Recipe: Chicken Skewers with Seared Summer Fruit and Burrata
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It’s my favorite produce season of the year! I love every season for different reasons, but when it comes to the celebrating the joy of what’s actually IN season, harvest-wise, I get soooo excited for summer. All the stone fruits, berries, and especially getting to harvest the tomatoes in my backyard! I have been loading up on way too many peaches, nectarines, and apricots when I hit up the grocery store, but I just can’t help it when I see piles and piles of stone fruits in the produce aisle.
Fortunately, I have come to realize that stone fruits go so well in savory dishes. I am obsessed with the combination of fruit and burrata these days (and let’s be real—I’m obsessed with burrata every day) but stone fruits also go really well with chicken. If you are one of those people who is on the fence about mixing sweet and savory then I am hoping this recipe will sway you.
Lately my meals have been revolving around an idea for a salad I want to make, and then thinking about how to turn that salad idea into a more robust dinner for me and Spouse. When I started planning for this recipe, I knew I wanted to pair a stone fruit and burrata salad with some sort of chicken skewers. What I love about making chicken skewers is that if you cut up chicken thighs into little pieces, they are so nice and juicy and they are able to take on flavor so quickly just with a little seasoning—no need to plan ahead and marinade for a long amount of time beforehand.
I know that all of Spice Tribe’s travel-inspired seasoning blends are so good, so I couldn’t decide which one I wanted to use in my chicken skewers recipe. So one evening I did a little taste test where I cooked up 3 different chicken thighs, each one seasoned with just a little kosher salt and one of these blends: Mama Manje, Mombacho Cafe, and Marrakesh Sitar. Spouse and I tried tasting each one really carefully, but we honestly loved them all! When we really forced ourselves to nitpick, we concluded that the Mama Manje was the least exciting by a hair—tasty, but felt the most like a typical rotisserie chicken flavor; no wonder I have been reaching for it often as an all-purpose seasoning. Mombacho Cafe and Marrakesh Sitar were still completely tied—both had a depth of flavor that made the very simply-cooked chicken feel special. I ended up going with Marrakesh Sitar because Moroccan cuisine happens to have some gorgeous examples of sweet fruits getting incorporated in savory dishes.
This is often my thought process when coming up with a recipe. It’s about what ingredients and flavor combos I am excited to put together, but equally important is whether there is a story I can tell about the reason I put these things together. I have not been to Morocco and I am not the least bit knowledgable about the food there, but I have enjoyed whatever Moroccan food I have had access to. I love the preserved lemons, and I love the tagines that incorporate apricots and raisins into meaty stews. Thinking about Moroccan food really helped me flesh out my ideas for this recipe, and what I ended up with is a sort of fresh and quick version of the ingredients you might find in slow cooked Moroccan tagines. I added grapes to the salad as a counterpart to the raisins, as well as olives for a savory balance. I decided to use fresh mint for the dressing; even though mint appears most typically in Moroccan cuisine in the form of tea, using it as a fresh herb felt fitting for building on the theme.
The end result is a fantastic meal for weeknights when you want something quick and easy but still super fun to eat. If you can’t be bothered to skewer up the meats, you could just cook boneless chicken thighs whole—not as fun to eat but still incredibly tasty! I cooked everything on my big flat stovetop griddle, so there also wasn’t a ton of cleanup to do after, which is definitely another big perk of the way this recipe works. It is perfect for summer days when you want that grilling vibe without the hassle of firing up the grill, or when it is too hot to eat something heavy and you just want an excuse to eat a bunch of stone fruit.
How to Make Chicken Skewers with Seared Summer Fruit and Burrata
Ingredients for the Mint Dressing
1/2 tsp dried oregano, finely crushed
1 clove garlic, microplaned
1/4 tsp Spice Tribe Maras Chile Flakes
1/2 tsp salt
4 tsp red wine vinegar
1/4 cup mint leaves, chopped
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
Ingredients For the Chicken Skewers
2 large chicken thighs, deboned and cut into 1-inch chunks*
1/4 – 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 1/2 tsp Spice Tribe Marrakesh Sitar blend
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil, plus extra for cooking
1 lemon, halved
Ingredients For the Salad
2 peaches or nectarines, cut into eighths
2 apricots, cut into halves or quarters
1/2 cup seedless grapes, halved
1/2 cup castelvetrano olives
4 oz burrata
Fresh mint leaves, for garnish
* Feel free to use skin-on or skinless, according to preference. I used skin-on because I love crispy chicken skin!
Procedure
Begin preparing the mint dressing. In a heat-safe bowl, combine dried oregano, garlic, Spice Tribe Maras Chile Flakes, salt, and vinegar. Mix together and let stand for at least 15 minutes to allow the flavors to combine.
Prepare the chicken skewers. Combine chicken pieces, salt, Spice Tribe Marrakesh Sitar spice blend, and olive oil in a small bowl and mix so the chicken is evenly coated in the spices. Allow to rest for at least 5 minutes, then divide the chicken among 4 skewers.
In a small saucepan, heat olive oil for the dressing until it starts to ripple. Add the mint on top of the dressing mixture, and then carefully pour the hot oil on top of the mint. (There will be some splatter.) Stir dressing together and set aside.
On high, heat a griddle pan or a cast iron skillet large enough to accommodate the skewers. Drizzle a small amount of olive oil into the pan and use tongs and a folded piece of paper towel to spread a thin layer of oil over the whole cooking surface. Turn heat down to medium-high and add the chicken skewers. Cook for about 12 minutes, rotating a quarter turn every 3 minutes; if necessary, place a pot lid or grill press on top of the skewers to weigh them down and ensure even contact with the cooking surface. (Chicken is cooked through if a toothpick is inserted and juices run clear.) Transfer cooked skewers to a plate, squeeze half the lemon over them, and cover tightly with foil to keep warm.
Add the peach/nectarine and apricot slices to the griddle cut side down. Sear until there is slight browning, then flip and lightly sear the other cut side.
Scatter the peach/nectarine and apricot slices on a platter, along with the grapes and olives. Tear burrata into a few chunks and add them to the platter. Add skewers. Drizzle mint dressing over everything and scatter fresh mint leaves for garnish. Cut the remaining lemon half into 2 pieces and serve with the platter.
Enjoy with flatbreads or couscous.
Thank you so much to Spice Tribe for sponsoring this recipe! Check them out on Instagram here or visit their website to purchase high quality spices and unique small-batch spice blends.