My Magnificent Magical Marinade

If you have been keeping up with the blog, you will be aware that recently I made a fantastic grilled flank steak to go in a fajitas dish. If not, catch up over here and then come back to this post.

Everyone together? Good!

The marinade that made that steak so good was still on my mind as I prepared for a dinner of grilled chicken salad. My mental gears were working as to how I could use the general principle of that marinade and change some of the flavors to make it unique. I am not sure why, but my mind immediately drifted towards asian-inspired ingredients. Soy sauce instead of Worcestershire; ground ginger instead of chili powder, use some sesame oil instead of all canola oil; things were coming together. I let the chicken thighs marinate for a few hours, and then put them on a hot grill for about 4 minutes per side or so until they were cooked through. Magnificent. Make sure to always let your meat rest for at least 5 minutes - you definitely need more time if you have larger cuts of meat or a whole animal. I let my thanksgiving turkey rest for a whole 30 minutes! The resting lets the juices redistribute inside the meat, and you will wind up with a juicier meal.

Finished grilled chicken resting on a cutting board.

The salad was built with iceberg lettuce and red leaf lettuce; thin cut red peppers, cucumber and carrots; some of my homemade pickled radishes; chopped ripe pear; a thin layer of crushed raw ramen noodles, the grilled chicken (cut into strips); and a topping of some freshly toasted sesame seeds.

Completed asian grilled chicken salad

Not only was the meat perfectly tender and tasty, but it was the perfect compliment to the salad. The lettuce and raw veggies provided a fantastic base for the salad, the meat was juicy and the pear provided a perfect sweet "pop" to the dish. The pickled radishes went especially nicely with the meat, and every now and then you got a nice crunch from the raw ramen noodles.

The perfect bite - a bit of everything!

After gushing about the marinade, I cannot keep it to myself, so here you go:

• 1 1/2 Tbsp Canola Oil
• 1 1/2 Tbsp Sesame Oil
• 1 Tbsp Soy Sauce
• 1 Tbsp Rice Vinegar
• 1/2 Tbsp Lemon Juice
• 1 Garlic Clove (minced)
• 1 Tsp Ground Ginger
• 1/4 Tsp Ground Black Pepper

You may notice I omitted the salt from the marinade, but since I was using the soy sauce - which is itself very salty - I felt the mixture would be seasoned enough without any additional salt. You could pair this chicken with a nice stir fry over rice, or even put it on a sandwich. I would think it would be super tasty on a nice roll with some leaf lettuce, some non-creamy coleslaw and a slice of fresh tomato. Let me know in the comments below how you used this recipe!

Steak fajitas

Often times my wife will send me a recipe that she wants me to try out. Recently she sent me a recipe for steak fajitas that sounded simple and fantastic. Last night I made this dinner, and I will confirm that it is simple, yet fantastic.

One of the things that made this recipe so fantastic was probably the length of time I left the flank steak in the marinade. I had planned to make this recipe before our long weekend trip to see family over Memorial Day weekend, but we were not able to fit it in. So I put the gallon zip top bag containing the steak and the marinade in the freezer. Then this morning I took it out to thaw. Not only was the meat infused with flavor, but it stayed super juicy while being grilled - which is not always an easy task.

Grilled flank steak resting on a cutting board

The rest of the meal was simple. Tortillas - which I made a little ahead from scratch - and sautéed onions and peppers. Serve the meal family style and add in some sliced avocados and you have yourself some simple steak fajitas. The recipe says you can add sour cream and fresh cilantro, but after having them I say they are definitely not necessary.

Steak fajitas dinner

 I grilled the steak outside on my gas grill, about 8 minutes per side. This gave the steak a fantastic medium doneness to the meat, and left it juicy inside. If you prefer your meat a little rarer, you can certainly reduce the cooking time some, but for us this was fantastic.

Cutting flank steak for the meal. 

I am not sure if it was the marinade or the simple magic of grilled steak, but the meat was HEAVENLY. I could have sat there and just ate the meat all night - and so could my wife judging by her reaction to a taste test. Wrapping it up in a tortilla with some onions, peppers and avocado seemed like a little much for such a tasty morsel.

Steak fajita, anyone?

The recipe for the fajitas (which includes the marinade) is available on About.com in their food section, and a link directly to the recipe is HERE. If you want to go whole hog and make the fajitas dinner be my guest. but if you just want to start using this marinade for all your steaks like I do, then you can just go ahead and join me in doing that.

Do what you have to do

Sometimes you just have one of those evenings. Nothing goes as planned, you have no backup, and you are forced to improvise. 

I had one those nights recently. T-ball pictures were scheduled for 6pm on a Tuesday, and my wife was staying at work late for a dinner meeting. Of course, T-ball pictures were an absolute zoo - carefully controlled chaos with about 60-70 four to six year old kids running around all in their baseball uniforms. Needless to say pictures took way longer than I expected them to, and I ended up having to improvise on dinner. 

Daddy's Dinner

Kid's Dinner

We ended up with some boxed macaroni and cheese, and stopped at Wawa for a few hot dogs and a hoagie. If you are not from the Philadelphia area I formally send my apologies, because Wawa is one of the true gems of the area. Imagine a gas station combined with a convenience store combined with a really good sandwich shop and you might just get part of the picture. I am sure I am not doing the chain justice, but they are a godsend, and every place I have worked the first thing I have done is locate the closest Wawa, and make myself familiar with how to get there. 

In any case, this was a case of not worrying about dinner, or health, or whatever. It was just a matter of I need to get something on the table and this was the fastest option. The boys had fun going to pick up the food, and they had a dinner. I will worry about vegetables another night.