Tavuk Şiş (Turkish Chicken Kabobs) #MoviesandMunchies
This month I invited the Movies and Munchies group to watch either or both: The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 1 and 2. I had never seen either and happily watched them both. I will say that at one point or other, all of my boys walked through the living room. Their collective response: Ugh. Really? Yes, really.
On the Screen
You can read my thoughts on the first movie in my post Creamy Lemon Spot Prawns. The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 - made in 2008 - finds the crew after a year in college. And, again, they are dispersing from or not going back to Maryland for the summer. Lena has a scholarship to a summer art program at RISD (Rhode Island School of Design); Carmen, a student at Yale, is heading to Vermont to attend a drama intensive with another friend; Tibby keeps her job at a video store while re-taking a filmmaking class at NYU (New York University); and Bridget goes to Turkey to work on an archaeological dig.
Where the first movie was a coming-of-age story, this one addresses much more grown-up themes: potential of an unwanted pregnancy, running into an ex-boyfriend who is now married and about to become a father, and confronting the truth about a parent's suicide.
Despite their four different summer locations, the pants bring them back together when Lena's sister steals the jeans and loses them in Greece. Lena flies to Santorini to search and the other three surprise her there and scheme to reunite her with Kostas who, it turns out, is not about to be a father and has had his marriage annulled.
On the Plate
While I could easily have made another Greek dish for this post, I decided to make something inspired by Bridget's time in Turkey. They don't really show any food at the party when the archaeological team is celebrating a find. But I imagined that they would have eaten something like this: Tavuk Şiş, Turkish Chicken Kabobs.
Note: this is a loosely inspired recipe, not a traditional Tavuk Şiş because I added red onions and zucchini to the skewers; every Tavuk Şiş recipe I found was all chicken! But the seasonings seem spot on. Also, I roasted thickly sliced tomatoes because we love roasted tomatoes over turmeric rice.
Ingredients
1 pound boneless, skinless chicken, cut into cubes
Marinade
3 Tablespoon plain yogurt
1/4 cup olive oil
1 Tablespoon tomato paste
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 teaspoon oregano
3/4 teaspoon smoked paprika
3/4 teaspoon sweet paprika
1 teaspoon cumin
3 cloves garlic, peeled and smashed
Skewers
red onions, peeled and sliced
zucchini slices
Also needed skewers (you can use soaked wooden skewers, but I love my Norpro Stainless Steel Flexible Skewers affiliate link), parchment paper, baking sheet
Procedure
Marinade
Whisk all of the marinade ingredients together in a bowl. Place the chicken cubes in the marinade and massage until completely coated. Cover and refrigerate for at least an hour, I prefer to leave them overnight.
Skewers
Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Thread chicken pieces on your skewers, alternating between chicken, red onions, chicken, and zucchini. Place skewers on prepared baking sheet. Drizzle with some of the marinade.
Place sheet in the oven. Roast for 20 minutes. Remove from the oven, flip over and roast for another 10 minutes.
Serve with rice.
That'sa wrap on my recipe offerings for our September Movies & Munchies group. Stay tuned for the round-up to see what everyone else was inspired to make!
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