I love lemon. Especially lemon desserts! Lemon meringue pie, lemon squares, lemon cake … and I absolutely love savory lemon chicken, and thankfully so does the rest of my family. I have no anecdote about this recipe except for seeing a photo of chicken kabobs on when scrolling through social media and then it disappeared. I searched and could not find it again but I had that photo in my head and with that mouth-watering imagery in my brain. I became obsessed with making the perfect lemon chicken kabobs on the grill so I looked through cookbooks and online. I mixed and matched what I found and came up with this recipe and it is quite simple. As I’ve written before, we are a family of four differing tastes so when I find an easy recipe that everyone enjoys I make it over and over and over again — until someone says they are sick of it and I then take a break. I am annoyingly guilty of doing that with a really good song too. I am playing this one for the summer and think you should too.
The marinade is simple and you can leave the chicken in anywhere from 30 minutes to overnight. Of course the longer the better. Have skewers ready!
Marinade: Mix together in a bowl the juice of four lemons (use a strainer to filter the seeds), four minced cloves of garlic, a half cup of olive oil, two tablespoons of dried oregano, one tablespoon of sea salt, one tablespoon of ground pepper.
I use either thin chicken breast cutlets or pound them if thick. It’s always much better to tenderize. Cut into 1.5-inch pieces and add to the marinade, cover and leave in the fridge for up to 24 hours.
Lemon chicken is good but with tahini sauce it is even better. You can use this sauce on vegetables too, and it’s great as a salad dressing. It keeps in the fridge for a while so I make a big batch of it for leftovers.
Tahini Sauce: I use half of a 15-ounce can Joyva sesame tahini puree. Throw it into a food processor or high powered blender with the strained juice of 4 lemons, a teaspoon of rice wine vinegar, one garlic clove, two tablespoons of fresh parsley, ¼ cup of olive oil, a pinch of sugar, sea salt and pepper. Add water to make it to your desired consistency. Blend until very smooth. Set aside.
Skewers: Slice zucchini lengthwise to a ¼-inch thickness. Lay out the slices on a flat vessel, sprinkle with and salt and pepper and drizzle olive oil on both sides.
Skewer the chicken pieces — about four to five to a stick. If you are using wooden skewers it helps to soak them in water first to keep from burning. Get your grill really hot and sizzling, lay the skewers over the grates and cover then turn down the heat. I usually flip back and forth a little but you can do 3 to 4 minutes on each side. Take the skewers off before the chicken dries out — you can always put them back on for more time and they continue to cook after they are removed from the grill onto a clean platter.
Lay the zucchini strips on the grill and let sizzle for a minute, then flip over with tongs. They will get very tender and fall apart if cooked too long. I prefer to stay close and flip back and forth. When grilled to your contentment, remove from grill onto a clean plate and set aside. You can use the exact same method with baby eggplant, which goes well with tahini sauce too. Really any vegetable you like.
We serve the skewers with basmati rice and a simple salad, if you have time. I love to get everything made quickly, so having the elements prepped before is key. Nicholas, 11, loves to eat the chicken right off the skewer in kabob form and dip it into the sauce. The rest of us like to pull the chicken off the skewer on to a plate. Kids seem to love that the chicken is already in pieces and with a little organization can be pulled together quickly in time for dinner. I love how healthy, light and satisfying this meal is. It’s perfect for dinner alfresco during the summer.