Tasty Chicken for Kebabs
Introduction
Kebabs, whether they are beef kebabs, chicken kebabs, or lamb kebabs are a popular dish, most notably with middle eastern food. Kebabs go well with many side dishes including basmati rice, broiled tomato, vegetable, or a salad. Let’s be honest they can go well with just about anything.
A little bit of facts about kebabs, they originate in Central Asia among the transhumant people , in fact the word kebab is a Farsi (Persian) word for “to roast” or “to fry”. Kebabs date back to far enough in time that soldiers would grill meat over an open fire using their sword as a skewer. This may have dated back to as far back as the 9th century A.D.
Fast forward to today and kebabs have had an influence on food world wide. Various countries in the middle east, Europe, and Asia have some form of food roasted on a skewer over an open flame. In Turkey, the word kebab is used to describe any grilled meat. They eat a version of kebabs with meat with a side of garlic sauce, fries, gouda cheese, and salad. In China they do fruit candied kebabs over an open flame and sell them on the street.
Now, how is the best way to prepare and cook kebabs? Although the methods I use may not align with history, my goal with any type of meat is to get it as tender as possible. In my opinion, few things are worse than biting into a tasty cut of meat that makes me feel like I need jaw surgery when I’m done.
In this recipe we are preparing chicken kebabs. I don’t want to assign this to any particular country because this is my own recipe. I prepare it how I know it will taste good and people will be wanting to come back for more.
Let’s start with the right cut of chicken. Since I like my meat tender, I am going to choose boneless skinless chicken thighs. You get the benefit of the tender nature of dark meat plus the rich poultry flavor that comes along with it. I choose Greek yogurt for marinating this meat to make it slightly more tender and combined with multiple spices, it will come out tasting really good.
Do you want to make the chicken taste even better? I think it’s always good to prepare a dipping sauce to go with it. My favorite dipping sauce is Lebanese Garlic Sauce. Recipe will be uploaded to this website soon and you can find the link on this page.
Anyway, I hope you enjoy this chicken as much as my family and I do. Comment below if you have any questions or anything to say. Please also follow me on Instagram and TikTok @joshsworldkitchen.
Ingredients
- 2 pounds of boneless skinless chicken thigh chopped into kebab size pieces
- Enough Greek Yogurt to cover all the chicken, about half a cup
- 2 lemon quarters
- Generous amounts of garlic powder
- Kosher salt to taste
- Freshly ground black pepper to taste
- Skewers
- Additional vegetables you want on skewers with chicken
Instructions
- Place chopped chicken into a mixing bowl
- Add just enough Greek yogurt to cover the chicken, combine with hands
- Squeeze lemon quarters over the chicken
- Sprinkle generous amount of garlic powder over the chicken
- Sprinkle Kosher salt and black pepper over chicken
- Combine all ingredients into chicken using hands
- Sprinkle additional garlic powder, kosher salt, and pepper as needed, combine again
- Place chicken mix into fridge for 2 to 8 hours
- Preheat gas grill to medium heat
- Place chicken onto skewers and place any additional vegetables you want on skewers
- Place skewers on grill and grill all sides until chicken is cooked/charred on all sides
- Serve over basmati rice and dip into a sauce such as Lebanese Garlic sauce
Enjoy!