Chicks on Sticks

Okay, now that my title has grabbed the male eye, let me tell you about Alton Brown's Chick on Sticks, better known as Chicken Satay. This is another recipe discovered in his book I'm Just Here for the Food: Version 2.0. I am not a ginormous fan of cookbooks as I feel slightly overwhelmed by the options held within the covers, but I have yet to keep one of Alton's (we're on a first name basis) on the shelf for more than a month. He has great information about what to use when cooking and how to use what you have to cook. There is even a section in this book about how to use a flower pot to cook a chicken. It that not awesome?

I was unable to find the exact recipe online, so you will have to work with my descriptions and "close to actual recipe" links or bug me for the recipe via email. What you need to start off with (hardware) is a grill, grill pan, or good skillet; skewers that fit on your cooking surface (in my first attempt, I had to cut my skewers to fit the pan); a bowl; some measuring implements, both cups and spoons; a whisk; cutting board and knife; plastic wrap; and a mallet. Oh yes, this is one of those anger management dishes. Perfect for bad days at work, finals, and break-ups.

Software (the ingredients), you can refer to this close approximation to the peanut sauce made for marinating the chicken and dipping (ignore the shrimp part, skip down to the peanut sauce portion). Chicken - you will need 4 breasts, or several chicken tenders if what is about to come disgusts you. Place plastic wrap on the cutting board, put a chicken breast on it, and fold the plastic wrap over (make sure to cut more than just enough to cover the board). Proceed to whack the chicken with the mallet until it is about 1/4 inch thick. Oh, and chicky pieces may spew out the sides depending on the force of the whamming. Cut flattened meat lengthwise into 1-inch strips. Repeat for all breasts. Place chicken pieces in large zip top bag with 1/2 to 1 cup of the peanut sauce mix and let marinate in the fridge for at least 2 hours. You can keep the leftover sauce (now the dipping sauce) on the counter if you are going to eat it that evening. If not, cover it and pop it in the fridge.

After letting it hang out in the fridge for 2 hours or more, take your bag out and skewer the pieces on (guess what?) skewers! (And go ahead and preheat your grill to 350 or 400 degrees.) My personal method is the "over, under, over" means, but go with whatever you like, just make sure those babies are on the skewer and will not fall off mid-cooking. And yes, this will be messy with the sauce and the rawness. After skewering, throw away the marinating bag. Do NOT use the remaining sauce for dipping unless you like E. coli and salmonella, mkay? And wash your hands, no one like peanut sauce and chicken juice fingerprints.

Plop the skewered meat on the grill leaving space between the skewers so the heat can circulate, cooking each side about 2-3 minutes. The first batch will be the test to see if you need to raise or lower the heat, make sure to cut into one skewer and check for doneness. After cooking all the meat, grab the dipping sauce and get to eating. This is a great group food as people can choose their own portion amounts and is a cleaner-to-eat version of buffalo wings or whatever they are called. Cook some rice or Asian noodles, use the meat for lettuce wraps, throw it on a salad. It is your food and your mouth, go wild!