Chicken skewers

These are super simple skewers with a great flavor. The picture above is unfortunately the only one I remembered to take at the end, and I`m not sure where some of the others are hiding, so I`ll have to make this again soon. Darn. :-)

You can make this the day before and then just let it marinate until you are ready to grill. Great for parties. Also, I had been planning to see how it handled freezing, but they were so good there were none left. I will try it next time though.

If you do have any leftovers, they are great with either hummus or greek yogurt in a pita pocket or tortilla for lunch. Throw in some greens and you have something yummy and filling.

I found the original recipe online while looking for something new to do to my chicken. They had a chutney with it, which I left out, but if it sounds interesting, check it out.


What you need:

400-500 g of chicken. Either I used the precut pieces to save time, but normally would use tenders
150 g greek yogurt (or regular, plain if you can`t find any)
2 cloves minced garlic
1/4 to 1/3 cup diced onion
1 tsp grated fresh ginger. If you don`t have any, you can use 1/8 tsp of ground
1 tsp ground cumin (Kreuzkümmel)
1/2 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp turmeric (Kurkuma)
2 Tbls lemon juice

Either cut your chicken into bite size pieces, or use the pre-cut.

Get a large zipping bag and put it inside a bowl (to help hold the shape while you add things)

Add the yogurt, lemon juice, garlic and onion. Squeeze the bag to mix well (or if you prefer, pre-mix everything in a bowl. I try to do everything as compactly as possible in my small kitchen)

Add the chicken to the bag

Mix the spices in a small bowl and then add to the bag

Seal and mix around to coat. Place in the fridge at least 4 hours, or overnight.

For the skewers, make sure you soak them in water at least 20 minutes before adding the chicken.

Grill.

That`s it, easy, right? :-) Serve with a salad, pita and hummus (I also did vegetable skewers)

Perfect Pita

I made this pita bread about 5 years ago. I used US ingredients to do it and I remember thinking that it was easier just to buy the already made pita bread in the store. This weekend, I tried again, but used Swiss ingredients. It was much easier than I remembered, and the taste, with the hummus that I previously posted, was fantastic. I also made chicken skewers that I stuck inside with the hummus. I`ll post that recipe later this week.
One of the best things about this recipe is that after you make it and it rises, you can stick it in a bag and put it in the fridge. Just tear off as little or as much as you want and you can have fresh pita for every meal. How fantastic is that??

What you need:

3 cups of flour, plus extra for rolling and kneading (maybe a cup)
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 cup warm water
1 package yeast, 7 g
1 tsp sugar
1-2 Tbls olive oil






Now, the reason why I thought this was so easy, is that the back of my package of yeast says I can just mix it in with the flour, so there was none of the waiting like with other yeasts. If yours doesn`t say that, you may want to check the original recipe which states you need to mix the yeast, sugar and 1/2 cup of water and let sit for 15 minutes.

Mix the yeast, sugar and 1 cup of warm - not hot- water together. Add the flour and salt.

Mix until well combined. 

Take the dough out of the bowl and then add a tablespoon or two of olive oil to coat the inside of the bowl and prevent sticking. 

Cover with a clean kitchen towel and let sit for 3 hours. After the dough has risen, sprinkle some flour on a hard, clean surface and then knead the dough for 5-10 minutes.

If you are going to cook the pita now, then tear off into small balls. I got 13 out of this. Do fewer if you would like larger pitas though. Let the balls sit for 10 minutes. 

At this point, I decided I wanted to make them fresh the next day, so I put them in a zipping bag and stuck them in the fridge. 

If you would like to continue on to cooking, set the oven to 230 C.

Put some flour on a hard surface and roll the dough out into a rough (or perfect if you can manage it) circle.

Place on a baking sheet and put in the oven. I think this next part was the hardest. You have to let it cook for 3 minutes, then flip it over and cook for another 3. I forgot with the first batch, so they got a bit browner than I was expecting.

Then, just remove from the oven, stack up and serve. Nothing better than warm pita and homemade hummus for an appetizer, or lunch, or dinner, or snack...

Enjoy!

You can see the bottom ones were the ones that got extra love in the oven :-)