Curry Peanut Chicken Skewers

      These skewers are something I started making a year or so ago to be an easy cheap freezer food.  They are meant to be like a Thai chicken Satay, but to be honest I never really did any research to make them traditional, but they are darn good.  I usually use chicken thighs because it stays juicy even when I forget about them and overcook them a bit.  The cheap boneless, skinless chicken thighs come in a big package, so I just buy the whole thing, clean the extra fat off and cut them into about one inch square pieces.  Then I make my marinade/sauce
1/2 Cup peanut butter
3 TBS red Curry Paste
1 TBS fresh grated ginger
3 cloves garlic
1 cup coconut milk
1/4 Cup soy sauce
All of this goes into the food processor and is blended until smooth.  This makes a medium spicy sauce, if you want it milder decrease the amount of curry paste, and if you like it really hot add some sambal or sirachia.
      Take your sauce and mix it a little bit at a time into the diced chicken so that it covers the chicken.  Don't use up all of your sauce, you will want it for a dipping sauce after the chicken is cooked.  I usually like to have at least 1/2 a cup left over, then add more of the coconut milk (like the rest of the can) to thin it out a little bit for a dipping sauce.  Let the chicken marinade for at least 2 hours, and up to 2 days then skewer it onto small 6 inch skewers.  Be sure as you are skewering them to not pack them too tightly, you really only want to have 3 or 4 pieces per skewer.  Then too the grill!!! Grill them for approximately 5-7 minutes on each side (you know, make sure they are cooked through).  Warm up your sauce a bit, brush it over the skewers, and then serve with any extra sauce for dipping. 

      These are great for a fun hors douvres, or with some ginger rice and vegetables for a yummy dinner with friends. Mark and I tend to make a bunch of them and then only cook enough for the project at hand, the rest of the skewers get laid out flat and put into the freezer.  Then we take them and wrap them up with 8-10 pieces a package so that we can thaw them for an easy week night dinner. 
     

Rotel Chicken

      I'm sure by now you all think that I eat nothing but gourmet meals and spend all day cooking.  Well the truth of it is that when I get home just like everyone else often the last thing I can think of is cooking dinner, especially after a long day in the kitchen.  But we all have to eat and on those days where I am just too tired to do much else I tend to turn to my freezer and pantry.  Luckily one of our favorite pantry meals is far better than the meals that most cooks eat after a long shift: things like taquidos, frozen pizzas, mac and cheese, chicken fingers, ramen, or just a bag of chips and dip and maybe some ice cream.  Because , I tend to work breakfast I'm usually not this bad, and I do seem to have a little more time to cook, but still I'm not always in the mood to do more than the bare minimum.
      This is a bare minimum recipe.  Rotel chicken has 5 simple ingredients
chicken breast-this recipe will make enough sauce for 2-4 breasts
seasoned flour for dusting the chicken, just flour with salt and pepper.  I keep some in a plastic container in the fridge for whenever I want to cook some chicken with a little bit of breading.  
butter, a couple of TBS for the pan to make a little bit of pan roux
1 can, rotel
1/2 cup cream
      Melt your butter in a pan, pound the chicken breast and coat them with the seasoned flour and sear in the pan.  Once one side is cooked and you have flipped the chicken over add another tbs of flour and stir into the butter.  Then  cover with the rotel and cream.  Cover and cook for 10-15 min, until the chicken is cooked through.

      I usually serve this on top of brown or jasmine rice, but it is delicious on top of pasta, mashed potatoes or what about a bed of lightly sauteed vegetables.  Just because food is simple doesn't mean it can't taste good.  And it's funny, of all the delicious foods I make this is what Mark asks for the most.