Marinated Chicken Kebabs with a Peanut Satay Sauce

I have been making this recipe for years and everytime I make it I get rave reviews. It really is nothing special, I think, it is just that, the falvours all come together so well and the peanut sauce is so yummy. I make my sauce with smooth peanut butter as I am not a fan of crunchy, but I think this would be fine if you prefer to have the peanut chunks in the sauce.

Ingredients

5 Chicken breasts (about 800g in weight.)
8 Long skewers

Marinade

5 Tablespoons soy sauce
3 Tablespoons lemon juice
11/2 Tablespoons brown sugar
4 Cloves garlic, crushed
1 Teaspoon ground coriander
1 Teaspoon ground cumin
2 Teaspoons fresh ginger, grated
Pepper to taste

Peanut Sauce

1 Tablespoon olive oil
1 Onion, finely chopped
2 Cloves garlic, crushed
2 Tablespoons soy sauce
3 Tablespoons peanut butter
1 Cup water
1 Tablespoon lemon juice
2 Teaspoons curry powder (I use hot curry powder.)
3 Teaspoons sweet chili sauce

Vegetables for Skewers

1 Large onion, chopped into wedges
8-16 Mushrooms (depends on size if they are large chop in half and you will only need 8 if small and using whole mushroom 16.)

I usually use red and yellow peppers as well but as I was serving these over a thai-style salad that already had peppers in it I chose to omit them.

Salad

150 Fresh egg noodles, cooked and chopped roughly
125g Baby asparagus
1 Large carrot, cut into thin strips
1 Red pepper, cut into thin strips
200g Bean sprouts
125g Snow peas, sliced thinly
1/2 Cup roasted cashews

Dressing

2 Red chillies, seeded and finely chopped
1 Cup Lime juice
2/3 Cup brown sugar, firmly packed (I use a cane sugar that is almost powder form otherwise you will end up with the coarse sugar not dissolved.)
2 Tablespoons fish sauce
2 Teaspoons lemon grass, finely chopped
1 Teaspoon fresh ginger, grated

This will make up too much dressing, I made this, as I was making a salad for 10 people. I have listed the amount of vegetables I think will be fine for 4 Servings but I am not sure how halving the ingredients will work with the dressing so feel free to experiment.


Method

1. Combine all the marinade ingredients together in a large bowl or storage container. Chop chicken into about 2cm cubed pieces, add to marinade and marinate for several hours or overnight.

2. Soak skewers in water for about 30 min's prior to using to prevent them from burning while cooking.

3. Reserve marinade. Thread a piece of chicken follwed by a mushroom, chicken, onion, chicken, mushroom, chicken, onion, chicken. Repeat with remaining chicken and vegtables.

4. Grill or BBQ skewers turning a couple of times and basting with the reserved marinade. Until cooked about 15-20 Min's.

Sauce

I prefer to make this ahead of time and just re-heat as this allows for the flavours to really come out.

1. Heat oil in a pan, add onions and garlic and cook to soften onion.

2. Add remaining ingredients and stir to combine, leave on a low heat, stirring occasionally until sauce thickens. Sauce can be made a day ahead and just re-heated.

Salad

1. Boil, steam or microwave asparagus until tender.

2. Plunge carrot, pepper and peas into boiling water for about 1 minute, drain.

3. Combine all the ingredients in a large bowl. Pour dressing over and toss through salad.

4. Salad again can be made ahead of time, but this salad is supposed to be served warm, so just re-heat in the microwave, don't over do it though as the veg are meant to be crunchy and salad just warm not hot.

Dressing

1. Place all the ingredients in a large jar and shake well, until all the ingredients are thoroughly combined.


To Serve: Place a few spoonfuls of salad on a plate, place skewers on top and serve with peanut sauce in individual dipping bowls on the side.

This is also a great one if your having guests over to do on the BBQ, I have made these skewers, when we have had a party of 35 people over as one of the many other dishes I did, you can up the ingeredients fine.


All photo's taken by me unless otherwise stated.

Marinated Oriental Pork Tenderloin with Fried Rice

I have only posted 1 of my own pork recipes, to tell you the truth, it has never been my favourite meat. Hence I haven't made to many, but since trying a few zaar recipes and seeing how good it can be and how versatile it is, I thought I would experiment some more on my own. I made this last night and my hubby and I thought it was delicious I marinated the pork over night and then cut it into thin strips and served over fried rice. Yum Yum



Ingredients

Marinade
2x500g Pork Tenderloins
3 Tablespoons light soy sauce
2 Tablespoons sherry
60ml Hoisin sauce (I use blue dragon brand I find this great others can be thick and overpowering.)
4 Cloves garlic, crushed
2 Teaspoons fresh ginger, grated
2 Teaspoons sesame oil
3 Tablespoons Honey
1/4 Teaspoon five spice powder
50ml Teriyaki sauce


Fried Rice

11/2-2 Cups cooked rice (preferably cooked the day before and refrigerated overnight to allow rice to dry completely.)
4 Medium eggs, lightly beaten
2 Tablespoon oil
1 Large carrot, diced
1 Red pepper, diced
2 Cloves garlic, crushed
2 Teaspoons fresh ginger, grated
2 Teaspoons sesame oil
100g Fresh shiitake mushrooms, stems removed and thinly sliced
5 Green onions, finely sliced
100g Snow peas, sliced
60g baby corn, chopped
1/4 Cup frozen peas
2-3 Tablespoons soy sauce
1 Tablespoon sugar


Method

1. Combine all marinade ingredients mix well and add pork, marinade several hours or as I said above preferably overnight.

2. Remove pork from marinade, reserve marinade, Place pork on wire rack in oven dish. Bake uncovered in 180c oven 11/2 hours or until cooked through. Brush occasionally with reserved marinade and turn over once during cooking.

3. Serve pork over fried rice. The pork has a good flavour and is moist and tender, I prefer mine plain over rice but my hubby spoons a couple of spoonfuls of left over liquid from roasting pan over his. So feel free to serve as you prefer.


For the Rice

1. Heat half the oil in a wok or large frying pan, add eggs, cook stirring until creamy, remove to plate for later.

2. Heat the other half of the oil and sesame oil in same pan, add carrot and pepper stir fry a couple of minutes, add garlic and ginger, stir fry for 1 minute more.

3. Add soy sauce, mushrooms, corn and frozen peas stir fry a few Min's until veg are just tender, add snow peas, onion and sugar stir fry about a minute. Finally return egg along with rice and stir fry until heated through.

Place Rice in bowls lay sliced pork over the top and serve immediately.

4-5 Servings

All photo's taken by me unless otherwise stated.