Halal-conscious recipe
Turkish chicken kebabs with tomato chilli sauce
Jennifer Joyce's Turkish kebabs with Halal chicken: breast chunks marinated in yogurt, lemon, sumac and chilli, griddled and baked, then wrapped in flatbreads with a tomato, chilli and pomegranate molasses sauce.
Each method follows published technique for the dish, and every Halal substitution is checked against the ingredient pages we cite. Photographs come from our ingredient library rather than the finished dish.
Photo: Gunawan Kartapranata · CC BY-SA 3.0
Why Halal checks matter here
The kebabs are 4 chicken breasts, which are Halal only from Halal-slaughtered birds, marinated in Greek yogurt, which needs a gelatin check, and served in shop-bought flatbreads, whose dough conditioner is worth a look.
Chunks of chicken breast are marinated in Greek yogurt, lemon, garlic, tomato purée, chilli flakes and sumac, threaded onto skewers, browned on a griddle and finished in the oven. They are wrapped in flatbreads with griddled tomatoes, red onion, pickled chillies, herbs, more yogurt and a blitzed sauce of tomato, chilli and pomegranate molasses. The chicken needs to be Halal, the yogurt free of gelatin, and the flatbreads free of L-cysteine (E920) of unstated source, or certified.
It follows Jennifer Joyce's Turkish kebabs with tomato chilli sauce for BBC Good Food, which serves four. The chicken can marinate overnight, as the source suggests.
Serve wrapped in warm flatbreads with the sauce spooned over.
Halal-critical ingredients
- Chicken breasts Chicken is a Halal bird, but slaughter decides, and chicken without a Halal mark doesn't say how the bird was slaughtered. Buy the chicken from a Halal butcher or in a certified pack. See Chicken.
- Greek yogurt Plain yogurt is milk fermented with cultures, but gelatin turns up in set, low-fat and dessert yogurts. Choose a yogurt with no gelatin on the label. See Yogurt.
- Flatbreads Some industrial breads use L-cysteine (E920) as a dough conditioner; its source is not always stated. Choose bread without E920, or certified bread. See L-cysteine.
Safe substitutes
- Chicken breasts of unknown slaughter → Halal chicken breasts
- Flatbreads with E920 of unstated source → Flatbreads without E920, or certified ones (our swap)
Allergens
milk (Greek yogurt), gluten (flatbreads)
Ingredients
Chicken and marinade
- 2 garlic cloves (1 for the marinade, 1 for the sauce)
- 200 g Greek yogurt with no gelatine (3 tbsp for the marinade, the rest to serve)
- 1 lemon, juiced
- 2 tsp tomato purée (half for each)
- 2 tsp chilli flakes (half for each; Aleppo are nice)
- 2 tsp sumac (half for each)
- 4 Halal chicken breasts, cut into chunks
Chilli sauce and tomatoes
- 300 g baby plum tomatoes (100 g for the sauce, the rest skewered)
- thumb-sized red chilli, stem removed
- 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 1 small red onion, sliced (half for each)
- 1 tbsp pomegranate molasses
To serve
- 4 Middle Eastern flatbreads
- to serve long pickled chillies (guindillas)
- handful fresh coriander
- handful fresh flat-leaf parsley
Method
- Marinate the chicken. Crush 1 garlic clove and mix with 3 tbsp of the yogurt, the lemon juice, 1 tsp tomato purée, half the chilli flakes and sumac and some seasoning in a medium bowl. Add the chicken, toss, cover and chill for at least 1 hour or overnight.
- Make the chilli sauce. Put 100 g of the tomatoes, the whole red chilli, the rest of the spices, the other garlic clove and the rest of the tomato purée in a food processor with 1 tbsp olive oil, half the red onion and the pomegranate molasses. Season and pulse until puréed, then set aside.
- Griddle and bake. Heat the oven to 200C/180C fan/gas 6 and heat a griddle pan. Thread the chicken onto metal skewers, or wooden ones that have been soaked, and wipe off the excess marinade; skewer the remaining tomatoes separately. Lightly oil the griddle with the rest of the oil, brown the chicken on both sides, then bake on a tray for 10 minutes or until cooked through. Meanwhile griddle the tomatoes for 1 to 2 minutes, turning halfway.
- Serve. Serve the chicken and tomatoes on the flatbreads with the rest of the red onion, the pickled chillies, the remaining yogurt, parsley and coriander, with the chilli sauce spooned over.
How this recipe was researched
Method adapted from BBC Good Food's 'Turkish kebabs with tomato chilli sauce' by Jennifer Joyce (serves 4: 1 crushed garlic clove, 3 tbsp of 200 g Greek yogurt, the juice of a lemon, 1 tsp of 2 tsp tomato purée, half of 2 tsp chilli flakes and 2 tsp sumac and seasoning mixed with 4 chicken breasts in chunks and chilled at least 1 hour or overnight; a sauce of 100 g of 300 g baby plum tomatoes, a thumb-sized red chilli, the rest of the spices, garlic and tomato purée, 1 tbsp of 2 tbsp olive oil, half a small sliced red onion and 1 tbsp pomegranate molasses pulsed to a purée; oven at 200C/180C fan/gas 6, the chicken threaded on skewers, wiped of excess marinade, browned on an oiled griddle and baked 10 minutes; the remaining tomatoes skewered and griddled 1 to 2 minutes; served on 4 Middle Eastern flatbreads with the rest of the onion, pickled chillies, the remaining yogurt, parsley, coriander and the sauce). We specified Halal chicken breasts, flagged the yogurt's label for gelatin and the flatbreads' label for E920; nothing else needed changing. The rest time is the source's minimum marinating time. Timings follow the published technique rather than a kitchen test.
Technique and ingredient sources
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Turkish kebabs with tomato chilli sauce — BBC Good Food
Retrieved:
By Jennifer Joyce. Serves 4, prep 20 minutes, cook 15 minutes, plus at least 1 hour marinating: chicken breast chunks in yogurt, lemon, garlic, tomato purée, chilli flakes and sumac; a blitzed sauce of tomatoes, chilli, onion and pomegranate molasses; skewers browned on a griddle and baked 10 minutes; served in flatbreads with yogurt, pickled chillies and herbs. We specified Halal chicken.
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Chicken analysis — isithalal.food
Retrieved:
What makes chicken Halal: the slaughter.