Foodie Fight #2: Honey-Mustard and Lemon Greek Skewers with Hummus Dipping Sauce

Hey, there. So my time in Prescott has been winding down as I get ready to move to Tucson in a couple weeks. I'm really excited, but at the same time really bummed because moving means quitting my job which I LOVE and leaving a lot of people behind. The good news is, though, there are a lot of people that will be down there with me! Not to mention my own room, a 24 hr pool, and hopefully a nice kitchen to cook in :)

I've been busy working and doing as many summery things as possible, so I've been cooking less. I still check out each week's new foodie fight ingredients, but haven't been inspired enough to sign up. This week, though, I said "to hell with it" and signed up for battle skewers even though a. I don't have a grill, b. I have very few recipes that involve skewers or meat (which seems to be what most people expect to be skewered) and c. the weekend I'd have to cook coincided with my sister and her boyfriend visiting, a film festival, and a couple rad parties. Despite all this, I signed up and on a Sunday afternoon after 5 hours of sleep and a very unfocused shopping trip I got to cooking my idea- Greek Skewers.


I wanted to go with some sort of theme. A "meal on a stick" type of thing. Why stick to skewers of plain old meat and vegetables thrown on a grill when you can do so much more? I love Mediterranean food and I love roasting things, so that's what I went with. Roasted Greek Skewers. And I'm all for taking the skewered food off the skewers after cooking- but I'm also all for eating things off sticks. With dipping sauces. Hence, hummus-y dip. Yeah, you can grab a pita and stick the skewered food in there and smother it with the sauce, but that's just not quite as much fun.

Anyways, without any further ado, I present to you my battle entry for the week :)

Greek Skewers with Hummus Dipping Sauce
Ingredients:
1-2 boneless chicken breasts, cut into 1 inch chunks
(Yes! This recipe has meat! Weird, right? Chicken could easily be swapped for tofu but I was making this for meat eaters. Plus... well lets just be honest. This is for a battle, and tofu tends to scare people away. For now, at least.)
cherry or grape tomatoes
1 large red onion
1 block of feta
kalamata olives

for the chicken marinade:
2 cloves garlic
1/3 cup white onion, roughly chopped
2 tbsp honey mustard
1 tbsp lemon
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
1/2 tsp salt

for the hummus dipping sauce (amounts approximate):
1/3 cup sesame seeds
1/2 cup olive oil
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 can garbanzo beans
garbanzo bean juice to reach proper consistency

Recipe:
1. Begin with the marinade. In a food processor, process the garlic and onion until finely minced.

2. Add the mustard and lemon juice and process. Add the seasonings and process.

3. If time allows, put the chicken breast chunks in a zip-lock bag, add honey-mustard-lemon marinade, and store in fridge overnight.
4. In a medium frying pan, heat 1-2 tbsp olive oil over medium heat. Add the marinaded chicken and any remaining marinade from the bag. Cook, stirring often, until chicken is almost completely cooked but still slightly pink in the middle. Remove from heat and let cool.

5. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Chop the red onion into large chunks. Wash the tomatoes. Cut the feta into chunks.

6. Start skewering! I did mine as so: chicken, onion, olive, chicken, tomato, feta, chicken. You can do yours however you please. Once you've skewered up all your ingredients, brush or pour the remaining marinade/juice from the chicken pan over the entirety of the skewers.

7. Bake on a cookie sheet for 5-10 minutes, then turn and cook for an additional 5 minutes. Remove and allow to cool for about five minutes. Don't try to move the skewers- Feta doesn't melt or lose it's shape, but it does get soft. If you try to move the skewers before the feta has had time to harden up a bit, the skewer will go right through it and leave the feta on the cookie sheet.

8. While the skewers are cooking and cooling, prepare the dip. I didn't have tahini and was too lazy to go to more than one store to find it, but luckily I still had a bunch of sesame seeds left over from battle sesame seed and papaya. Tahini is basically sesame seed paste, so I figured I could improvise. Begin by processing the sesame seeds until they have reached a grainy consistency.

9. Add olive oil and lemon juice. Process until smooth. Add garbanzo beans and process, adding liquid from the can until a dip-consistency is reached. Add cumin and salt and pepper to taste. Garnish with olive oil and a kalamata olive.

10. When the skewers have cooled enough, serve them on the stick with little bowls of the dipping sauce.

Tada! Battle nombre deux. Give this one a shot, it's simple, easy, and pretty hard to mess up considering I made it up on the spot :)

Good luck to my competitors, all their stuff looks great! And of course, stop by foodie fights and vote for me if you see fit! Have a lovely week.

Love,
MSoSS