My Take On Chicken Satay...Which Is Really A Fancy Word For Skewered Chicken

Yay it's Friday!  The best part is that it's totally sunny and gorgeous outside. This morning's WOD completely sucked, and I got a horrid cramp in my quad, but at least we were outside soaking up the sun. I'm very much looking forward to revisiting that WOD in a month or so. Another good thing about today is that it's a date night with the hubby, so that has given me something to look forward to as I hobble about the house this afternoon.

Yesterday afternoon I was desperately searching my freezer for some sort of inspiration...ie., something that wouldn't take forever and a day to make. (I was already behind given I hadn't gotten anything out to defrost yet, lol.) I really need to sit down this weekend and plan out some meals so I'm not flying by the seat of my pants. Anyhow, I had two packages of organic chicken breast tenders (this seemed like the fastest thing to defrost), so I grabbed them and went to the fridge for another dose of inspiration. I found a jicama, a lime, , carrots, coconut aminos, and garlic-chili paste...and garlic. I always have garlic. With that, the hamsters in my brain began to spin the wheel. To the pantry I went, and found sesame oil, tahini, sesame seeds, and ginger (next time, I will definitely use fresh ginger), and raw, local honey. With that I knew that I wanted to make chicken skewers, so I dug my bamboo skewers out of the drawer and started soaking them in water. *This is important as if you don't soak them, they can catch on fire which is no bueno.

With these ingredients I concocted a marinade for my chicken. Yummy!! 

My thought was that the tahini would mimic the peanut butter usually used in this kind of marinade.

Skewers Soaking

I then placed my chicken breast tenders into the marinade and tossed to evenly coat. 

After marinating for about 10 minutes, I skewered these babies..3-4 breast tenders per skewer.

I let them marinate for about 30 minutes before we grilled them. In the meantime, I decided to make a slaw to go with which required me to run to the grocery store to grab a purple cabbage and an orange. I returned home to discover that I had slivered almonds in the pantry as well, so I decided to toast them. I concocted a dressing that would mimic the marinade. I then combined the dressing with the cabbage, jicama, and carrots that I had shredded and julienned, along with the orange that I had peeled and segmented, and the sliced, toasted almonds. Dinner ended up looking like this:

I know, totally GORG isn't it? Unfortunately, Dave and I both agreed that the slaw needed some tweaking, so I will hold off on posting a recipe for that, but it was still good. At any rate, that's how great recipes are born, right?

Chicken Satay

2 pounds of chicken breast tenders

1 clove of garlic, minced

1/4 tsp dried ginger

1/2 tsp garlic-chili paste

1 Tbs sesame oil

1 Tbs raw honey

2 Tbs coconut aminos (use wheat free tamari if you cannot find the aminos)

1 heaping Tbs tahini

The juice of 1 lime

1. Combine ingredients in large bowl. Add chicken and toss to coat. Let marinate for about 10-15 minutes.

2. Place chicken on soaked bamboo skewers, 3-4 tenders per skewer. Let marinate for about 25 minutes. 

3. Grill until done; maybe 5-8 minutes per side.