Chicken shish with sweet confit garlic

Overview

The amount of garlic in the marinade may seem a little excessive at first, but please do try it, as the sweet, delicate flavour is simply fantastic. You don’t want to lose this by burning it, so it is really important to grill these skewers over a gentle heat. This is a great recipe to make ahead, as you can confit the garlic cloves a day or two in advance of making the marinade, and marinate the chicken for up to 48 hours before cooking.

For the confit garlic

Preheat your EGG to 110˚C, with the ConvEGGtor in and a Stainless Steel Grid on top. Alternatively, you can do this step on the lowest heat of your kitchen hob.

Place the unpeeled garlic cloves in a small pan or metal tray and cover with the oil. You may need a touch more, depending on the size of the pan – it should be enough to just cover the cloves. Place on the EGG and cook for 10 minutes, then remove from the heat and set aside in the pan to soften and cool entirely. You can store the cooled garlic and oil in the fridge for up to 48 hours before using.

For the marinade

To make the marinade, lift the cooled cloves out of the oil (retaining it for later) and squeeze to pop the flesh out of the skins and into a small bowl. Discard the skins. Use the back of a spoon to smash the confit garlic into a pulp, then stir in the chopped parsley, salt, pepper, lemon zest and 3–4 tablespoons of the garlicky oil. Pour over the chicken pieces, mix well to coat, then thread the meat onto skewers. Place in the fridge and leave to marinate for anything from 1 hour to 48 hours.

Ready to cook the chicken

When you are ready to cook, set the EGG for direct cooking at 180˚C with a Cast Iron Searing Grid in place.

Grill the skewers for 5 minutes on one side, then flip and cook for 5 minutes on the other side. Dab any remaining marinade or, if there’s none left, some garlicky confit oil on the chicken, then flip once more and cook for a final 5 minutes. Remove from the grill and squeeze the lemon juice all over them before serving.

Extract credit: Honey & Co. Chasing Smoke: Cooking over fire around the Levant by Sarit Packer & Itamar Srulovich, published by Pavilion Books. Image credit – Patricia Niven.