Yogurt Shawarma Sauce

Name: Yogurt Shawarma Sauce
Prep time: 10 min
Total time: 10 min
Ingredients: 1½ cups Homemade or Greek yogurt; ⅓ cup cucumber ((minced)); 3 cloves garlic ((pressed)); 1 tbsp fresh dill ((diced)); 1 tbsp fresh mint ((diced)); 1 scallion ((diced)); 1 tsp dill weed; 1 tsp salt; 2 tsp fresh lemon juice; 1 tsp lemon zest; 2 tbsp Tahini Sauce ((optional)); 1 tbsp olive oil ((optional))

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Looking to kick up your game with a tasty and healthy dip for your next get-together? This Yogurt Sauce For Chicken isn't really JUST for chicken! Whether you serve it as a dip with veggies, pita bread, or with chicken shawarma, you'll score big with this healthy yogurt sauce recipe!

yogurt sauce for chicken, with carrots and a lime wedge

This recipe should not be confused with garlic sauce or toum (Middle Eastern word for garlic). Although this recipe calls for garlic, it is a yogurt-based sauce that's more similar to Greek tzatziki sauce than toum.

Assyrians make a similar recipe called "treeda" (yogurt with dill and cucumber, eaten over chunks of bread). It is commonly eaten on Wednesdays and Fridays when abstaining from meat.

Treeda also describes other dishes in which stew, such as bamya, is served over bread chunks instead of rice. If this idea sounds strange, consider how we serve spinach dip in a bread bowl with torn pieces of bread on the side. It's really kind of the same thing...

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🧐Why This Recipe Works
🔖Ingredients & Substitutions
🍽How To Make Yogurt Sauce For Chicken
🍗 Serving Suggestions
👩🏼‍🍳Pro Tips
🥘Related Recipes
📖 Recipe
💬 Comments

🧐Why This Recipe Works

This yummy yogurt sauce for chicken has too many uses to mention! It can be used as a salad dressing or as a dipping sauce to go with hot wings, fish sticks, or chicken nuggets.

Better yet, drizzle the yogurt sauce over falafel instead of tahini sauce, or dip a slice of shawarma pizza into the addicting sauce, it's really up to you! All these options are possible and so many more! The only question is, how will you enjoy it?

dipping bread into yogurt sauce for chicken

🔖Ingredients & Substitutions

Yogurt: Use homemade yogurt or a good quality Greek yogurt or Middle Eastern yogurt.
Cucumbers: If possible, use Persian cucumbers or English cucumbers. Not only do they taste better, but they also have better texture and much smaller seeds.
Herbs: Although I include dried dill weed in this recipe, it's the fresh dill that makes all the difference, so don't leave it out. If you don't have fresh mint, you can substitute it with dried mint.
Optional Ingredients: Tahini sauce is often added to shawarma sauce. If you have tahini paste or tahini sauce on hand you can add it to taste. I would start with 1 tablespoon at a time until you achieve the taste you're going for.
Garlic Cloves: Fresh garlic cloves should be used and not substituted with garlic that comes from a jar.
Spices: Although some yogurt sauce recipes call for black pepper, I don't feel that it goes well in this recipe. If you like black pepper and want to add some, feel free to do so. Personally, I would add a pinch of cayenne pepper instead.

🍽How To Make Yogurt Sauce For Chicken

Step 1: Pour yogurt into a large bowl. Add minced cucumber, garlic cloves, freshly chopped dill, fresh mint, scallions, dill weed, salt, fresh lemon juice, and lemon zest. Mix to combine.

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yogurt sauce for chicken with veggies and pita bread

Optional: Mix a few tablespoons of tahini sauce into the yogurt sauce. Once plated, drizzle the yogurt sauce with olive oil.

🍗 Serving Suggestions

This yogurt sauce for chicken can be used as a chicken marinade, thinned to make a salad dressing, or drizzled over kofta kebabs or these yummy skinless chicken thighs.

You can also serve is a dipping sauce with veggies, pita chips, and more!

Wha to serve with yogurt sauce for chicken?

Serve the Yogurt Shawarma Sauce with pita bread, veggies, beef or Lamb Kabobs, or as part of a Shawarma Plate. You can also serve the sauce over grilled chicken breasts or chicken thighs.

Is yogurt good for marinating chicken?

Yogurt sauce makes an excellent marinade for chicken. Yogurt is mixed with spices to make tandoori chicken and also used to make shawarma.

What is shawarma garlic sauce made of?

Shawarma garlic sauce is called Toum (Arabic word for garlic) because the main ingredient is garlic. The pureed garlic sauce also includes lemon juice, neutral tasting oil, and salt, and is thinned out with water.

What is tahini sauce made of?

The main ingredient in tahini sauce is tahini, which is made with ground sesame seeds. Besides tahini, you also need to add lemon juice, fresh garlic, olive oil, and salt. Water is usually used to thin out the sauce.

👩🏼‍🍳Pro Tips

Make sure you buy plain or unflavored yogurt; I have on more than one occasion accidentally grabbed vanilla instead of plain. I suppose this is another good reason to make your own yogurt?
Instead of bottled lemon juice, choose fresh lemon juice instead. You'll also accentuate the lemon flavor by mixing lemon zest into the sauce.
For a pretty presentation, you can sprinkle the sauce with some paprika powder before serving.
Instead of serving this sauce with a chicken shawarma plate, you can make a shawarma wrap using lavash bread. Just load chicken shawarma into lavash bread and add any of the following: sliced tomatoes, onions, lettuce, fries, or hummus and drizzle with the shawarma sauce. Wrap and enjoy!

🥘Related Recipes

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Yogurt Sauce For Chicken