Grilled Chicken Kofta: The Unique and Tasty Meatball is the Answer to Ordinary

Chicken kofta may be the recipe that you didn’t know you needed in your life. It’s easy to make and comes together quickly, but the spices and aromatics make it different and delicious. You will come back to this recipe again and again. Chicken kofta is ground meat, mixed with spices and aromatics, and is commonly formed into “fingers” around a skewer for grilling. Sometimes, the meat is formed into a ball and stewed in tomatoes, tahini, or even cherries.

So what does that sound like? To me, this resembles a meatball or meatloaf, depending on how you prepare it, and people around the world make meatballs in various ways. Of course you have your Italian style, but think about Swedish meatballs stewed in gravy, Vietnamese pork meatballs in a Bahn mi sandwich, and many more. This is one of the things I love about global cuisine. There is almost always a version that is similar in another region.

Chicken Kofta or kefte is commonly found throughout the Middle East and most countries have their own spin on it. Palestine uses lots of tahini and tomatoes while Syrian and Armenian version may add bulgar wheat and the Iranian version has rice and peas. For this recipe I am going with more general Middle Eastern spices, onion, and parsley. I simply formed my spiced chicken into football shape to grill and served it with a fattoush salad, tahini sauce, and plenty of fresh Arabic bread. Try this next time you are craving Middle Eastern food and let me know your thoughts!

Serves 4

Tools:

A grill of choice. Could be the grill in your backyard or a grill pan. I used an indoor grill for this and it worked very well.

Suggested Wine Pairing:

I think a sauvignon blanc would pair perfectly with this, but this would also be a great opportunity to crack open one of these delicious Lebanese white wines.

Ingredients:

1 pound of ground chicken, preferably thighs

1/2 onion, finely diced

2 cloves of garlic minced

1 tablespoon of bharat

1/4 cup parsley, finely diced

1 teaspoon of salt

1/2 teaspoon pepper

1 teaspoon paprika

2 tablespoons of melted butter or ghee

Tahini sauce for serving

Instructions:

1. Combine all of the above ingredients in a mixing bowl and stir to combine. Using about 2 tablespoons of the mixture, roll the chicken mixture into football shapes.
2. Grill over medium high heat for about 5 minutes on each side. Serve with Arabic bread and maybe even some hummus.

If you like this, be sure to check out my chicken tawook or my chicken arayes!