People simply don’t expect much from their grilled chicken, and
that’s exactly what they get. They use too little seasoning, and way too much
time on the grill, followed by the inevitable barbecue sauce cover-up. Sure,
the chicken was dry, but at least we couldn’t taste it.
It doesn’t have to be this way. By using a flavorful,
yogurt-based marinade, like the one seen herein, even inexperienced grillers
can produce impressive results. The acid and calcium in the yogurt tenderizes
the meat, and unless it’s horribly over-cooked, you’ll be enjoying the kind of
succulent chicken you didn’t even realize was possible.
Like I mentioned in the video, I’m not sure how "Turkish"
this is. It’s loosely based on a lamb marinade I’ve used for a long
time, but it really worked beautifully on these thighs. I really hope you give this
easy, and very adaptable recipe a try soon. Enjoy!
Ingredients for 4 large portions:
1 cup plain whole milk Greek yogurt
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 or 3 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
2 tbsp ketchup
6 finely minced garlic cloves
1 tbsp kosher salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 tbsp Aleppo red pepper flakes
1 teaspoon paprika
1 1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/8 teaspoon cinnamon
2 1/2 pounds boneless skinless chicken thighs
4 long metal skewers
41 comments:
What's the bread called you served it on?
I'm giving this recipe a grade A SLOBBER.
Here in Germany, getting anything Turkish is easy, with all the Turkish expatriots. My veggie dealer is a Turk. The one thing that is hard to get is deboned chicken thigh. For some reason, my fellow Germans are attached to dry overcooked chicken breast. And deboning a chicken thight isn't that easy. S-th-igh.
To make this more Turkish, I'll use Pul Biber (a prepared Aleppo pepper mix with a little salt) and a more authentic onion salat called Soğan Salatası.
Which goes like this: Mix sliced onion and salt. Let it sit 15 min in a colander. Wash. Dry. (All to make the onions milder.) Mix with persil and sumach. Optional: add lemon juice and olive oil. Let it sit a while. Serve decorated with additional sumach.
Sumach is probably not widely known in the States and may be hard to get. But it's worth the effort.
This looks amazing with some homemade hummus I just put together the other night! Chef John - if I wanted to add some veggies to the skewers to get grilled along with the chicken, is there anything you could recommend that might be finished around the same time? I was thinking some red onion chunks or green peppers might go well.
Thanks again for another great video!
While I'm no BBQ expert, given the heat of the average grill and the length of time (at least 10 minutes) the chicken pieces need to really cook through... There are very few, if any, vegetables that would be suitable. Consider this: in a pan, over significantly lower heat, (red) onion is done in about 5 minutes. Same goes for peppers, mushrooms or fruit. You could consider adding some hard root vegetables like carrots, turnips or sweet potatoes, but who would want to eat that?
Made it tonight with a 6 hr marinade time. Fantastic. The only thjng I changed was to subout the chilli for a combo of chipolte and paprika.
If you want grilled veggies for kabobs simply skewer each veggie on its own skewer and grill separately. Try to time it so everything comes off at the same time.
Just my $.02
Instead of 2 skewers, use Turkish skewer which are flat, about 1/8th inch wide. They prevent the meats from rotating on the skewer.
I dont have a grill, is there anything that would discourage me from using a broiler with this recipe? Slightly worried about how the yogurt marinade would handle under a broiler...
I'm in the market for a new grill and I like that yours has cast iron grates and is charcoal, two features I'm looking for. But you never seem to show more than the cook surface, and if you've spoken at any length about it here I can't find it. Would you mind talking a little bit about the grill you're using? Thank you!
It's a "Weber Q" but they don't make the charcoal version anymore!
Hashtag ARGH! Thank you for the info. Guess I've gotta keep looking. And what a terrible task it is, grill shopping. ;)
Their gas grill has a cast iron grate, though not the same grilling experience. I bought a cast iron grate for my Weber Kettle...not cheap, but works great.
This is the best new recipe I have tried for a long time. Thank you so much (now, I am sure, you suspect as much), here comes the crabbiness:
Not just you, but everybody, everybody, everybody who does summertime recipes, assumes that as well as “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness” all Americans, even those tragically not American, own an outdoor grilling mechanism that may be brought into play all summer, all the time. To not own one of these devices is not just weird and wrong, it is, at best, inconceivable.
Alas, we need to reconceive: grill-dom, either gas or charcoal, is not within ambit of all, Americans and otherwise. Meaning to say, lots of folks don’t have these things, mostly because they live where they can’t use them. Alas, like me, evidence of recipe sites probably makes me/them feel that their summertime culinary adventures must be severely restricted because there is something tragic and wrong (embarrassing?) about their/our without-grill lifestyle. We get sad. We think we don’t count. This is tragic.
I thought I would try to break out of this sense of pathetic inconsequentiality. I used your very delicious and toothsome chicken recipe marinated in yogurt, for the outdoor grill, and cooked it at high temperatures on in a ridged cast iron pan on my gas stove. And it worked a charm!
I think that maybe some of us who cannot do outdoor grilling have lost a certain amount of spirit and (let’s face the French) je ne sais quois, have lost the sense of personal legitimacy, integrity and pride to say: “Can I do that some other way besides on a grill?”
In your future grilling recipes, can you lead non-grill owners out of the wilderness of general personal unfulfillment? Somehow? Please?
My first recommendation wold be to move somewhere where you can grill, otherwise, ANY grill recipe can be done under a broiler, as that's nothing more than an upside-down grill! Good luck!
How many chicken thigh should i use in this recipe?
Delicious! Made last night, marinated for 4 hours. Like the zip from the pepper flakes!
Is there something i could sub for the cumin? I made this tonight and it was well received, but I personally dont enjoy cumin that much so id love to get a recommendation for an alternate ingredient, because otherwise i really liked the marinade. Maybe next time ill do just 1/2 tsp instead or just eliminate it altogether.
it is called indian kebab chef cause in Turkey they got no such ingredients. anyway i made it and it tasted awesome. thank you
I made this tonight with chicken breast because that is what I had lots of. With the marinade it is harder dry out the breast meat. The result was delicious, very moist and flavourful.
Amazing! I made this for a BBQ party and it was an instant hit. I cooked about 30-35 min in total but the thermometer is the way to go. I also asked the butcher to leave the skin on which gave more flavor to the chicken and did not come out rubbery at all. Chicken was tender, moist, flavourful and well seasoned. Will definitely do this recipe again! Thanks!
Well, I just did a run over to Charlotte, NC, for my rare-and-hard-to-find items that your video recipes have caused me to lose all self-will and go buy ....
"Aleppo Chili Flakes" was a no-go. Not at The Fresh Market, or the huge Harris Teeter. The only chili flakes I could find had seeds, so ...
As a substitute - which would you recommend?
Ancho chili powder?
crushed red pepper?
smoked paprika?
ground chipotle?
plain chili powder?
I made this for my family last night, and it was immediately dubbed a 'keeper'. I served it exactly as shown, with lavosh, hummus, tzatziki, and vegetables. I also made a rice pilaf. My teen-aged boys gorged themselves on it. I had the (minimal) leftovers for lunch today, and it was still very, very good. Thank you - I will be making this every couple weeks.
What should be the grill temperature? (If I was to put a grill thermometer right where the meat is going to be?
Fantastic. While we were enjoying this at dinner my wife asked if it took long to make. I answered that it took a little longer than it normally would, only because it was the first time I made it. My 14 year-old daughter immediately said, "Well I hope it's not the last!" Thanks for a great recipe.
I am Turkish and this is the exact recipe I use for marinating my oven cooked chicken wings. The ingredients are the same, I just eyeball how much of each to use. My husband is a grill master and he also uses this marinating sauce for lamb kebabs or "kuzu şiş" as we say. It's always a hit! I'll second the commenter about sumac though, onions taste way better with it. In restaurants kebab is always served with "bulgur pilavı".
I was actually here to learn how to make pie but wanted to comment as I think you nailed this recipe. I love how food brings people together.
Tried out today.. loved it..Thanks for the awesome recipe!!!
would pork tenderloin work in this recipe? doyathink?
Why don't you post recipe instructions? What would be really nice is to have a print version with photo, ingredients, instructions and a QR code linked to the youtube video.
2 questions (or... maybe 1 question and 1 request). My wife absolutely insists on my using chicken breasts. Would it be a horrible thing to sub the 1tbsp kosher salt with +Martin+ (...ahem) tender quick (my grandfather always brined his chicken -- smoked or otherwise with that stuff and it always turned out great... but I learned the hard way that one has to be careful because of the salt content. 1tbsp couldn't hurt, could it?)?
2nd... wow -- that bread! I can't find a recipe for it on your site. Most of the stuff I find online refers to "Lavash" bread as Armenian "cracker bread" -- i.e. crisp and crunchy like a cracker. That is clearly NOT what you are using. I wanna know how to make it myself. Thanks in advance.
+Michael Hagberg, All of Chef John's recipes can be found on allrecipes.com -- fully transcribed with printable instructions (including photos). This recipe + http://allrecipes.com/recipe/244632/turkish-chicken-kebabs/?internalSource=hub%20recipe&referringContentType=search%20results&clickId=cardslot%201
Chef Jonh, for a camping trip...what if I wanted to do the marinade minus the oil and yogurt, and freeze the chicken with it. Then let it slowly thaw in the cooler, and the day planed to eat it, add the yogurt and oil to continue to marinade. Would that work?
I thank you for sharing your skill!
Lavash is the tortilla looking breadstuff.
Would kefir work instead of yogurt??
Made this today along with your Persian rice recipe (which is now a family favourite). Was awesome - thanks chef!
maryamkaleem.blogspot.com
Heya Chef John! Long time viewer, never commented on the Blog though.
I made this last week, and I can't believe I've never messed with yogurt based marinades before. So delicious and easy, and the chicken came out absolutely perfectly. I whipped up a yogurt sauce with grated cucumber, lemon juice and chive (the only thing currently doing AMAZING in my garden following our beautiful Buffalo winter).
Super good and I'll make it again.
Also, your Garlic and Herb shrimp recipe came in handy for my pretty-much-vegetarian mother. We all loved those, too.
Thanks!
I don't care that this might not be "Turkish" but it is most definately addicting!!! Aleppo smeppo, I found red chili flakes worked well. But to be fair I will check on Amazon for this spice.��
I made this dish tonight, and it was a HUGE hit. I followed the recipe about 95%, but instead of grilling them I broiled them in the oven (logistical issue with the backyard being renovated). That said, they came out beautifully browned top and bottom because I turned them over halfway through the cooking (really easy with the double skewer method inside of an empty lasagna pan so as to catch all of the juices), and 165 degrees inside - perfectly done but still moist and juicy. SUPER DELICIOUS. Because of the amount of guests and the amount of chicken, I ended up with three "double Kebabs". Serving them was a breeze - I cut them the long way down the middle (making six "single Kebabs"), and told the guests that each Kebab was to be shared (serving 10 with two left over). My wife was totally skeptical while I was making them, and then said that it was one of the best things I had cooked in living memory. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
I used kefir instead of turkish yoghurt, its a must try! And use tomatoe paste ;)
I used kefir instead of turkish yoghurt, its also delish! Oh and i used tomato paste as well ^^
I put them on the grill and have received way too many compliments to change anything, Thank you Chef John!
Perfect!! 7 hour soak, a gas drill made it hard to dry out the yogurt
Post a Comment