Every day this past summer, I'd wake up and ask myself "Will this be the day I wake up on a rainy and gloomy morning to spend my day in a windowless building and waste most of my classtime on crosswords and Gchat?" The answer was consistently no. But now that school is back, the return of Pittsburgh's annual ice age was inevitable. This past week, the clouds and rain returned. My time has come.
With Pittsburgh's generally hateful weather returning, I knew I needed something spicy to warm me up a little. Thanks to the magic of the internets, I founds something that sounded glorrrrious.
Sweet and Spicy Thai Marinated Chicken
Recipe Link: Crepes of Wrath (In case you couldn't tell, I really like this site's recipes)
Recommended Cooking Music: You! Me! Dancing!, Los Campesinos
Ingredients:
3 chicken breasts, pounded to an even thickness
For the marinade:
2 cloves garlic, minced
3 tablespoons finely minced lemongrass, fresh or frozen (Shockingly enough, I couldn't find this at Giant Eagle, so I figured Lemon Peel would good enough. Right?)
3 1/2 tablespoons coconut milk
1/2 teaspoon ground white pepper (I just didn't bother and used a tablespoon of black pepper. That's how I roll)
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon ground turmeric
3/4 teaspoons crushed red pepper flakes
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
1 tablespoon fish sauce (Which sounds like it's barely a step above crab juice)
3 tablespoons light or dark brown sugar
The Cookin':
Let's start off with the marinade. Dump all of your marinade ingredients into a bowl.
Good GOD coconut milk is disgusting. Yeech. Anyway, stir it all around 'til there aren't any clumps of brown sugar left in there.
Will... not... make... poop... joke... Now that the lovely brown paste is all done, set it aside and get your chicken out.
Now, the recipe calls for the chicken to be pounded to an even width. However, me having a teeny-tiny kitchen, I don't have a mallet lying around. I clearly needed something sitting in my apartment that was big, heavy, and useless...
FINALLY, my Civ Pro casebook becomes useful! Keep
Good enough. Now marinate it for as little as half an hour, or as long as UNTIL THE END OF TIME. Ok, maybe just overnight, but it feels like a long time. Shut up.
I waited a for a few hours before my stomach started growling. My choices now were to either grill it on my massive, annoying indoor "grill" for a few minutes, or bake it in my oven at 350 for 15-20 minutes. After my Zucchini Lasagna disaster, I spent a few hours last week cleaning out my oven. Or so I thought.
After a few minutes of my oven preheating...
SMOKE ALAAAAAARM. Cue me once again furiously rushing around my apartment trying to flush the smoke out the windows with my comforter because I'm too stupid to own a fan. Upon realizing I'd have to use the behemoth grill, which I hate for a number of reasons, I felt like this poor bastard.
This is how much I hate using and cleaning it. Just look at this monster.
The damn thing takes up half my counter! I have to throw my poor drying rack in the sink just to make room. Throw the chicken on the grill 'til it's all nice and golden brown, then serve with the salad of your choice. I just used some prepackaged Giant Eagle stuff, but you overachievers out there can go make a real salad with fruit and nuts and dressing and stuff.
Upon first bite, hoooooly lemon-y taste, Batman. I'm starting to believe that lemon peel ain't the same as lemongrass. Granted, it had a lovely, spicy aftertaste, and the veggies did a nice job of counteracting the lemon, but man...
Note: A lesser man than myself might make a lemonparty joke here. I'm not going to do so, but feel free to make your own, you rubes.
Overall, great spice, but too much lemon peel. If I were to make this again, I'd cut back on the lemon peel, or actually go to Whole Foods or Trader Joes and try to hunt down some actual lemongrass. I guess now I'll go... read. Dammit, law school.
Rating: 6.5/10
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