Chicken shawarma pizza is a Middle Eastern-style pizza that contains an Arabian marinated spiced chicken baked in the oven. And it has toppings of black olives, red onion and it is drizzle with yogurt garlic sauce.

In Middle Eastern cuisines, we love to add spices and herbs to our dish, which makes our food more delicious. If you visit Arab countries or tried their cuisines, then you are familiar with Chicken shawarma, which is our version of Greek Gyros. Or even a Lebanese flatbread or Pizza called Manakish.

Everyone loves pizza, including myself, and it is one of the best food to eat with families and friends. But, if you love Middle Eastern food like shawarma, then I am sure you will love this pizza recipe.

That's right. I am talking about a combination of shawarma and manakish pizza? It may not be traditional, but my childhood experience in Kuwait and Jordan have inspired me to make my Chicken shawarma pizza recipe.

What is Shawarma Pizza?

Think of it as a combination of Italian pizza and Arabic shawarma.

This pizza has a topping of black olives, mozzarella cheese, red onion, middle eastern spiced marinated chicken that is baked in the oven. I prefer baking because it makes the meat juicy and tender.

Furthermore, everything in this recipe is homemade such as the tomato pizza sauce and the dough. I don't like using ready-made stuff found in the grocery since I like everything fresh.

Lastly, I drizzle my pizza with my homemade Yogurt Garlic Sauce when serving. The sauce is what makes this recipe complete since every pizza must come with a sauce. But, if you don't like adding sauce, that is fine since the pizza already has a strong flavor. If you see the picture above, one of them doesn't have sauce so you can see what it looks like,

Recipe Ingredients for the Dough and Sauce

Here are the ingredients I need to make my delicious chicken shawarma pizza recipe:

I. Dough

To make the dough, the ingredients is basically the same when making any bread, arabic flatbread or other pizzas:

• White Flour
• Salt and Sugar
• Instant Yeast
• Extra virgin olive oil
• Water

II. Pizza Sauce

Here are the ingredients I used to make my homemade sauce:

• Tomato paste
• Water
• Dried Basil
• Brown sugar
• Salt

Notes: This is just an optional, and for convenient , you can just purchase the ready-made pizza sauce found in the grocery.

Recipe Ingredients for the Chicken and Topping

III. Chicken Shawarma

For the chicken, here are the important spices and herbs you need for this recipe:

• Turmeric
• Cumin
• Coriander
• Cardamom
• Cinnamon
• Garlic powder
• Curry
• Paprika

Notes: the amount of each spices & herbs will be discuss in the recipe card section

Aside from the spices and herbs, here is what you need to:

• Chicken Breast
• Yogurt
• Lemon

IV. Toppings

Once you baked the chicken shawarma, made the sauce and prepared the dough, all you need are the ingredients for your pizza topping:

• Mozzarella cheese
• Black Olives
• Red Onion
• Yogurt Garlic Sauce

Step by Step Instruction

Making the Dough

• The first thing to do is stir to mix yeast, brown sugar, and warm water in a glass.
• Next, I poured the yeast-water mixture into the bowl, where I add the flour and salt.
• First, I give it a quick stir using the wooden spoon, and then I use my hand to knead the flour.
• Add the olive oil and continue to knead till it turns into soft and fluffy dough. The olive oil is what makes the dough not rubbery.
• After that, I cover it with the plastic wrap and I leave it for 1 hour till grew in size. While waiting for the dough to grow, you can use that time to focus on baking the chicken and the pizza sauce.

Baking the Chicken

• Firstly, I marinated the chicken in the bowl by combining all the spices, yogurt, and lemon juice. Mix it gently using either the spoon or your clean hand.
• Next, I transfer each marinated chicken into the baking tray with foil under it. This will help prevent the chicken from sticking onto the tray.
• After that, I transfer into the oven and then I let it baked for 30 minutes in 200 C or 390 F.
• Once the chicken is cooked, I sliced it into smaller pieces. Set aside.

Making the Pizza / Tomato Sauce

• To make, I just mix the tomato paste, water, sugar, salt and basil leaves in a pan.
• Let it simmer for few minutes till the sauce become thick. Set aside

Assembling the Dough

• Once the dough grew in size, remove it and then divide into 2 pieces.
• Next, I use the rolling pin to make a round shape, it doesn't matter how many inch but for me it is between 7 to 8 inches width.

Topping the Pizza

• Once you assembled the dough, that's when you start to add toppings for the chicken shawarma pizza
• First spread the pizza dough with the sauce, and then grate the mozzarella cheese around it.
• Next, add the chopped chicken, black olives, and then the sliced red onion.
• Lastly, transfer into the oven and let it baked for 12 minutes in 200 C.
• Before serving, drizzle it with yogurt garlic sauce. And you are done.

Notes: To know how to make the yogurt garlic sauce recipe, you can just click the link, which is discussed in the separate post.

Variation and Tips

• Instead of yogurt garlic sauce, you can use tahini sauce
  
• You can add other toppings like bell pepper, green olives, tomatoes, or cheddar cheese.
  
• If you are the type of person who prefer convenient, you can just purchase the ready made pizza sauce or the store-bought pizza crust. This will help you save time.
  
• When marinating the chicken, you can use extra virgin olive oil instead of yogurt. However, I prefer yogurt since it makes the chicken tender.
  
• Again, to save time, you can just cook the marinated spiced chicken directly into the pan using a gas or electric stove, which will take less than 10 minutes, instead of oven-baked which takes 30 minutes.
  
• If the pizza sauce is watery, add cornstarch mixed with water on the pan, and then mixed to stir. This will help thicken the sauce.
  
• With this chicken recipe, you can use it to make a sandwich or a shawarma rice.

Related Recipes

Here are other delicious related recipes to try making at home:

• Mini Pizza
  
• Zaatar Manakish
  
• Cheese Fatayer

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