Meals · Main-dish salads

Chicken shawarma crispy rice salad

Name: Chicken shawarma crispy rice salad
Prep time: 25 min
Cook time: 30 min
Total time: 55 min
Yield: 4 servings
Ingredients: 6 thighs chicken thigh; 1 tbsp olive oil; 1 1/2 tsp turmeric; 2 tsp ground cumin; 2 tsp paprika; 1 1/2 tsp ground coriander; 1 tsp salt; 1/2 tsp black pepper; 2 cups cooked white rice, day-old works best; 1 tbsp olive oil; 1 cucumber cucumber, diced; 1 1/2 cups grape tomatoes, halved; 1/2 small red onions, thinly sliced; 3 small reduced sodium dill pickles, chopped; a handful fresh mint, torn; a handful fresh parsley, chopped; 2/3 cup whole-milk Greek yogurt; 2 tbsp tahini; juice of 1 lemon; 2 cloves garlic, grated; 1/4 tsp salt

Fifty million views can't all be wrong: turmeric-spiced chicken thighs over a crunchy salad of cucumber, tomato, herbs, and oven-crisped rice, pulled together with a lemon-tahini yogurt dressing. Mostly vegetables and lean protein — the crunch just makes you forget that.

Time: 55 min (25 prep + 30 cook)
Servings: 4
Per serving: 521 kcal
Protein: 37 g

Both directions are legitimate — the score measures fullness per calorie, not virtue. Every version is the same dish, rebalanced.

Ingredients

Chicken

6 thighs chicken thigh600 g
1 tbsp olive oil14 g
1 1/2 tsp turmeric3 g
2 tsp ground cumin4 g
2 tsp paprika4 g
1 1/2 tsp ground coriander3 g
1 tsp salt5 g
1/2 tsp black pepper1 g

Crispy rice

2 cups cooked white rice, day-old works best400 g
1 tbsp olive oil14 g

Salad

1 cucumber cucumber, diced200 g
1 1/2 cups grape tomatoes, halved200 g
1/2 small red onions, thinly sliced60 g
3 small reduced sodium dill pickles, chopped60 g
a handful fresh mint, torn10 g
a handful fresh parsley, chopped15 g

Dressing

2/3 cup whole-milk Greek yogurt150 g
2 tbsp tahini30 g
juice of 1 lemon30 g
2 cloves garlic, grated6 g
1/4 tsp salt2 g

Every ingredient links to its food page — same data, same score, same formula.

Steps

Toss the chicken thighs with olive oil, turmeric, cumin, paprika, coriander, salt, and pepper. Roast at 220°C (425°F) for 25–30 minutes until browned, then rest and slice.
Spread the rice on a parchment-lined sheet, toss with olive oil and a pinch of salt, and bake alongside the chicken 20–25 minutes, stirring twice, until golden and crisp.
Whisk the dressing: yogurt, tahini, lemon juice, garlic, salt, and enough water to make it pourable.
Toss cucumber, tomatoes, onion, pickles, mint, and parsley in a big bowl. Top with sliced chicken and crispy rice, and drizzle the dressing generously over everything.

Why thighs and not breast?

Shawarma spice wants the extra fat for flavor, and thighs stay juicy at high heat. Breast works and scores higher — the swap panel shows the difference; both are legitimate.

Why this score

solidly filling

No single route carries this one — a moderate amount of protein, volume and fiber.

Three routes to fullness — one is enough

28% of kcal

74% water

8 g/Mcal

What pulls it down

Nothing here converges the way engineered food does — no sugar, no savoury and no alcohol penalty.

How scores work

Computed on the finished dish, not an average of the parts: 2085 kcal goes into the pot, 1811 g of ingredients comes out as ~1580 g of food → 132 kcal per 100 g. Cooking moves water, and energy density is the score's biggest lever — so we show the math. Full formula here.

Per

Calories: 132
Protein: (28%); 9 g
Fat: (40%); 6 g
Carbohydrates: (32%); 10 g
of which sugar: 1 g
Fiber: 1 g
Sodium: 271 mg

Percentages are the share of calories from each macronutrient.

Computed from the ingredients' USDA data — nothing typed by hand. Every number is traceable, every score recomputable.

More meals

Photo: AI-generated. Nutrition and score are computed from the ingredients with the published formula — this recipe hasn't been kitchen-tested by us yet.