Chicken Shish Kebab

A Friday night classic, with marinated and grilled chicken, served with a selection of fresh vegetables and salad in a pitta bread, with a side of butternut squash French Fries.

Serves 4 | 9 ProPoints/470 Calories per portion (approx)

Note: ProPoints/Calorie value may vary depending on brand of pitta/flat bread.

Ingredients
4 chicken breasts (medium size, skinless)
150g Onken Natural Yogurt (or similar)
1 tspn paprika
1 tspn cumin powder
1/4 tspn cayenne pepper
1 tspn garlic powder/granules
1 tspn onion powder/granules
1 tspn oil (olive or rapeseed)
1 lemon (juiced, or 4-6 tpsn of bottle lemon)
Salt and pepper
Salad (lettuce, tomato, cucumber)(enough for 4 people)
Vegetables (onion, red cabbage, bell peppers)(enough for 4 people)
1 butternut squash
4 pitta breads or wraps (low calorie)
Sauce/Mayonnaise (shop bought, your choice)(see notes at bottom)

Method
Note: Below, we describe the the best preparation and cooking process we have found for the dish, instead of providing a full recipe.

Chicken (Marinade):
Cut the chicken breasts into equal sized cubes and place in a bowl, with the yogurt, paprika, cumin, cayenne pepper, garlic powder/granules, onion powder/granules, oil, lemon juice and salt and pepper. Stir so all the spices blend with the yogurt and fully coat the chicken pieces. Cover the bowl with cling film and place in the bottom of the fridge for at least 2 hours, preferably overnight.

Chicken (Cooking):
Remove the chicken pieces from the marinade and place in an oven proof dish. Do not pour the excess marinade back over the chicken; discard it. Cover the dish and place in a 180 Celsius oven for 30-35 minutes until the chicken is cooked through. Once cooked, either remove the foil and continue cooking until the chicken begins to brown, or remove the chicken from the dish and cook in a large hot frying pan (or griddle) until the chicken begins to char.

Butternut Squash French Fries:
Peel and cut the butternut squash into slightly oversized French Fries - they will shrink during cooking! Soak in a bowl of lightly salted water for 20 minutes, then drain and pat dry with kitchen paper. Place on a baking tray (with non-stick mat) and use a couple of sprays of 1Cal oil. Lightly salt, then mix around the fries so they are all coated with oil and salt. Bake in a 180 Celsius oven for 20-25 minutes, turning occasionally. Finish off under a hot grill to crisp the fries more.

Salad and Vegetables:
Chop and dice the salad and vegetables into desired size pieces.

Pita Bread/Wraps:
Rub a little cumin/paprika onto the pitta bread/wraps and place on a baking tray in a 180 Celsius oven for about 5 minutes until the bread is warm. If using pitta bread, carefully run a knife along one long edge to 'open' a pocket in the bread.

Serving:
Serve all the fresh and cooked items separately (as per the photo to the right) and let everyone help themselves! The only item that needs portioning is the chicken; a quarter of the total chicken for each person.

Notes/Ideas
We have not included any sauce in our recipe. We prefer to use shop bought low fat/fat free sauces and mayonnaises, instead of making our own. The photo shows 'Colman's Hot Chilli Tequila Sauce', a portion of which is only 23 calories! Most low fat/fat free sauces and mayonnaises are between 15-25 calories for a portion, not even registering 1 ProPoint. Choose and buy your own carefully!

Different brands of pitta bread/wraps can contain varying amounts of calories/ProPoints. Again, choose and buy carefully. Ours were about 250 calories per pitta, or 4 ProPoints. Weight Watchers do their own versions for 3 ProPoints, but are smaller.

Of course, you could leave out the bread completely, serving the chicken on a bed of salad/vegetables, for an ultra low calorie/ProPoint meal!

Instead of chicken, the same recipe can be used for lamb. Obviously, the calories/ProPoints would increase accordingly.

If you're wondering about our calorie/ProPoint calculation - the oil and yogurt would be about 1 ProPoint each, but these are shared between 4 portions, making it difficult to calculate. We have therefore not counted these calories/ProPoints. We calculated approximately 250 calories (4 ProPoints) for the bread, 200 calories (4 ProPoints) for the chicken and 20 calories (1 ProPoint) for any sauce. Brands differ, please check yours!