RECIPE: Quick Healthy Chicken Kebabs

This recipe for quick healthy chicken kebabs has been an absolute favourite of mine of late, due to the fact that I have been busy. It is really easy and quick to make, yet delicious and healthy. And if that isn’t enough for you to be running for the supermarket to get the ingredients, it can also be varied in flavours and ingredients if you wish.

For this healthy chicken kebab recipe I have stuck to middle eastern spices, chicken and cabbage, but in reality you could use any type of meat, or felafel if you are vegetarian. You can use any type of spices to get different flavours from almost any cuisine and can use lettuce or tabouleh instead of cabbage. Although cabbage is deliciously sweet and crunchy. It also lasts a long time in your fridge making it an easy ingredient to have on standby – something which cannot be said of salad leaves. But basically you can tailor this dish to suit your needs and change it up if you eat it a few nights in a row like I have done.

This recipe also provides four fantastic techniques that can be applied to all kinds of dishes. The yoghurt marinade for the chicken (or any meat) keeps the lean meat juicy and flavoursome through an amazing process, where the bacteria in the yoghurt penetrate into the meat and take flavour and juiciness with them. You will learn how to make homemade hummus in about one minute flat and will learn the foundation of making a super delicious and healthy yoghurt aioli (flavoured in any number of ways) that is to die for. Oh and finally you will learn how to wrap a kebab like a pro and be able to fill your flatbread up with delicious ingredients without it spilling out everywhere.

Ingredients (serves 2):

Yoghurt meat marinade:

4 tbsp yoghurt natural plain

2 tbsp spice mix (you can use any combination you like) I used:

1 tsp sumac, 1 tsp chilli powder, 2 tsp cumin powder, 2 tsp coriander powder. But you can use tandoori spices, italian herbs, curry powders, garam masala etc.

1 clove garlic

2 tsp salt

1 tbsp oil (I use olive oil)

 

Amazing yoghurt Sauce:

1 cup of yoghurt natural plain (again you will have plenty of leftovers)

3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

1 clove garlic

1 tbsp sugar (I use panela aka evaporated cane juice for its extra flavour and nutrition)

1/2 lemon (juice)

You can also add any fresh herbs or spices that you wish to give it an extra kick of flavour.

One minute hummus:

1 can chickpeas (you will have plenty of leftover hummus)

2-3 tbsp tahini (sesame seed butter)

1 lemon (juice)

1 clove garlic

3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

salt pepper

The rest:

2 pieces of flatbread

100g cabbage

200g chicken breast (or any meat or felafel mix)

Methods:

Marinating meat in yoghurt:

Slice the chicken (or meat) into cubes and pour over the marinade. You can leave overnight if you wish, but you can also make straight away if you don’t have time. You won’t notice too much difference. Either way you will be very surprised how moist and flavoursome the meat is.

Cook the chicken in a pan with a little oil and all of the marinade for about 5 minute or until is it browned and cooked. You will see the yoghurt reduce and turn slightly brown through this process.

Making hummus:

Pour all of the ingredients into a food processor and mix until it is smooth. Some people like to leave it a little bit textured and others like their hummus smooth. Up to you. Also add a tiny bit of water to make it taste creamier.

Amazing yoghurt Sauce:

Whizz up the garlic, any spices and oil first then add the rest of the ingredients including the yoghurt. blend until smooth. Taste and add any salt, sugar, lemon or garlic if you think it needs it.

Wrapping the kebab:

Like most things this is all about confidence.

Heat the flatbread slightly either in an oven or over the flames on a gas hob until it becomes supple.

Cut a square of wax paper and aluminium foil at least 3 inches longer than your flatbread. Lay the flatbread down on the square sheet (with the wax paper on top) so that the top end of your flatbread is just touching the edge of the paper.

Fill the flatbread with all of your ingredients including your sauces. Make sure that there is some spare room left on both sides of the wrap. Fold over so that the two empty sides of the wrap meet – do this forcefully. The paper and aluminium will also meet at the point that the wrap folds.

At this point roll up the spare 3 inches of the paper and finish wrapping.

There you have it – quick healthy chicken kebab in less than 15 min!