Chicken Shashlik with Kefir

⏳ Time

20 minutes + 1 hour

🥕 Ingredients

🍽️ Servings

Description

The secret to the enduring popularity of this recipe is simple — spices. Turmeric is used to give the chicken a delicious sunny color. Cumin and coriander add a wonderful Middle Eastern aroma to the shashlik. For the marinade, we used kefir and lemon juice, and cooked the meat by drizzling it with saffron oil.

Ingredients

Chicken fillet - 2 lbs
Kefir - 5 fl oz
Saffron - a pinch
Salt - 1 tablespoon
Ground coriander - 1 tablespoon
Black Cumin (Cumin) - 1 tablespoon
Turmeric - 1 tablespoon
Butter - 2.1 oz
Lemon - ½ pieces

Step by Step guide

Step 1

Cut the chicken into cubes about three centimeters on each side or slightly larger.

Step 2

Crush salt, coriander, cumin, and turmeric in a mortar.

Step 3

Pour yogurt or another fermented dairy product into a large bowl and mix in the spices. Submerge the chicken in the yogurt and mix it well with your hands. Let it marinate for at least one hour, but no more than five to six hours, as an overly acidic environment will cook the meat to a tasteless mush.

Step 4

Crush the saffron with a pinch of salt in a mortar, add 50–60 ml of hot water, and let it sit for ten minutes.

Step 5

Melt the butter over low heat. Squeeze the juice of half a lemon into it and mix with saffron water.

Step 6

Skewer the marinated chicken tightly onto the skewers and place them on the grill. Once one side has caramelized with the marinade, turn the skewers over and brush the grilled side with a mixture of oil, saffron, and lemon. Gradually rotate the skewers while generously brushing the chicken with saffron oil, grilling until a golden crust forms.