Quick & Healthy: Chicken Sate with Ponzu Sauce

The holidays can be a fantastic time for dining, filled with rich flavors and loaded plates.  So during this 'between holidays' week I have found myself both ready to kick start my new year resolutions and ready to relax.  So quick, easy, and healthy dinners are finding their way back onto our menu plan.

Chicken Sate is great option for a midweek dinner.  It is pretty fast to prepare, tasty, and easy on the waist at only 267 calers per serving.  We pulled this recipe from an issue of Cooking Light a couple of years ago and it was a great find.  While the recipe is for grilling, we turn this into a midwest winter friendly recipe by simply cooking the meat in a hot oven.  You could also broil it or sautee it while patiently waiting for the spring thaw and return of grilling weather.

This recipe takes between 20 to 30 minutes for us.  Typically we work in parallel to keep everything moving (and spend time preparing our dinner together- of course!), I will stir up the Ponzu Sauce while Dan prepares the chicken and then we will prepare a side dish of asian noodles while the chicken cooks.

Chicken Sate with Ponzu Sauce

Source: Cooking Light
Servings: 4 (can be cut in half for 2 very easily!)

• 4  (6-ounce) skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
• 1/4  cup  packed light brown sugar
• 1/4  cup  sake (rice wine)
• 1/4  cup  rice vinegar
• 1/4  cup  fresh lime juice
• 2  teaspoons  low-sodium soy sauce
• 1  teaspoon  dark sesame oil
• 1/4  teaspoon  crushed red pepper
• 1  garlic clove, minced
• Cooking spray

Cut each chicken breast half lengthwise into 4 strips. Combine sugar and remaining ingredients except cooking spray in a small bowl; stir until sugar dissolves. Combine half of sake mixture and all of chicken in a large bowl. Let stand 10 minutes. Reserve remaining sake mixture.

Drain chicken, discarding marinade. Thread 1 chicken strip onto each of 16 (8-inch) skewers. Place chicken on grill rack coated with cooking spray; grill 2 minutes on each side or until done.  If grilling isn't an option cook for between 8-10 minutes in a 400 degree oven.

Serve with remaining sake mixture (or peanut sauce if preferred).

Enjoy!

~ Tara

A Versatile Spice Rub

Since the purpose of this blog is to share our recipes and cooking discovers, I suppose I should share the best ever spice rub for meat.  I love meat!  I love to grill it, bake it, saute it, fry it and occasionally eat it raw (well seared really).  However for some reason this country has this need to coat every piece of meat with A1 Barbeque sauce, which is gross.  Not to mention some guys also seem to think that because they spend $500 bucks on a grill they are experts, but that's a different show.  How you cook the meat is almost as important as what you add to the meat, if anything.  Adding spices to a cut of meat can set your dish apart from the others. 

We came across a recipe for a spice rub in The Complete Meat Cookbook and have since tweaked it to our taste.  This spice rub is sweet, spicy and tangy all rolled into one.  We like to liberally coat the meat with it a few hours (or overnight) before either grilling or otherwise cooking it.  Adding a homemade barbeque sauce to give it a wet marinade or during cooking can round out the flavors, but the rub by itself is fine too.  The recipe makes quite a bit so we use an old spice container with a label.  Keeping this rub on hand ensures that you always have a way to add a little flavor without reaching to the steak sauce.  It works great on beef, pork, chicken, and even lamb if my wife would let me buy it (lamb is on Tara's not allowed in the house list).   We use it for grilling, roasting, and ribs.

Spice Rub

Adapted from The Complete Meat Cookbook

2 Tbsp Paprika
2 Tbsp Chile Powder
1 Tsp Cayenne Powder
2 Tbsp Garlic Powder
2 Tbsp Brown Sugar
1 Tsp Ground Cumin Seeds
1 Tbsp Dry Mustard
1 Tsp Ground Sage
1 Tsp Dried Oregano
1/4 cup Kosher Salt
1 Tbsp Ground Pepper

Enjoy!

-Dan

Spicy Beef Kebobs

Kebobs are a great and fast way to cook your meat and vegetables at once.  Not to mention you grill them, and we all know things that are grilled taste better.  The original recipe is from Good Eats, but I reduced the amount of Red Wine Vinegar since I felt the meat held onto too much of the vinegar aftertaste and hid the other flavors.  I might even remove it completely and replace it with a Merlot. 

Spicy Beef Kabobs

Adapted from Good Eats by Alton Brown

• 1 1/2 to 2 pounds boneless beef sirloin
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 teaspoons smoked paprika
• 1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1/4 cup red wine vinegar
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 4 (12-inch) metal skewers

Cut the beef into 1 1/2 to 1 3/4-inch cubes and place into a large mixing bowl. Set aside.

In the bowl of a food processor combine the garlic, paprika, turmeric, cumin, salt, pepper and red wine vinegar. With the processor running drizzle in the olive oil.

Pour the marinade over the meat and toss to coat. Place in the refrigerator in an airtight container or a sealable plastic bag and allow to marinate for 2 to 4 hours.

Preheat the grill to medium-high heat. Thread the meat onto the skewers leaving about 1/2-inch in between the pieces of meat. Place on the grill and cook, with lid lowered, 2 to 3 minutes per side, 8 to 12 minutes in all (8 minutes for rare and 12 for medium). Remove from the heat to aluminum foil, wrap and allow to rest for 2 to 3 minutes prior to serving.

A great addition to this recipe is to add vegetables.  I like to add mushrooms, yellow onion, yellow squash, red pepper and zucchini.  Just chop them about the same size, toss with olive oil and some herbs of your choosing.  Then spear each on type onto its own skewer since each one cooks a little different. 

Enjoy

-Dan