While I was staring at the jar of delectably pickled jalapenos I used for my last food blog; I decided to use them again here and marry them with some grilled pineapple to make a sweet/spicy relish to accompany the citrus flavor in the grilled chicken.
The ingredients list here looks long, but the recipe is really quick and easy to put together aside from the marinating time for the jalapenos and chicken breasts. I guarantee it’s worth the wait!
What do you get when you give a sixteen-year-old girl who loves pasta free reign in your kitchen? You get spicy, flavorful, creamy, luxuriant pasta bliss!
I love cooking with my daughter, and this recipe is great for a young cook. The directions are simple and easy to follow, and cooking the pasta in the liquid uses the starch from the noodles to naturally thicken the sauce. It’s a one pot meal. Brilliant and delicious!
Everything about this sandwich was delicious. And even though I’m supposed to be cutting carbs out of my diet, I had to cave this one time because the toasty ciabatta bread was just too good to pass up! The combination of ingredients here was foolproof. The juicy, tender grilled chicken melted the provolone to a yummy warm, gooeyness, and the crunchy, briny, spicy relish was all you needed for a condiment. I’m already thinking about when I’ll make this sandwich again!
This dish is perfect for anyone on a low-carb diet. The firm, meaty texture of the mushrooms is a wonderful companion to the tender chicken and bright flavors from the pesto and fresh basil. Toss a handful of spring greens with a tangy vinaigrette, and you have a delicious, quick, healthy dinner.
I’ve always loved wontons and Chinese dumplings, but I thought they were really difficult to make. Then I made them for this soup, and I discovered something about myself. I LOVE making wontons! They tasted just like authentic Chinese wontons, except I used a small amount of minced habanero pepper (I know, shocker!), so they had a little kick. The broth was silky and flavored with a wonderful shitake mushroom umami, perfectly balancing the heat.
The trick to getting the wontons to cook without falling apart is to have the broth just beyond a simmer, but not quite a boil so the wontons ‘dance’ in the broth as they cook.
I have two weaknesses when it comes to Mexican food, pork tamales with the perfect ratio of meat to masa, and authentic spicy mole chicken enchiladas. When I visit a Mexican restaurant, those are the two things I search for first on the menu. Sadly, I’ve discovered not many Mexican restaurants serve a mole sauce, at least not in St. Louis.
So, since I still had several habanero peppers left from the garden, I decided to try my hand at making my own version of an authentic mole sauce, just to see if I could pull it off. Much to my delight, I did it. This sauce was rich, smoky, spicy, earthy and positively delicious!
Remember last week when I warned you to get ready for a string of spicy recipes? Here’s a spicy, sweet, tangy, acidic masterpiece of a marinade using chocolate habaneros that I’m definitely going to make again. Don’t be daunted by the amount of garlic and habanero peppers here. You can reduce the quantities down to your preferred level of heat and still get great flavor.
Once grilled, the chicken ended up being exceptionally juicy, and it picked up a great level of heat from the habaneros. The addition of the bright, colorful, crunchy sweetness of the carrots and the dressing for the slaw balanced out the heat and made a beautiful plate.
Dinner on a skewer makes me feel a bit adventurous and whimsical. You can thread just about any protein, fruit or vegetable on a stick and after only a few minutes over the heat, voila, dinner is served! Chicken is great for skewering because it cooks so quickly. Just look at the crispy brown edges of the caramelized marinade. It makes your mouth water!
The marinade in this peanut satay has the luscious, creamy, peanutty flavor, and citrusy-ginger zing common in traditional satay marinades, however, it is a bit spicier than you may be used to. (My sriracha obsession shows up again here.) So if you prefer a tamer flavor, reduce or omit the chile sauce. Although I highly discourage it!
There’s nothing taboo about cooking with alcohol, nor will it make one compromise their religious beliefs doing so. The alcohol burns off in the cooking process, so all you’re left with is the flavor, not the fumes. Adding rum to a marinade not only helps to tenderize the meat, it adds a unique layer of flavor to your food you just can’t recreate with other ingredients.
This recipe uses 1/4 cup of rum in the marinade and another 1/4 cup in the sauce and is the perfect companion to the tropical flavors of pineapple, ginger and lime. Crispy chicken, tangy sauce, and sweet jasmine rice, what more could you ask for?
So don’t be shy, break out the rum!
This recipe evolved out of my experimentation with Vietnamese cooking when I made Pho a few weeks ago. I especially liked the spicy/acidic/sweet flavor profile in the seasonings and wanted to try it again. So I decided to use it on some chicken wings and they didn’t disappoint. (Having Sriracha on the list of ingredients didn’t hurt either!) I still got the heat I was looking for and the sweetness from the brown sugar, and the acidity from the fresh lime made them positively addicting. Before we knew it, the wings were gone, and the platter was empty!