Grilled Tandoori Chicken & Red Onion Skewers with Couscous

Our friends KT and Steve Waxman (pictured at right) came over last evening for dinner and to watch a little football.  Our team, the Forty Niners, played the Eagles.  I wanted to grill something that was apropos.  Since you can't Bar-B-Que an eagle, it's illegal, I figured that Chicken was the next best thing.  Bye the way, the Forty Niners lost...again.
No matter, the dinner was a real winner.

KT and Steve belong to a gourmet club and they have an appreciation for good food.  I needed to prepare something that would be worthy of their gourmet tastes.  Looking over several menu options on the web I decided on our feature recipe for today, Grilled Tandoori Chicken and Red Onion Skewers with Couscous.

For something so unusual, this dish was relatively quick and easy to prepare.  While searching for ingredients, we had to go to a few stores before we found the Tandoori Spice mix, which we were finally able to locate at a middle eastern grocery here in Danville.  We found the whole wheat couscous at Trader Joe's. All other ingredients should be readily available at your favorite Supermarket.


Grilled Tandoori Chicken and Red Onion Skewers with Couscous

Ingredients

1 & 1/4 pounds chicken thighs, boneless and skinless, cut into about 24 - 32 chunks
1 & 1/4 cups plain fat-free yogurt. We used the Greek style.
2 Tbsp Tandoori Spice mix. It's a dry mix packaged in cellophane.
1/2 cups cucumbers, diced. We used the English variety.
3 Tbsp mint leaves, fresh, chopped.
1/4 tsp salt.
2 medium red onions, cut into about 16 wedges
2 sprays of olive oil cooking spray
2 cups cooked whole wheat Couscous

Instructions

Put chicken, 1/2 cup of yogurt and Tandoori spice mix in a resealable plastic food storage bag. Seal bag and turn to mix and coat. Place bag in refrigerator for at least 1 hour and up to 8 hours.

To make sauce, in a small bowl, stir together remaining 3/4 cup of yogurt, cucumber, mint and salt until blended; refrigerate until ready to serve.

Preheat grill. Remove chicken from marinade, discard marinade. Thread chicken and onion wedges onto wooden or metal skewers. (If using wooden skewers, as we did, soak the skewers in water for at least 30 minutes prior to using to prevent burning.)

Coat chicken and onions with cooking spray.

Grill skewers, turning often, until chicken is cooked through, about 10 - 12 minutes.

Serve skewers over couscous with dipping sauce on the side.

Yields 2 skewers, 1/2 cup of couscous and about 1/4 cup of sauce per serving.

We served  grilled zucchini as a side dish.  Brush a little olive oil on sliced zucchini with a little salt and pepper to taste.  Grill along side the chicken skewers for the same time.  Sprinkle with shaved Parmesan cheese.

Makes 4 servings, WW "PointsPlus value" per serving is 8. (add a point for the zucchini, oil and cheese), Prep time is about 20 minutes. Cooking time is about 10 minutes. Level of difficulty is Easy.

Weight Watchers is a registered trademark of Weight Watchers Intl. Inc. www.weightwatchers.com

Photos by Barry Baruh