Greek Kabobs

As family and friends get together to share meals this holiday weekend, I wanted to offer up a delicious marinade for the ever-popular kabob (kebab, kebob). The kabob is my favorite grill food for several reasons: you can prepare it in advance and leave the chicken and veggies marinating in the fridge ’til it’s time to fire up the grill, the kabob is the ultimate one-pan entree (heck, no pan needed-just a skewer of some sort), and you can use so many flavors of marinades to change up the taste completely. Versatile, simple, delicious, and clean up is a snap.

I’ve had the pleasure of visiting the country of Turkey a couple of times in my life to entertain our troops stationed overseas. On one trip, I found these beautiful skewers in Istanbul. Even though I couldn’t cook my way out of a drive-thru hamburger sack back then, I at least had the good foresight to realize one day I’ll use and appreciate them, especially since Turkey is credited as being an originator of the kabob. Legend has it that way back when, Turkish soldiers hunted game, skewered the fresh meat on their swords, and cooked it right in the field over a flame.

These skewers are stainless and flat which I like because the food stays in place and won’t spin when you turn them. But many people cook with round wooden ones including me! They’re great to have on hand when you’re cooking a lot of kabobs and there’s no clean up with those- just toss ’em out when you’re done. Just be sure to soak them first to minimize the chance of the skewers catching fire over the flame. The metal ones will obviously conduct heat faster and there’s no need to soak them at all.

I love the combination of veggies in this recipe-mushrooms, green peppers, purple onion and cherry tomatoes, but with kebabs, anything goes- so experiment with your favorite combinations.

I found this marinade years ago at All Recipes by Dolce Cuoco (here) and tailored it to my tastes–more oil, lemon and lots more oregano. It is delicious. So fire up the grill and enjoy!

Greek Kabobs

Serves 4

A fresh and flavorful Greek-inspired marinade for chicken & vegetables.

Ingredients

4 large chicken breasts, cut into large chunks 1 container cherry tomatoes1/2 large purple onion, cut into chunks 18-24 whole small mushrooms

1 large green pepper, cuts into large chunks

For the Marinade

1/2 cup olive oil (I used the lighter tasting version) 1/4 cup plain white vinegarJuice of 2 large lemons1 1/2 teaspoons cumin

1 teaspoon garlic powder1 heaping tablespoon chopped dried oregano 1 teaspoon sea salt1/2 teaspoon black pepper

Instructions

1. Place chicken and all vegetables in a large bowl. In a small bowl, whisk together all marinade ingredients. Pour over chicken and vegetables. Stir to coat, cover and refrigerate for at least a couple of hours, stirring every hour.

2. Skewer all ingredients in desired order and cooked until meat is thoroughly done on a gas or charcoal grill.

3. Serve skewers individually or slide chicken and veggies from skewers into a serving bowl. Serve with hot buttered rice, garnished with chopped fresh parsley and a Greek salad.

Notes

This amount of chicken and vegetables worked perfectly for my 6 skewers that are approximately 13 or 14 inches long.