Shish Tawook: The Authentic Lebanese Chicken Skewer Recipe

Shish tawook is a Levantine dish of chicken cut into cubes, marinated in yogurt, lemon juice and garlic with warm spices, then threaded onto skewers and grilled over charcoal. The yogurt is the point: its acid and enzymes tenderise the meat while its milk solids caramelise on the grill, which is how you get a charred crust over chicken that is still juicy.

That is the short answer. The longer one is that most shish tawook made at home fails for one of three reasons, and none of them is the recipe.

What is shish tawook?

The name is Turkish in origin. Sis means skewer and tavuk means chicken, so the phrase translates literally as chicken on a skewer. The dish travelled with the Ottomans and was absorbed so completely into Lebanese and Syrian cooking that it is now read as Levantine rather than Turkish, in the way that few people think of a doner when they order shawarma.

In Lebanon it is grill food. Charcoal shops from Beirut to Byblos marinate overnight and cook to order, serving the skewers with hummus, pickles, and toum, the fierce garlic emulsion that is not optional in any serious version of this meal.

What does shish tawook taste like?

Mild, warm and faintly sour rather than hot. The dominant flavours are garlic and lemon, sitting on a base of paprika with cinnamon and allspice underneath. There is usually a little cayenne, but shish tawook is not a spicy dish, and a version that burns has been made by someone who did not eat it in Lebanon.

The three things that go wrong

Marinating too briefly

Four hours is the minimum for the acid to do anything useful. Eight to twelve is where the texture changes properly. Anything under two hours is a seasoned chicken skewer, which is a fine thing but is not this.

Marinating too long

This is the one nobody warns you about. Past roughly eighteen hours the acid has broken down so much of the protein structure that the surface turns chalky and slightly pasty when cooked. Overnight is right. A full day is not better, and two days ruins it.

Using breast and cooking it like thigh

Breast is traditional and it is unforgiving. It goes from done to dry inside about ninety seconds. If you are not going to stand over the grill, use thigh, which is what most Lebanese grill houses use anyway.

Ingredients

Serves 4 to 6. Prep 20 minutes, plus 8 to 12 hours refrigeration. Grilling 12 to 15 minutes.

• 900 g boneless skinless chicken, breast or thigh, in 3 cm cubes
• 240 ml plain full-fat yogurt
• 80 ml lemon juice, from about 2 lemons
• 60 ml neutral oil
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste
• 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
• 6 cloves garlic, crushed to a paste with salt
• 1.5 teaspoons paprika
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 0.75 teaspoon onion powder
• 0.5 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 0.5 teaspoon ground allspice
• 0.5 teaspoon dried oregano
• 0.25 teaspoon cayenne
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 0.25 teaspoon black pepper
• Skewers, wooden ones soaked 30 minutes

Method

1. Build the marinade

Whisk the yogurt, lemon juice, oil, tomato paste and mustard until smooth. Crush the garlic with the salt into a paste before it goes in, because chopped garlic leaves harsh raw pieces that never soften on a fast grill.

2. Add the spices as a group

Combine the paprika, garlic powder, onion powder, cinnamon, allspice, oregano, cayenne and pepper in a small bowl first, then whisk the mixture into the yogurt. Adding them one at a time to a wet marinade leaves pockets of unmixed spice.

3. Coat and refrigerate

Fold the chicken through until every cube is covered, cover, and refrigerate 8 to 12 hours. Do not exceed 18.

4. Thread with gaps

Wipe the excess marinade off each piece and thread with a few millimetres between cubes. Pieces pressed tight together steam each other and never char. Discard the used marinade.

5. Grill hot and turn often

Medium-high, around 200C. Twelve to fifteen minutes, turning every three or four, until the outside is golden with dark edges and the centre reaches 74C.

6. Rest

Three to five minutes off the heat. Skipping this is how the juice ends up on the plate instead of in the chicken.

Can you make shish tawook in the oven?

Yes, and it is genuinely good, though it is roasted chicken rather than grilled chicken and you should expect that difference.