Fire up the grill, it’s chicken kabob season! And these Shish tawook skewers are absolute perfection. The marinade is simple. You start by whisking together lemon juice, olive oil, yogurt, tomato paste, and lots of seasonings together in a bowl. The hardest thing about making my shish tawook recipe is that the more patience you have, the more delicious it is. So if you’ve got 8 hours to marinate this, these skewers will undoubtedly be some of the best you’ve had. Since I’m not cooking these on a charcoal grill, I’ll show you a simple way to still give them that delicious charcoal flavor – even if you make these on an indoor grill! But seriously… why is chicken on a stick just so darn delicious? Whether it’s shish tawook (or shish taouk) chicken satay or my chicken souvlaki skewers, marinated chicken threaded onto skewers and grilled over an open flame is just the most flavorful thing that summer has to offer. We love to order shish tawook pita bread wraps loaded with sumac onion salad at our favorite middle eastern restaurant with a bucket of french fries and lots of toum (or garlic sauce) to dip it all in. And now you can have them at home too!
Ingredients for chicken shish tawook:
Chicken: Feel free to use boneless skinless chicken breasts, chicken tenders, or even boneless skinless chicken thighs for this recipe. The key is to make even-sized chicken cubes so that they marinate in the same amount of time.Yogurt: I like to use plain yogurt for most of my Indian and Middle eastern dishes. If you have Greek yogurt on hand, that will also work. You may just want to thin it out with a tablespoon of water so that the marinade isn’t so thick.Lemon Juice: Lemon juice is the acid in the marinade. Unlike chicken shawarma, it provides a delicious tart flavor to the chicken.Olive Oil: Also goes into the marinade. Garlic: I use a handful of garlic cloves that I’ll press or grate with a microplane. Remember, if you mince the garlic, the flavor won’t be as prominent as it will be if you grate or press the garlic. The finer the garlic, the more flavor it packs on.Tomato Paste: Tomato paste adds more color and a bit of umami to the shish tawook marinade.Spices: You’ll need a ton! We’re using kosher salt, ground sumac, but also sweet paprika, dried oregano, white pepper, ground ginger, allspice, ground cinnamon, and Aleppo pepper. I know Aleppo pepper isn’t something that’s always easily available, but it is something that’s used quite a bit in Turkish and middle eastern cuisine in general. Feel free to swap it with a dash of cayenne pepper and some pepper flakes if you’d like.Yellow mustard: I know this isn’t something that’s very common in a shish tawook recipe but it adds the most delicious flavor. Just a small squeeze so you won’t taste the mustard but it just bumps up the flavor profile of the dish.
Homemade shish tawook recipe
If you like this recipe, you might also like:
Beef Shawarma (two ways)Persian Chicken Kebabs (Jujeh kebab)Ghormeh Sabzi (Persian Herb Stew)Beef Kefta Kebabs
