Lebanese thrill

Kandla Nijhowne

I call April the ‘grilling-season’. The grilling heat hasn’t quite arrived, yet enjoying smoky grilled foods with a chilled beer or an iced tea still sound appealing. Shish taouk is a Middle- Eastern chicken dish. Skewers of marinated chicken are skewered, then grilled over a live coal fire. It differs from our chicken tikka, essentially due to the copious amounts of garlic, lemon juice and herbs in the marinade. Sumac powder is essential to a shish taouk recipe.

Chicken shish taouk 

The ingredients 

• 300 gm chicken breast, cut into cubes
• 2½ tbsp olive oil
• 3 tbsp thick tomato puree
• 4 tbsp thick yogurt
• 3 tbsp minced garlic
• 2 tbsp lemon juice
• 1¼ tsp cumin seeds (jeera)
• 2 tbsp sumac
• ¾ tsp dried thyme
• 1¼ paprika
• ¼ tsp each nutmeg and cinnamon powder
• Salt & pepper

Method

• In a deep bowl, combine the yogurt, olive oil, lemon juice and tomato puree along with the herbs, spices, salt and pepper.
• Toss the chicken into the marinade, coat well and keep covered in the refrigerator for 8 hours.
• Remove from fridge and arrange on skewers.
• Grill for 4-5 minutes on each side, or until they emit a smoky aroma.
• Serve hot with extra wedges of lemons.

Note: You can choose to intersperse the chicken chunks with zucchini, onions, baby corn or peppers. Pita bread and hummus are favourite accompaniments. An electric grill can be used instead of a coal fired barbecue.

(Nijhowne is a Chandigarh-based culinary expert)