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This is grilled Mediterranean chicken with lemony Greek yogurt on top, but the really important part, this little nut seed mixture is called dukkah and it is an absolute 100% game-changer. One bite of this and you will be in love. Well, you might be in love now, but you'll be in love even more. And it's the kind of thing that when you serve it, it looks like you did a ton more work than you actually did. And who doesn't like that? We're improving your Well, we're improving your food skills, but also your show-off skills and that might be more important at times. So, let me tell you what's happening here. There's the chicken.
Easy little marinade, you do it with whatever you got in your kitchen. The important part will be lemon. Then yogurt, nonfat Greek yogurt, again with some lemon zest in this and a couple other things, simple. Crispy chicken off the grill, fantastic. The cool lemony yogurt on top, even better. But then is the dukkah and the dukkah is a coarse nut mixture. It's a Middle Eastern thing. I'm using pistachios, almonds, sesame seeds and cumin and coriander. It's really easy. You're going to see. You're going to love it. I don't I'm sure you can buy it. I'm telling you, it will upgrade almost anything you make. I just did a thing for an interview that will come out in October about sweet potatoes and these were
roasted sweet potatoes with the same yogurt on top and dukkah on top of it and that's what sparked this today. Max was like, "Hey, that was pretty good. Why don't you do it with some chicken?" I'm like, "Okay, hey, I will do it with some chicken." He's like, "Okay, hey, that would be great. I can't wait to try it." It's like, "Okay, hey, then I'm going to do All right, you can see how it went." It went like that. Here's what we do. Marinade, yogurt, dukkah, cook. Let's go, baby. We start with some olive oil. Oh, I know. Recipe is below, about that much. Next in, some of my beloved squeeze garlic. Perfecto. Dried oregano, cumin, salt and pepper, lemon
zest, juice of half a lemon in between your fingers so those dumb seeds don't go in. That'd be a lot to pick out. Not that it'd be a big deal, but it's easier this way. Oops, I forgot a little smoked paprika. And last but not least, a little shot of soy. And we mix. Beautiful. Chicken. Boneless, skinless chicken thighs. And our marinade. We'll put most of it in, save a little back for brushing. Seal this up and now mush it around so the chicken is covered. Great. This refrigerate 2 hours, 4 hours. Probably that's good. In the meantime, we'll make our yogurt. Nonfat Greek yogurt and this gets more lemon zest. A prominent flavor in this dish, a lemon
will make everything better. Little lemon juice as well. Little garlic here, too. Oh, pretty much all I have. Little salt, little shot of olive oil. Doop. And we mix. That's going to be pretty spectacular. All right, refrigerate. It's time for the dukkah. Pistachios, shelled. Almonds, sliced or whatever you call them. Slivered. Sliced? Slivered? Slivered. All right, we need to toast them a bit. I like to do them separately cuz they take a little bit different time. So, if you eat one of these right
now, Max, eat this. What's its texture? Little soft. We don't want little soft. We want little crunchy. So, So, she didn't say that. So, we're going to keep them in here a couple minutes till they start to toast a little bit and get a little more crunch to them. But, you got to keep them moving. If you just leave them, they're going to burn. My heat's on medium. Take them out. Put them on something that doesn't have any heat and we'll add the almonds. These guys go much faster and you can see it happening already. It's been 30 seconds. Our little friends are ready.
We'll add them to our bigger friends. Spread them out and let everybody cool down. There we are. All nicely cooled. Right, we'll put them in our little baby processor with our sesame seeds. Now, these are already roasted, toasted, whatever you want to call them. If you had blond, the white seeds, you would have had to have done them in the pan like we did with the almonds and the pistachios. But, these are easier to keep around, so just do this. Now, a couple spices. Cumin, coriander, salt and pepper. Lid goes on. Top goes on, and we blend. Our goal is chunky sand, not fine powder. Three more. One, [snorts] two, three.
Let's look. That is perfect. Look at this stuff. One of the best things you can do with this, you're having people over, and you know how sometimes at the beginning of a meal, especially if it's Italian-inspired, there's a like some bread and a plate of olive oil, maybe with a little balsamic in it. Forget the olive oil and the balsamic. If you had bread, it would sort of look like this. I don't want to pollute the whole thing. Olive oil on this back finger. This is the bread. This is the dukkah on the bread, and here it is going into my mouth.
It's mind-blowing. It is so good. If your only takeaway from today is that, you'll be fine. Okay, we got to get to grilling because a bite of the chicken with that lemony yogurt, little bit of garlic, and that dukkah is going to be nuts. All right, grill time. First things first, these thighs they have a smooth side, and they have a grainy, gritty underside. When you're cooking chicken like this that has the two sides, the side that goes down first is the smooth one. That will be your presentation side, and that's when the grill is the cleanest and the hottest, and you'll get the beautiful marks if that's what you're going for. So, I always go that side down first. A steak that's essentially the same well, one side
might be better, but if it's not, it don't make any difference. All right, now we're just as I'm very fond of saying, now we're just cooking chicken. We're going to look for these thighs to end up about 180, but we're going to turn them a bunch. We want good char. My heat's up. Won't take long. All right, let's see what we're dealing with. Oh, okay. We can give everybody a 45. But this business here kind of thin. I'm just going to pull this stuff off. I'll just cook it back here near me, where I'll be able to have those first bites when they're ready. There's got to be some perks for the guy who's cooking, right? Let's go. Flip time.
Great stuff. Hey, hey. And now that side has color and grill marks, we can give it a little bit of this marinade that I kept back. You wouldn't want to dip into a marinade that it had raw chicken in it. That's why I saved this one back. And once the chicken is cooked on that side, that's the time to start brushing. And we'll give my friend down here, my own personal bites, a little of the same love. All right, let's check our temps. We're 159 and ah 160 ah we're getting there. Let's give another quarter turn. Ah. Wow, it's hot. My own personal I said the lemon will be key. The lemon is key. I have to give you a bite of this, you're going to die. And it's time.
Clean pan. Not one that had the raw chicken on it. Oh, look like I have another treat waiting for me. Ah, damn you. All right, let's go make some magic. Let's start by cutting our chicken. Just a tiny bit more of this left. Give it a little shine, little extra boost of flavor. Hello, pretty. Wow, it is so good. Hey, hey, you can have that. God. You're a bad kid. It's hard to resist, isn't it? Mhm. All right, so now we're just doing this. Make a beautiful bed here. So, we're going family style, which is one of the best ways to serve stuff like this. It's so fun. Remember this? Yes, of course you do. Let's do this with it.
And then, the most important ingredient of them all. Wow, the dukkah. Holy smokes. Go ahead. All right, so one bite. Oh, look at. Let's just do this. Let's do this, and let's do this. If it ended there, if it ended at the sniff test, it'd be a win. [snorts] It's unbelievable. You're not just getting the flavor from the nuts and the seeds, that business. Don't forget there's coriander and cumin in it. But, you're getting the crunch that takes grilled chicken that doesn't have much texture and Greek yogurt that has no texture and gives it a little just a little bit more something. This is going to be your new best friend. And as promised, it looks like you did a
ton more work than you actually did. And why? Because, well, classic Sam the Cooking Guy. We're here for you. We got your back. We want you to succeed. Really? Oh my god. We really do. You make this? Hand up. Promise?
