Israeli-style chicken & rice
The bright colours of this indian style rice salad work well with the skewers of charry spiced chicken.
Photo | Mike Moores
March 2019 | Wai Lin Coultas
THINK BARBECUE chicken and Israel’s street food comes vividly to mind; as do the equally delicious Indian tandoori. Marrying both’s best yields skewers of charry spiced chicken invitingly lifted by generous squeezes of caramelised lemon.
With a cold rice salad winsomely wedding Kosher ingredients with South India’s… ah, perfect for anticipating first hints of autumn.
Ingredients
600 g boneless chicken thighs, equally diced into 24 cubes
1 medium red capsicum, deseeded & sliced into squares
1 medium onion, peeled, vertically sliced into 6 & layers separated
1 lemon, vertically sliced into 6 wedges
Extra virgin olive oil
Iodised salt
For marinade
5 cloves garlic, peeled & minced
2 tbsp ground cumin
1½ tsp ground cardamom
1 tsp paprika
1 lemon, zested & juiced
2½ tsp maple flavoured syrup
Crack black pepper
For rice salad
6 handfuls of long grain white rice, cooked in seasoned beef stock & cooled
1 lemon, zested & juiced
½ tsp ground turmeric
120g baked cashews, dry toasted
80 g sultanas
40g fresh coriander, leaves roughly chopped
Dried chilli flakes
Instructions
1. Mix marinade’s ingredients, 2 tbsp oil and salt together to toss with chicken cubes for refrigerating covered overnight; soaking 9 wood skewers in water for as long.
2. When ready to skewer, toss onion and capsicum slices in oil and salt; wrapping soaked skewers’ blunt ends with aluminium foil.
3. Onto each of 6 skewers, thread 4 marinated chicken cubes, interspersed with slices of 2 oiled onion and 2 oiled capsicum; piercing skewer’s sharp end into a lemon wedge.
4. Thread remaining oiled veg slices onto 3 other skewers.
5. Barbecue skewers on hot plate till meat is cooked through; charring them over open flame to liking before removing foil.
6. For rice salad, mix lemon zest and juice with turmeric to stir 3 tbsp mixture through rice to yellow them; mixing in cashews, sultanas and coriander after, and sparingly, to taste, toss in chilli flakes.
Serves 2 to 3
