Fit Fare

My mother-in-law asked me to make her chicken dinner.  I was excited to oblige as I was looking forward to using the new spices I had bought the previous evening.  

After thinking it through, I narrowed down my chicken recipes to the most time efficient and healthiest.   It was either going to be grilled, baked or broiled chicken.    While I love grilling and baking, I opted for the most time efficient option: broiling.

First, I took out my broiling pan from inside the oven.  This pan comes with the oven and is the ideal pan to use because it allows the fat to drip through the crevis of the top pan into the bottom pan.   The benefit is that as it cooks, the food will not marinate in the dripping fat.   I gave my broiling pan a good rinse and set it aside.

As my pan dried, I went ahead and began marinating my chicken cubes.  I had already cut my boneless chicken breast into cubes as soon as I bought it back from the grocery store to avoid extra prep time.   I also pulled out my bamboo skewers and set them aside.  I marinated the chicken in a yogurt, salt, pepper, lemon juice and curry spice marinade.   I let the chicken sit in the marinade while I took out all of my vegetables.

Cutting my fresh red and green peppers into square pieces, approximately two inches across, I piled them high into a bowl.  Next, I pulled out some delicious vidalia onions and chopped them into cubes.  I took some time to split apart large chunks of onion and added it into the bowl of red and green peppers.

Next, I pulled out the bamboo skewers from the package to actually make chicken shish kebabs.  I started a pattern with a chicken, red pepper, green pepper, and onion rotation.  I did this until the skewer no longer had room.  I tried to mimic the pattern with all the following bamboo skewers so that the finished looks was especially aesthetically pleasing.

Before placing the skewers onto the pan, I gave the pan a good spray of butter flavored nonstick spray.   Then, I arranged each skewer in a row onto the broiling pan.   I hit the High option on my stove for the broiler and put the pan on the top most rack inside the oven.   

Being sure to put the pan at the top is important so that the heat will be directed to the pan.    The broil function allows extreme heat to be channeled through the top of the oven.   Similar to an outdoor barbeque, the heat cooks one side of the food, and it needs to be flipped to be cooked throughly on the other side.

After about 5-7 minutes, I open the oven door and flip the chicken shish kebab over with a pair of tongs.   I reset the timer for another 5-7 minutes.  In the meantime, I set the table in preparation for dinner.   As soon as I heard the timer calling, I pulled the chicken shish kebabs out and served it to my family.  It was a huge hit!

Chicken Shish Kebab
serves 4-6

2-3 lbs boneless chicken breast cubed
4 tbsp yogurt
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 clove garlic
1 tbsp curry powder
1 tsp salt
1 tsp hot pepper
1 red pepper
1 green pepper
1 onion
4-6 bamboo skewers

Mix the cubed chicken, yogurt, lemon juice, garlic, curry powder, salt and hot pepper into a bowl.  

Cut the red and green peppers into square pieces.  Cut the onion into cubed pieces. 

Rotate chicken cube, peppers and onion onto skewers. 

Broil on high for 5-7 minutes.  Flip skewers.  Broil again for another 5-7 minutes.  Serve and enjoy!