Jamie's Chicken and Zucchini Kebabs and a visit from the Fairy Hobmother!

I have a lot of exciting news to share today.  First I want to tell you that my meat and potatoes loving husband, who rarely likes green vegetables, is now a lover of zucchini!  This is exciting stuff for me because when I first met him the only veggies he would eat were corn, peas, green beans, and potatoes.  Now he eats lettuce, onions, and zucchini too! About a week ago he confessed to really enjoying zucchini and ever since then I've really been shoving it down his throat.  We had broiled zucchini with parmesan, fried zucchini with garlic, zucchini in our eggs, and now we're having zucchini with our chicken kebabs.  Gotta fit those green veggies in when you can!

These chicken kebabs are marinated in a flavorful and spicy seasoning made with cilantro, jalapeno pepper, garlic, spring onions, lemon juice, and some olive oil to create a paste.  Jamie's recipe called for cutting the zucchini into thin strips, blanching it, and spiraling it around the meat on the kebab.  I wasn't up for all that so I just cut the zucchini into cubes and threaded it on with the meat.  This was one of our favorite Jamie recipes so far.  We loved the marinade and will definitely make these again. Delicious!

In other good news, I'm thrilled to say that I was visited by the Fairy Hobmother after leaving a comment on my friend Brenda's site, Brenda's Canadian Kitchen.  The Fairy Hobmother granted me a magical gift to Amazon.com and I was very grateful.  Thank you Fairy Hobmother!!  The good news is...the same can happen to you!  All you need to do is leave a comment on this post and you could have a visit from the Fairy Hobmother too!

 Chicken and Zucchini Kebabs
Adapted from JamieOliver.Com
Makes 6-8 kebabs

1lb 2oz boneless chicken breasts 

 4 zucchini, sliced very thinly lengthways

For the marinade :
1 handful of fresh cilantro
3 cloves of garlic
 6 spring onions
 1 red chili (I used a red jalapeno pepper)
 zest and juice of 1 lemon
 sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
 olive oil 

Cut the chicken into 1 inch cubes and place in a bowl. Blanch the zucchini strips in salted boiling water for 30 seconds then drain and allow to cool. Blitz all the marinade ingredients (except the olive oil) in a food processor, then loosen to a paste with a little olive oil. Add the marinade to the chicken pieces and mix well. Allow to sit for up to an hour. Then weave the zucchini strips in between the chicken pieces on the  skewers. Grill for around 5 minutes, turning regularly, until cooked. Feel free to cut a piece open to check if they're done.

Theme: Potluck