Happy weekend everyone! Heather, the kids and I decided that after a crazy holiday season of eating, drinking and more of the same times 1,000…we needed to turn up the healthier options for the foreseeable future. So, in the spirit of healthy eating, last nights’ dinner was simple, tasty, healthy and inexpensive to prepare…Chicken Shashlyky (Ukrainian for “kebabs.”)
Here’s what you’ll need:
2 chicken breasts, butterflied and cut into “cubes” of equal size and thickness
1 red pepper, 1 green pepper, 1 yellow pepper – quartered and sliced on the half
12 cherry tomatoes
12 small brown mushrooms, halved
2 red onions, peeled, halved and quartered and picked apart
a few good glugs of olive oil
Old Bay seasoning
Freshly cracked black pepper and a little bit of Kosher salt
2 bricks wrapped in aluminium foil (you won’t eat these but they help tremendously!!!)
In a bowl, prepare your chicken cubes and douse them with some olive oil and coat with a light dusting of Old Bay spice seasoning. Next after you’ve sliced, diced and prepared your vegetables, put them in a deep bowl, pour a few glugs of olive oil and season with salt and pepper – easy on the salt as the Old Bay is pretty salty.
Now grab your metal skewers and lube them up with a bit of oil. Spear your vegetables and chicken in any fashion you like. Make it look pretty, alternating colours and vegetables. Now all the while you should have had your grill set up for direct heat stabilised between 450-500F. Wrap your bricks in the aluminium foil and place them on the grid as far apart as possible. You’ll end up laying the skewers across the bricks, keeping the Shashlyky off the grid which prevents sticking. The other benefit of the bricks is it’s really easy to turn the skewers every 5 minutes by simply twisting the end loop.
Place your Shashlyky on between the bricks, crack a bit of fresh pepper on them and close the dome and then come back every 5-7 minutes and flip the skewers. Do this about three times for a maximum cooking time of about 15-18 minutes. A quick read thermometer also helps and you know your done when the vegetables have a nice slight char and the chicken has reached an internal temperature of 165F.
Serve up the Shashlyky with a little bit of couscous and you’re done! (Got and 8 because Heather seems to think we needed a dipping sauce… Any and all suggestions are welcome!)
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Overall Heather Rating: 8/10