Joojeh kabab

Joojeh kabab is a classic Persian dish where chunks of chicken are marinated in a simple saffron yogurt mixture then grilled. The end result is delicately flavored, tender chicken that makes a delicious main. 

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In summer in particular, I often turn to marinated and grilled foods. I love that they can be prepared in advance, and then cook up quickly. And there's so much variety possible, from the flavors in there to the meat or vegetables used. Some of our favorites lamb kofta, tandoori shrimp and sosaties are prime examples.

Kababs, kebabs, kabobs as well as other spellings are skewers that have been around for centuries as a way to cook pieces of meat. They are believed to originate in the Levantine region and the various names come from Persian.

This method of "meat on a stick" (or veggies, too, these days) means the food cooks relatively quickly and evenly. Plus you get that wonderful flavor from the grill.

Kababs are great as a street food, but also at home since you can both eat straight from the stick of take everything off to enjoy a little more delicately on a plate.

These tasty Persian saffron chicken skewers are a tasty example to add to your rotation. They don't need many ingredients or a lot of work, but the end result is tender bites of chicken with a lovely delicate saffron and citrus flavor. And a pretty bright color as a bonus. 

Ingredients in joojeh kabab

As mentioned, you only need a short list of ingredients for these:

• Chicken - you typically make these with chicken breast, cut into bite size pieces. While you can use chicken thighs, if you do make sure you trim them back well.
• Yogurt - this tenerizes the chicken and helps it be moist, as well as adding a delicate flavor. You use a plain yogurt here - Greek style is fine but may be too thick, so if using that, you may want a splash of water as well. 
• Onion - this adds a little favor to the marinade. 
• Saffron - the main flavor and what gives the chicken it's lovely yellow color. It's an expensive spice but a little goes a long way so you don't need much.
• Lemon juice - this adds extra flavor and also helps with tenerizing the chicken.
• Olive oil - this balances out the citrus in the marinade, adds flavor and moistens the meat, particularly since it is lean.
• Garlic - not in all versions, but helps add a little extra flavor. 
• Salt and pepper - to balance the seasoning.

"Joojeh" (also written "jujeh") means "young chicken" in Persian and ideally, this is what you would use here. Though as long as you use good quality chicken, these will still be delicious.

Generally, I prefer the using chicken thighs for many dishes, but as mentioned, here breast meat is more common. And the concern about it becoming dry is not really something to worry about as the marinade keeps it moist.

Preparing the saffron for cooking

Saffron needs to "bloom" to let you mix it in with other ingredients evenly. You can choose between a cold or hot method to do this. Both take around 15 minutes.

For cold, use either saffron powder or first grind the saffron with a pestle and mortar. Then you place the saffron powder on top of an ice cube and leave it to melt. As the ice melts, the saffron will merge into the cold water and become a lovely golden liquid.

The alternative method is to use a little warm or hot water. When using hot water, you can use the whole threads then just remove them after you have your yellow saffron water. The one downside of using hot water is you can degrade the saffron so it's not quite as flavorful. So, if using this method, make sure the water is not too hot.

Preparing and cooking

Once you have your saffron ready, these are really easy to prepare as you simple slice the onions, chop the chicken and mix everything together. Cover and refrigerate to let the chicken take on all those flavors.

To cook, you simply thread the chicken on to skewers and grill them. Typically, these would be metal skewers but wooden also work - just soak them first to avoid them burning. An outdoor grill is best, but you can also use a grill pan or cook under a broiler on a lined baking sheet/tray.

The exact cooking time will depend on your grill's heat but do bear in mind chicken breast chunks probably cook a little faster than you expect. You should see the outside take on some color and the chicken become translucent. Break open a chunk to test, as needed.

How to serve joojeh kabab

You can serve these chicken kababs in a few ways. The most typical are either to serve them with lavash bread or with rice. Some grilled tomatoes, either baby ones on a skewer as I had here or larger ones, are also really good on the side, but a salad would also go well.

Since these have fairly typical, yet delicate, Middle Eastern flavors, you can easily go a little beyond the typical Persian sides when pairing sides. Things like fattoush salad, kisir (bulgur salad) and manakish (za'atar flatbread) would also work well, and dips like toum, baba ghanoush and muhammara would be good on the side.

Joojeh kabab is a classic Persian dish for good reason - the flavors are delicate and flavorful, and the chicken is so lovely and tender. Easy to prepare, versatile in how you serve it and perfect all summer long (and beyond!)

Try these other tasty chicken recipes:

• Chicken yakitori (Japanese chicken skewers)
• Lebanese chicken and rice
• Chicken Balmoral (haggis stuffed chicken)
• Plus get more Persian recipes and main dishes in the archives.

See some of my favorite cooking tools and ingredients in the Caroline's Cooking Amazon store. 

This recipe draws on a number of recipes, including this Persian Mama recipe and this Unicorns in the Kitchen recipe.

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