Marinated Chicken Kebabs from Zaytinya
Looks like something I'd get from a restaurant
It’d be nice to have a good homemade kebab
Time: 3 Hours
Ingredient Availability: 4/5
Difficulty: 1/5
Mediterranean restaurants almost always have good kebabs. They have all kinds of flavors and I have yet to encounter one that wasn’t pretty tasty. This recipe includes a few other recipes that you’ll need to complete this one, so I hope that it’s worth all the effort.
Key Ingredients & Omissions:
While I didn’t leave any ingredients out, I did have some trouble finding the sumac. If you don’t make Mediterranean food often, I wouldn’t be surprised if you had problems finding it, too. If you don’t make the sumac onions, then this won’t be a problem. I think cumin seeds might be a little hard to find, as well. Other than that, I think all the other ingredients should be fairly easy to find. (I accidentally pulled out the tahini, which isn’t used in this recipe.)
Tools:
Skewers
Grill
Food Processor
Cooking Review:
Sumac Onions: 18 Minutes
The sumac onions are pretty easy to make once you have the sumac. After slicing the onions, I put them in a bowl and tossed them with the parsley, vinegar, olive oil, sumac, and salt. I put them in the refrigerator until I was ready to use them.
Toum: 33 Minutes
After peeling about 17 cloves of garlic, I put them into a food processor to chop them up roughly. I squeezed some lemon juice and added it to the garlic along with some salt. I turned the processor on high and drizzled in half of the oil until the garlic became a white paste. I added the rest of the lemon juice and proceeded to drizzle in the rest of the oil while the food processor was on high. I transferred the Toum to a bowl and transferred it to the refrigerator.
Harissa: 1 hour
To make the harissa, I started off by scrubbing a carrot and rubbing it with canola oil. I seasoned it with salt and put it in the oven to roast. In the mean time, sliced the red bell peppers and chopped the chiles. About 15 minutes into the roasting, I added the bell peppers to the carrot in the oven and roasted for another 22 minutes. While the carrot and peppers were roasting, I toasted the spices and blended them to get them ready for later. Once the vegetables were done roasting, I added the carrot to the food processor and pulsed it until it was minced. I added the rest of the ingredients and processed on high until a paste formed.
Preparing Chicken: 8 minutes
To prepare the chicken, I removed the bone and skin. Then, I cut each chicken thigh into quarters.
Marinade: 11 minutes
To make the marinade, I toasted some more spiced in a small pan before using a blender to somewhat grind them up. I put some yogurt in a small bowl and added the spices, olive oil, harissa, and the other marinade ingredients. I stirred in the chicken and let it marinate in the fridge overnight about 12 hours.
Grill Kebabs: 1 hour
Once I took the chicken out of the fridge, I used metal skewers to kind of mimic a flat kebab by using two side by side. I heated a gas grill and grilled the kebabs, flipping occasionally. I also tossed some grape tomatoes in olive oil and salt. I grilled the tomatoes for a few minutes while the chicken cooked. The first kebab with less chicken was done after about 23 minutes. The second kebab took a total of 41 minutes to cook through. At this point, the kebabs were done.
Analysis:
These kebabs were very tasty. On their own, they had plenty of flavor and a nice tanginess to them. The charred edges added a little crispiness, which I enjoyed. The Toum took the kebabs to the next level, adding a great garlicky flavor while not being overpowering. The onions were nice, too. They added some freshness and acidity to the mix, which went well with everything else. The tomatoes were nice, too, just not as great as everything else. I’m going to give this recipe a 9/10. The fact that the sumac is harder to find and that the chicken took a lot longer than the 12 minutes that the recipe would suggest makes it loose one point. Not too bad.
