Preparing the Shawarma – Building the Tower!

Middle Eastern fast casual establishments are all the rage! Up until a few years ago, you may not have even heard of shawarma. Now, shawarma restaurants are opening on nearly every block in cities you never expected.

At Spinning Grillers, we would like to offer you a quick tutorial on how to prepare your own shawarma spit. This technique can be used for chicken shawarma, beef shawarma, doner kebab, gyro, and tacos al pastor. Now you have to read on, right? It’s an all-in-one!

With this tutorial, we try to eliminate the mystery behind how the cones are made. Again, this is a simple tutorial meant for home use.

It’s best to have a shawarma preparation stand for your shawarma spit to sit on while you build the tower. You will also need a sheet pan or tray in place to catch the drippings. Please use gloves while handling the meat and make sure to wash your hands well afterwards!

We are going to walk you through building a chicken shawarma tower. In order to establish a solid base, start off by inserting larger pieces of chicken through the spit. Make sure you build your shawarma base evenly.

Once the base is ready, start constructing the tower. It is important to keep your shawarma meat balanced so that when you grill it on your Shawarma Machine, it will not lean forward and cause an imbalance in the rotation.

Here is a quick technique that will help you in the preparation of your chicken shawarma:

After you’ve positioned a few layers of meat on top of the base, choose four pieces of chicken of the same size. Place two pieces parallel to each other, layering them atop the existing piled meat (not going through the spit). Turn the base 90 degrees and place the other two pieces parallel to each other. Finally, secure the four laced pieces of meat by putting a large piece of chicken through the spit. You will be creating a solid tower simply by lacing the chicken two-by-two.

Once your shawarma tower has been built to the desired height, cut off any extra pieces with a sharp knife. You can also trim the shape of the shawarma cone at this time. Some prefer to make the shawarma cylinder-shaped, while others prefer the traditional mushroom head where the bulk of the meat is on top. Gather all the trimmings and place them on top of the meat tower and secure them with another large piece of chicken. You need to make this a solid tower, so do not be afraid to push down on the meat. You now have a professional-looking shawarma tower right at home!

I hope this tutorial has been useful in providing a basic how-to in preparing your shawarma. Stay tuned to our blogs for more instructions on how to use your Shawarma Machine to grill your meat.