Thai-Inspired Sweet & Spicy Chicken Kabobs

Since moving from Arizona about a month ago, Ben and I have used many opportunities to grill. Most days here are sunny and perfect cook-out weather! Ironically, when we made these sweet & spicy chicken kabobs last night, the wind and rain started up just as we got our charcoal going. But we were able to finish them in time and boy were they delicious!! You can use any veggies you like, but we enjoyed the mixture of sweet pepper, red onion & pineapple. Now…on to this amazing marinade!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ingredients:

-chicken (I prefer thighs)
-veggies (here I used sweet pepper, red onion & pineapple)
-juice of 1 orange, or 3-4tbsp orange juice
-2tbsp fish sauce (you can substitute with soy sauce)
-2tbsp hot chili sauce (like Sriracha)
-1/2 cup sweet chili sauce

 

Directions:

Mix all marinade ingredients together. Set aside a small amount for brushing onto kabobs while grilling. Add chicken to marinade and let set for about 20 minutes. Put together kabobs of chicken & veggies, and grill.

Buttermilk Chicken Pie

I have been eating this chicken pie (rather, a variation of it) since I was about 10 or 12 years old. My mother got the recipe from a friend and made it for us often. I remember making this when I got my first apartment and was living by myself, and eating it for three days straight. It’s seriously that good. However, I have made one important change to the original recipe, which called for cream of chicken  chemical soup. This isn’t a conventional chicken pie–there are no veggies in it (very shocking for me, I know), and rather than a pie-like crust on the bottom, it’s made in a casserole dish and is topped with a flaky buttermilk crust. Enough talking, time to make this delicious chicken pie!

Ingredients:

-2-3 chicken breasts or legs
-1 1 /4 cups and 2 tbsp flour
-1 cup milk
-2 packets Herb-ox chicken bouillon
-1 stick butter
-1 1/4 cups buttermilk

Directions:

1. Boil chicken and shred. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
2. Melt 2 tbsp butter in small saucepan. Add 2 tbsp flour and whisk until bubbly. Whisk in 1 cup of chicken broth-water (from boiled chicken). When flour is dissolved, whisk in both packets of chicken bouillon and 1 cup milk. Heat on medium-low until thickened.
3. Melt remaining stick of butter in microwave bowl. Mix in 1 1/4 cup flour and 1 1/4 cup buttermilk until smooth.
4. Put shredded chicken and chicken “soup” mix in glass dish, mixing together. Pour flour mixture over top. Sprinkle with salt & pepper.
5. Bake at 425 degrees for about 25 minutes, or until crust is golden brown.

ผัดกะเพรา (Pad Kaprao) aka Stir-Fried Holy Basil

Disclaimer: there seems to be a lot of talk on blogs about the authentic or traditional way of making a recipe when that recipe is outside of your cultural or ethnic “home”. This recipe has been constructed based on my own experiences in Thailand and nothing more. Despite the fact that the dish is named after Thai holy basil (bai kaprao), it can also be made with Thai sweet basil (bai horapa) which I experienced myself in Thailand, as it is very difficult to find Thai holy basil. Either way, this dish is full of amazing flavors and easy for first-timers to make!

So, which type of Thai basil do you have?

                Thai Holy basil (bai kaprao)                                                         Thai sweet basil (bai horapa)

Now…moving on to the recipe! This was the very first dish we ate in Thailand. We had just traveled for 33 hours with very little sleep. After 3 flight changes, a 3 hour bus ride, and a short taxi ride, we arrived at our hotel ready to just sleep. So, we settled for eating at our hotel, which was really outside of my idea of a culturally immersive trip. However, sleep deprivation and hunger will certainly cause you to adjust your plans 😉 Luckily, our hotel had a fantastic chef who cooked authentic Thai cuisine (minus the peanut satay pizza lol.) They served the meals family-style, and we ordered three small dishes to share. I only remember two of them: the Thai larb salad, which inspired my own recipe, and the Pad Kaprao.

Ingredients:
-1lb ground meat (I prefer pork or chicken)
-7-9 cloves of garlic, chopped
-7-9 Thai chilies, sliced at an angle
-1 large shallot or 1/4 red onion, fine chopped
-1 cup (about 20-30 whole leaves) of Thai basil
-3 tbsp soy sauce
-2 tbsp oyster sauce
-2 tbsp fish sauce
-3 tbsp peanut oil
-jasmine rice
-1 egg for each person

Directions:

1. Cook rice according to directions and set aside.
2. Add 3 tbsp of peanut oil to wok or skillet (less if using fatty meat like pork or beef) and heat to medium. Add garlic, chilies and shallot; stir fry for 2 minutes. Add ground meat; crumble and stir fry until no longer pink.
3. Add soy sauce, oyster sauce & fish sauce; stir fry for another 2 minutes. Add basil and stir fry for another minute, until leaves are barely wilted. Keep warm while you fry or poach an egg for each person. The most important thing about cooking the egg is that its yoke should remain runny.
4. Serve the pad kaprao by placing a mound of rice on a plate. Top the rice with the egg. Spoon the pad kaprao beside the rice and egg.