Sisters & Skewers

Olivia & Molly
1986

Although I didn't always feel this way growing up, I'm blessed to have two awesome younger sisters - Olivia, who's 25 and lives in Georgia with her husband, Ben, and Riley, who's 20 and lives back in Seattle with her boyfriend, Ryan.  This summer, Olivia hosted an awesome 4th of July party at her house, and for the first time in years, all three of the Kidwell girls were together for the holiday.   I adore my sisters, and it was SO wonderful for us to get together!!  We had a great time, and true to our nature, we also had great food.

A few short years ago, Olivia probably would have looked for directions on how to boil water (no offense, Lili!!); for some reason she was never interested in cooking as a kid, like I was.  However, since getting married she has been spending a lot of time cooking, experimenting, and learning, and now she's quite the little chef!  I just love cooking with her and now we frequently chat and share recipes.

Olivia called me earlier this afternoon because she and Ben had a craving for the Greek style chicken skewers I made one night while we were visiting over the summer.  I love it when people love my food, and it's always such a compliment when someone asks for a recipe of mine because they were craving it months after having it!

Since I was going to be emailing it to her anyways, I decided to share it here with the rest of you.  This is super easy, and a frequent meal in my house.

Molly's Greek Style Skewers

Meat:

• 1 lb of boneless skinless chicken breasts OR 1 lb of pork tenderloin (both are great, but sometimes it's nice to have a break from chicken, so I go with the other white meat)

Marinade:

• 1/2 cup dry white wine (I never use cooking wine, it's so gross!  Use something that you would actually have a glass of.  Think of it this way - why would you put a crappy ingredient into a dish and expect great taste!?)
• Juice of one lemon
• 1/2 cup non-fat greek yogurt (helps make the marinade 'sticky' so that the awesome flavors really cling to the meat. If you don't have greek yogurt, mayonnaise works too but isn't as healthy)
• Drizzle of EVOO
• S&P
• 1tsp cumin
• 1 T dried oregano
• 1 tsp dried mint
• 2 cloves minced garlic
• Sprinkle of onion powder.
• Sprinkle of red pepper flakes (if you like it spicy, add more, if you don't like spice, you can omit)
• Palmful of fresh chopped parsley

Sides:

• 1 bell pepper
• 1 red onion
• 1 zucchini 
• Pita Bread
• Non fat Greek Yogurt

"All of this yarn holding and topless washing really
works up an appetite, let's have skewers for dinner!"

If you're using wooden skewers, start off by soaking them in water so they don't ignite when they hit the grill. I put them in a clear glass baking dish and cover them with water. 

Take all of your marinade ingredients, and put them into a large ziploc bag (freezer bags work great).  Mush it all around inside the bag to mix it well.  

Take your meat and trim any excess fat off of it.  Then, cut it into little cubes. Sometimes when people make skewers, they use big huge hunks of meat.  I prefer to cut it into small pieces. Why?  Well, to be scientific (and to sound like my husband) you get a better surface area to volume ratio, which results in more flavor.  It also cuts down on cook time.  

Once your meat is all cubed up, throw it into the marinade bag, and mush it around some more so that all of the meat is coated.  Set it in a dish and put in the fridge to marinate.  I would say let it sit for at least 30 minutes, but if you can, let it go for an hour. 

While the meat it marinating - prep your sides.  Cut up the veggies and onion into chunks that are about the same size as your meat, and then skewer them.  Don't worry about leaving space between the pieces, just load those puppies up!  Put the skewers into a baking dish, and then drizzle with EVOO, and sprinkle with S&P.  You really don't need any more seasoning than that.  The veggies taste great on their own, and the meat packs all the punch in this dish.

Take your pita bread, and brush each side with a little EVOO, and then sprinkle with S&P.

Now take your marinated cubes and skewer them.  A lot of people like to mix veggies and meat on their skewers.  Admittedly, it does look prettier that way, but with varying cook times, I like to separate each ingredient onto its own skewer so that I don't overcook one thing while waiting for another thing to cook through.

Next, head out to grill and put everything on.  The veggies go for just a little while - let them soften and get a little bit of a char to them.  The meat goes pretty quickly - flip it at least once, and let it go until there's nice color to it, and of course it's cooked through.

Remove the skewers as they finish, and set into a clean baking dish. Un-skewer everything and mix all together.

Throw the pita bread on the grill just until it gets a little toasted.

To serve, my husband and I like to put the meat and veggies on top of the pita bread with a little bit of greek yogurt.  You can roll them up and eat it like a wrap.  Or you can serve it with the bread and yogurt on the side.  Whatever floats your boat!

So that's it - hope you enjoy!