Chicken Shawarma Meal Prep
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Prep for the week ahead for the easiest HOMEMADE chicken shawarma bowls with cucumber, tomato, pita bread and tahini sauce!!!
After all those plates of fish and chips these last two weeks, I’ve been desperate to get back on meal prep.
Wait.
Okay, not desperate.
Because those fish and chips were bomb.com.
But.
It’s still bikini season.
At least, for us in Los Angeles.
In the sweltering heat wave we just had in 100 degree weather.
So I’m back at it with these chicken shawarma bowls with my favorite bit – that tahini sauce drizzle.
These bowls are light, hearty, and perfect for lunch and dinner.
Probably more for lunch though.
As you get those glaring looks from your coworkers just seething with jealousy.
Chicken Shawarma Meal Prep
Ingredients
- 1 cup brown rice
- 1 ½ pounds boneless skinless chicken thighs
- ¼ cup olive oil plus 1 tablespoon, divided
- Juice of 1 lemon
- 2 teaspoons cumin
- 2 teaspoons chili powder
- ½ teaspoon Italian seasoning
- ½ teaspoon allspice
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- 2 Persian cucumbers, diced
- 1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
- 1 pita bread cut, into 4
- ¼ cup tahini, homemade or store-bought
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley leaves
Instructions
- In a large saucepan of 2 cups water, cook rice according to package instructions; set aside.
- In a gallon size Ziploc bag, combine chicken, 1/4 cup olive oil, lemon juice, cumin, chili powder, Italian seasoning and allspice; season with salt and pepper, to taste. Marinate for at least 30 minutes to overnight, turning the bag occasionally. Drain the chicken from the marinade, discarding the marinade.
- Heat remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil in a large skillet over medium high heat. Add chicken to the skillet and cook, flipping once, until cooked through, about 4-5 minutes per side. Let cool before cutting into strips.
- Place rice, chicken, cucumbers, tomatoes and pita bread into meal prep containers, drizzled with tahini and garnished with parsley, if desired.
Did you make this recipe?
Tag @damn_delicious on Instagram and hashtag it #damndelicious!
I made this for dinner and will take the rest for meal prep at lunch! It was so good. I left out the tomatoes and just got extra cucumbers. Also added a bit of paprika to the chicken. I love this recipe and will be making it again!
Made this for dinner tonight and everyone demanded a second batch for lunch tomorrow. Amazing!
This was the best chicken I’ve ever had. I struggle with meal prep and eating the same thing for days in a row. I was excited for lunch all week long with this recipe! So good, thank you!
I loved it! But instead of tahini I made a 60 second sauce with pantry items: Â 1/2 cup mayonnaise, good sprinkle garlic powder, juice of half a lemon, 2 tablespoons water, mixed to pouring consistency. Â Recipe from Bon Appetit.Â
Sounds delicious!
Your bowls really make my mouth watering right now Such a heart meal for all weekkk
– Natalie Ellis
This sounds really good and delicious. I’ve been looking for mealprep lunches and I’m down for this one!
Can I bake this in the oven instead of pan-frying the chicken?
Yes, of course!
Sorry I’m confused on how the nutritional value is set up. So this recipe makes four dishes..? And each one is the value shown for individual dishes?
Yes, that is correct.
Thank you! Making it now! Hopefully it turns out. 🙂
The chicken had terrific flavor. I was worried about the amount of chili powder because I don’t like my food spicy, but this totally worked. Â We cooked this on the grill. I skipped the tomatoes and added roasted butternut squash, asparagus and avocado. I tasted the tahini out of the jar, and I didn’t like it. So I whipped up a mixture of tahini, yogurt and lemon juice. I would love tzadeki on it but that would be mixing cultures. Ha Ha. After dinner, my husband asked me what the pita in the bag was for. oops!!! Â I will definately make this again.
This chicken shawarma dish looks super delicious!!! My kids LOVE shawarma!!! Perfect for a healthy and tasty dinner. Thanks for sharing:)
But you can’t eat cold rice days after you make it — it grows bacteria. So while this looks great for day of, it’s not good for meal prep. Unless people like microwaved cucumbers….
I just made this dish this afternoon. Ate some now (YUM!), and have 3 boxes in the fridge. I put the cukes and tomatoes in their own container, and the pita in a separate bag. It’s not nearly as pretty, but means I can heat the chicken and rice, and then put on the fresh ingredients later. I’ve had to make similar changes for other make ahead meals and snack boxes from this site. My meals may not be as beautiful as Chunga’s, but they are all “damn delicious”.
Oh, and here I was thinking I was so clever for having thought this up! LOL! I’ve been having trouble with the prep meals where crackers or bread is put in the boxes because they absorb the moisture from the veggies or cheese & go flabby (I live in the Pacific NW, so maybe that’s why). So I now just separate elements of the meal boxes: with this recipe, I’ll put chicken, rice, salad bits & the pita in separate meal boxes & stack them in the fridge. As you say, they’re not as pretty as Chunga’s & it takes a tiny bit longer to take all the boxes out & put together a meal instead of being able to just pull out one ready-to-eat box. But, really, it’s not a problem. It also allows for reheating some of the core elements without having to worry about nuking things you don’t want nuked. If you’re taking it to work instead of eating it at home, I’d put the rice in a Ziploc & then in the meal box with everything else, & at lunch microwave it separately, then add it to the rest. One reason I love Chunga’s recipes is that there’s lots of room for flexibility & adaptability.
What a tasty looking dish. Â I love your ideas of preparing meals ahead of time. Â Love it!Â
This looks super delicious!! Perfect or a meal prep! (:
My parents are in their 70’s and my dad is super picky. My mom pretty much stopped cooking anything but sandwiches and pasta or simple chicken because she pretty much gave up. I suggested that she make this because we all love middle eastern food and was honestly surprised that she was willing to try it. She, who hates recipes, followed it and grilled the chicken breasts because it’s summertime and everyone loved it! I suggested that she cut the cumin in half because I find that every recipe calls for an overpowering amount, but I wish she used a teaspoon and a half because it does need it. Didn’t have chili power so we used cayenne which is fine but I just realized that’s why it needed all the cumin. I’m sure we’ll make this again!
What are “Persian” cucumbers? I can’t find them here. Can regular or English (hothouse, seedless) be substituted?
Yes, of course.
The nutritional information looks off to me. The nutritional info says that this recipe makes four servings, each with 26 grams carbohydrates (or 104 grams total). Yet just the rice (1 cup uncooked brown) contains 140 grams carbohydrates.
Divided by four, that gives each serving 35 grams of carbohydrates just from the rice.
Hi Barbara, the nutritional analysis for this recipe is done using cooked rice. We found in testing that the amount of cooked rice from 1 cup uncooked came to 2 cups. One serving is then 1/2 cup cooked rice. Hope this clarifies the per serving nutritional information for you.
Is there a way to see nutrition information for all of your recipes?
We do not have nutritional information for all of the recipes, but we added them for this recipe specifically.
Chicken Shawarma would not, normally, be a dish that would excite me!! No, not until I saw this recipe! Chungah, you are TRULY AMAZING!! I have never seen or tried a recipe of yours that was nothing less then wonderful. You are so creative – your recipes are all easy – and OUTSTANDING! Thank you, so, so much… for having broadened my horizons. You “ace” it, no matter what the style of cooking – Italian, Chinese, Mexican – on and on! You are so good! Cannot wait to try this one…
Oh my gosh, that dish looks so good. However I don’t think I have the will power to save it for my lunch throughout the week, I would gobble the chicken down before putting it in the container!
That’s always my problem with doing meal prep! I just want to eat all the yummy meat right away.