Grilled Lemon Chicken with Peanut Satay Dip

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Grilled Lemon Chicken with Peanut Satay Dip

Serves 8 – 10 appetizers

Grilled Lemon Chicken with Peanut Satay Dip

Hands down – this is the very best satay – aka grilled chicken skewers with peanut sauce – that I have ever tasted. I know the list of ingredients is daunting but this is pertty easy to throw together.  I serve the sauce with so many things but this time will use it to complement the grilled lemon chicken posted last week. I have already regaled you with the wonders of the lemon chicken – but now the highlight of this post is the complexity of flavors in the peanut sauce. 

Lots of ingredients!!

Freshly squeezed lime juice makes all the difference.  The dark sesame oil can easily be found in the Asian section of your grocer.  It tastes just like roasted sesame seeds rather than plain flavorless oil.

For Grilled Lemon Chicken:

• ¾ C freshly squeezed lemon juice (about 4 lemons)
• ¾ C good olive oil
• 2 tsp kosher salt
• 1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
• 1 Tb minced fresh thyme leaves (½ tsp dried)
• 2 lb boneless chicken breasts, halved and skin removed 

For the Satay Dip:

• 1 Tb good olive oil
• 1 Tb dark sesame oil
• 2/3 C small-diced red onion (1 small onion)
• 1½ tsp minced garlic (2 cloves)
• 1½ tsp minced fresh ginger root
• ¼ tsp crushed red pepper flakes
• 2 Tb good red wine vinegar
• ¼ C light brown sugar, packed
• 2 Tb soy sauce (I like Tamari brand)
• ½ C smooth peanut butter
• ¼ C ketchup
• 2 Tb dry sherry
• 1½ tsp freshly squeezed lime juice

For grilled lemon chicken: Whisk together the lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper and thyme. Pour over chicken breasts in a nonreactive pan or in plastic resealable bag. Add chicken and marinate in the refrigerator at least 6 hours, preferably overnight. Heat the grill and cook the chicken breasts for 8-10 minutes on each side, until just cooked through. Cool slightly and cut diagonally in ½ “ thick slices. Skewer with wooden sticks.

Grilled chicken

For the Peanut Satay Dip: Cook olive oil, sesame oil, red onion, garlic, ginger and red pepper flakes in a small heavy bottomed pan on medium heat until the onion is transparent, 10-15 minutes. 

The peanut sauce ingredients

Whisk in the vinegar, sugar, soy sauce, peanut butter, ketchup, sherry and lime juice; cook for 1 minute more. Cool and use as a dip for the grilled lemon chicken skewers.

With the peanut butter stirred in

The final product

The dip will lasts for a month in the refrigerator and freeze for up to 6 months.  How great is that! It can be used paired with so many things if, by some miracle, you have some left. Served with grilled meat – beef, pork or with raw vegetables or on your finger…well that has accidentally happened on occasion.

Enjoy!

Larue

Grilled Lemon Chicken Salad

 Grilled Lemon Chicken Salad

Serves: 6

 Grilled Lemon Chicken Salad

We are blessed with an extremely productive Meyer Lemon Tree in our back yard. This creates a need to identify ways to use wonderful sweet lemons. I love this salad at lunch – and as you will see, the marinated lemon chicken does double time and works beautifully served as an appetizer with satay sauce. (Recipe to follow next week)

The mix of fresh vegetables can be easily altered to suit the season or content of your refrigerator.  This week I used both blanched green beans, sugar snap peas and bell peppers.  In the spring, one could easily substitute thin blanched asparagus for the sugar snap peas and beans.  If you love lemon – and lemon-y flavor –this is your dish. The longer you marinate the chicken, the better.

For Grilled Lemon Chicken:

• ¾ C freshly squeezed lemon juice (about 4 lemons)
• ¾ C good olive oil
• 2 tsp kosher salt
• 1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
• 1 Tb minced fresh thyme leaves (½ tsp dried)
• 2 lbs. boneless chicken breasts, halved and skin removed 

For remainder in Salad:

• ¼ C freshly squeezed lemon juice (1 large lemon)
• ¼ C good extra virgin olive oil
• 1 C sugar snap peas, stems and strings removed, quickly blanched
• ½ C blanched green beans
• ½ red bell pepper, julienned
• ½ yellow bell pepper, julienned
• 1 lemon, thinly sliced, seeds removed
• ½ tsp kosher salt
• ¼ tsp freshly ground black pepper

For grilled lemon chicken: Whisk together the lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper and thyme. Pour over chicken breasts in a nonreactive pan or in plastic resealable bag. Add chicken and marinate in the refrigerator at least 6 hours, preferably overnight. Heat the grill and cook the chicken breasts for 8-10 minutes on each side, until just cooked through.

Chicken in the marinade

Grilled to perfection!

To make the salad:  Allow chicken to sit at room temperature for 20+ minutes to cool before chilling in refrigerator.  Slice the breasts diagonally into ½ “ or less thick slices. Toss them in a bowl with their juices plus the additional lemon juice, olive oil, sugar snap peas, green beans, red and yellow bell peppers, lemon slices, salt and pepper.

Great with green beans

....and with snap peas

Seasoning to taste and serve cold or at room temperature. It is a perfect picnic entrée! Alternatively, and what I often do, is marinate and grill additional chicken to slice and use as an appetizer served with satay – see recipe next week for details!

Larue

Farro, Sunchoke & Kale Hash

Farro, Sunchoke & Kale Hash

Serves 8-10

Farro, Sunchoke & Kale Hash

Comfort food is rarely healthy or vegetarian.  This is both! It is a soul-satisfying winter hash that combines the crispy crunch of sunchokes, silky oyster mushrooms, meaty cremini mushrooms, tender flavorful kale and chewy nutty farro.  Perfection! It can be served with grilled steak or on its own as the meatless main course.  I have featured several recipes featuring sunchokes, farro and kale individually. This is another but with all of them in the same dish.  How efficient! See links below for my other suggested recipes.

SUNCHOKES:

http://cookingwithlarue.blogspot.com/2013/09/sunchoke-soup-with-apples-lentils.html

http://cookingwithlarue.blogspot.com/2012/11/kabocha-squash-with-sunchokes-mushrooms.html (the all time favorite featured on the Huffington Post!)

FARRO

http://cookingwithlarue.blogspot.com/2013/10/farro-salad-with-roasted-vegetables.html

http://cookingwithlarue.blogspot.com/2013/03/passover-special-pharaoh-farro-with.html

Semi-pearled farro

Sunchoke

Mmmm....leafy kale

Sunchokes, also called Jerusalem artichokes, are a knobby tuber that grows underground, much like a potato. The skin is edible, they do not need to be peeled, simply scrub clean under cold running water, with a stiff brush. They can be eaten raw or cook as you would a potato: roast, boil, sauté, bake or steam. Unlike potatoes they contain little starch. They have a nutty, sweet, crunchy flavor that is simply surprising and wonderful. So don't pass these craggy little roots next time you are in the store.

The food world has really been buzzing lately about farro because of its health properties, its wonderful flavor, and its texture. While the pearled farro is easier and quicker to cook, the many nutrients vanish with the husk, along with a good bit of the flavor. Hence, I much prefer the compromising semi-pearled farro. It is not a wheat, but a plant and grain all its own with low gluten content.  The flavor is complex with nutty taste and undertones of oats and barley.  When cooked it remains its tender, distinct bite, even if it sits awhile after cooking unlike Arborio rice (risotto).

• ¾ C semi-pearled farro
• Water or chicken stock for cooking farro
• 2 ½ lbs large sunchokes, scrubbed, and cut into 2-inch pieces
• Kosher salt
• 1 lb Kale, green, tough stems discarded
• 4 Tb extra virgin olive oil blended with 4 Tb vegetable oil
• 1 small red onion, sliced ¼-inch thick
• 1 Tb unsalted butter
• ¼ lb – ½ lb oyster mushrooms, halved if large
• ¼ lb cremini mushrooms, wiped clean with damp cloth, halved if large (if only ¼ oyster mushrooms are used)
• Freshly ground pepper 

Soak farro in water to cover for 25 minutes. Drain, place in a medium saucepan and cover with 2 inches of water or chicken stock. Bring to a boil, cover and cook over low heat until farro is tender, about 25 minutes.  Drain the farro.

Meanwhile, in a large saucepan, cover the sunchokes with water and add a large pinch of salt. Boil until the sunchokes are tender, about 10 minutes; drain. Slice the sunchokes ¼-inch thick.

Sliced sunchokes

Fill the large saucepan with water and bring to a boil.  Add the kale and cook until just tender, about 3 minutes. Drain the kale and let cool slightly. Squeeze out any excess liquid from the kale leaves and then coarsely chop them.

In a small skillet, heat 2 Tb of the blended oil. Add the red onion and a pinch of salt and cook over moderately low heat, stirring occasionally, until browned, about 12 minutes. The recipe can be made to this point one day in advance.  Refrigerate components separately.

In a nonstick skillet, melt the butter in 2 Tb blended oil. Add the sunchokes in an even layer and cook over high heat until browned on the bottom, about 3 minutes. Turn the sunchokes, reduce the heat to moderately high and continue cooking until starting to brown, about 2 minutes. Push the sunchokes to the side of the skillet.

Browned sunchokes

Add 3 Tb of the oil and the oyster and cremini mushrooms. Season with salt and pepper and cook over moderately high heat until browned, about 3 minutes. Add the final 1 Tb of oil along with the farro, kale and onion and cook, stirring, until hot. Season with salt and pepper and serve to cheers.

Oyster mushrooms

Mushrooms added to the sunchokes

Bon Appetit!

Larue

adapted from Food & Wine, Jan. 2010