April 10, 2010
Grilled Turkish Chicken
with Grilled Chapati
Most of the time when I think of healthy grilling I don't think of a really fun meal. Well, here is a grilled chicken recipe that has an amazing sauce to accompany it. Not only is it tasty but you also get the added health benefits of red pepper and walnuts. This is a really nice and light dinner. By no means it is light on flavor. If you want to live on the edge, go ahead and make the flat bread recipe that is listed below. However, if you are feeling lazy or just want to have a really easy meal you can just pick up an Indian flatbread, like a naan, from most grocery stores. Regardless of what you do I'm pretty sure you'll like this one. It's very tasty.
Ingredients:
For the chicken and the rub:
A Pack of Boneless Skinless Chicken Breast
1 teaspoon dry mustard
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
For the red pepper walnut sauce:
1-1/2 roasted red bell peppers (from a jar)
1/2 cup walnuts
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1/4 cup bread crumbs
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
For the grilled chapati:
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1 tsp. salt
1 Tbsp. vegetable oil
1/2 to 3/4 cup warm water
To begin I combined all the rub ingredients in a bowl and mixed them together. I then cut the chicken breast in equal size portions and added to the rub. This mix went into the fridge for 1 hour.
In the meantime I made the dough for the Chapati, which is a flat bread that contains no leavening. I like to think of it as a quick and dirty, yet tasty, naan. To make the Chapati I mixed all the Chapati ingredients into a food processor (except for the water) and gave it a quick pulse.
I then drizzled the water in very slowly until the dough formed.
The dough ball was then pulled out of the food processor and allowed to rest at room temperature (tighly covered) for 1 hour.
While the dough was resting and the chicken was in the fridge it was time to make the red pepper walnut sauce. This was pretty easy - just throw all the ingredients into the food processor and run until it has the consistency of pesto.
Before processing:
After processing:
After the sauce was prepared and the Chapati dough has rested for 1 hour I pulled egg size chunks of dough from the ball and rolled them out.
My grill was prepared for a medium heat which basically consisted of a single layer of coals spread out across the whole kettle. I had the chicken on wood skewers and cooked them until they were done. Before grilling, I soaked the wooden skewers in water for about 30 minutes.
When the chicken was done I moved the pieces to the cooler side of the grill and tossed the flatbreads over the direct heat. After a few minutes they started to bubble and I flipped them over. After a few more minutes they were done.
This sauce had a wonderful flavor and very nice consistency with the walnuts and breadcrumbs incorporated within. The spices on the chicken are really flavorful as well. The cumin tastes just fantastic and is quite noticeable. When you grill the flatbread it becomes nicely charred and provides not only great support for the chicken and sauce but also nice fresh bread flavors. I was very happy with this one and best of all I don't feel too fat after eating it!
The above photo has the chicken roughly shredded.
I believe this recipe came from a Weber e-mail that I got a long while ago. I can't remember!
