Bringing the Turkish kebab back to Manchester

So I felt like a filling, satisfying but healthy tea tonight without the need to spend too much time cooking and so decided to try making a version of the chicken kebabs we so enjoyed in Istanbul a few weeks ago!

Here’s what you’ll need;

• Diced chicken
• bulgur wheat
• tomatoes (preferably on the vine and sexily ripe)
• natural yoghurt
• tomato puree
• peppers
• lettuce
• cucumber
• lemon

For the marinade;

• Olive oil
• lemon juice
• paprika
• hot chilli powder
• cumin
• yoghurt

I’m not sure how authentic the marinade is, but I made it by throwing a few ingredients together that I thought would work and was quite pleased with the result. I put a slug each of olive oil and lemon juice in a bowl, then added some paprika, cumin and chilli powder. This tasted pretty good but seemed quite thin and I wasn’t sure how well it would coat the chicken so decided to add a few spoonfuls of the yoghurt I had to serve with the finished meal. This added a lovely tanginess as well as thickening things up a bit helping to coat the chicken and keep it lovely and moist. Add the diced chicken and leave for at least half an hour, preferably longer. I was going to put the chicken on skewers to cook but didn’t have any so just whacked them under the grill on a tray.

Meanwhile, chop up some tomatoes, ideally you want them to be juicy and almost bursting out their skins with ripeness. Add the tomatoes with two cloves of crushed garlic to some hot oil and season with a decent pinch of salt. Let this bubble away until the tomatoes have broken down.

When ready, stir in the bulgur wheat then add boiling water. I also added a little extra salt and some tomato puree at this stage for extra flavour. Leave to bubble away until ready. When the chicken has around 10 minutes left to go, add the sliced peppers and reaming tomatoes to the tray under the grill until just blackened.

Prepare the salad and when everything is ready serve up with some lemon wedges and a good dollop of yoghurt. Yum! If you’re lucky enough to enjoy a brief and opportune moment of sun on a grey overcast day as we were, eat in the garden! The only thing that was missing that would have been nice to have was the Turkish bread, perhaps I’ll have to investigate that for next time!

(And yes, I must admit, I did have to lick the delicious remaining yoghurty lemonyness from the plate…)

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