Tangy, creamy and bursting with the flavors and aroma of herbs, these grilled chicken skewers can be enjoyed with pita or rice.
Grilled skewered meat is found all over the world. The marinade and seasonings differ, and so does the name of the dish — sate / satay in Southeast Asia, yakitori and yakiton in Japan, barbecue in the Philippines, souvlaki in Greece, arrosticini in the Italian regions of Molise and Abruzzo, shashlik in Georgia in the Caucasus Mountains, sosatie in South Africa… In the Middle East and the Mediterranean, it is kebab — shish kebab to be more accurate.
Which among these grilled skewered meat dishes came first? Kebab is the ancestor. But the birth of kebab is not synonymous with the invention of skewering cut up pieces of meat and placing the skewers over fire or glowing ember. That happened much, much earlier.
While it’s difficult to determine exactly when humans started to cut meat into small pieces, and skewered the pieces for cooking, it is logical to assume that it happened after humans learned to control fire and had developed a cutting tool that can cut an animal into portions and then into pieces small enough to thread with a skewer.
By the time the dish was known as kebab, humans had learned to season and marinate the meat before skewering and grilling. In other words, kebab is, essentially, a refinement of a primitive food and cooking method.
Where was this refined version of grilled skewered meat first cooked? The Middle East. Some historians pinpoint Turkey but that might just be because the origin of the word kebab has Turkish roots. The thing is, a similar word had been in the Persian language since the 12th century from which the Turkish kebab was most likely derived. In Encyclopedia of Jewish Food, historian Gil Marks cites a famous but “usually mistranslated” quatrain in Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám (c. 1100 CE) that mentions a loaf of bread, a flask of wine and kabob.
We’ll probably never know for sure where kebab was born. Perhaps, it was in Turkey. Maybe, in Persia (modern-day Iran). What’s more interesting is how kebab wound up as far as Asia where it became yakitori and sate / satay. From what I’ve read, the spread of kebab can be attributed to three things:
- Trade (especially via the ancient Silk Road);
- Spread of Islam; and
- Colonial expansion of the Ottoman Empire.
So… is this a recipe for kebab? Yes, it is. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have bothered with such an introduction.
Yogurt-marinated chicken skewers
Ingredients
- 2.4 kilograms chicken thigh fillets
- 500 grams plain yogurt (1 tub)
- 4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 4 tablespoons lemon juice
- 4 tablespoons rock salt
- 2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
- 2 tablespoons dried oregano
- 2 tablespoons dried basil
- 1 tablespoon dried thyme
- 4 cups bell peppers diced
- pita or rice, to serve
- chili sauce (we used Sriracha) to garnish
- chopped parsley to garnish
Instructions
- Cut the chicken thigh fillets into bite-size pieces. I recommend two-inch squares no more than half an inch thick.
- In a large mixing bowl, stir together the yogurt, extra virgin olive oil, lemon juice, salt, pepper, oregano, basil and thyme.
- Add the chicken to the yogurt mixture and mix by hand working the the marinade into the meat.
- Transfer the chicken to a shallow container. Cover tightly. Leave in the fridge to marinate for at least six hours.
- Half an hour before grilling, soak the bamboo skewers in water to prevent them from burning on the grill.
- Thread the chicken and bell peppers alternately with the bamboo skewers.
- Brush the grill with a little cooking oil.
- Cook the chicken skewers over live coals at least six inches from the heat. Five minutes per side should be enough if the chicken slices are no more than half an inch thick.
- Serve the chicken skewers with warmed pita or rice, drizzle in a little Sriracha and sprinkle in some parsley.
