Marinating chicken pieces in a tangy blend of yogurt, olive oil, garlic, and herbs tenderizes the poultry and adds valuable flavor—as long as the chicken only marinates for 3 to 6 hours. Don’t skimp on the marinating time though; any less than 3 hours and the chicken won’t be as flavorful or tender. Conversely, marinating for more than 6 hours will make the chicken mushy—also not a desired outcome.

To help prevent the kebabs from sticking to the grill (even when you oil the grates), spray them with a neutral oil just before placing them on the grill. Yes, you can use chicken breasts instead of thighs, however the white meat tends to dry out quicker and is not as juicy or full of flavor.

For the vegetable component of the meal, we also grilled a marinated medley of mixed vegetables with garlic cloves and fresh rosemary in a good extra virgin olive oil for several hours. In this instance, we used a red bell pepper, cremini mushrooms, red onion, baby eggplant, summer squash and zucchini all cut into bite-sized pieces.

Place the veggies in a grill basket, turning every so often for about 20 minutes over medium heat until slightly softened and charred here and there. We also included a side of Spanish Potatoes with Olive Oil which I blogged about recently. They were so good, we wanted to impress our guest, who BTW, was duly impressed!

Adapted from a similar recipe from Cook’s Country