If you’re looking for a quick, easy and tasty meal to make during weekend BBQs or mid-week dinners, check out this chicken skewers and Tuscan bread salad recipe.
This recipe comes from BBQ by Jamie Oliver, helping you to transform your BBQ cooking with 90 easy, flavour-packed recipes perfect for grilling, feasting and outdoor cooking.
Serves 6
Total time: 40 minutes
Ingredients
2 courgettes
2 mixed-colour peppers
4 x 150g skinless free-range chicken breasts
12 bay leaves
2 lemons
olive oil
8 rashers of higher-welfare smoked streaky bacon
1.2kg ripe mixed-colour tomatoes
red wine vinegar
extra virgin olive oil
1 big bunch of basil (60g)
125g ricotta cheese
Method
- Light the barbecue (see HOW TO SET UP A CHARCOAL BARBECUE). To make the skewers, chop the courgettes, peppers and chicken into 2cm chunks, discarding
the pepper seeds and stalks. Place in a large bowl with the bay. Finely grate in the zest of 1 lemon and squeeze in the juice, then halve the remaining lemon,
finely slice half of it and add to the bowl. Add 2 tablespoons of olive oil and a pinch of sea salt and black pepper and toss together well. - Load everything up on to skewers, alternating as you go, and weaving the bacon in between it all, being mindful not to pack it on too tightly.
- Cook the skewers on the hot zone for 10 to 15 minutes, or until golden and cooked through, turning and spritzing regularly with oil and vinegar, and moving to the medium or cool zones if they’re colouring too quickly. Once done, remove to a platter and squeeze over the remaining lemon juice.
- Reserving 2 larger tomatoes, place the rest on the medium zone for 5 minutes, or until blistered and softened, turning once, then remove to aboard. Halve the ciabatta lengthways and crisp up on the cool zone.
- Halve the 2 reserved tomatoes and grate them cut side down into a large serving bowl, discarding the skin. Add 1 teaspoon of red wine vinegar and 2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil and season to perfection. Pick in the basil.
- Roughly pinch off and discard the skins of the grilled tomatoes, chop the toasted bread, and toss both into the dressing. Spoon in the ricotta and gently mix together. To serve, run a sharp knife down the length of the skewers, so everything tumbles on to the platter, and get stuck in.
HOW TO SET UP A CHARCOAL BARBECUE
For this recipe you need a graduated set-up. You want to have your coals starting high at one side, creating a fierce hot zone, and gradually sloping down to a single layer of a few coals at the other, creating medium and cool zones along the way. This allows you to have maximum control over your grilling, moving food between the zones to speed
up or slow down cooking as you need to.
BBQ by Jamie Oliver is published by Penguin Michael Joseph © Jamie Oliver Enterprises Limited (2026 BBQ). Recipe photography: © David Loftus, 2026
