Turmeric and Mustard Chicken Satay

Happy Thursday!

Sitting out on the deck again, this time with a glass of wine and a beautiful rainbow to the south. Its pretty chilly out again today, this summer has been pretty wimpy so far here in Chicago. We had a few 90 degree days, but its almost halfway through July and I feel like its not even summer yet. How do we deal with this? Put on a sweatshirt and sit out on the deck anyway.

Or grill. Steve (my boyfriend) and I moved again in June -that makes three years and three apartments- but this time to a place with not only a deck but a second bedroom. The deck is by far my favorite spot and we have gotten quite a bit of use out of it in the month and a half or so that we have been here. Back in June I was up in Minnesota joining my sister on the MS 150 Bike Ride, and figured it was time to dig my old 22" Weber Charcoal Kettle out of the garage.

It was like uncovering a relic, still in the torn black garbage bag that it was put into two years ago when I graduated and moved to the city, and covered in dust. I work (indirectly) for Weber so it was sort of a sin that I had a deck for two weeks and had not grilled anything yet. Trying to put the ridicule to rest, the next weekend my best friend Stefanie came to Chicago to visit and we put the kettle to good use. We threw some chicken and vegetable kabobs on the grill served with some orange rice, and spicy oranges peanut dipping sauce, oh and don't forget the wine, that is key :-)

I am not known for measuring things, so I can give an approximation of what I used in these recipes, and I vow to keep better track of ingredients. It was a fatanstically easy meal and pleased the crowd (okay just me, Stef, and Steve, but we were pretty happy campers) Enjoy!

Turmeric- Dijon Chicken Kabobs

This marinade I kind of threw together from stuff I had in my pantry, so taste often and add more of whichever flavors you want to bring out the most. I served the chicken with Rachel Ray's Orange Rice and Peanut Satay Sauce (thanks for the suggestion Rian!).

Chicken

1.5-2 lbs. chicken breast tenders (about two packages)

2 tablespoons turmeric

3 tablespoons Dijon mustard

1/4 cup soy sauce

3 cloves crushed garlic

2 inches crushed ginger

1 teaspoon sesame oil

1/2 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

1 teaspoon red pepper flakes

Salt and pepper to taste

Veggies

2 Zucchini

1 Red Onion

2 Red Bell Peppers
(I also had the brilliant idea that carrots would be delish and quickly realized that no, they do not enjoy being put on skewers, so that idea got scrapped)
Olive Oil
Salt and Pepper

Rice

Zest of 3 Oranges
3 Cups Jasmine Rice

Satay Sauce

4 rounded tablespoonfuls chunky peanut butter
3 tablespoons dark soy, Tamari
3 tablespoons honey
1-inch ginger root, peeled and minced
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1/2 orange, juiced

Directions

The night before the meal, I combined the turmeric, mustard, soy sauce, garlic, ginger, sesame oil, worcestershire, red pepper flakes, salt and pepper in a Ziploc bag with the chicken and let it hang out in the fridge overnight.

TIP: I had a hell of a time trying to skewer these the next day, plus my hands turned yellow so I would highly recommend skewering first, THEN marinading.

The night of the actual meal, I cut up the zucchini, onion, and bell peppers, tossed them with a little olive oil and salt and pepper and put those on skewers as well.

I use a charcoal grill so right after I set the coals up in my chimney, I combined the rice and the orange zest and cooked it according the the package directions. Rice can be a great accompaniment for grilling especially since it can be taken off of the heat and rest covered until the rest of the meal is ready.

While the rice was coming to a boil and the charcoal was lighting, I combined all of the satay sauce ingredients and put the mixture into a sauce pan and set aside.

Once the charcoal was ready, I put everything on the grill at once, with the chicken directly over the coals, and the veggies around the sides. I turned them occasionally and moved skewers off the direct heat as they cooked through.

Meanwhile, I set the satay sauce over medium- low heat and stirred occasionally just to combine ingredients, until meat and vegetables were done grilling and rice was done cooking.

This made A LOT of food, which was great because we had leftovers for days. Even the rice, as simple as it was, was so flavorful and was a perfect compliment with the chicken and satay sauce.

I apologize if this recipe is hard to follow, seems erratic, doesn't make ANY sense whatsoever, it is my first shot at writing a recipe out start to finish, and it was a lot more difficult than I thought it would be. Heres hoping it gets better from here. More food fun to come, next up Mile High Turkey Burgers....mmm.....