Restaurant Style Beef Shawarma (Pressure Cooker)

Learn how to make restaurant style beef shawarma right in your pressure cooker! This uses my homemade shawarma seasoning and tastes incredible! 

Alright. Let’s get serious about our food today. I’ve been dying to share this beef shawarma recipe with you ever since I put the homemade seasoning up last week. That’s right, I sat on this for a whole week – that’s like 6 whole servings of this stuff that we polished off between the two of us. Don’t even ask how that happened. One minute it’s all there and the next, it’s gone. Food like this has a way of disappearing on us.

It’s a serious problem.

Let’s start today with a homemade pita loaded with ridiculously simple yet delicious shredded beef shawarma meat that’s as easy as just loading everything into the pressure cooker. When it’s done, drizzle it with a garlic mayo, pile on the pickles, sliced tomatoes, and onions.

Basically your favorite shawarma joint brought home to you.

I’m not going to tell you this is the best beef shawarma meat ever but it kinda sorta is.

Let’s jump right in shall we?

This all starts with the homemade shawarma seasoning. I’m not going to tell you you can’t use store-bought seasoning, because you can. I’m just going to put it out there that homemade seasoning is pretty freakin’ amazing. We use ingredients like garlic powder, all spice, cloves, cinnamon, and nutmeg. No need to feel intimidated, it’s all basic spices you’ll find at your grocery store. Plus, it makes a ton. Like enough to make this beef shawarma recipe 7 times. But then you can also make other things like crispy roasted chickpeas with this seasoning and even season weeknight dinners with it.

Next comes the marinade. We’ll use a few tablespoons of the homemade seasoning combined with vinegar, salt, and olive oil. Also! Garlic cloves. Like 4-5 of them. Make little ‘x’ marks and wedge them into the meat. Garlic is a tenderizer so guess what? That meat is going to be un-for-get-able!

Then we’re just gonna let it all hang out in the refrigerator for at least 8 hours and up to 24 hours. This is one of those recipes where i’m going to really encourage you to let it sit for the whole 24 hours if possible. Plan ahead, it’s soo worth it! The seasonings really work their way into the meat and you’re left with super tender shredded beef that’s loaded with all those middle eastern spices.

And now, just sear the beef in your instant pot and toss in a little more vinegar and beef broth so the meat doesn’t dry out. Once the meat is done, just shred it and you can serve it straight from the pressure cooker and make these beef shawarma bowls or load the meat into pitas.

I like to do one additional step that makes these ever more delicious. Just load the meat onto an oiled baking sheet and drizzle it with some of that cooking liquid before popping it under the broiler for a few minutes. The broiler gives the beef shawarma meat that same crispy outer crust you get when it’s hanging vertically at your favorite shawarma spot.

Finally, loaded it all into a pita with your favorite toppings. I like to combine a little mayo with garlic powder to make a quick garlic mayo to drizzle on top because I NEED sauce on pretty much everything.

Noteworthy – you can make a double batch of the beef shawarma meat, shred, and freeze half in zip top bags for later. You know in case of a shawarma emergency or something. We seem to have those often.

These need to happen – like, right now!

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Yield: 6-8 servings

Restaurant Style Beef Shawarma (Pressure Cooker)

Prep Time 5 minutes

Cook Time 1 hour 10 minutes

Total Time 1 hour 15 minutes

Learn how to make restaurant style beef shawarma right in your pressure cooker! This uses my homemade shawarma seasoning and tastes incredible! 

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Ingredients

• 2 - 2 1/2 pound beef chuck (trimmed of excess fat)
• 4-5 clove garlic
• 3 tablespoons homemade shawarma seasoning
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 4 tablespoons white vinegar, divided
• 2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
• 1 cup beef broth

To serve:

• pitas, garlic mayo, onions, tomatoes, pickles, french fries

Instructions

1. Take the beef chuck roast and using a small paring knife, made 4-5 small 'x' marks into the meat. Take the garlic cloves and insert one into each of the 'x' marks pushing them in as deep as it'll go.
2. Combine the shawarma seasoning, salt, 2 tablespoons of vinegar,  and 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a small bowl. Massage this paste onto the meat evenly on all sides. Cover and refrigerate for at least 8 hours and ideally for 24 hours.
3. When you're ready to cook, add the remaining tablespoon of oil to the instant pot on the sauté setting or in a regular pressure cooker. Sear the meat for about 6-8 minutes turning as require to brown all sides. Add the beef broth and the remaining 2 tablespoons of vinegar to the instant pot. Cover and hit the 'beef/stew' button and let cook for 60-65 minutes depending on the thickness of the meat (mine took exactly 65 minutes). Allow the pressure to release naturally or turn to the 'vent' setting if you're impatient like me.
4. Shred the meat using two forks. If you don't want to crisp up the outside, let the meat rest for 10 minutes in the juices. If you want it crisp, preheat the broiler and spray a baking sheet with nonstick spray. Add the shredded meat in a single layer to the baking sheet drizzle in 1/4 cup of the juices and place under the broiler for 5-7  minutes keeping any eye on it and tossing with tongs after 2-3 minutes. The idea it to crisp *just* the outside.

Notes

1. Round bottom roast would be a good substitute for chuck roast.
2. Freeze the leftover meat in zip top bags or make bowls out of them!
3. This would also work in the slow cooker. I would sear the meat in a deep skillet and then pop it all into a slow cooker on the low setting for 6-8 hours or until the meat shreds easily with two forks. You could make it on high as well but the meat probably won't be as tender.

Have you made this recipe?

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