Shish Tawook (Syria)

World-Bites (54) / Shish Tawook

Shish Tawook is a chicken breasts kebab very popular in Syria, Lebanon and Turkey where the name originates. There are many different recipes on marinading the chicken but they all share an essential ingredient, yogurt. In Syria, Shish Tawook is always served with Toum, a delicious garlic sauce/dip that marries beautifully with all grilled chicken varieties. Shish Tawook is either served as a part of a barbecue platter with bread, mezze ... etc. or, quite often, as a sandwich in a flat bread roll or a bun.

Ingredients

Chicken breast cubes 400g
Red onion
Red pepper

For the Marinade:
Yogurt 2tbsp
Vinegar 1tsp
Paprika 1tsp
Chili powder 1/2tsp
Garlic powder 1tsp
Black pepper 1/2tsp
Salt
Olive oil 2tbsp

Toum sauce:
Mayonnaise 4tbsp
Greek style yogurt 2tbsp
White wine vinegar 1tsp
Garlic 3-4 cloves, crushed
Lemon
Salt

Mix all the marinade ingredients, add the chicken and ideally leave in the fridge for a couple of hours. Cut the red peppers and the red onion into 1 inch squares. You can use green peppers or mushrooms if you wish. Once the chicken is marinated start to put it on the skewers alternating between a pieces of vegetables and chicken.

If it is summer cook on a coal barbecue in the garden. Otherwise heat a griddle pan till very hot. Put the chicken skewers and don't turn till one side starts to char to give the beautiful barbecue flavor. Once one side is ready turn the skewers and put the pan in a 200C hot oven to finish cooking for around 12 minutes. You can cook it fully on the griddle pan if you wish but I find the meat becomes too dry this way.

Mix all the ingredients of the Toum sauce with Salt and lemon to taste.

Serve the Shish Tawook with Arabic bread, Toum, salad and whatever mezze you like. Or simply spread some of the Toum sauce on the Arabic flat bread, add pickles and tomatoes if you wish and roll. In Turkey they serve the Shish Tawook with white rice and salad.