Shish Taouk b'Khubz (شيش طاووق بالخبز) is grilled marinated chicken wrapped in Arabic flatbread, the taouk in khubz, the bread named explicitly because it is the defining wrapper for this skewer. The angle is the chicken and its marinade. Shish taouk is chicken cut into cubes and marinated in a mixture built on garlic, lemon, and yogurt with warm spice, then skewered and grilled. The yogurt tenderizes and the lemon and garlic carry the flavor deep, so done right the meat is soft, juicy, and tangy with char on the edges. The thin pliable khubz is there to wrap it without competing, a quiet sheath rather than a flavor of its own, which means the sandwich rests almost entirely on how the chicken was marinated and grilled.
The build is clean and short. Marinated chicken cubes are skewered, often with onion or pepper between them, and grilled over fire until the outside takes color and the inside cooks through while staying moist, the marinade keeping it from drying. The meat is pushed off the skewer onto a sheet of khubz laid flat. Toum is the near-default sauce here, its raw garlic echoing the garlic in the marinade, streaked down the length of the chicken; tahini is a common alternative. Pickled turnip or cucumber, parsley, sometimes a few fries go in, and the khubz is rolled tight around the filling, frequently with the seam pressed on a griddle so the thin bread crisps lightly. Good execution is chicken that is juicy with a charred edge and a clear lemon-garlic tang, wrapped in fresh khubz tight enough to hold without tearing, the toum present in every bite without overwhelming the meat. Poor execution is chicken grilled dry and bland from a weak or rushed marinade, a wrap that splits because the bread is stale, or so much garlic sauce that the marinade's own flavor is lost.
It is the bread-wrapped form of shish taouk, the baseline against which the variations are measured. The fries version packs batata inside for bulk and contrast; the skewer can also be served on a plate with sides rather than rolled. Against the red-meat skewers it is the lighter, tangier member of the grill family, chicken made soft and bright by yogurt and lemon rather than fatty and charred like lamb or beef kebab. Wrapped in plain khubz with toum, it is one of the most popular handheld grilled foods in Lebanon and one of the purest demonstrations of what a good taouk marinade does.