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00:00 Hello this is Chef John from foodwishes.com with Turkish chicken kebabs.
00:06 That's right I said chicken kebab not chicken kebab. When I think kebab I think
00:11 chunks of overcooked meat separated by pieces of undercooked vegetable and so
00:15 I'm not really into those. But this kebab on the other hand is all meat all the
00:19 time and I think far superior. And as you can see from this total spoiler of a
00:23 picture we're still gonna be getting our veggies so don't worry. And like almost
00:26 all my favorite grilling recipes this thing features big flavors with a very
00:30 small amount of effort. So let's go ahead and get started with the marinade. So for
00:34 that we are gonna need some Turkish style yogurt which you probably can't
00:37 find. But what you can find in every supermarket is Greek yogurt so we'll use
00:42 that. And then to that we'll add some olive oil along with some freshly
00:45 squeezed lemon juice. And do I need to keep telling you that? Is anyone not
00:49 using fresh lemons? I mean unless you work at some kind of weather station in
00:52 Antarctica you really don't have an excuse. And then we want to do a little
00:56 touch of tomato product. I believe in the original recipe called for tomato paste
01:00 but because I'm an American I reserved the right to use ketchup which really
01:04 does work beautifully. We're also gonna want a large amount of minced garlic as
01:08 well as a generous amount of kosher salt. And of course it's good friend freshly
01:12 ground black pepper. We're also gonna spice this up with some chili flakes and
01:16 I'm using Aleppo chili flakes because it is from the Middle East so it seems
01:20 appropriate. But any hot chili flake will work. And then we'll finish off our
01:24 seasonings with a little bit of paprika as well as some ground cumin. And then
01:29 last but not least everybody's favorite secret ingredient cinnamon. And then
01:33 let's take a whisk and give this a mix. And this will be the perfect time to
01:36 admit I'm not really sure how Turkish this recipe is. I don't really do a lot
01:40 of research or any research but I am based on this on a Turkish lamb
01:44 marinade that I've used for years. Plus we've never called anything Turkish
01:47 before so that's what I went with. But anyway like I said we'll mix that up and
01:52 once that's set we'll simply set that aside and move on to the chicken. And I'm
01:56 gonna be using boneless skinless chicken thighs for this. Why anyone would want to
02:00 do this with chicken breast is beyond me. But having said that you are the kiboss
02:04 of your kebab so you use whatever you want. But I am going with the thighs. And
02:08 you can if you want certainly use these chicken thighs whole. But I generally
02:12 like to cut them in half I think it works out a little better. So as you can
02:15 see I'm gonna split these pieces in two. And then once our thighs have been cut
02:19 up we can go ahead and toss that in the marinade. But not all at once. All right
02:24 I'm sure you've heard me say this before but chicken thighs are famous for all
02:27 their nooks and crannies. So if we just dump it all in at once and try to mix it
02:30 up there may be some nooks and or crannies that don't get enough marinade.
02:34 So I do take an extra minute and make sure each piece is getting thoroughly
02:37 coated. And once we are confident that's happened we will wrap that up and we'll
02:42 let that marinate in the fridge from anywhere between two and eight hours. So
02:47 ideally I like to do this the morning of the day we're gonna grill. But yes you
02:50 can leave it overnight. But when it comes to yogurt based marinades I'm always a
02:54 little scared to let them go too long. So I am recommending two to eight hours.
02:58 After which we can pull it out and begin the impelling process. And I'm gonna use
03:03 some metal skewers for this. And not just one we're gonna use two metal skewers
03:08 per kebab. And that's gonna give us increased stability and a little better
03:12 maneuverability on the grill. And of course because we are using two skewers
03:16 we've basically doubled the chances you will accidentally give your hand the old
03:20 polka polka. So be careful as you're doing this. And please note how we're
03:24 putting these on here. Okay we're doing them a flat way kind of side to side so
03:29 that we can fit a lot more meat onto one kebab. Which is gonna give us this nice
03:32 thick gorgeous log of chicken as opposed to just a few chunks. And I really didn't
03:38 do any trimming to these chicken thighs. But if you do see a little piece of
03:41 anything weird go ahead and pull it off. And the other nice thing about stacking
03:44 these kind of side to side like this is not only are we gonna get a larger mass
03:49 of meat to grill, which means more caramelization on the outside and a more
03:53 tender juicy inside, but we've also created tons of cracks and crevices
03:57 which are gonna help absorb all that beautiful smoky flavor from the grill.
04:00 And once those are set we'll just clean up our plate a little bit. And of course
04:05 our hands and any surface that touched raw chicken. And if you want you can just
04:09 wrap this up and leave in the fridge until your grill is ready. But mine was
04:12 ready. So I'm gonna head out back and toss these on a charcoal grill. And one
04:17 huge tip here. Yogurt based marinades are incredible but they love to stick. So do
04:23 not even think of turning this over for at least three or four minutes. All right
04:27 we need some serious crustification first. Otherwise you may tear your
04:31 chicken. So I let mine go for like I said at least three or four minutes until I
04:35 could kind of feel it was releasing from the grill. At which point we'll flip that
04:38 over. And even though it may stick a little bit here and there that's not too
04:43 bad. And then the same drill for the other side basically. Let it go for three
04:47 or four minutes before you try to turn it. And then after that all bets are off.
04:50 You can continue to cook that, flip it around as you see fit, until it reaches
04:55 your desired level of doneness. And to be safe I'm gonna suggest you use a
04:58 thermometer. And one nice thing because we did line up that chicken side by side.
05:02 We have a little more room for error than your traditional chicken kebab.
05:06 Which are usually just smaller chunks of chicken which really can overcook
05:09 quickly. So if you do happen to leave these on a couple extra minutes you
05:12 should still be pretty good. And by the way you know when the tiny scraps that
05:16 are attached to the grill taste awesome. That this is gonna be good. But anyway
05:22 like I said we will cook that to our desired level of doneness. At which point
05:25 we'll head back inside and transfer these on to our platter. And I like to
05:29 transfer it right onto some lavash. I mean why have those amazing juices
05:33 dripping on the platter when they could be soaking into something we can eat. And
05:37 then of course as they say man cannot live by chicken and bread alone. So we're
05:41 gonna go ahead and surround this with some very delicious and appropriate
05:43 garnishes. Which as you can see includes cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, some
05:48 parsley and onions, as well as some fresh lemon. And that Turkish chicken kebab
05:52 platter is done. You know I'm no food stylist. I prove that almost every video.
05:57 But this really is something that takes very little effort to make look gorgeous.
06:00 And at this point there's nothing left to do except to de-skewer these and eat.
06:05 And man is it succulent. Forget the amazing flavor from all those spices.
06:08 There's something about a yogurt based marinade that just makes the best
06:12 grilled meat. It just comes out so moist and tender. Just absolutely gorgeous. And
06:16 if you want you can eat this in big chunks dinner plate style. But what I
06:20 like to do is kind of chop it up a little bit and use it in what I call a
06:24 Turkish taco. And what that is is a piece of lavash I've warmed on the grill. And
06:28 I'll swipe that with a little bit of hummus before topping it with some
06:31 chicken. And then we'll go ahead and garnish with some cucumber and some
06:34 tomato and some onion and parsley of course. And then I think the best way to
06:38 finish this is with a spoon of cold yogurt sauce. Our tzatziki sauce would be
06:43 perfect here. Although apparently I'm supposed to pronounce it zat-zee-kee. But
06:47 that feels awkward. But what doesn't feel awkward is to finish this with an extra
06:51 pinch of chili flakes. And we'll roll that up. And that my friends is something
06:55 you definitely want to eat. Just such an incredibly delicious bite of food. And by
06:59 the way I've been experimenting with some new voice activated lavash. Check
07:03 this out. I say open. Huh. Oh you know what I'm using the wrong line. Open says
07:10 me. There we go. That's better. But anyway all kidding aside this really did come
07:15 out fantastic. And for a technique that's so simple it really does produce
07:19 beautiful delicious grilled chicken. So I really do hope you give this a try.
07:23 Head over to foodwishes.com for all the ingredient amounts and more info as
07:26 usual. And as always, enjoy!
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