Q Blue, do you have any recipes for marinated chicken 'kababs'?
Brooke
Tieri
Queensland
A Brooke, I've not come across 'kababs' before - I guess you mean 'kebabs'.
However, we tend to avoid such pedantic issues in the somewhat relaxed
atmosphere of Chateau Blue and call it 'chicken on a stick' and differentiate
between sate and yakitori (our two chicken favourites) by referring to the
number
of pieces of bamboo involved.
SATE (one stick chicken) - Slice some chicken thighs fillets into strips
(some supermarkets sell chicken tenderloins and these are okay for sates but
usually cost more than thighs). Place in a non reactive bowl (stainless
steel or glass) and add a teaspoon of minced garlic, a squirt of sweet
chilli sauce, a teaspoon or two of lemongrass and the same of ginger, a dash
of Ketjap Manis (sweet soy) and a glug of lime juice. Add a couple of
teaspoons of dried coriander leaves (you can finely cut up fresh coriander
if you tend to be a bit obsessive/compulsive) and use your hands to squelch
the chicken around in the marinade so it is well coated. Put it back in the
fridge for an hour or two then thread the chicken strips on to bamboo sticks
(make sure they've been soaked for at least an hour so they don't burn).
Boil the remaining marinade for a few minutes, reduce the heat and add some
peanut butter along with sufficient soy, chilli and lime juice to give you a
zingy sate sauce. If you can't be bothered with that simply fill a small
shallow bowl with Ketjap Manis for dipping the sticks.
.
YAKITORI (two stick chicken) - Slice the thighs into strips again and cut
some shallots into pieces that are about as long as the bits of chicken (no,
you don't have to get out a ruler - near enough is close enough). Grab about
a cup of light soy sauce, add about half a cup of sugar and the same of
Mirin (sweet rice wine). Toss in some minced garlic and ginger and a little
drizzle of lemon juice. Squelch into the chicken and leave to marinate for a
couple of hours in the fridge. Now comes the tricky part - lay the slices of
chicken and shallots on a cutting board or plate side by side
(chicken/shallot/chicken/shallot and chicken) and push a bamboo stick
through one side of the five pieces and another through the other side. It's
sort of like drawing up a noughts and crosses grid except there are two down
and five across. While the filled sticks take a rest back in the fridge,
heat up the marinade to reduce it to a sauce-like consistency. Brush this
over the two stick chicken while it is being grilled and use as a dipping
sauce.
Both recipes involve similar preparation and take the same amount of time to
grill. However, the tastes are quite different and people will think you
have gone to a whole heap of trouble.
Good Luck
BBQ Blue