Distract the Neighbor's Chicken

I very much enjoyed participating in the Cook the Books review and reading Diana Abu-Jaber’s book The Language of Baklava. Congrats to Laurie in Alaska for getting the nod from the author on her blog entry and amazing Kofta and yogurt sauce. Her photos and story look wonderful.



Being inspired by some of the wonderful recipes in Diana’s book we tried one a few evenings ago. Here is the recipe verbatim from The Language of Baklava. I hope she is OK with me “publishing” it here. After you read her recipe, please scroll down to read what we did and how it turned out.



“Distract the Neighbors” Grilled chicken.


4 TB olive oil

3 Cloves crushed garlic

Juice from 1 lemon

3 teaspoons brown sugar

3 sprigs rosemary, chopped

¼ teaspoon ground cumin

Salt and freshly ground pepper

½ teaspoon cayenne pepper

2 pounds skinless chicken pieces


In a large bowl, mix the oil, garlic lemon juice, brown sugar and spices. Add the chicken pieces (you may cut the chicken into cubes if you prefer), stirring to coat the chicken with marinade. Cover and refrigerate for 3 hours or longer, turning occasionally.


Place the chicken parts on the grill (if cut into cubes, the chicken can be threaded onto skewers). Grill over hot charcoal for 10 or fifteen minutes, turning frequently and basting with marinade. This is very nice with bread and salad.


OK, here are some photos and here is what we used. Same recipe but I used legs and thighs and did not take the skin off. That may have made a huge difference. I didn’t have fresh rosemary and didn’t have a large amount. So that was a dried herb rather than fresh and not much of it. Used a bit more cayenne pepper.



The charcoal fire was very hot and when the chicken hit the grill the olive oil dripped down, causing lots of flare up. Doug had to put the lid on quite a bit to keep it from burning. Despite some of the skin scorching it was delicious. De –lish-ous!!! The marinade was a snap to make. Doug stood over the fire with a Red Stripe in one hand, tongs in the other, he will be adding this to his Foodbuzz.

We had the grilled chicken, loaf of Cuban bread, cantaloupe, steamed green beans and onions and roasted potato wedges. I’m a fan of red wine but that Red Stripe beer was a good match.