Tag: snacks

Marinated Grilled Chicken skewers
What a week this has been! I’ve gone out after work pretty much every day this week, mostly for work-related functions, so needless to say my home cooked meals were…well… let’s just say that Jonathan made dinner a lot this week. Though I did make an amazing black bean & pulled beef brisket soup with creamy cheddar quesadillas a few nights ago, so I didn’t leave the poor guy to fend entirely for himself. I’ll be making the aforementioned recipe again very soon… just wait until I post that – it was screen-licking good.

But I digress…because today’s post is about a different recipe: quick and easy marinated grilled chicken skewers. I should mention that I had no intention of even blogging about these little amazingly simple yet perfect snacks – when I tasted them, though, I knew that these needed to be shared with the world. They’re that good. Since I haven’t been 100% on kitchen duty this week, we found ourselves with a few random ingredients that needed a home in some kind of recipe (ie, before they went bad…). I’m obsessed with boneless & skinless chicken thighs – we are definitely a dark meat family – but I had like, a kilo of the stuff left to use up. Jonathan whipped up a delicious smoked paprika & lime juice marinade, then I threw them on a few skewers, heated our grill pan and let the magic happen.

I’m all about simple, no-nonsense recipes during the week, and this one perfectly fits those requirements. Serve it with a bowl of rice (cilantro rice, maybe?) and you’ve got yourself an easy meal that’s sure to please all the chicken lovers in your life.

This recipe couldn’t be easier, is full of flavor and is sure to make everyone around your dinner table happy. Baked, grilled or even in a pan on the stovetop…these chicken skewers are the real deal. Go make them now!

Ingredients:
- 4 medium-sized boneless & skinless chicken thighs
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- Juice from 1 lime
- 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
- ¼ cup of peanut sauce* (optional)
- Sesame seeds (optional garnish)
- Green onions (optional garnish)
Instructions:
1. Cut the chicken into 2-inch pieces
2. Marinate the chicken in the olive oil, lime juice and smoked paprika for at least 30 minutes (overnight if you have the patience)
3. Place 5-6 pieces of chicken on each skewer
4. Grill for about 5 minutes on high heat or until cooked through (or for about 10 minutes if you’re using a stovetop grill pan.)
5. Place them on a piece of paper towel to remove any excess oils
6. Serve garnished with green onions, sesame seeds and a bit of lime juice drizzled on.
*I played around with this sauce so much before I got it just right that I didn’t note down the exact proportions of soy sauce, curry paste, etc. I’ll make it again and be a bit more studious next time, but in the meantime, check out this recipe for homemade peanut sauce: http://www.gimmesomeoven.com/thai-peanut-sauce/
June 26, 2015
Baked potato chips
What a weird couple of weeks I’ve been having: first my motorbike was stolen (twice…), then I cut my finger pretty badly (on my new food processor, literally after about 2 minutes of taking it out of the box), and now our oven exploded last night. That’s right – the glass door totally exploded and shot glass all over the place! I heard the loudest noise ever coming from the kitchen, so I raced out there only to find that the oven I had been preheating to make our Sunday roast chicken looked like a scene from an action movie. Jonathan wasn’t hurt thankfully, but it was pretty scary. We’ve been having some pretty questionable luck lately, so maybe now’s a good time to play the lottery, just in case my luck turns…!

So until the flat management company sorts us out with a new oven, my recipes will be 100% stovetop (or crockpot). However, I was lucky enough to have finished this lovely snack-food recipe earlier in the day (ie, prior to my kitchen turning into the set from Die Hard with a Vengeance). As I do sometimes on Sunday afternoons, I got a little over-zealous in my potato peeling for our mashed potatoes that I was prepping for dinner, and had a few extras than I needed for the mash.

Then the light bulb went off: I’ve been meaning to work on a few healthy snack recipes that are not sweet for me and J, and I’ve had this baked chip idea in the back of my mind for weeks. Now, I’ve tried baked potato chips before and they’ve all been gross (sorry, but it’s true!). For some reason, though, I got it in my head that I could do better than those cardboard pieces of I-don’t-even-know-what I was paying a fortune for (why do healthy snacks always cost so much more, and taste so much worse…?).

So out came my handy mandoline (these things are seriously amazing!) and I sliced up a potato in about 20 seconds and popped the slices in the oven – ready in about 5 minutes! These are surprisingly easy and taste like better than their fatty pre-bagged cousins that you find in your grocery store’s snack aisle.

Ingredients:
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 potato
- 1 teaspoon sea salt
Instructions:
1. Preheat your oven to around 400 °F / 200 °C
2. While your oven is pre-heating, wash and thinly slice (and peel if you prefer) a medium-sized potato, then rinse the slices under cold water in a colander until the water runs clear to get rid of that starchy residue.
3. Coat a large baking sheet with olive oil (or non-stick cooking spray), then evenly spread out your potato slices. I have a tiny baking sheet, so I do mine in batches.
4. Cook for around 5 minutes or until golden brown. Don’t walk away from the kitchen while making these because they go from whoa-totally-amazing to horribly-nasty-scorched in the blink of an eye. I should take my own advice, though, because I always burn the first batch…
5. Sprinkle them with the sea salt, throw them in a bowl and enjoy!
Servings: It’s roughly one potato per person, so adapt as you see fit!
June 1, 2015

Tag: snacks

Marinated Grilled Chicken skewers

Baked potato chips