Easy Grilled Marinated Chicken

Psst. Save this recipe for Easy Grilled Marinated Chicken. It will definitely become a go to grilling recipe for you! If you’ve been following my blog for a while, you probably know how much I love my grill. I would grill absolutely everything if I could (and honestly, I’ve tried, including grilled guacamole, a grilled cocktail, and a grilled cheese plate.)

So, be prepared for plenty of grilling recipes this summer! I wanted to start off a bit simple – an easy grilled marinated chicken recipe.

This does involve some prep time, you want the chicken to sit in the marinade for a few hours at least. For the most flavor, add the chicken to the marinade the night before.

Ingredients:

  • 1/2 cup peanut or canola oil
  • 2 tablespoons sambal (such as Chabe Chili)
  • 2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
  • 1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
  • 1/4 teaspoon pepper
  • 4 garlic cloves, minced
  • 1/2 onion, chopped
  • 2 chicken breasts
  • 2 drumsticks
  • 2 chicken thighs

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Chicken Yassa (Senegalese Lemon Chicken)

Chicken Yassa is a popular chicken dish originating from Senegal. This meal is the epitome of comfort food: marinated roasted chicken with onions, lemon juice, olives, garlic, and broth served over rice. It has a subtle heat to it as well that really makes for a flavorful meal.

This recipe makes quite a bit of food, a good 8 servings. However, in my house, leftovers this good don’t last very long!

 

Ingredients:

  • 6 cups sliced onion (about 3 pounds)
  • 1/3 cup fresh lemon juice
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
  • 1 jalapeño pepper, seeded and minced
  • 1 lb boneless skinless chicken breasts
  • 1 lb chicken drumsticks
  • 1 lb boneless skinless chicken thighs
  • Cooking spray
  • 1 1/2 tablespoons peanut oil
  • 2 cups thinly sliced carrot
  • 1 1/2 cups less-sodium, fat-free chicken broth
  • 1/2 cup pimiento-stuffed olives
  • 1/2 cup water
  • 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
  • 1 Scotch bonnet pepper, pierced with a fork
  • 4 cups hot cooked long-grain rice (optional)

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Slow Cooker Cashew Chicken

I am always looking for a new and different slow cooker meal. I personally could eat a tomato-based sauce with meat over rice, pasta, polenta, you-name-it every day. My husband would prefer something new every now and then, which is fair.

So this time, I attempted to make a takeout favorite — Slow Cooker Cashew Chicken!

This recipe is really simple, but it can become a legit salt lick if you aren’t careful about your ingredients. Be sure to use lower sodium soy sauce and unsalted cashews!

Ingredients:

  • 3 lbs boneless skinless chicken (breasts and/or thighs)
  • 1/4 cup cornstarch
  • 1 tablespoon peanut oil (or canola oil)
  • 1/2 cup ketchup
  • 1 cup low sodium soy sauce (use a wheat free soy sauce to make gluten free)
  • 1/2 cup rice vinegar
  • 1/4 cup sweet chili dipping sauce
  • 1/4 cup light brown sugar
  • 3 garlic cloves, minced
  • 1 tablespoon fresh ginger, grated
  • 1 green or red bell pepper, chopped
  • 2 cups unsalted cashews

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Pineapple Fried Rice with Chicken #ChineseNYeats

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #ChineseNYeats #CollectiveBias

Next Monday begins the Year of the Monkey, according to the Chinese Lunar New Year calendar. Celebrations are held around the world, particularly in places with large Chinese populations, including Mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Thailand, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines. Locally, Philadelphia’s Chinatown holds a bunch of different events to celebrate, including a parade and a midnight dance performance on the 8th.

My favorite place in the city, Reading Terminal Market, along with the Philadelphia Chinatown Development Corporation, is featuring demonstrations of the cuisine and cultures of Asia next weekend. To get in the spirit, I decided to make one of my favorite Thai dishes: Pineapple Fried Rice with Chicken.

 

This recipe comes together really quickly with the help of Minute Rice, Dole and Kikkoman.

For this recipe, I used White Minute Rice, Dole Pineapple Chunks, and Kikkoman Less Sodium Soy Sauce and Sriracha Sauce, which I picked up at my local Wegmans, which were found in the rice aisle, canned fruit aisle, and Asian foods aisle, respectively.

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Salmon Teriyaki Stir Fry

 There is a good chance I have a rice problem, I love all things rice. My go-to meal in a pinch is always risotto. So when DailyBuzz Food had an opportunity to work with RiceSelect through their Tastemaker program, I jumped at the chance. RiceSelect is one of my favorite rice brands.  You may notice their nifty containers popping out of a bunch of my posts so I was really excited to work with their rice. The catch was that they sent me one of RiceSelect’s rice randomly, I didn’t get to choose it. When I opened up the package, I discovered brown rice. Hum. I’ve never worked with brown rice before, but I was up for the challenge!
I decided to make a stir fry teriyaki dish using my favorite protein, salmon. Normally stir fry is a quick dinner choice but brown rice takes quite a bit of time to cook. But it gives you plenty of time to prep your veggies and hang out with your dinner guests!
Ingredients: (I cut this recipe for Salmon Teriyaki Stir Fry down to two servings to make it easier. Multiply as needed)
  • 1/2 cup RiceSelect Texmati Brown Rice
  • 1 cup water
  • 1 tablespoon peanut oil
  • 1 medium yellow onion, chopped
  • 1 red pepper, chopped
  • 1/2 cup broccoli florets
  • 1/2 cup snow peas
  • 1/2 cup sliced water chestnuts (I used canned)
  • 1/2 pound salmon
  • 1/2 cup Teriyaki sauce, divided (recipe below)
  • 1/2 cup low sodium soy sauce
  • 1/4 cup water
  • 2 tablespoons rice wine
  • 1 tablespoon, plus 2 teaspoons brown sugar
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons minced garlic
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons minced ginger
  • 1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil

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Kara Age Scallop Salad with Honey Lime Dressing

A while back, I received a box of Kikkoman Kara-Age Soy-Ginger Seasoned Coating Mix and make these wonderful Kara-Age Popcorn Shrimp. The box came with two bags of Kara-Age seasoning and I’ve been holding on to it waiting for the perfect recipe to use it. I found a recipe for a Seared Scallop Salad that sounded wonderful by itself, but I thought the Kara-Age would be an awesome addition, so here is my recipe for Kara Age Scallop Salad with Honey Lime Dressing!
Ingredients for the Honey-Lime Dressing:
The juice of 3 limes
5 teaspoons honey
1 tablespoon rice vinegar
Salt, to taste
Ingredients for the Scallop Salad:
2 tablespoons peanut oil
2 lbs dry sea scallops
1 packet of Kikkoman Kara-Age Soy-Ginger Seasoned Coating Mix
1 bag of mixed greens (I used a baby spring mix)
2 cups chopped vegetables of your choice

So,  I’m having a busy week, which means I wanted the quickest recipe possible. Pre-washed bag of mixed greens? Check.  Seafood so it cooks quickly? You bet. Pre-chopped assorted vegetables? Oh my.
Trader Joe’s has containers of a “healthy 8 chopped veggie mix” that includes broccoli, carrots, green cabbage, red cabbage, jicama, green bell pepper, radishes and celery. Sounds good for a salad to me! (If you want, chop up whatever makes you happy and put it in this salad. I was just being super lazy).
First make your dressing. Whisk together the lime juice, honey, vinegar and salt until the honey is incorporated (I find this to be easier if the honey has been microwaved for a few seconds).  Set aside.
Add the salad greens and vegetables to a large bowl. Toss to combine.
Add the kara-age mix to a large ziplock bag. Add the scallops, close the bag, and shake until the scallops are fully coated.
Heat the peanut oil in a large saute pan over medium-high heat. Add some of the scallops to the skillet (no more than 5-6, you don’t want them to crowd). Cook the scallops for 4 minutes until golden brown.
Flip and cook for another 4 minutes. The scallops should be opaque throughout. (Cut one open to check).
Transfer to a plate and repeat with remaining scallops.
To serve, add the greens and vegetables to individual plates and place the scallops on top. Mix to dressing and drizzle on top.
This recipe should make 4 salads.
Easy, right?
For so little effort, a dish should not taste this good!
The honey lime dressing was perfect with the slightly bitter salad and the kara-age.
The kara-age added hints of ginger, soy, and garlic which really complemented the dish. It also added a nice sear to the scallops.
Depending on how few/many scallops you add to the plate, this could be an appetizer or the full meal. After taking the photos I added 1-2 more to make it my dinner for the night.

Fried Rice with Sweet Soy Sauce

I really try to make an effort to bring my lunch to work each day. My office is absolutely freezing, so I tend to gravitate towards warm lunches. Because of this, I am always looking for new pasta and rice recipes that sound like they would reheat well and still taste good. As usual, Cooking Light came to the rescue with the August issue’s Fried Rice with Sweet Soy Saucerecipe. I made all four servings so that I could have a batch for dinner, and get a few lunches out of it.

 

Ingredients for Fried Rice:
3 tablespoons peanut oil, divided
4 large eggs, lightly beaten
3 finely chopped shallots
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 serrano chile, seeded and chopped
4 cups cooked  rice
Salt and pepper, to taste
1 thinly sliced daikon radish
1/3 cup fresh basil leaves, thinly sliced
1/3 cup fresh mint leaves
1/3 cup chopped fresh cilantro
4 lime wedges
Ingredients for sweet soy sauce:
1/4 cup lower-sodium soy sauce (or coconut aminos to make gluten free)
1/4 cup packed light brown sugar (The original recipe used dark brown sugar. I didn’t have any. Oh well)

Begin by cooking your rice. You can just cook the rice in water because the soy sauce will add plenty of taste, no need to waste your chicken broth.

 

While your rice is cooking. prepare your shallots, garlic and chile. I am a wimp about heat and serraro chile can really be hot, so I removed all seeds before chopping. If you like spicy food, keep the seeds in.

 

Slice your daikon radish. I used a mandoline slicer.

 

Prepare your herbs.

 

To make the sweet soy sauce, combine the soy sauce and brown sugar in a saucepan. Heat over medium heat. Simmer for 2 minutes or until the brown sugar is incorporated into the soy sauce. Set aside.
Add 4 eggs to a bowl and lightly beat.

 

Add 1 tablespoon peanut oil to a large saute pan over medium-high heat, swirling to coat the bottom of the pan. Pour eggs into the pan and cook for 2 minutes or until they set. Remove and set aside.

 

Increase the heat to high and add 2 tablespoons peanut oil to the pan. Add your shallots, garlic and chile and saute for 1 minute.

 

Add the cooked rice and cook for 3 minutes or until lightly browned.

 

Add cooked eggs and soy sauce mixture.

Season with salt and pepper and mix to coat. Add to bowls and top with radish and herbs. Serve with a lime wedge.

 

This meal was really tasty, not only the first time around but also when reheated. The serrano pepper gave a subtle heat to the whole dish which counteracted the sweetness of the soy sauce, great combination! When I packed it for lunch, I kept the rice mixture in one container and a few radish slices,herbs , and a lime wedge in another container. I heated the rice in the microwave and topped them with the radish slices and herbs, then squeezed the lime juice over the whole dish. Perfect!

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