Tandoori chicken skewers with field salad and lemon raita (Indian-style)

This is our favorite kind of dinner for weeknights. Lean chicken meat marinated in a tandoori sauce, then seared on a hot grill, served with crispy warm flat-bread and field salad with cherry tomatoes. And a lovely lemon raita (Indian dipping sauce for spicy foods) to go with it all :).
If you want to make a classic tandoori chicken (not on skewers), follow this link. :)
P.S: We're also enlisting this recipe in January's Sweet Romania challenge (2012), which focused on the keywords "detox" and "citrus". We found this to be the perfect example of a main course that embodied them both :).

Last year: Ricotta and cinnamon pancakes with raspberry sauce and pomegranate and Bavarian-style white radish salad with lemon vinaigrette. 




Ingredients (serves 2):

• 300 g chicken breast
• 2 tablespoons tandoori curry paste (tamarind and ginger based)
• 2 tablespoons yogurt (optional)
• 2 pitas / naan bread / tortillas for serving
• a handful of field salad
• 4 cherry tomatoes

For the raita:

• 250 ml greek yogurt
• salt and pepper to taste
• juice from half a lemon
• leaves from a thyme sprig
• 1/4 bunch of fresh parsley

Cut the meat into cubes and add the tandoori paste on top of it. You can also mix the paste with 2 tablespoons of yogurt to dilute it if it's too strong for you. We didn't.

Mix very well to coat the meat and let it marinate in the fridge for at least 30 minutes. (More would be ideal). When you're ready to make them, heat the grill (we used a cast-iron grill pan), put the meat on wooden skewers (2 for each serving) and start grilling it:

Be careful to turn the skewers every 3-4 minutes on a fresh side, to ensure the meat gets cooked all over. Meanwhile put the tortillas on the serving plates and start preparing the raita:

Chop the leaves finely and add them to the yogurt. Also squeeze the lemon. Season with salt and pepper. Mix well and it's done.
Prepare the field salad by tearing the leaves with your fingers (metal tools take away some of the flavor) and cutting the cherry tomatoes into halves or quarters. Arrange the grilled skewers on each plate on top of the flat-bread and also add a generous handful of field salad with cherry tomatoes. Serve with the bowl of raita in the middle for everyone to dunk a bit of bread or meat in it :). It's ready, dig in! :)