Tike mirîşk — Chicken Skewers

Name: Tike mirîşk — Chicken Skewers
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 15 min
Total time: 45 min
Yield: 4 servings
Ingredients: 500 g boneless, skinless chicken thighs; 400 g chicken breast; 150 g yogurt (see recipe Mast — Homemade Yogurt; or shop-bought plain yogurt, 3.5 % fat); 1 piece lemon (juice); 4 clove garlic; 1 tbsp pepper paste (Turkish Biber salçası; mild or hot); 1 tsp turmeric (ground); 1 tsp salt; 0.5 tsp black pepper (ground); 3 tbsp neutral vegetable oil; 4 piece tomatoes (medium-sized)

A Kurdish classic from Erbil and Soran in northern Iraq: Tike mirîşk are chicken skewers that are cooked over charcoal at the grill stalls of Erbil and at every spring picnic. In Iraq they are called Tikka Dijaj in Arabic, in Turkey Tavuk şiş and in Iran Joojeh Kabab. Marinated for at least two hours in yogurt, lemon, garlic, pepper paste and turmeric, the meat turns juicy and golden and picks up charred edges over the embers.

⏱

Cook time

45 min

🍽️

Servings

🧂

Ingredients

View Original ↗

Nutrition

per serving

412 kcal

Calories

50 g

Protein

20 g

Fat

8 g

Carbs

Ingredients

For 4 servings

Estimated cost~€10.25 · ~€2.55/serving

Instructions

1
Pat the meat dry and cut it into cubes of about 3 cm; keep the thigh and breast meat separate, because they need different cooking times. Afterwards, wash the board, knife and your hands thoroughly with hot water and washing-up liquid.
2
In a bowl, stir the yogurt with the lemon juice, the peeled and crushed garlic, the pepper paste, turmeric, salt, pepper and 2 tbsp oil until smooth. Turn the meat cubes thoroughly in the mixture, cover and leave to marinate in the fridge, overnight if you like.
3
About 30 minutes before grilling, soak wooden skewers in water so that they don't burn, or have metal skewers ready. Light the charcoal and wait until it is covered in white ash and glowing evenly; oil the grill rack.
4
Without charcoal, preheat the oven grill to its highest setting, slide the rack onto the second shelf from the top and put a baking tray lined with aluminium foil one shelf below.
5
Lift the meat cubes out of the marinade, wipe off the excess and thread them closely onto the skewers without pressing them together; put the thigh and breast meat on separate skewers. Discard the leftover marinade, as it has been in contact with raw poultry and must never be used as a sauce.
6
Grill the skewers over the embers, turning them every 2 to 3 minutes and brushing them with the remaining oil, until browned all over with dark charred spots; grill the tomatoes at the very edge of the embers at the same time until their skins burst. Under the oven grill, turn the skewers halfway through.
7
Cut open the thickest piece of thigh meat: it should be white throughout with no pink, the juices should run clear and the core temperature should be 75 °C. Otherwise grill for another 2 to 3 minutes and check again.
8
Slide the meat off the skewers onto a warmed platter, place the grilled tomatoes alongside and serve piping hot straight away.
9
Tip: Serve with warm flatbread, such as Nanê sêlê — Wafer-Thin Flatbread from the Domed Griddle, in which the meat and crushed tomatoes are rolled up, and Pîvaz bi sumaq — Sumac Onions; with bread the meal is no longer gluten-free, with rice it is. Skewers made from thigh meat alone are especially juicy, whereas chicken breast dries out more quickly. Keep leftover skewers in the fridge, eat them within a day and reheat them thoroughly before eating until the meat is back at 75 °C.