Shawarma Marinade Recipe

Whenever my wife goes out of town I make lamb. She is not a fan of the lamb and my son and I very much are. What I am not a fan of is paying a for lamb. Thankfully, there is Costco.

Costco boneless leg of lamb

Costco sells boneless leg of lamb for $6.50 a pound. A pretty good deal, especially when ground beef creeps up those prices. The lamb I got had a fair amount of fat which I trimmed off, but still used. I slipped in pieces of fat in between the meat to keep the meat juicy on the grill.

Marinade ingredients

I found a recipe online that really sang to me. Shoutout to the Food Dictator for guiding me to this pungent, flavorful deeply satisfying marinade. I didn’t use nearly all the ingredients they listed but feel free to check that out here.

I focused on what I had in the pantry, which ended up being most of what I needed. I even found a reason to use up some caraway seeds that have been sitting around for far too long but I’m too cheap to toss out.

A relatively simple process

Once you sort out all the spices and cut up the lamb, the process is simple and quick. In an ideal world I would have toasted and ground the spices but I was lazy and used pre ground. It still tasted powerfully pungent though.

The first cook

I marinated the lamb for about 24 hours. I wanted to grill the kabobs over a live fire; hardwood charcoal. But off and on rain had other ideas. I ended up using my Traeger Timberline.

The results were surprising. I got great color and the lamb tasted fantastic. But I didn’t cook everything and I still wanted to cook these kabobs over a live fire.

The second cook

There is something magical about cooking over a live fire. I find it mesmerizing. I was very glad to have cooked this a second time because I walked away with some stunning conclusions.

One was that there wasn’t much of a difference flavor wise or cook wise. I would have thought that the live fire version would taste smokier but it really didn’t. In fact I think the char came out better on the Traeger.

The second conclusion was that 24 hours is plenty of marinating time. The 48 hour batch wasn’t necessarily tastier and I want to say it may have been too long in an acidic marinade because it was extra soft. I should add that these kabobs were very very tender. And leg of lamb often is not.

Final thoughts and recipe

This dish might be fav lamb recipe ever. The flavors of the marinade elevate a somewhat challenging cut like leg of lamb and it comes out very tender. Pair it with some tahini sauce, hummus and a mixed green lentil salad and you have a meal worthy of a special occasion. Or the next time your wife leaves town.

Recipe & Ingredients

4lb boneless leg of lamb, trimmed of hard fat, reserved and cut into 2″ cubes
6-8 cloves minced garlic
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup white wine vineger
1/2 lemon juice
2 tsp Za’atar
2 tsp ground cardamom
2 tsp ground coriander
2 tsp ground cinnamon
2 tsp ground cloves
2 tsp ground cumin
2 tsp ground caraway
2 tsp ground cinnamon
2 tsp ground caraway
2 tsp ground white pepper
2 tsp ground turmeric
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

Steps

mix all ingredients well and add lamb. Marinate no more than 24 hours. Thread lamb on skewers(don’t toss the fat!). Grill over medium high heat until cooking temp of 135-145 degrees. Serve with tahini sauce, hummus, lentil salad.