Say that title five times fast! :) Yep. It's true. I'm late on this one!!! Oh well! Better than nothing, right? :) This past Tuesday we traveled to...TURKEY!! (and India...and Mexico! We were super cultural this week!!) I have to admit the further I get away from the European area the harder it gets to find things to make that don't involve strange ingredients! I'm all for trying new things, but there are just some things that you can't get easily here...let alone pronounce! This recipe, however, I found with A LOT of research and it's super easy (makes up for that Greek complication last week!!). The woman who posted it said it was from a Turkish BBQ "guru" and boy was it tasty..and who could argue with a guru! So here's how I did it!
TURKISH CHICKEN KEBOBS WITH ALEPPO PEPPER
Serves 4
Ingredients:
1 tablespoon aleppo pepper **
2/3 cups Greek yogurt or plain yogurt (I used fat free plain yogurt)
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 1/3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1 1/3 tablespoons tomato paste
1 1/3 tablespoons kosher salt
2/3 teaspoons black pepper
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 1/3 lemons, 1 thinly sliced and the other cut in wedges
1 1/2 lbs chicken thighs (I used chicken breasts)
**Note:
The aleppo pepper can be made using 2 tsp ground red pepper and 2 tsp paprika. Mix it with 2 tablespoons warm water and allow to sit for 5 minutes until it has formed into a paste.
Simple enough ingredients, right? I made this obviously for Matt and I so I did not use 1 1/2 lbs of chicken breasts. I actually only used two chicken breasts and it still came out perfect. I will admit that this dish is pretty spicy, but according to the reviews if you cut back on the red pepper and add more paprika it's still spicy; just not as bad. Matt and I enjoy spicy things so I followed the recipe and phew...spicy. Kind of made me think about all those times I giggled at my dad for sweating a bit while eating some spicy salsa. The tables were turned my friends! The tables were definitely turned.
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| Paste |
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| Adding that olive oil |
The first thing I did was mix together the pepper and paprika to make the paste. I set it aside for the 5 minutes to let it mix well together. Meanwhile, I started mixing together all of the marinade ingredients. I think the great thing about this recipe is that the chicken only has to marinate for about 15-20 minutes. Of course you could let it sit in it all day, but I just liked the fact that you could make this on a busy weeknight and still have the wonderful flavor of it sitting for a long time. Anyway! The marinade is the
yogurt, olive
oil, red wine vinegar, tomato paste, 2 teaspoons kosher salt and 1
teaspoon black pepper. You stir in the Aleppo paste, then add in the garlic and lemon slices. Set it aside.
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| No cross contamination here, folks! |
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| Marinade for chicken |
Next thing I did was pour some marinade into two different bowls--one was to be used while the chicken was cooking and the other was for extra sauce. I then chopped up the chicken. I cubed each breast into about 2 inch cubes. Big enough to withstand being put onto a skewer. Mixed the chicken into the marinade and popped it into the refrigerator. While I waited, I made a salad and a rice pilaf to go alongside the chicken....and perhaps had a few sips from my wine. :)
After the time was up for the chicken, I took each piece and put them onto skewers. I was able to get nine pieces on two skewers and eight on the other two. Time to grill!!! They cooked up pretty quick because they were small pieces. I would say it took about 10 minutes total. I used one of the reserved marinade bowls to brush them during cooking so they wouldn't dry out.
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| Sizzle sizzle! |
The finished product was delicious!!! And although it may not have been super, 100% authentic...it still was really easy and tasty. It even got a "you need to keep that recipe!" seal of approval from my guinea pig. :) The calorie count was about 160 calories for a serving. And the leftover chicken was great on a salad that I had this weekend.
I hope you enjoyed the tasty "trip" to Turkey!! I'm not really sure what country will be next for this week (still planning the menu!), but I will definitely share! Bye for now!!!! :)
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