Bulgaria's everyday skewers, a diminutive of the Turkish şiş: cubes of marinated pork or chicken grilled on wooden sticks with peppers, onion, and mushrooms at every skara grill house. The switch from lamb to pork after Ottoman rule is the defining Bulgarian departure from the shish kebab prototype.
Also known as: shishcheta, шишчета, shishche, shish cheta, Bulgarian shish, шишче
Watch it made
Ingredients
- 700 g pork neck or chicken thigh, in 3 cm cubes
- 2 tbsp sunflower oil
- 1 tbsp dried summer savory (chubritsa)
- 1 tsp sweet paprika
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
- 1 onion, in chunks
- 1 red pepper, in squares
- salt, added only after grilling
- bread and lyutenitsa, to serve
How to make it
- 1
Roll the pork in the oil, chubritsa, paprika and black pepper — no salt yet — and rest 2 hours.
- 2
Alternate meat, onion and pepper pieces on soaked wooden sticks.
- 3
Grill on a skara or grill pan over medium-high heat 12-14 minutes, turning until the pork chars at the corners and the vegetables slump.
- 4
Salt them as they come off the fire and serve with bread and lyutenitsa.
Pro tip: Chubritsa, not oregano or thyme, is the Bulgarian grill herb — and late salting is the skara master's rule for keeping pork neck juicy.
