Tavuk Şiş in the UK: what it is, how to order it, where to find it

What tavuk şiş is

Boneless chicken thigh, skin off, cut into pieces about three centimetres across, is marinated for several hours in yoghurt, olive oil, garlic, sweet and hot paprika, tomato or pepper paste, and lemon juice. The yoghurt tenderises the meat and helps it char. It is threaded on flat skewers and grilled over charcoal for ten or twelve minutes, until the outside is blistered orange-red and the inside is just cooked. It is served on bread with grilled pepper and tomato, sumac onions and rice or bulgur, and it is the base of the chicken wrap that most kebab shops sell.

Thigh, not breast

The single most important thing about tavuk şiş is that it should be thigh. Breast dries out on a charcoal grill in minutes; thigh stays juicy and takes the smoke. Many UK restaurants offer breast because customers ask for it, and the result is the dry, stringy chicken shish that gives the dish a bad name. A restaurant that uses thigh by default and says so on the menu knows what it is doing. Chicken wings, kanat, are the other chicken order at an ocakbaşı and often the better one.

How to judge it

The pieces should be juicy inside with a charred, red-orange crust from the paprika and the coals. They should taste of garlic, smoke and lemon, not of raw paprika. The skewer should come off the grill onto bread, and the chicken should not need sauce. Dry, pale chicken shish with the marinade still visibly raw on the surface was breast, cooked from cold, on gas. Ask for it 'iyi pişmiş' if you like it well charred.

Where in the UK it is done well

Every ocakbaşı and every Turkish grill house serves it; the ones with real charcoal and a visible grill do it best, which means the North London houses and the Turkish grills of Birmingham, Manchester and Leeds. The ranking below counts restaurants in our directory whose name signals chicken or a grill.