Curried Chicken Skewers

Today I'll be making Curried "Chicken Skewers".  This on is a favorite around here as it is a simple, flavorful dish that is relatively easy to make.

For the longest time I hated making skewered items because unless I just "marked" them on the grill and finished them in the oven I would invariably burn the bejeezus out of the little wooden sticks.  So frustrating.  Even when I soaked the skewers.

Lately I have figured it out, which I will explain later, but I always hated it when I was a line cook and the chef would put an item like this on the menu.  They were always very popular, but I don't think that many of the folks I worked with we're ever able to send out a product without having the final dish looking like neatly lined up food with blackened knobs at each end.  They never looked like the test plates that we would make for the menu change tastings.  Probably because at these tastings we were able to give the little guys way more attention than was realistically possible in a busy restaurant when grilling over an open fire.

When I was the chef or executive chef, skewered items only hit the menu when demanded by the owner or seared in a pan.  The same goes for mixed grill plates, but I digress. 

I specifically remember a Day Boat Scallop dish that we made at Röti, a restaurant where I held the position of Sous Chef in the mid-nineties in San Francisco.  Röti was a very busy restaurant with about 250 seats and about 45 percent of our covers were cooked by one guy who manned the fireplace.  An amazing position that required an attention to the cooking product like few I have known.

For a line cook, to be trusted with that station, at least at Röti, meant that you were the "rock star" of your restaurant.  And they were.

The problem of burnt skewers continued there to the frustration of all of us.  We searched and searched for a way to keep them intact, but the volcano like heat of the fire made that all but impossible.

For our recipe today, here is what you need:

2 chicken breasts (I'll be using thighs as well)

Plain yogurt

Kosher salt

Dry mustard powder

Curry powder

Ground cardamom

Lemon juice

Vinegar (I'm using champagne vinegar)

About 15-20 skewers

You may start with boneless chicken breasts or with a whole bird.  I'm working with the chicken that I cut for my "how to Cut a Chicken" post.

First we make the marinade.  A couple of tablespoons of yogurt, a pinch of salt, about a half teaspoon of dry mustard, 2 tsp of curry powder, a pinch of cardamom, 2 tsp each lemon juice and vinegar.

We begin to prepare the chicken by slicing the breasts lengthwise.   

And the across the strips to make cubes.  Remember to make the pieces reasonably large.  They need to be large enough to stay on a skewer, but small enough to be easily eaten.  I cut mine to about 1 1/2" X 1 1/2". Place them in the marinade and let sit.  

If you have an hour or more for them to marinate, that would be ideal, if you don't, try to give it half an hour.

Soak your skewers in water.  This will not stop them from burning, but will slow it down.  When we get to the grill, I'll show you how to cook these without the losing skewers to the fire.

Prepare the vegetables in much the same way that you prepared the chicken.  Place in a large bowl and add, chopped garlic, some herbs and olive oil.  Set aside to marinate.

After the chicken has been marinated, start your grill.  As the grill gets going, remove the skewers from the water and start to assemble them.  Often people like to add some vegetables to their skewers.  I don't do that.  This is not because I am a complete carnivore, it is because they cook at a much different speed than the meat.  I do the vegetable skewers separately.

Carefully pierce the pieces of meat in their center.  You can make these as large or small as you would like depending on the appetites that you are feeding.

When the grill is ready, white coals is a good sign, move the coals to one side and grill the skewers with the exposed wood end away from the heat.  Turn the skewers occasionally until they are done.  This positioning to the exposed wood away from the heat should save most of your skewers.  Bear in mind that the meat needs to be above the coals and that the skewers will be above the coals as well, just place them so that they are not above the most intense heat.  This may take some practice.

Since I have been grilling this dish at night, the photo may not show you clearly what I am trying to explain.  So here it is.  When I am able to get a better photo, I'll post about skewers again.

When they have finished grilling, you can set them aside for service later, or serve immediately.  Obviously the fresher they are, the better they will be, but if you are preparing them for a large group, you will likely need to hold them and possibly re-heat.

Possible sides for this can be as wide ranging as tzatziki, hummus, baba ganoush, cous cous etc.

Next up:  Baba Ganoush


Follow Taste Like Chickem - What's Mike Cooking on Twitter @RmhChef