Piquant Chicken Souvlaki with Tomato Pepper Relish + a side of Fried Ripe Plantains

I love food with Greek, Spanish, Moroccon, etc influences. And this morning around 5am I woke up with a major major craving for something Greek. I looked in the fridge and saw a tub of Greek yogurt that would've lasted maybe 3 more days before going bad, so I decided to use it for some chicken souvlaki marinade. This isn't exactly a recipe you can decide to make one second and then eat right away -- the chicken has to marinade and you've gotta let the relish ingredients marry in the fridge for a few hours. So I marinated my meat and prepared the relish, went back to bed and woke up around 11, ready to grill some chicken souvlaki.

Chicken Souvlaki

• 4 chicken breasts, boneless & skinless
• 1/3 cup strained Greek yogurt
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• juice of 1/2 lemon
• couple of bay leaves
• 3 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1 medium onion, grated
• 1 tbsp dijon mustard
• 1-2 dry chillis, crushed (I baked 1 chili until it was semi dry)
• 1 Tbsp. smoked paprika
• 2 tsp. dry Greek oregano
• salt and pepper to taste
• wooden skewers, soaked in water so they don't catch on fire when youre grillin

Tomato Pepper Relish

• 2 ripe plum tomatoes, seeded & diced
• 1/2 green bell pepper, diced
• 1/2 red bell pepper, diced
• 1 medium red onion, diced
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced
• 2 tbsp. of tomato paste
• 1 tsp. paprika
• 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• salt and pepper to taste

1. Chop all your relish ingredients and stir in a bowl. Adjust seasoning with salt and pepper and allow the flavors to marry for few hours in the fridge.

2. Clean chicken and slice into thin strips

3. Grate the onion and mince the garlic into a Ziploc bag

4. Add the remaining marinade ingredients (except salt, pepper and chicken). Squish the contents to blend and taste. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

5. Add your chicken strips into the bag and squish the contents so that all the meat is coated by the marinade. Place in the fridge and marinate for at least 3 hours.

6. Take your chicken strips out of the bag. Stick the chicken strips on water soaked skewers.

7. Grill your chicken souvlaki for about 4-5 minutes per side (or until cooked)

8. Sprinkle some salt and dry Greek oregano & Serve with some warm pita bread and a dollop of relish on the side. I ate some skewers with sour cream and others with homemade guacamole as well. So, guac isn’t exactly super Greek, but who cares, it’s freakin delicious.


Fried Ripe Plantains aka Platanos Maduros Fritos

Platanos Maduros -- one of my favorite foods in the world. I prefer using ripe plantains because they are much sweeter (and since they're softer, they cook much more quickly). Fried green (unripe) plantains (aka Patacones de Costa Rica) actually taste quite different, have a different texture, and require a different cooking method. Anyway, I can't really call this a recipe, because it really is just pan-fried plantains, but it's SO FUCKING GOOD that I had to post about it. You can eat these as a side to a meal or stick them in a burger or eat them unsalted with ice cream. Amazing however you decide to eat them.

• oil for shallow frying
• ripe plaintains (skin will be black or covered in black spots)
• pinch of salt (optional)
  
• pinch of sugar
• sour cream or creme fraiche

1. Fry plantain in oil haha. (Cook for a few minutes on each side until each side has a nice golden brown color.)

2. Sprinkle VERY VERY lightly with salt and sugar (you can leave out sugar if your plaintains are already super sweet)

3. Eat with sour cream or creme fraiche.



p.s. Happy 420 everyone. Hope your day is filled with satisfying munchies.