Shish Taouk with Toum (Grilled Chicken Skewers with Garlic Sauce)
Chicken, vegetables, and halloumi cheese come together with a lemony garlic sauce atop a warm flatbread. Toum, an intense, creamy garlic sauce is used as both a marinade and a condiment in Lebanese chicken recipes.
- Serves
- 6 and yields 1/2 cup of garlic aioli
Directions
-
Marinate the chicken: In a large bowl, mix the first nine ingredients, from the yogurt to the pimentón, until thoroughly combined. Toss the chicken in the marinade, cover with cling wrap, and refrigerate until ready to grill. Allow to marinate at least 30 minutes.
-
To make the toum (garlic sauce)
-
Place the garlic cloves, the salt, and 1/2 the lemon juice in a blender.
-
In a food processor or using an immersion blender, blend on medium speed until the garlic is smoothly minced, scraping down the sides as necessary.
-
With the processor still on medium speed, add the egg white through the feed tube and continue to blend. Steady drizzle half the oil in a slow, thin stream. At this stage, the emulsification should be taking hold. Switch to a slow blend speed and slowly add the rest of the lemon juice. Add the second half of the oil in the same fashion.
-
Add 1 or 2 tablespoons of ice water while still mixing on low. At this point you should have a sauce with the consistency of a light mayonnaise. Taste for salt and to check the strength of the garlic flavor. If needed, either to thicken the sauce or to cut the raw garlic punch a bit, whisk in up to 1/2 cup of mayonnaise. Reserve the sauce for dressing your grilled shish taouk.
-
Assemble the kebabs
-
Preheat your grill to medium-high heat.
-
In a large bowl, gently toss the zucchini, onions, mushrooms, peppers, and lemon slices and toss them in a bowl. Drizzle with olive oil, and season with salt and pepper, toss to coat. Gently fold in the halloumi. Slide each ingredient onto its own metal or pre-soaked wooden skewers for grilling. NOTE: skewering together the ingredients with similar cook times will help with even cooking.
-
Take the chicken from the fridge and skewer the pieces being sure not to push them too tightly together. Leave a little space so the chicken fully cook on all sides.
-
Grill each skewer until it reaches your desired degree of doneness, remove to a platter, and tent with foil to keep warm until all the skewers are complete.
-
To serve, place a mix of the grilled chicken, vegetables, and cheese on a round of warmed bread, top with a generous helping of toum. Garnish with fresh thyme and a squeeze of lemon or grilled lemon slice.
From Shawnie's class “Taste of Travel: Lebanese Dinner”
