Iranian Grilled Chicken

Now let’s turn our great food tour bus toward the east.   That part of the world produces so much wonderful culinary delights.  As I’ve said before, we lived in Teheran for two years when I was just a wee lass of 10-12.  Sometimes we would walk the 1/10 KM 4pm hike on 6-lane Shimran Boulevard to go buy our daily fix of fresh-baked Iranian flatbread called ‘noon‘.  We would pass by a number of merchant shops along the way  where turbaned shopkeepers were cooking their dinner on portable Aladdin kerosene heaters they used as grills.  It might be lamb curry; perhaps kubideh meat rolls, or this popular grilled chicken.    It was fascinating to watch and the aromas on our ventures indescribable!  Fatimeh, our maid and ‘translator’, would often stop & chat with the ‘cooks’.  They offered my brother and I a bite of their goodies more than once.  We knew just a few words of  Farsi, so we would just soak it all up, mesmerized.  This yogurt sauce with onions was about the sum total of what went on the chicken.       

This is a dish we attempted to copy, with pointers from Fatimeh and our motor pool driver, Reza.   Just talking about this evokes those olfactory memories.  I understand they renamed many streets after the Iranian Revolution so Shimran Blvd. may even be called something else now.  Not sure which aroma was more intense on our walks to get ‘noon’, the chicken or the fresh wheat bread sheets cooking in the kiln-like open-front pebble ovens.  At my age, it was always fun picking off the remaining pebbles when we got home, as some typically burned right into the bread surface.   

My major changes to the traditional method:  subbed butter in for some of the yogurt to cut carbs; added the  paprika.  They used ALL yogurt in their marinate.  They used all sumac for the spice, which can be obtained in better spice stores, ordered on-line from places like Penzey’s Spices.   Sumac is the ground, dried berries/fruit of the sumac bush.    It is a slightly acidic, lemony tasting spice that is found in many Iranian, Israeli and other Gulf State dishes.  If you can’t get sumac, it can be omitted without great detriment to the final flavor of this dish.  The yogurt and onions are in the flavor driver’s seat.   This recipe is Atkins Induction friendly and Paleo-Primal acceptable as well.  Because it is impossible to calculate the total nutritional info per serving, as that would depend on the specific pieces of chicken eaten, I will just provide the information for each of 10 servings of the marinade (the # of pieces of chicken I get from a chicken, cutting each breast in half.  You will have to calculate and add in the values for the meat pieces eaten.

INGREDIENTS:

1 stick butter + ½ c. yogurt  (or 1c. yogurt & no butter to stay traditional)

Juice of 2 lemons

Dash each salt and black pepper

1 tsp. sumac 

1 tsp. Smoked paprika

½ tsp. turmeric

1 onion (either minced fine or sliver extremely thin)

1 whole chicken, cut in 10 pieces ( cut breasts in half)

DIRECTIONS:  Melt the butter in a small pot.   Remove from heat.  Stir in yogurt and add all other marinade ingredients.  Stir again well.  Cut up the chicken into 10 pieces (I reserve the back for making stock).  Place chicken into gallon Ziploc bag.  Pour 1/2 of the marinade over the chicken.  Zip bag and manipulate it to coat each piece of chicken well with marinade.   Set rest of marinade aside for basting meat during grilling.  Allow the chicken to marinate in the refrigerator for 3-4 hours.  This is important as the yogurt tenderizes the meat. 

Although this chicken is OK baked in a regular oven (I have tried it) it is worlds better done on your grill.  Prepare charcoal fire.  When the coals are hot and white, place chicken on the grill and cook on each side until done (about 20 minutes per side).  Baste with the remaining marinade mix as it cooks.  Allow the last application of yogurt sauce to brown on both sides of meat before taking off fire.  You don’t want to have it coated in uncooked sauce in the end.   Enjoy a true Iranian feast!   Typically served with butter basted grilled vegetables like long slices of summer squash, tomatoes, or bell pepper.  I often serve on the side my sour cream cucumber mint salad.  

NUTRITIONAL INFO:   Makes ample sauce for 10 pieces of chicken.  Each serving of the marinade only contains:

95 cals, 9.2g fat, 2.87g carbs, 1.2g fiber, 2.67g NET CARBS, 1.8g protein, 17.9 mg sodium