Sweet & Sticky Honey-Lime Chicken

There are almost too many flavor adjectives to describe this chicken. It has the honey and lime I noted in the title, but there is also a very strong soy sauce and garlic flavor to the profile. When you combine soy, garlic, lime, and something sweet, it all comes together in a really wonderful way. That can be the base for a marinade, a stir-fry, or even a dipping sauce.  This takes it a step further by using it as a marinade and then reducing it down into a great sticky sauce.

Start by marinading chicken (I used a breast for the Mrs and a leg for me) in 1/4 cup of lime juice, two cloves of garlic (minced), 1/4 cup of soy sauce, and 2 Tbsp of honey. I threw the squeezed lime halves in too.  Let that sit for 30-60 minutes. I usually like to poke some holes in my chicken with a fork to let some of that flavor permeate the flesh of the meat.

The recipe said to bake this dish, but it's summer time and I'm in a grilling mood. So I put the whole darned thing on the grill! I like to sear the outside of the meat to get a nice crust, and also to lock in the juices. The limes will get a nice char on them on the grill as well and it will bring out some of the remaining moisture that I couldn't squeeze entirely out. I had them above the chicken so that juice could drip down onto the meat while it was cooking.

Let the sauce bubble away until it reduces and become sweet & sticky. Warning: it's a pain in the butt to clean that pan afterward. Sorry folks.

Baste the chicken in that wonderful sauce and serve the charred lime halves as a garnish. There is a wonderful combination of sweetness and acidity in this sauce. And I just love a sticky glaze on chicken or pork. The garlic and soy lend what many call "umami" to the flavor profile. All in all this is a really jam-packed and balanced piece of chicken.  My wife made a quick Asian slaw out of cabbage, apples, carrots and cilantro. This is a really fun twist on your every day grilled chicken dinner.

Pulled Pork Loaded Baked Potato

This was a stroke of genius -- if I'm in the patting myself on the back mood.  We had some pulled pork leftovers and a bunch of yukon gold potatoes in the house. You can find my Whiskey & Coke Pulled Pork recipe here. And as always, I have my customary pickled jalapeno peppers on hand. So this dish basically makes itself.

Loaded baked potatoes are a great quick meal idea for a weeknight after you have had a long day. You can go so many different directions with them. It's also a great way to use leftovers. You can add broccoli & cheese, or chili, or taco toppings, you name it!  This time I got a little creative and went the BBQ route.

I added shredded sharp cheddar, sliced green onions, sour cream, pickled peppers, my pulled pork, and this fantastic tangy mustard BBQ sauce my parents bring back from Texas.

This is a super flavorful and filling dish. There is a great acidic & spicy note from the peppers, but the sour cream cools it off. And then you get rich pork and melted cheese, and I'm sold. Yum.

Quick Asian Salad

My wife made a really delicious Asian salad with cabbage the other night. You'll see a glimpse of it in my next post about a sticky grilled chicken with honey, garlic, soy sauce, and lime. I asked her, "How did you make this vinaigrette? It's really good!"

She said, "I didn't. It's in a bottle."

Ha! How do you like that? It's just a simple sesame dressing by Kraft. I had never had it before and it's really tasty. So I decided to make my simple side salads a little more exciting. The one pictured above was just thrown together on the fly. It was so good that I decided to make it a gain a night or two later.

I tried to make it a little fancy for you guys. So I thinly julienned some cucumber, carrots, and red bell peppers. I even sliced the cherry tomatoes and green onions thinly to keep the theme going. But the key here is cilantro. If you fall on the "Like Cilantro" side of the debate, it is a great way to brighten up a salad.

In this case it adds a little more Asian flair to my simple side salad of mixed spring greens. Then the cucumber and green onions really bring it together. I like to add a little touch of Thai chili paste too. Lime juice wouldn't be a bad idea either. But it's that bottled sesame dressing that is the real star.

Also, one little hint on salad dressing: use less than you did as a kid. Like a lot less. If your salad is "over-dressed" it will be really wet & heavy. And you likely will negate any of the good effects that eating those vegetables could have by adding a bunch of calories from a salad dressing.

The one thing that was missing was some chopped peanuts. (And it turns out we had them all along! I just saw them in the pantry. Oops.)

It turns out I can bake!

We watch a lot of cooking competitions, and the chefs always say "I'm not  pastry chef."  One time one of the judges responded, "Neither is my grandma. But she can bake a pie."

Deserts seem to be a specialty that not everybody has the patience for. The main difference that I have noticed is that baking is an exact science. You can't just put a dash of this, some of that, and a couple eggs and hope it turns out. Cooking savory food is much more forgiving. You can taste as you go along and adjust based on what you like.

I think that could be what scars some people away. My wife likes to bake. There was a time when she denied it. But after a few years of building a reputation for always bringing delicious baked goods to parties and tailgates, there was no denying it any more.

I used to say that I was her sous chef. Now I do 90% of the cooking, so I started to say she was my pastry chef. But recently I decided to surprise her by baking what were described as basically cinnamon-sugar donuts in muffin form. I knew she would love them!

I gave a link to the recipe in my previous post. The interesting parts for me were combining butter and sugar with a hand mixer until it turned fluffy. It shouldn't come as a surprise when using two delicious ingredients like sugar & butter ... but that fluffy stuff is pretty tasty!

Like many baking recipes, I mixed the wet ingredients separate from the dry ingredients. Then you need to combine them gradually. In this instance, they were very specific to add dry, wet, dry, wet, and then dry. I followed all their instructions to a tee and they turned out perfectly.

So don't be afraid to bake! They give you the entire playbook if you just have the confidence to try it, and the patience to see it through. I may be inspired to do some more baking in the upcoming weeks. Some of you may know that my wife is with child. She isn't too excited about me grilling meat at the moment (bummer for me). But she is usually in the mood for something sweet. So I may just have to take over as the pastry chef too.

Cinnamon-Sugar "Dirt Bombs"

"They're like cinnamon-sugar donuts, but in muffin form. You've been warned."

That was the description in our Bon Apetit magazine that got my attention. I made these last weekend as a surprise for my wife. I never bake anything. But I figured if I follow the recipe I should be able to. I'm going to just give you the picture version right now. I'll fill in the details some time later this weekend.  You can also get the recipe from: http://www.bonappetit.com/recipe/dirt-bombs

Breakfast Blueberry Crisp

"I made it kind of breakfasty -- with less sugar, and some nuts."

This is something The Mrs whipped up for us in a few minutes. It is one of those recipes she just knows. I can assure you there are no baking recipes that I know. She will just grab some oats, some butter, a little sugar, and some fresh berries ... next thing you know, we've got warm crisp to eat.

You can call it cobbler or crisp, I think. But in my mind a cobbler has more of a dough, whereas a crisp is a crumbly sugar topping. I love both. So in this case you can make me either and I would be a very happy man.

My wife had been making smoothies with frozen fruit. She had a lot (I mean Costco-sized) of frozen blueberries, so she decided to bake with some. It was light and really delicious. I have been eating yogurt with granola and fresh fruit for lunch for quite a while now. This was very similar to granola and fresh fruit. And the addition of nuts really made it quite tasty. You could even top it with some yogurt instead of whipped cream and it would be like an upscale desert version of a parfait.

Check out the next post, where I try my luck at some serious baking.

Salt & Vinegar Potatoes

One of my very favorite snacks is kettle cooked salt & vinegar chips. When I was a kid I thought they were awful, but my dad liked them. Now that my taste buds have evolved, I really like that tangy bite you get from all that vinegar. It's really a strange sensation -- but The Mrs and I love it.

This recipe uses that same great flavor profile, but with some soft & buttery cooked potatoes. Start with 1 cup of white vinegar in a sauce pan and enough water to cover your potatoes by 1 inch.

Cut Yukon gold potatoes in half (or in quarters if they are larger) and put them on high heat in your vinegar and water. Add some salt and bring it to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for 20 minutes.

Drain and pat dry. Then add 2 Tbsp of butter to a pan over medium-high head and brown the potatoes for 8-10 minutes. I wanted to let the cut sides of the potatoes sit and get a nice caramelization.

Finish it with some cracked black pepper and flaky sea salt. I'm kicking myself that I forgot to use my finishing salts before I took this picture. Thankfully I realized it before I had taken too many bites. But the photo opportunity was gone. Oh well, it's a pretty good picture.

The salt & vinegar combination really comes through here. Add some thinly sliced green onions or some chives. They actually kind of reminded me of French fries for some reason. But the vinegar was the most prominent flavor.  It could be like the malt vinegar that pairs so classically with fish & chips. The potatoes were nice and soft, and bursting with flavor.

I think they were really good.