This is my favourite way to BBQ chicken, the marinade of yogurt performs a small culinary miracle. It tenderises the meat beautifully and helps retain its moisture. The sumac gives it a summer lemon flavour with a nice heat from the pepper flakes. I made my own flat breads based on the way my grandmother use to make olive bread which was heavy with fresh hearbs. If sourdough is a step too far you can replace the soughdough mixture with dry yeast. This can be made a day in advance and heated in the oven.
I served this with a small side salad of fresh sea purslane (about 50g roughly chopped), small vine tomatoes dressed with olive oil, lemon juice and sea salt.
BBQ chicken:
500g of chicken (drumsticks and thighs) I used thigh fillets
1 teaspoon of dried toasted pepper flakes (or mild chilli flakes)
2 heaped tablespoons of sumac
3 tablespoons of full fat Greek yogurt
A glug of olive oil
A pinch of salt and a few grinds of the white pepper mil
- Add all the BBQ chicken ingredients into a bowl and mix thoroughly. Cover and place in the fridge for 8 hours or overnight.
Sourdough flat breads:
1kg (approximaltely) raw sourdough bread mixture 50g of fresh herbs (mint, coriander, parsley) 150g of pitted olives (I used black and green)
- Use your normal sourdough bread recipe (or bread recipe using dry yeast) and follow the usual steps until it is ready for the oven.
- Seperate the dough into golf ball size portions.
- On a very well floured surface roll out each ball.
- In the middle place approximately half a tablespoon of roughly chopped olives and a flat tablespoon of chopped fresh herbs.
- Fold the bread (as below) and then roll the dough out again.
- Leave to rest for about 10/15 minutes.
- Heat up a large heavy bottomed frying pan.
- Place the flat bread on the pan for about a minute on each side. Small bubbles should begin to appear during the cooking process. If bubble do not appear then the pan isnt hot enough.
Preheat oven to 200◦C / 400F / Gas 6 or light a BBQ.
- Shake off any excess marinade from the chicken but don’t scrap it off.
- Place in the oven on a griddle pan for 40 minutes or on a low/mid flame BBQ.
- The outer should be charred with a dark reddish colour from the sumac and peppers and the inside very moist.
- Serve with a salad and some flat bread.
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