This was supposed to be a recipe for shrimp kebabs and spicy bulgur salad. But there was chicken in the freezer, so I used that. Instead of trying to adapt the shrimp kebab recipe for chicken, I marinated it in olive oil, garlic, and some of the spice mix used in the bulgur salad. It was simple and fast. But, the rest of this dish is kind of labor intensive, since there are four major components that need to be made: Golden Spice Mix, Chicken Kebabs, Spicy Tomato Dressing, and Spicy Bulgur Salad. I would say that if you are in a hurry but would love the Spicy Bulgur Salad, the tomato dressing is definitely optional. I loved it, but if you're strapped for time just omit it, the dish will still be good. Plus the salad is definitely scalable, it kept in the fridge for 3 days! The spice mix takes no time at all to make and the chicken can cook on the grill while you prepare the bulgur salad ingredients.
The bulgur salad looks deceptively easy, but the dressing requires peeled and seeded tomatoes, which is a huge, time consuming pain in the butt. That said, it's a fabulous dressing. It has just the right amount of spiciness for the chicken, and the lemon and ginger stop it from being too tomatoey.
The star of this meal was definitely the bulgur salad. It was great with the chicken, and I ate the leftovers for lunch two days later! This recipe comes from
Saha, Greg Malouf's first book on Middle Eastern cuisine; it features dishes from Lebanon and Syria. It's thinner than
Turquoise, so it has fewer recipes. I like how Saha has several different spice mixes and sauces that can be used in the main dish recipes.
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| Keepin' it klassy with a posh serving dish for the dressing. |
