Chicken Shish Stuffed Peppers

These delicious stuffed peppers are a hearty and healthy family meal especially when served with a big salad and if you wish some flatbreads and dip, such as Cacik, Tzatziki and Spicy Salsa.

If you are looking for a vegetarian alternative you could replace the marinated chicken with cubed courgette and aubergine and reduce the cooking time a little too. 

The below serves a family of 4 with a salad, breads and dip.

Chicken Shish Stuffed Peppers

Here's how:

• 3 chicken breasts
• 4 bell peppers (any colour)
• 1 red onion
• 100g green olives
• 2 cloves garlic
• Olive oil
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp pul biber 
• 1 tsp paprika
• 2 tbsp tatli (you can use harissa here or tomato puree if you can't source)
• Juice of 1 lemon
• 1 tin of tomatoes 
• 1 tsp honey
• 1 packet of microwave rice 
• Handful dill 
• 1 ball of mozarella
• Salt
• Black pepper

Pre-heat the oven to 200 degrees.

Firstly cube the chicken, place into a large bowl with 1/2 tbsp olive oil and add the cumin, pul biber, cinnamon and paprika, the juice of one lemon and 1 tbsp of the tatli (or harissa or tomato puree). Give it a mix and allow it to marinate while you prepare everything else.

Now finely dice the red onion and mince the garlic and add to a pan with a 1 tbsp of olive oil.

Roughly chop the green olives and add to the pan - this with the garlic and onions will provide the base for your sauce. 

Whilst that is softening, cut the peppers in half and remove any seeds or membrane and place into a baking tin, cavity side up and set aside.

Once the onions, garlic and olives have softened, add the marinated chicken to the mix and allow to sear on all sides. 

Once you can no longer see pink flesh, add the chopped tomatoes, the additional tbsp of tatli (or alternative), the honey and season generously. 

Leave on a low-to medium heat for fifteen minutes or until the sauce has begun to thicken. 

Now remove from the heat and add in the microwave (or other cooked) rice and the dill and give it a good stir.

Now spoon the mixture generously into the halved peppers, they should be just overflowing. 

Cover the dish with the peppers in foil and place into the oven for 35 minutes. 

Take the baking dish out of the oven, remove the foil and pull the mozarella into slices and add a little to each pepper. Return to the oven for five minutes or until the cheese has melted. 

Remove from the oven and allow to stand for a few minutes then dish up. Enjoy!

If you love Turkish-inspired recipes, you will love the below:

Lamb Shish Kebabs

Adana Kebabs

Healthy Chicken Shish

Mini Turkey Koftes

Roasted Red Pepper Hummus and Cacik Dips

Beef Kofte

Harissa Chicken Kebabs

Roasted Red Pepper Hummus and Cacik Dips

If you love Turkish food, you'd be surprised to know just how simple it is to create some of your favourite dishes at home.

I've already shared the Lamb Shish Kebab, Beef Kofte Kebabs and Healthy Chicken Shish Kebabs but what about the delicious dips to go alongside? So here are two of our favourite dips that would be fantastic with some fresh bread and any of those dishes; Roasted Red Pepper Hummus and Cacik.

Cacik is very similar to Tzatziki (although this of course originates in Greece) except rather than using mint (although in some cases mint is used), in my experience this is often flavoured with fronds of dill.

As I am on a never-ending quest to shift some weight, I often use low fat or fat free yoghurt for Cacik, but you will get a creamier version if you use full fat natural yoghurt, and if you are lucky enough to live close to any shops that stock Turkish produce, I strongly recommend finding a Turkish Yoghurt which is super thick and creamy and makes for a really authentic Cacik.

Cacik and Roasted Red Pepper Hummus

Cacik

Here's how:

• 3 tbsp yoghurt (fat free if you want a lower calorie version, Turkish or Greek full fat if you want the authentic version and to tell with the calories)
• 1 cucumber
• 1 clove of garlic
• Pinch of salt
• Handful of dill fronds, finely chopped

In a small bowl add the yoghurt and salt. 

Grate the cucumber down and add to the yoghurt. 

Peel and mince the garlic and add to the yoghurt. 

Finely chop the dill fronds and add to the yoghurt then give it all a good mix and spoon into your serving dish; or cover and place into the fridge until you need. 

Roasted Red Pepper Hummus

There are tons of varieties of hummus out there, but this is our favourite, taking flavour from those delightful jarred roasted red peppers. If you don't have any and/or can't get hold of them, you can simply place a whole red pepper into the oven at a very high heat and roast until charred all over. Then remove from the oven, allow to cool, and peel off the charred skin and remove the lid, and the seeds inside. 

Here's how:

• 1 large roasted red pepper
• 1 tin of chickpeas
• 2 tbsp tahini 
• Juice of 1 lemon
• 1 clove of garlic
• Pinch of salt and black pepper
• Olive oil

For this you will need a food processor or if you have one, a Nutribullet. 

Firstly drain off the tin of chickpeas and add 90% of the tin to the Nutribullet or blender (save a few for garnish). Add the tahini and squeeze in the juice of the lemon.

Now peel and mince the garlic and add with the salt and pepper and the roasted red pepper. 

Pour in a couple of tablespoons of olive oil. Now put the blender lid on and blitz. You will most likely need more like 4-5 tablespoons of olive oil to get a smoother, runnier consistency, but if you add a little at a time, and just blend until you are happy with the consistency.

Once ready, place into the fridge for later with a lid on or dish up into you serving dish and scatter over the remaining chickpeas. If you are making ahead of time, and you find the hummus has gone a little dry in the fridge, just add a few drops more olive oil and mix again with a fork or spoon or give another quick blitz.

Healthy Chicken Shish Kebabs

I'm as guilty as anyone else of loving my takeaways, and I always think if we have a Turkish takeaway it's healthier than most - although probably not when we have the chips to go with it all! I've been having a go for the last couple of months at different versions of a homemade chicken shish kebab, and this is where we've landed with it. Our very own fake-away!

I always serve it as a platter for the family, as it's just fun; it looks great to look at, and we all love digging in and sharing off of the same platter. I do have to do some plainer chicken, not for the baby, who will literally devour the chicken on these kebabs, but for Bridget who says these are too spicy! They are very mild, but that is toddlers for you! Luckily she does eat everything else on the platter! 

The recipe here is just for the chicken shish, but I serve with toasted pitta, a tomato, red onion and cucumber salad (literally as simple as that with a drizzle of olive oil and sprinkling of black pepper), tzatziki, and either white rice, or couscous, or in this case, both! I'm obviously watching my calorie and carb intake, so couscous is a good option, but Bridget and Beatrice love their white rice, and Glen prefers it over couscous too! For my couscous, I use a basic one, and add parsley, mint, dill and chives plus some chopped up dried apricots - it's delicious with the chicken shish.

The below makes 5 healthy sized skewers and the trick is to marinate the chicken for as long as possible, if you can do overnight for the following evening meal, the chicken will be so flavourful and tender, it's well worth the wait. 

One final note - this is by no means an authentic Turkish recipe, it is in fact, an amalgamation of me trying tons of recipes and experimenting, and this is simply the one we've settled on as our favourite. 

Healthy Chicken Shish Kebabs

Here's how:

• 3 large chicken breasts
• 5 tbsp natural yoghurt
• 1 large lemon
• 2 tbsp tomato puree
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tbsp paprika
• 2 tsp cumin
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 2 tsp cayenne pepper
• 2 tsp black pepper
• 1 tsp garlic salt
• 1 tsp turmeric
• 2 tsp oregano
• 1 red onion
• 4 cloves garlic

Firstly open up the container you're using to marinate the meat, this can be a plastic container, a zip up bag, or you can use a large yoghurt container, as I have - I save these for such occasions! 

Pour in the olive oil, yoghurt and tomato puree. 

Now you need to grate the onion, and throw in the result, including the juicy pulp, into the marinade. 

Mince the garlic and add to the mix. Slice the lemon in half and then squeeze out as much of the juice as you can then throw the lemon halves into the marinade. 

Finally add all of the herbs and spices and give a really good stir. 

Now dice the chicken into decent sized chunks, this doesn't have to be exact, but try to get similarly sized pieces where possible. Throw all of the chicken into the marinade, and use a spoon to mix so all of the chicken is fully immersed in the yoghurt mix, then pop the lid on and place back into the fridge. 

Chicken Shish Marinade

Try to leave to marinade for at least four hours, but overnight is better. 

If using wooden skewers, soak these for an hour or so in water before cooking. 

To cook, simply load the marinated chicken pieces onto the skewer, pack them pretty tight together, and leave a good gap at either end of the skewers, and place under the grill for about five minutes, then turn and cook for a further five minutes. If you like a more charred chicken shish, increase the cooking time slightly. Before serving, just use a sharp knife and make an incision into one of the biggest pieces of chicken into the centre, to ensure the chicken is cooked through. If so, turn off the grill, and leave the chicken to rest for a few minutes, before serving.

Serve with your choice of accompaniments: pitta, rice, couscous, tzatziki, hummus, salad, chilli sauce, feta, halloumi - all will work a treat! If cooking for the family, do try and serve on a board to add a bit of theatre and fun to your evening meal, pile it high and let everyone dig in! Enjoy!