Recipe: Tedesca Osteria’s Barbequed Chicken Skewers With Walnut, Dill and Lemon

Barbequed chicken can be a really easy and simple mid-week dinner, or you can take this recipe up a notch and make it quite special – use the best free-range chicken you can find, and I recommend you use a hibachi with binchotan. Grilling over really good Japanese charcoal can make such a difference to the flavour. It is expensive, but if you extinguish them straight after cooking they will last a very long time. I buy mine from Chef’s Armoury (in Sydney and Melbourne – also available online).

Tedesca Osteria’s peppered chicken skewers with walnut, dill and preserved lemon salsa

Serves 6–8

Ingredients

8 chicken thigh fillets, cut into 2cm-wide strips

1 tsp salt flakes

2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil

1 tbsp coriander seeds

1 tbsp white peppercorns

Walnut salsa

80g walnuts

2 tbsp dill, roughly chopped

1 tbsp coriander, chopped

1 tsp preserved lemon, finely chopped

Juice of 1 lemon

2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil

Aioli

1 large whole garlic clove

1 egg yolk

2 tsp white wine vinegar

125ml (½ cup) grapeseed oil

1¾ tbsp extra-virgin olive oil

Salt flakes and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Method

Place the chicken in a bowl, season well with salt and drizzle with olive oil to coat.

Coarsely crush the coriander seeds and white peppercorns with a mortar and pestle, add to the chicken and mix well. Refrigerate for 30 minutes to marinate. Thread the chicken pieces onto metal skewers (or bamboo skewers soaked in water), folding the strips over themselves.

For the walnut salsa, preheat the oven to 180°C. Spread the walnuts on a baking tray and roast for 8 minutes or until golden. Allow to cool, then place the walnuts in a tea towel and rub until the skins come off. Separate the walnuts from the skin (discard skin), roughly chop the nuts, then place in a bowl. Add the dill, coriander, preserved lemon and lemon juice, then add the olive oil and turn to combine.

For the aioli, crush the garlic with a good pinch of salt with a mortar and pestle, then add to a small food processor with the egg yolk and vinegar. With the processor running, add the grapeseed oil in a very thin, steady stream, then add 2 tbsp of water followed by the olive oil. Season to taste and keep in the fridge until ready to use. (Alternatively, you can do this with a stick blender, or by hand with a whisk.)

Preheat a barbeque or chargrill pan to high. Grill the chicken skewers, turning occasionally, until golden and just cooked through, around 2 minutes each side. Place on a platter, then top with the walnut salsa and serve with a dollop of aioli.

This is an extract from the Broadsheet cookbook The New Classics, which features 80 all-new recipes by Melbourne’s best restaurants. Published by Plum, the book is available for $54.99 at shop.broadsheet.com.au.