The Perfect Turkish Convenience Food: Kömürde Piliç

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These days, Fethiye is considered to be ‘coming up in the world’ amongst a lot of our Turkish friends because three of the world’s major fast-food companies have set up shop in the town centre.

The fact that not many people seem to have flocked to these places is completely unimportant.

As far as our friends are concerned, Fethiye has been considered worthy of internationally famous burger and pizza joints and everyone’s happy – it shows Fethiye is a recognised town.

But, just because they’re there, it doesn’t mean they have to be packed solid with customers every day – and fortunately, life continues as normal here.

The independent Fethiye eateries are holding their own.

Every lunchtime – during term – most of the kids shun the burger joints and pack the nearest (cheaper) kebab places to their school, guzzling down special-student-price half-breads and slurping ayran.

Popeye’s boat receives its regular trickle of balık ekmek (fish half bread) fanciers – and the lokantas in town and near the otogar are filled with lunching workers.

And then there’s this…

Wonderful!

These places are just the ultimate in take-away convenience food for us – and for a lot of other Fethiye folk too, judging by the amount of chickens sold here.

We’ve had a lot of friends out to visit this summer and regardless of how organised we try to be, we end up living a bit of a hand-to-mouth existence, grabbing a bite to eat here and there as we go along.

Fortunately for us, Fethiye has an abundance of kömürde piliç (chicken, barbecued over hot coals) shops. The one in the photo above is our nearest one and it’s rescued us on many an occasion.

Take last night for instance. After waving friends off to Dalaman Airport, we were shattered.
‘What shall we have for tea?

More to the point, who’s cooking tea? Neither of us. Let’s get a chicken!’ Problem solved.

A few lira gets you a hot, juicy, barbecued chicken (minus its wings as they’re sold separately) and, if you’re lucky, a tub of salad or some pide bread.

We get two easy and healthy meals, ready-prepared, and some bones with which to make chicken stock.

Our second meal from our ready cooked chicken is always tavuklu nohutlu pilav. So satisfying.

On another occasion, a friend was organising a birthday party for her husband. After deciding she couldn’t be bothered to prepare lots of food in the Fethiye summer heat, we had a brainwave and strolled to the kömürde piliç shop and ordered a raft of chickens, salad and cooked rice. Party prepared! No hassle!

We love our kömürde piliç. Have you ever tried it?

2 Kömürde Piliç Tips:
If you’re in Turkey for a while and you think this fantastic chicken may become a regular feature in your diet (like us!), here are a few tips for ultimate enjoyment.

• Try to find a kömürde piliç joint with a good customer turnover (our local one is always busy) then you know the chickens aren’t sat over the coals, roasting to a dry, chewy crisp throughout the day.
• Some places only open for lunch and close once all the chickens are sold. If this is the case with your local shop, learn what time they start to barbecue the chicken then you can time your roasted chicken to perfection.

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