Chicken shish with toum
Chicken kebabs are ubiquitous all over the Middle East and are one of the easiest things to make for a barbecue. I prefer chicken thighs (it’s much juicier meat) but they are always more ragged; you can cut breast fillets into much neater chunks. Do whichever you prefer. After years of using wooden skewers I now always use metal ones, as they help the meat cook by conducting heat into the centre of the chicken pieces. (You can also use the marinade on whole skinless boneless thighs and just griddle them, if you don’t want to make kebabs.)
Toum is Lebanese garlic purée – quite like a Catalan allioli – and is for serious garlic lovers. The oil has to be added carefully and gradually – just as if you were making mayonnaise – until you have a thick emulsion. It will end up pale, almost snowy looking. It makes a wonderful paste to spread on warm flatbread; just put your skewered chicken on top. This quantity makes more than you need for the recipe but it’s very hard to make it in a food processor in smaller amounts.
Ingrediënten
FOR THE CHICKEN
- 1 kg 2lb 4oz skinless boneless chicken thighs or breasts
- 2 tbsp Aleppo pepper
- 1 tbsp ground coriander
- 1¼ tbsp ground cumin
- juice of 2 lemons
- 8 garlic cloves grated
- 6 tbsp olive oil
- Greek yogurt to serve
FOR THE TOUM
- 4 bulbs of garlic cloves separated and peeled
- 350 ml 12fl oz mixed groundnut and olive oils
- ½ tsp sea salt flakes or more to taste
- juice of 1½ lemons or more to taste
- 100 ml 3½fl oz iced water
Instructies
- Cut the chicken into chunks, about 4 x 2.
- 5cm (1¾ x 1in).
- Put these in a bowl and add the rest of the ingredients.
- Cover and marinate in the fridge for four hours (or longer, if you can).
- Bring to room temperature before cooking.
- For the toum, halve each garlic clove and remove any green shoots inside.
- Put in a food processor and blitz to a purée, stopping the machine to push the garlic down the sides.
- You’re aiming to end up with a smooth purée.
- Now start adding the oil a tiny drizzle at a time, with the motor running, as if you were making mayonnaise, but taking even more care.
- Stop every so often and stir the mixture.
- Add the salt and, still with the motor running, add the lemon juice and iced water.
- Taste.
- You may want more salt or lemon juice.
- Scrape into a bowl.
- Thread the cubes of chicken on to skewers (if you are using thighs make sure you tuck in any extraneous bits).
- You can cook them on either a griddle pan or the barbecue.
- If you’re using the barbecue, put them on to the rack when the flames have died down but the embers are still hot, placing them round the edge.
- It should take about eight minutes to cook them through; you need to turn them as they cook.
- If you’re doing them on the griddle, heat it until it’s very hot, lay the kebabs on it and cook, turning every so often and adjusting the heat, until the chicken is cooked through.
Notes / Tips / Wine Advice:
Serve with warm flatbread, a salad of leaves, cucumbers and tomatoes, Greek yogurt and the toum.
