Spicy Moroccan Chicken Skewers

I know I've been doing a lot of breads and desserts the last couple days so today I'm finally doing a meal, and a great one at that. Spicy Moroccan chicken skewers with couscous is today's menu (with a side of Indian spiced sweet potato patties, which I will post next week). This meal is yet another healthy but incredibly flavorful dish.

Spicy Moroccan Chicken Skewers

Recipe from myrecipes.com

Cooking time: 2 hours 9 minutes

Yield: 4 servings (serving size: 3 skewers and 1 tbsp yogurt)

Ingredients

1 1/2 tbsp minced fresh garlic

1 1/2 tbsp chile paste (such as sambal oelek)

2 tbsp olive oil

1 tsp ground cumin

1/2 tsp ground coriander

5/8 tsp kosher salt, divided

4 skinless, boneless chicken thighs, cut into 36 pieces

1/2 yellow bell pepper, cut into 12 pieces

12 cherry tomatoes

Cooking spray

1/4 cup plain 2% reduced-fat Greek yogurt

Directions

1. Combine first 5 ingredients in a small bowl; stir in 1/8 tsp salt. Scrape mixture into a zip-top plastic bag. Add chicken; seal. Marinate in refrigerator 2 hours, turning after 1 hour.
2. Immerse 12 (18-inch) wooden skewers in water; soak 30 minutes. Drain and pat dry.
3. Preheat the grill to medium-high heat.
4. Remove chicken from marinade; discard marinade. Thread 3 chicken pieces, 1 pepper piece, and 1 tomato alternately onto each skewer, beginning and ending with chicken; sprinkle evenly with remaining 1/2 tsp salt. Arrange skewers on grill rack coated with cooking spray; grill 4 minutes on each side or until done. Serve with yogurt.

Nutritional Analysis:
per serving: 204 calories, 10.8g fat (2g saturated, 1.6g polyunsaturated, 6.1g monounsaturated), 7.8g carbohydrates, 1.5g fiber, 19.3g protein

**Helpful tips and common mistakes

The marinade for these chicken skewers is fantastic; full of flavor with not much ingredients. I chose to use chicken breast instead of chicken thigh, which is drier because of the absence of fat. Since it becomes quite dry by grilling, I cooked these skewers in the oven.

You can choose to marinate these skewers the day before. If you are roasting them in the oven like I did, you can marinate them for 1 hour instead of 2. Since it will be cooking in the marinade, 1 hour of marinading time will suffice.

I added an extra tomato and pepper to the original recipe just because I had enough. 

 Roast in the oven at 350 degrees for 20 minutes or until the chicken is no longer pink. 

Wow, these skewers came out fantastic! They smelled great as they came out of the oven, and tasted even better (if that's possible). There is just so much flavor in the chicken from the marinade, from the sambal to the spices. I served the skewers on top of a bed of couscous so the couscous can soak up the juices of the chicken. Yogurt was not needed. Only 230 calories for 3 skewers, you won't feel guilty about eating these up!