Peanut Butter and Chicken...... On a Stick?

Chicken on a Stick. I was really excited about this recipe because

1. My kiddos love (and eat) chicken without complaint

2. Chicken is cheap (and easy to find)

3. I felt comfortable with this ingredient.

So on with the chicken...on a stick. The first thing to do was to make the marinate which includes the following: peanut butter, garlic, ginger, coconut milk, hoisin sauce, lime juice and sesame oil. I was so happy to have all of these ingredients at the "regular" grocery store. :)

Next was to prepare the chicken. This recipe called for a mallet (which I don't have) in order to pound the chicken breast into a 1/4 inch. I did this in between 2 pieces of plastic wrap and a rolling pin. This was super fun for my aggression but then I realized that I pulverized the chicken in the process. The ends of the chicken were mushy. I then cut the chicken into 1 inch strips so they could be put onto the "sticks". We (I enlisted my awesome husband for this) put the chicken into the bag and then placed the marinate over it. And then off to the fridge for 2 hours.

Isn't he so cute. :) Even with the stache. And for the record, I do not like the stache!

After we put the chicken in the fridge, I decided to sit down and re-read the recipe to know what to do next. Oh No... I did it. The one thing that you MUST do before starting to cook. Read the ENTIRE recipe before you start. Apparently part of the beautiful peanut butter marinate that is currently getting e-coli all over it with RAW chicken was to be set aside for a dipping sauce. I guess we wouldn't be having a dipping sauce. Of course, again my awesome husband assured me that it would still taste great. :)

After 2 hours, I took the chicken out and put it onto the "sticks". The mushy chicken became a factor here so I just did my best with the non-mushy chicken.

The next step was to cook!!!! The recipe called for a "cast iron griddle" to a temperature of 275 degrees. Ok, more problems here. For some reason, I thought we were to use a "grill pan" that was cast iron (which I do have) but I wasn't sure how to know when the pan was 275 degrees. My next idea was to use our electric skillet because I could at least set to the temperature and hopefully get a good sear. Remember, searing is the technique we are going for. Of course our electric skillet is non-stick and is NOT cast iron. :( Remember how awesome cast iron is. Ok, I went for the electric skillet. I placed the sticks on and heard a "searing" sound and felt better.

The recipe calls to leave each stick on for 1 1/2 to 3 minutes per side. After 3 minutes, it did not appear golden brown and each stick was not cooking at the same rate so after 25 minutes of flipping, checking, moving, rotating and flipping some more, we came up with 14 Golden Brown, yummy smelling, beautiful, CHICKEN ON A STICK!!!!

I served with brown rice and green beans!!!!

Results:

1. Not as good (awesome) as we were hoping but at least edible, not raw, chicken and tasty.

2. We were not that hungry which could of course could have been a factor.

3. Reagan probably ate the most chicken out of everyone including Symon. Ryan did point out that he tried it and liked it but wasn't hungry. :)

Symon did take it to work for lunch today so again, it was not horrible. I am thinking I would change a couple of things if I were to make it again.

Things I learned:

1. Do NOT pound the chicken hard. Gentle pounding is fine. Maybe a mallet would be better than a rolling pin.

2. Try to cut the chicken as even as you can in 1 inch strips in order to insure even cooking.

3. Find out a way to measure the temperature of a pan. ( I have seen Alton Brown have this tool that you just shoot some kind of laser at the pan and it tells you the temp.) Apparently if I had this plus used my CAST IRON pan (which is the same as a skillet according to Alton Brown's website) it might have SEARED better. (I looked this up this morning)

4. TOO thick and possibly too much marinate.

Symon and I discussed the idea of having a dipping sauce but we felt this would not have made it better. The searing technique is complete!

SEARING LESSONS LEARNED

1. You must use a cast iron pan!!!! (GET ONE)

2. Don't be afraid of the sizzle sound

3. DON'T MOVE THE FOOD! (if you want a sear and crispy outside)

4. Duck and Tofu are not my favorite eats

5. Tuna is AWESOME!!!!

6. You need to use thin ingredients to insure that the food is cooked through with a searing technique.

7. It is mostly a dry cooking method. (This means you do not use a lot, if any cooking oil in the pan)

I am really excited for the next cooking method!! GRILLING. I am also very thankful I live where it is not cold because grilling in the winter could be bad!!!! Stay Tune!

Mush-sear

Portobello mushrooms and searing. Two things that I did not think went together but here we are. This post will be short because it seams really easy, boring and not exciting at all. I got three beautiful portobello mushrooms again at AJ's.

Washed them. Ok so I didn't wash them. Technically, you are not suppose to wash mushrooms because they just suck up the water that you wash it in and then get soggy. I took a wet paper towel and simply washed most of the dirt off the mushroom cap. The recipe calls to NOT take out the gills of the mushroom which was weird to me also because I have usually seen them (again on the food network) take them out. I then sliced them into 1/4 inch slices. I again though this was weird because I thought it would be easier to just sear them whole.

Onto the pan. Heat the cast iron skillet (yeah!!!!) on med/high for 3 minutes and then take a paper towel with oil and grease the pan. I did lightly oil the mushrooms and seasoned with salt and pepper. I placed each piece of mushroom slice on one side and then let it sear (did not move it on the pan) for 5 minutes. I was not sure to place in on its side (which is what I did) or from top to bottom but they only laid on their side because of the curve of the mushroom.

When I flipped them over they were slightly charred which worried me because again I HATE charcoal flavor. I cooked the second side for about 3 minutes and then removed. I had 3 mushrooms so I had to work in batches. The second batch I only seared for 3 minutes on each side.

Results:

1st batch had a definite burnt taste to me but Symon ate all of them!!!! I basically ate the 2nd batch. Both kiddos didn't like them. :( This recipe in the book are to be served as a appetizer which seemed weird to us. We ate them with some steak (I am not sure what cut). We thought that it added a more complex taste and texture with the steak.

I know this post if very boring and not very informative but to be honest, this was a boring ingredient (only one basically) and weird to us. We like mushrooms but I guess not in this preparation. Oh well. On to a feathery ingredient. Chicken on a Stick!!!!! (BTW, chicken will be the last searing ingredient and then we will be moving on to grilling technique. YEAH!!!!