Chicken Shawarma Salad

Jazz up your salad game with Lebanese-inspired Chicken Shawarma Salad! This easy lunch salad features spinach and lots of colorful fresh veggies with grilled chicken shawarma as the protein. Learn how to make this delicious salad recipe that works great for lunch or a light dinner.

2024 Update: This recipe was originally shared in February 2013. The recipe and post include new photos, as well as more tips and tricks. I hope you love this salad!

I had never heard of schwarma, let alone tasted it, until my freshman year of college.

It was the weekend before classes began, and I attended church with the roommate of a friend since this friend was out of town. After sitting through a rather lengthy, awkward service with a dude who I had just met and a ton of other strangers, which was a bit much for shy 18-year-old Erin, my new friend and I were invited to have lunch. 

We went to a Lebanese restaurant, and I was completely overwhelmed looking at the menu, so I chose the first thing that sounded like it wouldn’t be too over-the-top to my untested tastebuds — Chicken Schwarma.

Needless to say, I fell in love with the garlicky chicken dish that day, and throughout my college career, I ate my fill of schwarma.

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Why I love this recipe:

When I left South Louisiana, I discovered Lebanese-style chicken schwarma is hard to find… so my husband and I started making our own. 

While we have never owned a spit or attempted to get our hands on one, we’ve found a way to combine the flavors of the shawarma we love (looooots of garlic cloves and lemon) and put them on the grill for maximum flavor and char.

We’ll oftentimes make Chicken Shawarma for dinner and then transform the leftovers into this salad. In fact, this salad was rephotographed after Easter because we had a Middle Eastern-inspired menu this year.

What I love about this recipe is that it’s an extremely colorful salad that is BURSTING with flavor. You’ve got that juicy chicken paired with crunchy cucumber, sweet tomatoes, punchy red onion, salty feta and an herb-forward red wine vinaigrette that just brings them all together.

It’s easy to make as a part of meal prep, and it’s an easy thing to throw together as lunch OR dinner, just depending on what you’re looking for.

Simply put, you can’t go wrong with this chicken shawarma salad recipe, and I’m sharing how we put it together below.

Other Mediterranean flavored dishes we adore: Winston’s Garlic Hummus / Turkey Shawarma Wraps / Tzatziki Sauce / Roasted Garlic and White Bean Hummus / Grilled Chicken Shawarma / Greek Bruschetta

What you need to make this recipe:

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• Large bowl
• Sharp knife
• Tongs
• Small bowl (or mason jar)
• Mini angled measuring cup
• Citrus juicer

Here are the salad ingredients that you need to grab from the grocery store:

• Fresh spinach — spinach is my go-to salad green, but you could use a spring mix, chopped romaine lettuce or even peppery arugula if you prefer. 
• English cucumber — or a regular cucumber. If using a regular cucumber, you’ll need to peel it.
• Red onion — be sure to cut it into thin slices and then dice it from there so that the pieces are smaller. Do what makes sense for you and what sounds good!
• Feta cheese — crumbled feta adds such wonderful creamy, salty notes to this salad and really brings it all together.
• Tomatoes — I used cherry tomatoes, but feel free to use any bite-sized tomato, like grape tomatoes
• Grilled Chicken Shawarma — this is our go-to shawarma recipe and it’s relatively easy to put together. Please note that the meat needs to hang out in the marinade for a few hours before you grill it.
• Spices — we’re using a combination of garlic powder, onion powder, dried oregano, dried basil, red pepper flakes, black pepper and kosher salt in the homemade salad dressing
• Extra virgin olive oil — or another neutral oil, like regular olive oil or avocado oil.
• Red wine vinegar — this is the base of our Mediterranean-inspired vinaigrette. While you can use white wine vinegar, I really encourage you to find red wine vinegar. 
• Lemon juice — grab a lemon from the store and juice it at home. Freshly squeezed lemon juice brings such lovely flavor!
• Dijon mustard — I love to use a grainy Dijon, but you can use the smooth kind if that’s what you have.

Variations and substitutions:

There are so many different ways to enjoy this salad recipe.

Add some sauce! We love eating this shawarma salad with tzatziki sauce or a side of hummus, but you could easily serve it with a tahini sauce, a garlic sauce or even a baba ganoush.  

Serve with pita chips or warm pita bread. 

Swap out the onions. ​Marinated red onions or pickled red onions would be a fabulous addition to this salad if you don’t love raw onions.

How to make Chicken Shawarma Salad

Make the salad dressing. Measure the garlic powder, onion powder, dried oregano, dried basil, red pepper flakes, black pepper and salt into a small bowl or a mason jar. Shake until combined.

Add the olive oil, red wine vinegar, lemon juice and mustard. Whisk or shake until well-combined and set aside.

If you haven’t already, make the Grilled Chicken Shawarma. ​We love this recipe because we don’t need vertical rotating skewers or a vertical spit to make shawarma-flavored chicken. We use chicken breast, but you could easily use chicken thighs in their place, if desired. 

Make the salad. Make a bed of lettuce with the spinach in the bottom of a large salad bowl. Add the prepared cucumber, red onion, tomato and feta on top, and toss to combine.

Pour half of the dressing onto the salad greens, tossing until combined. Add more dressing if desired.

Add the chicken shawarma on top of the salad, then serve. 

You can use warm chicken shawarma straight off the grill or use leftover shawarma chicken that’s cold from the fridge.

How to meal prep:

• Make the shawarma chicken in advance. Chop and store in an airtight container in the fridge.
• Pre-portion the salads. ​Divide them evenly between four storage containers. Keep cold in the fridge.
• Divide the dressing between four small mason jars. Store with the rest of the ingredients in the fridge.

How to store:

Much like the meal prep salad discussion above, you can easily store this salad in separate containers in the refrigerator after preparing the different parts of it. This salad is also a wonderful use for leftover chicken shawarma, which is my favorite way to enjoy it.

​Separate the salad greens and veggies from the chicken and the dressing while they hang out in the fridge.

Frequently Asked Questions

Quick tips and tricks to the best shawarma salad:

• Prep your ingredients in advance for an easier lunch or dinner. That means grill the shawarma beforehand and have it ready to slice and place on the salad. Same with prepping the veggies and making the dressing.
• Swap out the dressing. While we love this red wine vinaigrette, you could use another dressing that makes you happy. A creamy Greek yogurt dressing would be excellent (especially if it has fresh herbs) or you could make a tahini dressing, too.
• How to store: Store the salad separately from the chicken and the dressing in airtight containers in the fridge. Reheat the chicken, if desired, and toss everything together before eating.

Here’s how we make this goodness:

It is SO. Good.