Zankou Chicken Marinade Recipes

ZANKOU CHICKEN'S LEBANESE GARLIC SAUCE (COPYCAT)

Steps:

• Peel the potatoes and boil in water until soft. Mash and let cool.
• Crush and peel a whole head of garlic. Cut into quarters. Place raw garlic in a heavy duty blender with the salt and lemon juice. Pour a light layer of oil onto garlic. Puree the garlic, salt lemon juice on high and begin pouring a slow steady stream of the rest of the oil through the blender's handle hole until everything has mixed.
• At this point, you'll have extreme garlickiness (new word), which some people like, but for "texturizing" like Zankou's, you'll need the taters.
• Add the mashed potatoes, about 2-3 tablespoons at a time and mix. Continue adding/blending potato until the sauce is mixed well. At some point in this process, you might consider changing blending vessels. After all this work, my blender was starting to think twice about helping me out.
• Transfer to a bowl and allow to chill completely in the fridge. After about an hour, the flavors will blend together nicely and the texture will take on that library paste consistency like Zankou's sauce.

LEBANESE GARLIC-MARINATED CHICKEN ON THE GRILL

Steps:

• Chicken breasts are usually sold split in half. Cut each breast half in half again and put them in a bowl.
• Chop the garlic coarsely and in a small bowl crush it with the salt, using the back of a spoon, until you have a smooth paste. Stir in the lemon juice, oil, paprika, and pepper. Beat well with a fork and pour the marinade over the chicken pieces. Mix well, using your hands, and turn the pieces to coat them liberally with the marinade. Cover and refrigerate for 4 or 5 hours or overnight.
• When you're ready to cook, prepare the grill, leaving plenty of time for it to heat up if you're using charcoal or wood. When the fire is hot enough, place the chicken pieces on the grill and set the grill a good 8 inches from the source of the heat. Use the marinade remaining in the bowl to baste the chicken frequently as it cooks. Grill for 10 minutes or longer on each side, turning each piece once. Test for doneness and serve hot or at room temperature.

TAHINI CHICKEN

Steps:

• Bring water and bouillon cube to a boil in a pot until bouillon is dissolved; decrease heat to low. Whisk tahini, soy sauce, honey, garlic, and ginger into bouillon mixture until smooth. Keep sauce warm over low heat.
• Heat butter in a skillet over medium heat; cook and stir chicken until no longer pink in the center, 5 to 10 minutes.
• Whisk flour into tahini sauce until thickened, 2 to 3 minutes. Add cooked chicken to tahini sauce and toss to coat.

ZANKOU CHICKEN GARLIC PASTE

Steps:

• Mix the instant mashed potatoes with about 1/2 cup water. Depending on the brand, may be a bit more or a bit less. You're going for mashed potato consistency, this is used to give "body" to the sauce, so err on the side of caution and go thick, not soupy.
• Peel the garlic cloves and put them in your food processor. Add the lemon juice and salt. Puree until finely chopped then stream in the canola oil until it looks like a delicious aoili.
• At this point start adding the potato and continue running the food processor until it is all incorporated. Transfer to a covered container.
• Now. Before you panic and think you've gone and added too much potato because of course you tasted it immediately and you're disappointed it tastes so potato-ey, put the container in the fridge. Forget all about it for at LEAST a couple of hours, preferable until the next day.
• Now you can take it out, take a piece of bread and enjoy every delicious garlicky [and hardly discernably potato-ey] bite.