Wife is out of town and daughter has an intense summer job which leaves me 100% in charge of the kitchen for the week. What to do, what to do... It's time to break out Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything: The Basics.
Bittman's recipe for Peanutty Chicken Kebabs won't do as I am allergic to peanuts. His Mediterranean Chicken Kebabs variation, on the other hand, sounded delightful. It's probably best I made my first attempt at such a dish with my wife and her Lebanese sensibilities out of the house anyway.
I made an early mistake. The recipe calls for "boneless, skinless chicken thighs." I got boneless but not skinless which made cutting it up more of a pain. I definitely did not achieve proper cubes.
Fortunately, the end result was fine. Some things for next time, beyond getting the right chicken cut:
- Marinate for longer. I need to get in a better habit with that across the board. Today, I was trying to do the shopping and cooking in one day. The smarter thing would have been to shop one day, then do the marinade in the morning of the next.
- Grilling would have been better than broiling. I already knew that but I was better equipped for broiling. Plus, it rained all afternoon so grilling would have been out anyway.
- Broiling would have worked better if I had set the rack higher in the oven - and therefore closer to the heat - from the beginning. I moved it up for the last five minutes but probably should have done it sooner.
Even so, it was a serviceable meal. Definitely worth trying again and better some time.
I'm also horrible about leaving myself enough time to marinade. I need to do it the night before, and I never do, which means it doesn't happen until about two hours before I'm going to cook.
ReplyDeleteThe recipe said max 12 hours for the marinade, which is actually an awkward amount of time for planning, in my opinion. 24 would be so much easier.
DeleteIt looks good and grilling is always best (and especially when on charcoal and not gas). But I seldom do that these days.
ReplyDeleteWell, of course, charcoal!
DeleteIt's been a few years since we've grilled - perhaps another good empty nest hobby for me. Maybe.