SUNDAY NEWS: My favorite grilled chicken: souvlaki Canal Fest style

*This chicken souvlaki is my most requested dish.*

Last week’s Grilling Vegetables 101 brought a request for my favorite grilled chicken recipe.

So here’s my chicken souvlaki, Canal Fest of the Tonawandas style. By sheer tonnage, I’ve cooked more of this than anything in my life. The craziest thing is you can just mix and go.

This one comes from the Greek-Canadian restaurant professionals responsible for the Holy Protection Church souvlaki tent at Canal Fest of the Tonawandas for 26 years, until 2017. Working the grill throughout the eight-day festivals was the closest I’ve come to real restaurant labor.

Since then, I’ve made souvlaki hundreds of times, for thousands of people. This recipe ennobles beef, pork, paneer cubes, and other proteins headed for the grill, and even emboldens tilapia filets run under the broiler.

Stick to the measurements the first time you try it, then dial in individual spice levels to your taste.

For best effects, do not use chicken breast, which dries out swiftly. The Canal Fest pros chose chicken tenders, because the single muscle holds moisture when cooked, and was easily portioned on 4-ounce skewers.

My choice is boneless, skinless chicken thighs. They are almost impossible to dry out before as their edges char nicely.

The marinade can be applied immediately before cooking, or up to a week ahead, kept refrigerated. You can freeze bags of marinated raw meat to thaw and use at your leisure. A year in the freezer will cost you slightly in texture, but nothing in flavor.

Cheater note: if cooking in an under-resourced kitchen, you can use garlic or onion, and white or black pepper, doubling the amounts, and still get respectable results.

Chicken souvlaki Canal Fest style

Ingredients

5 pounds boneless skinless chicken thighs, more or less

½ cup vegetable oil

⅛ cup vinegar, white, red, or cider

¼ cup dried oregano

¼ cup onion powder

¼ cup granulated garlic

2 tablespoons ground black pepper

2 tablespoons ground white pepper

1 tablespoon salt

Instructions

Mix all ingredients together, massaging mixture into chicken until fully coated.

To grill: Heat half grill area with charcoal or gas. The unheated half is the time-out corner to save chicken from flare-ups.

Boneless skinless chicken thighs render enough fat to flare up. Not all flame is bad, but if you see sooty black smoke, move the chicken to time-out until the flame burns down. Sooty chicken isn’t cool. Return to the hot side after it fades.

Because of the way they’re cut, boneless skinless chicken thighs render their own mini-nuggets. These are bite-sized pieces of meat just hanging on, that cook first. Mini-nugs can be pulled off with tongs and set finish at grillside, or if they’re done, put on the plate for amuse bouches.

Turn chicken every 2 to 3 minutes, 15-20 minutes, until it seems done.

Then take a thicker piece, and cut it open to make sure it meets your audience’s definition of done. Fully cooked boneless skinless thighs trigger the “raw chicken” alarm for some palates, so just keep on cooking until approved, because this chicken won’t get parched.

Remove finished chicken to a ready pan to cool, and chop for service. Enjoy on salad, rice, toasted pita bread, or a plate, with tzatziki, if possible. (Here’s my tzatziki recipe.)

Leftovers can serve more salads, sandwiches, and rice bowls for days.

*Chin Hill’s Korean-Burmese menu has the range to feed everyone.*

REVIEW: The robust flavors of Korean cooking come through loud and clear at Chin Hills in Tonawanda, where Burmese cooks nail Korean classics, and more. An evening spent loading up the table and reveling in kimchi and pork and garlic and chile has a rousing restorative effect, and I commend it to your attention. Plus, you don’t have to dig on swine – Chin Hills will rock your vegan world. (For patrons, later this week.)

DINNER AND A VIEW: Stephanie Balk and Jessica Arends of Cornelia @ AKG crafted a bouquet of dishes exploiting the beauty and flavors of edible flowers for their Sunday July 19 dinner at Crown Hill Farm in Eden.

Upcoming dinners star Chefs Zach & JB of The Bloom & Rose on Sunday, August 9, and then the legendary Argentinian badass Chef Valentina Garcia Montano of Saturn Club on Sunday, September 6. Get tickets here.

ASK THE CRITIC:

Q: Do you know a good place to buy kashkaval cheese?

– Sara K., Lackawanna

A: Heck yeah. Allow me to introduce you to the cheese section at Buffalo Fresh, 284 Ontario St. It’s where I buy my Bulgarian sheep’s milk feta at $7.50 a pound. Kashkaval from several producers, plus halloumi, and a dazzling array of jarred curds in brine and olive oil.

If you go earlier in the day, check to see if there’s any samoon left. Baked in the store, it’s three loaves for $5.

More local food and restaurant stories compiled by Michael Chelus of Nittany Epicurean: