Lebanese food- chicken shawarma, how many cals?

Hello, I've fallen in love with Lebanaese food recently and I especially love the Lebanese style sandwich wraps- chicken shawarma, or such. I know they're not very healthy, (I think those yoghurt like cream are rather fattening...and the chicken)but does anyone know approximately how many calories each wrap carries?

Also, has anyone tried making those wraps at home...? I was thinking that maybe if I home make these wraps they'll be more healthy , and has less calories and fats. Anyone got any nice recipes?

Thanks!

Shawarma ARE healthy. Like everything else, it all depend of the ingredients. It is super easy to make, just chicken, pita, yogurt and garlic, vegetables, pickels if you want. You can also put Hommous for proteins, you can make it with only vegetables, etc... It really is just a pita with yogurt and garlic sauce and any vegetables or meat you want.

Really? that's great news for me. In fact, what makes me so crazy over Shawarma is the cream/yoghurt and garlic sauce over the grilled chicken. Does anyone have the recipe of it??

Well it is what makes restorants different from one another, they all have their own recipe. It is mostly plain yogurt and garlic.

yes, alot of the middle eastern food is very healthy - lean meat is normally used and flat breads (lower carb then other bread options).  also, hummus is the great too! chickpeas have tons of protein and tahini oil is very low fat.

Oh my goodness....I'm so excited.  My daughter will be too cause she almost lives on these Shwarma's.  Everytime I go visit we have at least 2 meals of these...different days of course...lol...Anyone know the approximate Calories? I love the pickled red turnip in them and I love it with yogurt garlic sauce and the hummus

Wow! I am so excited!!! I love Shwarmas! Since I moved to Ottawa I became addicted..just like what my mom said! hahahahaha. This is great if we could find out how many cal are in them!!

Ok I figured it out a little anyways....with the flatbread, 1/2 cup chicken grilled, hummus, garlic/yogurt sauce, veggies....approximately 450 Calories?????  anybody come up with different figures.

Bumping this one cause I really want to know the accurate calories. I eat at least one of these everytime I go to Ottawa.  It's my all time favorite food.

Hmm I found the nutrition for one of the chainfoods that offers shwarmas. Here.

To be more accurate, we'd need to know the size of the bread.  That's where most of the calories are going to come from, because the amount of meat in these (at least the ones I've had) is small.  You would also have to know if the sauce was made from full fat yogurt or low fat.

I think 450 sounds about right, unless it's a really big pita, then add 70 to 100 more calories.

Thank you so much for the help.  Next time I head into Ottawa I'm gonna ask if they use low fat yogurt for their garlic sauce. 

Lunamagae - that link was a great help.  I tagged it....lol  Thanks

Wait until Joelle hears this...heehee

hi there, i am not sure who does garlic sauce with yogourt, but its not what most do... its either pure garlic that u mix with oil, or with egg whites, some use mayo too.... calorie wise its the bread that adds up, usually a small size pita is 180 calories. chicken portion comes up to 125 to 150 calories, then veggies is less then 25 calories...  try to have a chicken shawarma plate so u can avoid the bread using the fork, that way u get a much low calory meal!

cheers!

I've also had this question because I make my own Middle Eastern yogurt, for which there is no nutritional information. And anyone who's had Middle Eastern/Greek/Persian yogurt knows that the taste is distinctly different from American yogurt, so as far as I'm concerned they can't have the same calories/fat.

I assume that the same calories in milk apply to yogurt, since I make it simply by boiling milk. I don't think yogurt can "grow" in caloric content (kind of like how matter is neither created nor destroyed in a chemical reaction...Lavoisier anyone? anyone? Bueller?).

My pita bread comes with nutritional info, and it says that one serving (half of a pita) is 147 calories. I would assume that you are eating two servings. Hope that helps!

hey, i have this recipe try it out

INGREDIENTS:
100g - Chicken breast, meat only, cooked or roasted 60g - Pita bread, white, unenriched 30ml - Pickles, cucumbers and dill 1/2 cup - Raw Iceberg lettuce (includes criphead types) 1/2 cup - Raw parsley 2 tbsp - Raw onions 1/2 cup - Raw red cabbage 15mL - Falafel King garlic sauce 15mL - Tahini

 

the size of the bred is so important there is one place i go that uses a 100gm pita, at least and alother that uses a 60gram pita,  i know cause i weighed it,  pathetic...sigh. so excited to know it is a healthier choice too!!

I'm in Vancouver and the best shawarma place uses the following approximate ingredients (calorie counts are only approximate):

6 oz chicken (300 cal)

1 whole wheat pita  (170 cal)

tabouli (about 153 gr) (110 cal)

tahini (about 1 oz) (168)

Chili (not sweet) this is optional,  but we don't use a lot of sweet chili here.

This comes to about 750.

Sorry, but the counts of 400-500 just seem really off from reality to me. These have tons of nutrition and are fine to eat, I just think you need to be aware of your calorie balance for the day. 

 

wow the cal counts on these shawarmas are too hard to believe down here in OZ they are 1000 or higher hmm maybe their counting wrong over here, ohwells that dont stop me from wanting chicken shawarma.. gotta love lebanese food :P

Personally, I back the higher cal content for shawarma from take out places, and would lean toward anywhere from 650-1,000. Like anything, you can control for a lower cal version if you are preparing it at home, but I have always associated having take away shawarma as being akin to having any other fast food. Also, they are pretty high in sodium, if thats a concern.

 

They are delicious though, and I'd take one over anything from McDonald's any day of the week! What I will sometimes do is have a shawarma salad. The owners are usually more than willing to add the chicken, tabouli, tahini and vegetables to some iceberg. Just a thought!

I used to live in the midle east and love to make shawarmas at home, they are a great low-cal option:

100 g chicken breast, grilled, spiced with cumin, dried herbs, s&p, chili powder, and garlic (100 cal)

1 whole wheat pita (140)

1 pickle, sliced (0 cal)

1/2 tomato, sliced (15 cal)

3T yogurt sauce (drain 1/4C low-fat yogurt until it is reduced to a thick paste, add in chopped mint, green onions, parsley, garlic, and 1/2 tsp of tahini) (45 cal)

hot sauce (0 cal)

That's a grand total of 300 calories. Most of the shawarma places here use to the same pita I do, except white, so I know it's the same calories...I'd add on about 50 extra calories for the chicken because they use thigh meat, though it's still skinless....and the amount of yogurt sauce on there is so small I would not think it would change the calorie content too much. Maybe the ones other people are talking about are way bigger or something, but the ones in my city (Vancouver) I estimate at 400 calories, and that's only if they give a tablespoon of hummous on there too.

True that, shwarma ain't a big mac interms of calories! hehe

depends on the place and the quality of ingredients used but usually the right way to make it is using a small pita bread, chicken breast meat ( although many mix half breast half thigh meat to make more revenue ) , Garlic sauce ( NO yogurt lol, it is garlic blended with canola oil, and some Americanized restaurants put a bit of boiled/mashed potatoes in it to dilute the sharp garlicy taste a bit ), cucumber or turnip pickles, and NO lettuce or tomato people hehe

i would not think that would exceed 350 calories as the portion of chicken, garlic sauce used is somehow small.

 

to make it great chicken shawarma at home,

1- Slice 1 chicken breast into little stripes. about the size of this hehe

" -----------------------------"

 

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2- chop or mince 3-5 fresh garlic dots and dump in the chicken

3 - Add 3 tble spoons of extra virgin olive oil

4 - add a little bit of hot sauce sriracha works great

5 - add some salt, pepper, and sprinkle some (oregano or thyme) and mix the whole thing and let it marinate for 2 hours.

Buy your garlic sauce/ pickles from some place already made to save yourself the hassle of making it

Grill them chickens in a tefal pan or on any electric grill !

on a pita bread, spread the garlic sauce, put some chicken, pickles,  and get ready to have the best Shawarma you will ever taste!