Shashlik — Oven-Baked Chicken Skewers

Craving the smoky, savory taste of shashlik but don't have a grill? This Oven-Baked Chicken Shashlik recipe is your perfect solution! Shashlik, a beloved tradition of grilling skewered meat over an open fire, is a staple of gatherings across Eastern Europe and Central Asia. This recipe adapts the classic for your home kitchen, delivering incredibly juicy, tender, and flavorful chicken skewers that are easy to make any time of the year. The secret lies in a simple yet powerful marinade of onion juice, garlic, and paprika, which tenderizes the meat and infuses it with an irresistible aroma. Get ready to enjoy a cookout classic without ever stepping outside!

Oven-Baked Chicken Shashlik

Preparation: 2 hours

Cooking: 30 minutes

Quantity: 4 Servings

Per serving

Calories: 330 kcal

Proteins: 40 g

Fats: 17.5 g

Carbohydrates: 3 g

Ingredients for Oven-Baked Chicken Shashlik

• 800 g chicken fillet
• 1 onion
• 4 cloves of garlic
• 2 teaspoons sweet paprika
• small bunch of parsley
• 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 10 g fine table salt without additives

How to Cook Chicken Shashlik in the Oven

Cut the chilled chicken fillet into large pieces. Chicken cooks quickly, so to keep the meat juicy, you don’t need to chop it finely; the cubes should be about 3 centimeters (about 1.2 inches) in size.

Slicing the chicken fillet

Let’s start marinating the shashlik (skewered and grilled meat cubes, a popular dish in Eastern Europe and Central Asia). One of the main ingredients of the marinade is not vinegar, as many are used to thinking, but onion juice. The process of chopping the onion is quite “intense,” but you’ll have to finely grate an onion by any means available and mix it with the chicken. A blender is an indispensable assistant in this case.

Adding grated onion

Crush the garlic cloves with a knife and chop them finely. By the way, if you’re using a blender, you can turn the onion and garlic into a paste together.

Mincing garlic

Finely chop a small bunch of parsley. Sprinkle the meat pieces with sweet ground paprika and chopped herbs.

Mix the meat and spices well so that the onion juice, garlic, and pepper are absorbed into the chicken.

Adding dried paprika and chopped herbs

Now add good quality vegetable or olive oil. Chicken fillet is not the juiciest part of the bird, so it needs fat to turn out tender. Thoroughly mix the meat with the oil, thereby sealing in the meat juices.

Adding vegetable oil and mixing

At this stage, salt the shashlik with fine table salt without additives. Wrap the bowl with several layers of plastic wrap and place it in the refrigerator for 1-3 hours.

Salting the shashlik, covering with plastic wrap, and marinating for 1-3 hours

Thread the chicken fillet pieces onto skewers. For making shashlik at home, I have small, custom-made skewers that fit perfectly in the oven. The skewers used for cooking meat over a fire are quite long, and fitting them into a standard oven can be problematic.

Instead of metal skewers, you can use wooden skewers, previously soaked in cold water for a few hours (so they don’t burn in the oven).

Threading chicken fillet pieces onto skewers

A baking sheet is lined with two layers of aluminum foil for baking. The skewers with the shashlik are placed so that the meat is suspended and does not touch the baking sheet.

Preheat the oven to 230°C (450°F). First, bake in the regular mode for 15 minutes, then switch to the “broil” or “grill” setting and brown the shashlik for another 5-6 minutes, turning to brown the sides evenly.

Oven-Baked Chicken Shashlik