups (600g) vegetable oil 1/4 cup (59ml) ice water Cucumber Yogurt Side: 400g yogurt 1 tablespoon (2g) finely chopped mint 2 tablespoons (8g) finely chopped dill 1 large cucumber, deseeded, diced 2 cloves garlic 2 tablespoons (24g) olive oil, plus more for serving Zaatar for topping Parsley leaves for garnish Salt to taste Grilled Peppers: 2 red bell peppers, charred 4 Anaheim peppers, partially charred 1 garlic clove, grated 3 tablespoons (2g) finely chopped parsley 1/2 teaspoon (>1g) fresh thyme, finely chopped 1/2 teaspoon (>1g) ground cumin 2 tablespoons (30g) lemon juice 1/4 cup (53g) olive oil Salt and pepper to taste Gozleme Pastry: 2.5 cups (375g) all-purpose flour 3/4 teaspoon (7g) fine sea salt 3/4 cup (171g) water, warm 5 tablespoons (55g) extra virgin olive oil Filling: 3/4lb (340g) baby spinach, rough chopped 3 cloves garlic, finely chopped 2 eggs 10oz (283g) feta 1 cup (14g) parsley leaves 1.5 cups (135g) Kasseri cheese, grated - Optionally Vegetable oil Salt to taste Helva: 1.75 cups (415g) tahini 3/4 cup (80g) shelled pistachios + more for garnish 1/2 cup (113g) water 1 pound (454g) sugar

Sup, I have already made the gozleme pastry with spinach/feta filling. QUESTION for anyone that can answer: How do you manage the water pouring from the spinach? My end result tasted great but was leaking a lot of water from the cooked spinach which took away from the flaky flatbread and just looked a little messy.

Toum is indeed, amazing I will probably eventually try everything here, but i'm definitely making the toum this week, just because..

i can not describe my delight when you started to list the foods. Its really great to see you cook my countrys food but yeah that aint bazlama man im sorry lol. Also gözlemes dough should be a little thinner but everything else seemed really great! (ps. shawarma isnt Turkish i know)

Awesome vid Josh and team! Such an amazing spread of food here!

As a lebanese i approve this (especially toum)

What is the benefit of removing the 'germ' from the garlic in the Toum recipe? Will it mess up the texture?

the gozlami is normally called spanakotiropita which translates to spinach and cheese pie

I would love to see your take on a Nigerian dish maybe Jollof rice or less popular dishes

As a Turkish-Australian this is amazing waited so long for you to make Turkish food. your Döner Looks so gooddddd!

If you marinade the chicken after seasoning in greek yogurt overnight it becomes so much more tender and juicy on the inside

I love that you have a tortilla/bread warmer hand-knitted by Ulyssess's grandmother. So frickin' wholesome.

Do a cheap vs expensive potroast! It’s such an easy comfort food; I’d think it’d be easy to come up with ways to make it as extra as possible

In Israel we also use coriander seeds, fenugreek seeds and most importantly lamb fat between layers! We mostly use female Turkey meat, but also veal.

He really bought one of those rotisserie cookers for this. Fascinating. Which is why I'm probably going to buy my shawarma from a restaurant.

i'm proud i love seeing you cook any thing that have to do with my cultur and toum is the best

Toum sooo yummy takes me back to when i first had shawarma !

Joshua needs to make an episode where he makes butter from scratch and call it "But Butter".

Literally do afghan food please nobody does

day 1 for asking for a Joshuas lunchbox meals series

I like you Josh, but I will never shop at any place from Amazon that has that kind of stuff. Really creepy. Support your local butchers, and markets instead of the trillion dollar company :)

as a libanese i cant live without toum, seriously

The Mediterranean region has very similar foods and recipes. Being a Greek I can tell you the tzatziki, as we make it, does not have mint and you add a tablespoon of vinegar. The acidity goes very well with the greasy meat it’s served with 😉

Great toum Joshua ! Chicken marination is also awesome great job 🙏🏻

Okay honestly I never saw such a right way to make sharwama by an American Great work

Can confirm: I worked in a Lebanese restaurant in college, and Toum is 100% certified insane. I put that shit on everything.

hm ..it's soo tempting i'm considering making a rotisserie using a drill and charchoal grill to cook that chicken