Thai BBQ chicken with cucumber salad

The top three choices when I go to a Thai restaurant are Pad Thai, Pad see Ew, and Thai BBQ Chicken. Even though the chicken is always dry, the flavor makes up for it and there's a tangy dip that moistens the meat right up. The dish always comes with rice and a small cup of cucumber salad that I can't get enough of. I never actually made this dish before so today was the day to give it a go.

Thai BBQ Chicken

Recipe from thaifood.about.com

Cooking time: 50 minutes

Yield: 2 servings

Ingredients

1/2 fresh chicken, chopped into small parts, or 4-8 fresh chicken thighs

Marinade:

2 tbsp soy sauce

1 tsp dark soy sauce (or 1 tbsp regular soy sauce)

2 tbsp fish sauce

3 tbsp sherry (cooking sherry works well too)

2 tbsp brown sugar

1 tbsp black peppercorns, crushed with pestle or mortar, or coarsely ground with coffee grinder or pepper mill

10 cloves garlic, minced

Dipping sauce or glaze:

1/2 cup rice vinegar (or other type of vinegar, white, white wine, or apple cider)

1/3 cup brown sugar, lightly packed

4 cloves garlic, minced

1-2 fresh red chilies minced or 1/3 to 1/2 tsp dried crushed chili or cayenne pepper

1 tbsp fish sauce

1 tbsp soy sauce

Directions

1. Combine all marinade ingredients in a bowl and stir well to dissolve the sugar.
2. Add chicken parts or thighs, turning several times to ensure the chicken is covered with the marinade.
3. Cover and place in the refrigerator to marinate while you heat up the grill and prepare the dipping sauce or allow the chicken to marinate overnight, or up to 24 hours.
4. To make the dipping sauce/glaze, place all the dipping sauce/glaze ingredients in a sauce pan. Stir and bring to a boil. 
5. Reduce heat to medium-low. Allow sauce to simmer for 10-15 minutes, stirring occasionally. The sauce will thicken as it cooks and become tangy - a mixture of sweet, sour, salty and spicy.
6. Tip: this sauce can be served warm, at room temperature, or cold, so you can easily make it ahead of time and keep in the refrigerator or until needed.
7. Brush your grill with a little vegetable oil, then grill the chicken, turning occasionally. Brush the chicken with the leftover marinade for the first 10 minutes or so, then discard the marinade. To cook the chicken in your oven: Place the chicken pieces on a grill pan or on a baking sheet lined with foil. Bake at 375 degrees for approximately 45 minutes, or until chicken is nearly done (thicker pieces may need slightly longer, while small or thin pieces may cook faster).
8. Turn oven to the "broil" setting (on high if you have a choice), and move chicken to one of the upper racks of your oen. Baste both sides of chicken with the leftover marinade, or with a little of the dipping sauce, then broil 3-5 minutes per side, or until fully cooked (stay near the oven for this process, or chicken may burn).
9. Serve with the dipping sauce on the side, or spoon a little sauce over each piece of chicken as a glaze before serving. This dish goes well with a salad or serve with rice.

Nutritional Analysis:
per serving : 487 calories, 15.2g fat (4.3g saturated, 3.3g polyunsaturated, 6.0g monounsaturated), 14.8g carbohydrates, 0.5g fiber, 61.4g protein

Thai Cucumber Salad

Recipe from allrecipe.com

Cooking time: 45 minutes

Yield: 4 cups

Ingredients

3 large cucumbers, peeled, halved lengthwise, seeded and cut into 1/4 inch slices

1 tbsp salt

1/2 cup white sugar

1/2 cup rice wine vinegar

2 jalapeno peppers, seeded and chopped

1/4 cup chopped cilantro

1/2 cup chopped peanuts

Directions

1. Toss the cucumbers with the salt in a colander, and leave in the sink to drain for 30 minutes. Rinse with cold water, then drain and pat dry with paper towels.
2. Whisk together the sugar and vinegar in a mixing bowl until the sugar has dissolved. Add the cucumbers, jalapeno peppers, and cilantro; toss to combine. Sprinkle chopped peanuts on top before servings. 

Nutritional Analysis:
per serving : 238 calories, 9.4g fat

**Helpful tips and common mistakes

Whenever I order this dish at a Thai restaurant, the chicken is both white and dark meat. There is usually the breast with the wing intact, a thigh, and a leg. Today I just used chicken breast, even though breast is more dry than thigh. I combined the marinade and let it sit with the chicken over night.

The next day when I checked on the meat, it had become very dark, and the texture had changed; the chicken seemed tougher. Because I had to multiply the recipe by 20 to serve about 50 people, I am assuming the amount of marinade was too much for the amount of chicken. I've realized that the marinade proportions end up being too much whenever you multiply the recipe by a large amount such as x20. If I am cooking this large of a batch again, I would recommend only marinating for 30 minutes. 

Since I was using chicken breast, I decided to roast it in hopes of preventing it from becoming dry. Because the meat was on the thin side, they were ready in 15 minutes. I basted the meat and finished it in the broiler for about 3 minutes. It's best to slightly undercook the chicken while roasting since it will continue to cook in the broiler. Remove from the oven and serve with the sauce.

The seeds in a cucumber are what makes the produce watery; it is important to remove them before mixing with the other ingredients. Even with the seeds removed, the cucumbers produced quite a bit of liquid. 

For the dressing of the cucumber salad, I wanted mine to only be slightly sweet like the Thai restaurants so I did half the amount of sugar. 

And now the verdict: the dish was great but not the same as Thai restaurants. The chicken was so full of flavor, so much so that the dipping sauce wasn't even necessary. I feel like Thai restaurants' Thai BBQ chicken is much more subtle in taste. The same goes for the cucumber salad. People were piling on that salad on their plates because it tasted great, but it was much stronger in flavor than in the restaurants. I feel like restaurants add water to their dressing as opposed to just sugar and vinegar. I only wish the chicken was juicier, but if purchased Thai BBQ chicken isn't even juicy and moist, than I can't entirely blame this on me! Next time I would use chicken thigh instead and try grilling it. Overall, a success!