Grilled Chicken Kebabs with Red Onion & Mint

We're getting back to normal here in the good old 'hood, and it felt great to make a real dinner last night! This is the only picture I got; sorry it's not the best representation of how good the meal actually tasted!

Summertime sometimes equals slacking in the dinner department at our house, and this family needed 'real' food -- not the pool food (popcorn chicken, mini pizzas, and cheeseburgers) we've been munching on since mid-June!

On last night's menu was a fantastic grilled chicken recipe that I love to do in the summer. It has some Greek flavors going on - mint, oregano, and garlic - and it's great paired with a big Greek salad. We also had one of my favorite redskin potato dishes, and although the picture is not that good, these are a standby for me in the summer and people always ask for the recipe! Toasted flatbread finished off the plate.

We shared this meal and a couple of bottles of wine with friends on the patio. We told stories about our friend Brad, and although there were a few tears, it does feel like things are starting to get back to normal in our wonderful neighborhood.

Grilled Chicken Kebabs with Red Onion & Mint

Serves: 4

Source: http://www.epicurious.com

1 1/2 lbs. boneless, skinless chicken breast halves, cut into 1 inch pieces (I used thighs and they were excellent)

2 T. extra-virgin olive oil

4 cloves garlic, minced

1 t. dried mint

1 t. dried oregano

1 t. salt

1 t. ground black pepper

1 bunch fresh mint

1 red onion, cut into 1-inch pieces

Mix chicken, olive oil, garlic, mint, oregano, salt and pepper in a medium bowl. Let marinate 30 minutes (** I let mine go for about two hours).

Prepare barbecue (medium-high heat). Pull off the large mint leaves from stems. Alternate chicken, onion, and mint leaves on skewers; sprinkle with salt and pepper. Grill until chicken is just cooked through, turning occasionally, about 9 minutes. Serve alongside a big Greek Salad, Redskin Potatoes with Brown Butter, and Grilled Flatbreads.

Redskin Potatoes with Parsley & Browned Butter

Serves: 4-6

Source: I honestly have no idea but you MUST make these!

1 1/2 lbs. small redskin potatoes

1 very large pinch of chopped Italian parsley

1/2 stick butter

Salt and pepper to taste

Place the potatoes in a large skillet and add enough water to cover. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer until potatoes can be pierced with a knife, about 20 minutes. Drain potatoes and return to the same pan. Sprinkle with parsley, and drop the butter onto the potatoes. Cover the pan and reduce the heat to medium-low. Cook the potatoes for an additional 25 minutes, tossing occasionally, and watching to be sure the butter browns and doesn't burn. Transfer to a serving bowl and garnish with additional parsley if desired.

Grilled Cajun Chicken Salad....al fresco!

Can you believe this? Three posts so far this week. This must be a record for me! I told you on Sunday that I had a backlog of photos and recipes to share, so here's another great summer dinner for you.

My only regret is that I don't have a photo of the composed salad with all of the components, but as they say, the natives were restless, starving, and annoyed that I was shooting their dinner while all they wanted to do was dig in!

This was a hit with my family! The recipe makes a ton of dressing, and it was a little spicy for my kids. Hub and I loved it though. All it needed alongside was a loaf of toasted French bread. Delicious!

Not the greatest chicken picture, but as I said, the DamFam was hungry and impatient!

Here's a link to the recipe:

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/GRILLED-CAJUN-CHICKEN-SALAD-WITH-SPICY-RANCH-DRESSING-105281

Red Curry Chicken Kebabs and Jamaican Rice with "Peas"

Happy Memorial Day, all!

What a fun family weekend, filled with great friends, food, and lots of laughs. I have to say (and I never say this), I am tired of eating! Seriously! We had three nights in a row of cooking out (and cocktailing) with friends ... brats, burgers, hotdogs, tenderloin -- all delicious! Even though today is Memorial Day, I just couldn't stomach another food served in anything resembling a bun!

Yes, I am tired of stuffing my face, but we still had to have dinner tonight. So, I took a culinary departure from the usual all American cookout -- and since I was bemoaning the fact that my jeans were (uhm, ARE) feeling tight, I decided to make an exotic but lighter grilled menu for this evening.

The main course was delicious curry marinated chicken kebabs, and they turned out great! I used a new jar of red curry paste, and it wasn't spicy at all. My kids gobbled it up; my youngest especially liked the sweet yogurt sauce that was on the side.

For a side we had Jamaican Rice and Peas -- did you know that 'peas' in Jamaica actually means beans? (This is not knowledge that I just had in my head, I actually learned this from the June issue of Food & Wine!) This dish was supposed to have a seeded Scotch bonnet chile in it, but I left that out, thinking it would be entirely too spicy for my kids. It was good, but I would definitely use the chile next time; I thought it could use a little kick.

There are so many great looking recipes in June's Food & Wine -- I'm going to do my best to demo a bunch of them! Here are the recipes from today!

Red Curry Chicken Kebabs with Minty Yogurt Sauce

8-10 Servings

Source: Food & Wine Magazine, June '08

2 T. Thai red curry paste

1/2 c. vegetable oil

Kosher Salt

2 1/2 lbs. boneless, skinless chicken breast halves, cut in 1" cubes

3/4 c. plain, low-fat yogurt

1/4 c. low-fat mayonnaise

1 T. honey

1 T. fresh lime juice

1 T. finely chopped mint

In a large bowl, mix the curry paste with the oil and 2 t. of salt. Add the chicken cubes and toss to coat. Let stand at room temperature for up to 2 hours, or cover and refrigerate overnight (this is what I did).

Light a grill. In a medium bowl, whisk the yogurt with the mayonnaise, honey, lime juice, and mint and season with salt. Thread the chicken onto skewers, leaving 1/4 inch between the cubes. Grill over moderately high heat, turning frequently, until lightly charred and cooked through, about 8 minutes. Serve the kebabs with the minty yogurt sauce on the side.

Jamaican Rice & Peas

Serves 6

2 T. canola oil

1 small onion, finely chopped

1 1/2 T. minced ginger

2 c. jasmine rice

1 15 oz. can kidney beans, drained and rinsed

1/2 Scotch bonnet or habanero chile, seeded

1 14 oz. can unsweetened coconut milk

1 1/2 c. water (I used chicken broth)

Salt and freshly ground pepper

4 scallions, thinly sliced

In a large saucepan, heat the oil. Add the onion and ginger and cook over moderate heat, stirring, until softened, about 5 minutes. Add the rice and cook, stirring, until coated with the oil. Stir in the kidney beans and Scotch bonnet, then stir in the coconut milk and water. Season with salt and pepper and bring to a boil. Cover and cook over low heat until the rice is tender and the liquid is absorbed, 18 minutes.

Remove the rice from the theat and let stand, covered, for 5 minutes. Fluff with a fork. Stir in the scallions and season with salt and pepper. Discard the Scotch bonnet and serve.

Wow, an award...for ME?!?! And, Corona Chicken...

The Arte Y Pico Award

Thank you Prudy for the first award of recognition my meager little blog has had the pleasure of receiving! I'm over the moon, and I appreciate you thinking of me! Let's hope my butt (I mean, my head) doesn't get too big thanks to this fun foodie award! I will be passing it on in the next day or so. Thanks again, Prudy - you are a sweetheart. ;-)


Now, for this evening's dinner.....a bit of a bummer with regard to the post. The dinner itself was delicious, and a real hit with the family. However.....the photo......ugh, the photo. My husband drove off with our good camera today, so I had to shoot dinner with my daughter's little camera and the pictures didn't come out all that great. I feel sad that I wasn't able to do justice to the dinner that Evil Chef Mom inspired, so, Sorry Krysta! We all loved it and it will definitely be repeated at our house again in the future.


"Corona Chicken" is the dish ECM blogged about last week (no beer involved, unless you count the one I sipped while prepping!) and I've been trying to make this meal ever since I read about it. Too bad life kept getting in the way and I wasn't able to get to it until this evening. Worth the wait, I must say! So kid friendly, my oldest didn't even realize he was injesting minced white onion.....I love it!

Two minor changes: I poured the teriyaki sauce over the bundles and let them marinade for a couple of hours, then baked them (the original recipe calls for grilling); it was raining tonight and I just didn't feel like standing outside. Roasting then broiling worked out great as an alternative to grilling.

Corona Chicken (aka, Hannah's Chicken)
Serves: 5-6
Source: http://evilchefmom.blogspot.com/

1 small white onion, minced
1 large handful cilantro, minced
1 jalapeno, seeded and finely chopped
5-6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, pounded thin
1 c. shredded cheddar cheese
5-6 slices bacon
1 c. prepared teriyaki marinade/baste (I used the thin Kikkoman type)
10 or so small wooden skewers, soaked in water for a couple of hours prior to assembly

Combine the onion, cilantro, and jalapeno in a small mixing bowl. Place flattened chicken breasts on a work surface. Spoon a heaping tablespoon of the onion mixture in the middle of each chicken breast. Top with a tablespoon or so of the shredded cheddar. Roll up the chicken breast to enclose the filling. Wrap each bundle with a piece of bacon; fasten with a wooden skewer. Place bundles in a 9x13 pyrex pan. Pour teriyaki marinade over the bundles, cover in plastic wrap, and marinade for a couple of hours, turning and spooning marinade over now and then.

Preheat oven to 425. Place a rack on top of a cookie sheet. Place chicken bundles on the rack and bake for 25 minutes. Turn; continue to bake for an additional 5 minutes. Turn broiler to high and broil bundles until bacon begins to crisp, watch carefully (mine took 2-3 minutes per side).

Remove to serving platter, garnish with cilantro sprigs if desired.

Indian Night....

Friday afternoon I had worked on this post for a long time, only to find that somehow or another, it didn't get saved and landed somewhere in computer heaven. So, I've cooled off and gotten over my blogger rage, and I'm ready to make another attempt at telling you about the delicious dinner we had this past Thursday.

I'm a big fan of curries and all things Indian, and this meal did not disappoint. For a main course we had Tandoori-Spiced Chicken Thighs. The marinade is TO DIE FOR! And really, it's pretty healthy too - the only fat in the whole dish is from the plain yogurt and the chicken itself. The recipe calls for marinating the chicken for a good eight hours, but I only had three. Honestly, the recipe did not suffer from missing those five extra hours -- the flavor was amazing! I think it would be fun to play around with this next time; maybe skewer chunks of chicken along with peppers, onions, etc. for a great summertime grill menu.

Alongside the chicken we had a delicious Indian-inspired Curried Rice Pilaf with Peanuts & Cilantro. I've never made a pilaf-style dish in my rice cooker before, but that worked like a charm! Of course I did the saute steps on my cooktop, but then slid the whole she-bang in the cooker and 25 minutes later, I had a perfect pilaf. I'll be using this method again, it's foolproof! I only tinkered with the recipe slightly, by using roasted peanuts instead of the cashews that were called for. Here's the link: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/238405

Our veggie course was a gorgeous yet simple saute of carrots, zucchini, yellow squash, red onion, broccoli, and asparagus - no recipe, just a few simple steps. First I parcook the harder veggies in the microwave for three minutes or so. Then I heat up my biggest saute pan and add equal parts butter and olive oil. When the foaming subsides, I throw in the squash, zucchini, and red onion and let those work for a few, then add the parcooked veggies and give them a good toss. Season up with some sea salt, ground pepper, and a pinch of garlic powder and voila...a perfect and pretty saute!

Dessert cooled things off with Key Lime Parfaits, which were embarrassingly simple, but so pretty that I would serve them to company! Since I didn't futz with the recipe at all, I'll just give you the link to it. Here it is: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/102201

This dinner went over well with the whole Dam'Fam (well, with the exception of my oldest, and we all know by now that he doesn't like anything!). I kept everything pretty mild for the kiddos, but of course the marinade and the pilaf's seasonings could be easily adjusted depending on your tolerance for heat and spice. I'll definitely kick those up next time!

TANDOORI-STYLE CHICKEN THIGHS

Serves: 6

Source: The Gourmet Cookbook, p.

1 small onion, quartered

2 cloved garlic, smashed

1 (2") piece of ginger, peeled and grated

1/2 c. plain yogurt

1 T. fresh lemon juice

2 t. salt

1/2 t. tumeric

1/2 t. cumin

1/2 t. freshly ground pepper

1/4 t. cayenne

1/4 t. nutmeg

1/4 t. cinnamon

1/4 t. ground coriander

8 skinless, boneless chicken thighs (3 1/2 lbs. total), rinsed and patted dry

Garnishes: lime wedges and cilantro leaves

Combine all of the marinade ingredients in a blender. Pour over the chicken; cover and refrigerate for eight hours. Preheat broiler. Broil chicken 5-6 inches from heat source for 4 minutes per side. Place on serving platter; garnish with lime wedges and cilantro sprigs.