Shish tawook (Lebanese chicken skewers) with garlic yogurt, salad and pita
45 min · 62 g protein · 612 cals / serving
Lebanon's favourite grill: chunks of chicken marinated in yogurt, lemon, garlic and a little tomato paste until tender and tangy, charred on skewers, then wrapped in warm pita with a cool garlic yogurt, a chopped salad bright with sumac and a few pink pickled turnips.
Ingredients
Chicken
- 1 3/4 lb chicken breast, cut into 3 cm (1 1/4-inch) cubes
Marinade
- 1/2 cup nonfat Greek yogurt
- 3 tbsp lemon juice
- 1 1/2 tbsp olive oil
- 5 cloves garlic, crushed
- 1 tbsp tomato paste
- 1 1/2 tsp paprika
- 1 tsp dried thyme
- 1/4 tsp ground allspice
- 3/4 tsp salt
Garlic yogurt
- 1 cup whole-milk Greek yogurt
- 2 small cloves garlic, grated to a paste with a pinch of salt
- 2 tsp lemon juice
Salad
- 2 large tomatoes, diced
- 1 medium cucumber, diced
- a handful fresh parsley, chopped
- 1/4 red onion, finely sliced
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 2 tsp olive oil
- 1 tsp sumac
To serve
- 4 pitas pita bread, warmed
- a few slices pickled turnips, Lebanese pink pickled turnips
Steps
- Whisk the yogurt, lemon juice, oil, garlic, tomato paste, paprika, thyme, allspice and salt in a bowl. Add the chicken, turn to coat, cover and refrigerate for at least 4 hours or up to 12.
- Stir the garlic paste and lemon juice into the whole-milk yogurt with a pinch of salt and refrigerate until serving.
- Toss the tomato, cucumber, parsley and onion with the lemon juice, oil, sumac and a pinch of salt just before serving.
- Heat a grill, griddle pan or the oven grill to high. Thread the chicken onto skewers (soak wooden ones for 20 minutes first), leaving a little space between pieces, and grill 10–12 minutes, turning every 3 minutes, until charred at the edges and cooked through (165°F).
- Serve the skewers with warm pita, the garlic yogurt, the salad and pickled turnips, and let everyone wrap their own.
Good to know
Isn't shish tawook served with toum?
In grill houses, usually. Toum is the whipped Lebanese garlic sauce: garlic and lemon blended while oil is drizzled in until it turns fluffy and white, so it is mostly oil. Garlic yogurt is the everyday home partner and carries the same punch of raw garlic.
Can I use thighs?
Yes; thighs are juicier and more forgiving on a hot grill, and plenty of Lebanese grill houses use them. They score about 53 instead of 61.
No grill?
Spread the skewers on a rack over a lined tray and cook under a very hot oven grill (broiler), 5–6 minutes a side, or roast at 450°F for 15 minutes. Finish with a minute under the grill for colour.
Alternative
Per
- Calories
- 126
- Protein
- (42%)
- 13 g
- Fat
- (26%)
- 3 g
- Carbohydrates
- (33%)
- 10 g
- of which sugar
- 2 g
- Fiber
- 1 g
- Sodium
- 220 mg
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Computed from the ingredients with our published formula, not yet kitchen-tested. How
As written, 2449 kcal goes into the pot and 2263 g of ingredients comes out as about 1940 g of food: 126 kcal per 100 g. Cooking moves water and energy density is the score's biggest lever, so the dish is scored as cooked, not as an average of its parts. Every ingredient links to its food page, with the same data and score. The label's percentages are each macronutrient's share of the calories. The full formula.