The first time I made this recipe, I liked it so much that I immediately put it into my meal plan for the next week. The combination of warm, earthy flavors, citric acid, and the crispness of the cucumbers and parsley really work well together in my view. Of course, you may adjust the toppings used to your tastes or what you have in the house. Using avocado or grilled zucchini instead of the cucumber could be nice. Lettuce, cilantro, fresh or sautéed onion, olives, dill pickles, and more could make great additions or substitutions.
The first time I made this, I marinated it for 20 minutes, and the next time I let it rest for about 6 hours. While it was about a week between the taste test, I did not pick up on any noticeable difference in flavor or texture. The original recipe warns to add less salt if marinading it for several hours, however. Also, since there is lemon juice in the marinade, I would probably not go much longer than six hours as I would be worried about making the chicken too “mushy”. However, that is just conjecture on my part as I have not actually tried doing that with this recipe.
My only wish is that I could constantly make corn tortillas at home without a lot of frustration to pair with there. Unfortunately, I am using store-bought ones for now. I will continue to try to find the right hydration and process to make tortillas, and someday hope to nail down that technique well enough that it is fairly easy for me to get consistently right.
Timings
Prep: 10 minutes
Cook: 30 minutes
Total: 40 minutes
Ingredients
- 4 boneless, skinless chicken thighs
Marinade
- 1/4C greek yogurt
- 1T lemon juice
- 2t garlic powder
- 1t ground thyme
- 1t ground cumin
- 1t dried oregano
- 1/2t ground coriander
- 2t garam marsala
- 1/2t black pepper
- 1t salt
Tahini Sauce
- 1/2C tahini
- 2T lemon juice
- 1/4C water
- 1/2t salt
- 1 clove garlic, roughly chopped
Topping
- 1/2C cucumber, seeded and diced
- 1/2C tomato, seeded and diced
- 1T parsley, roughly chopped
- 1/4t salt
Steps
- Add all the marinade ingredients to a medium bowl, and mix well.
- Add the chicken thighs to the bowl, and mix well. Use your hands to work the marinade into every nook and cranny of the thighs. Cover the bowl and let sit 20 minutes either on the counter, or if you plan to let it marinade for longer, keep it in the refrigerator.
- Mix the topping ingredients in a small bowl. This can be mixed together well in advance of using, covered, and stored in the refrigerator. In that case, however, I would not add the salt until much closer to serving time.
- Add the ingredients for the tahini sauce in a small bowl and whisk or stir until well combined. If desired, stir in 1T of water and stir well until the sauce is the consistency that you like.
- Once the chicken has had an appropriate time in the marinade, pull out the thighs and place them on a baking sheet, (lined with aluminum foil first if you want for easier clean-up). The chicken should be lightly coated with the marinade when placed in the pan. If necessary, some of the marinade left in the bowl can be sprinkled on bare areas. However, be careful about laying on the marinade too thick as it has a very strong flavor.
- Place the chicken in a pre-heated oven with the broiler set on high. Try to get the chicken as close to the heat as possible, although far enough away that it is not touching the heat and you can easily see the top of the chicken while it is in the oven.
- Cook for 10 minutes, or until the tops of the chicken start to char in places. You do not want to see a blackened crust, but a few spots of black are desirable. Since this charring can happen very fast, I would start checking the chicken every minute after the first 8 minutes of cooking.
- Flip the chicken and cook an additional 10 minutes, or until the desired amount of charring has occurred. Check the temperature of the thighs and make sure they are at a temperature comfortable for you. If not, I would turn off the broiler and put the chicken back in the oven letting it cook in the residual heat, checking the internal temperature every minute or two.
- Pull the chicken out of the oven and slice into strips that are not too long. Place a few strips on a warmed tortilla along with the topping mixture and a good drizzle of the tahini sauce.