Saturday, August 23, 2008

newish things and melty balls


Just an FYI:

We now have gift certificates available in the shop, made for me by the lovely Adrienne Money. They're so cute and they've arrived just in time for those shoppers on the hunt for holiday surprises (yes, they're out shopping for Christmas already...in August).

And coming soon, a website! Finally!!! Details to come.
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Anyway, enough of that. We've invited some dear friends over for dinner tonight and I can't wait to get out of work so I can get home and get to work on the meal. After months and months of empty promises of feeding them my famous "Melt Your Balls Off" Jerk chicken, I'm finally coming through. This stuff is hot, and when I say hot I mean I put an entire habanero pepper in the marinade last night (yes, seeds, pith and all). Honestly, it's not that hot, but you know how habaneros can sneak up on you. Yeesh. If you're interested in giving it a shot, I'm including the recipe below. I've tried this with chicken, tofu and seitan. It works well with all three. I strongly recommend that you make a double batch of the marinade, remove half before putting the chicken in, and reduce it in a saucepan before serving. It makes a tremendous dipping sauce, and tonight we're going to drizzle it over the chicken once it comes off the grill, and the garlic mashed potatoes (with caramelized onions) might get a touch, too. Hungry yet?
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Boneless, skinless chicken breasts (you can use legs and thighs, too)
1 tablespoon allspice
1 tablespoon thyme (I use fresh, but dried is okay too)
1 1/2 teaspoons cayenne pepper
1 1/2 teaspoons black pepper
1 1/2 teaspoons sage
3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
2 tablespoons garlic (let's be real, throw much more in than this)
1 tablespoon sugar
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup soy sauce
3/4 cup apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup orange juice
1 lime, juiced
1/2 habanero pepper (you can use jalapenos)
2 green onions, chopped
1 cup onion, chopped
***
Throw everything but the chicken in a food processor or blender and puree until completely smooth. Put your chicken in a large bowl or a large Ziploc bag (my personal choice) and refrigerate overnight (stirring/shaking as often as you can). Cook the chicken any way you'd like, and again, think about doubling the marinade recipe and reserving half to reduce and use as a drizzle or dipping sauce for the meal. Good stuff. Of course you can completely eliminate the cayenne and hot peppers and keep things savory and mild, but who wants that? Apparently my dinner guests like the idea of "Melt Your Balls Off" Jerk, so the hotter the better. If you try this recipe out, let me know what you think!

5 comments:

Good Girls Studio said...

can't wait to see the website! & I even more (sorry but food is always waayyy more important than business!)can't wait to try out this recipe! Yumm...will it melt my melons off since I have no balls to speak of?

Murray said...

Sounds delicious, I'll have to try it. Your onion dip was incredible, I made it a few weeks back and it received rave reviews.

Great news about the shop too! Hurry up and get it going in time for the holidays so I can shop, shop, shop!

littlebyrd said...

This sounds really good! I hope you have fun with your friends.

Jaimee McClellan said...

It all sounds fantastic...gift certs, website and JERK CHICKEN!!!!

I'm going to have to try out that recipe sans the Allspice - I'm one of those "freakishly allergic to obscure things" people...Allspice being one of those things!

Kate said...

Ha! You ladies crack me up...

Jo, I can say with total honesty that this didn't melt my melons off, but it did make me sweat a whole lot. I wish some melon melting did happen, though, because I have an ongoing love/hate relationship with them. Oy.

Murray, I'm so glad you tried the onion dip. It's amazing, isn't it? If all goes as planned I'll be selling some at this Friday's Troy Night Out festivities.

Thanks, RD, hope you get a chance to try it out sometime. It's amazing, really.

And bummer about the allspice, Jaimee. It really makes this dish, but I'm sure you can substitute with something else. Let me know what you use. I'm curious now.