Shish tawook or shish taouk is a Lebanese dish with a Turkish name (chicken on a skewer). This recipe makes the chicken an entire meal in a bowl. We love all the other great foods assembled in the bowl, too. The recipe comes from Gaby Dalkin and her website whatsgabycooking.com. The link is here, and we strongly recommend looking over the other excellent dishes there.
We marinated the chicken for several hours, and we think the flavor was better for it. We made rainbow quinoa in the rice cooker, and we made our own hummus. However, we used store-bought tzatziki as a timesaver. Likewise, we used a smaller English cucumber as Persian cucumbers were not available. Garlic sauce can be made from scratch (the Lebanese variety is called toum), but we used a condiment version that added a little heat. The results were outstanding; we plan to make this several times for summer guests. Please give it a try!
Ingredients
For the chicken:
¼ cup lemon juice
¼ cup vegetable oil
¾ cup plain yogurt
4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 tsp tomato paste
2 tsp red wine vinegar
1½ tsp salt
1 tsp dried oregano
¼ tsp paprika
¼ tsp ground black pepper
¼ tsp ground allspice
2 lb skinless, boneless chicken breast halves, cut into 2-inch pieces
Fresh parsley
For the bowls:
2 cups cooked quinoa
2 ripe avocado, sliced
½ cup homemade hummus
Store bought garlic sauce
Persian cucumbers, sliced
1 head romaine lettuce, shredded
Served with a side of pita bread
½ cup homemade Tzatziki (optional)
Instructions
Whisk together the lemon juice, vegetable oil, plain yogurt, garlic, tomato paste, salt, oregano, paprika, pepper and allspice in a large bowl; add the chicken and toss to coat. Transfer the chicken mixture into a large plastic bag; refrigerate at least 4 hours.
Preheat an indoor or outdoor grill for medium-high heat and lightly oil grate. Thread the chicken onto metal or wooden skewers. Cook on preheated grill until the chicken is golden and no longer pink in the center, about 5 minutes each side. Sprinkle the parsley over the skewers.
To assemble, divide the quinoa into 4 bowls and top with equal parts of avocado, hummus, garlic sauce, sliced cucumbers and shredded lettuce. Season with salt, pepper and lemon juice if needed. Serve immediately.
Serves 4.
Akkermans' Eat-In 