Easy Yakitori

Yakitori is one of my favorite snacks which I also sometimes eat with rice as a heavier meal for lunch or dinner. Making yakitori is easy enough, but this recipe makes it even easier! You'll just need the following:
Ingredients

• Your choice of the meat - boneless and skinless chicken breast/thigh, chicken skin (you can use the one you've pulled off the chicken breast/thigh), pork belly, bacon
• Vegetables like leek, green bell pepper, asparagus, shiitake or button mushrooms **
• Wooden skewers (shorter ones are better; yakitori is not usually served on very long skewers)
• Ready-made Kikkoman Teriyaki sauce*
• Powdered ginger (for marinating) **
• Half a lemon **
• Container for marinating
• Grill (coal or gas grill is best for a smokier taste)

*I used ready-made teriyaki sauce because based on my research on yakitori recipes, the components of teriyaki sauce is very similar to yakitori marinade
** optional

Directions

1. You first cut your meat into bite-sized pcs, about an inch wide. For chicken skin, you can just put the skewer through it right away, as if the skewer were a needle and the chicken skin, cloth.
2. If you're using vegetables, you can cut them into bite-sized pcs as well and alternate it with the meat, much like in the photo (chicken and leek). For asparagus, it tastes bests when you wrap it with bacon and then put it on the skewers.
3. Put the meat skewers in a container, dash some ginger powder on 'em, and pour some Teriyaki sauce on it. About a teaspoon per skewer would do the trick; make sure not to drown the skewers but have the meat damp enough to soak in the flavor.
4. Squeeze half a lemon over the skewers.
5. Close container and leave to marinate for 30minutes to an hour or two. Don't leave them too long or they might get too salty.
6. Prepare the grill
7. When the grill is hot (enough that a drop of the marinade would sizzle), place the skewers on it.
8. Grill until the meat is cooked, turning it and basting it with left over marinade/teriyaki sauce to make sure it would meat would not dry out.
9. Serve with a tablespoon of teriyaki sauce drizzled on the meat skewers.
10. Eat as is or with rice. Enjoy! :)

Jobelle's Awesome Chicken

This is a recipe shared to me by my Jobelle, called "Jobelle's Awesome Chicken". Vain as it may sound though, it is pretty awesome! It's a simple chicken recipe but is very tasty and healthy.

Ingredients:
Boneless chicken breast
Olive oil
Dried/fresh basil
Garlic
Very little lemon/calamansi
Salt and pepper

Directions:
Just marinade the chicken in the olive oil, basil, garlic, and salt & pepper. Make sure to rub that marinade in the chicken and leave the chicken in there for about 30 minutes to an hour. Then add a few dashes of lemon. There aren't any measurements written here, but don't be afraid to put a lot of olive oil, basil, and garlic. More garlic, more yum (just don't burn it).

Now use a griddle and put on medium heat, using the garlic and olive oil from the marinade. When the garlic begins to soften, add the chicken and the rest of the marinade. Pan-grill until cooked! That is when chicken becomes completely opaque and begins to brown.

Serve with a side of salad! YUM! :)

Katsudon

First of all, I would like to thank the 1000+ people who have visited my food blog! Knowing my blog has been visited by so many people makes me very happy. Thank you!

Here is a recipe to celebrate! It's very simple, but I read online that Katsudon is usually eaten before a big test as "katsu" is a homophone of the verb 勝つ katsu, meaning "to win" or "to be victorious". And well, I don't have any tests or anything (my 1st term in senior year of college has just ended actually), but I hope to continue to feel victorious in the sense that people will continue to visit my blog.

Anyway, enough of me blabbing! Here is the recipe for one serving of Katsudon:

Ingredients:
1 Tonkatsu cooked and ready! A chicken fillet can also be used as substitute instead of pork (chicken katsu is called Torikatsu, if I'm not mistaken).
1 egg
1/4 leek sliced diagonally
1/2 onion sliced
50ml water
1/5 tsp powdered dashi (I use Ajinomoto brand dashi found in most Japanese sections of the grocery. Market Market in the Fort has many varieties of powdered dashi)
1 tbsp kikkoman soysauce
1 tbsp mirin
1 tsp brown sugar
1.5 cup of rice put in a rice bowl big enough to fit your Tonkatsu

Directions:

1. Mix water, dashi, soysauce, mirin, and brown sugar and put in heated pan
2. When mixture begins to be hot, add onion
3. When the mixture is boiling and onion has begun to be transluscent, add your Tonkatsu
4. Beat egg lightly and pour over mixture and tonkatsu
5. Put some of the leeks on the Tonkatsu
6. Cover the pan for about a minute, or until your egg has reached your desired consistency.
7. Slide everything onto a bowl of rice.
8. Serve and eat while hot! :)

*Thanks to the Cooking with Dog show for some tips!

Chicken Teriyaki

Finally, here is my recipe for chicken teriyaki, as inspired by the many cooking websites I visit frequently, the Japanese food(my favorite cuisine) I've eaten, and what I've seen on TV.



Ingredients:
4-5 chicken breast fillets or boneless chicken thighs cut into about an inch thick strips
1/2 cup teriyaki sauce*
some vegetable oil
2 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp cornstarch (or more depends on how thick you want your sauce to be)
salt and pepper
water

Directions:
1. First mix your sugar and teriyaki sauce.
2. Pour some of it on your chicken; just enough to coat the chicken well. Don't drown it. Then add a pinch of salt and about 2 tsp pepper. Massage it all into the chicken and let it marinade for about 20 minutes to an hour.
3. Meanwhile mix what's left of the teriyaki sauce + sugar mixture, cornstarch, and about 1/4 cup of water. The cornstarch will help the sauce thicken and the water makes the teriyaki sauce less strong.
AFTER MARINATING...
4. Drizzle some oil on the pan and let it go to medium heat.
5. Put in the pieces of chicken and cook until all sides are opaque and even a little brownish (about 4-5 minutes)
6. Then add the teriyaki mixture sauce. Leave it there, stirring the contents of the pan together until the sauce begins to thicken and bubble. It will do this faster, as well as cook the chicken more thoroughly if you put a lid on the pan. Just make sure to check every now and then and stir. Your sauce and chicken then would look a like this:



7. It will be done when the sauce is thick enough and the chicken is thoroughly cooked.
8. Serve chicken on plate with the sauce drizzled on top, or on top of rice with some sauce drizzled on top. Or if you're a little obsessive compulsive, put your sauce on the
side and that'll be fine too! Enjoy! :)

*TERIYAKI SAUCE
Teriyaki sauce can be bought at any local supermarket. I recommend the Kikkoman brand. If you can't find any ready made sauce you can also make it yourself by mixing together the following ingredients:
1/2 cup light soysauce
1/2 cup mirin
2 tbsp sugar

Chix and Cheese in Bacon

Ingredients:
Chicken Fillet cut into thin slices, slightly flattened with salt and pepper
Cheese
Saute'd Garlic and onion
Roasted red pepper (from a can is fine)
Bacon

Put one ingredient on top of another in this order:
Bacon, chicken fillet, cheese, garlic and onion, and red pepper --> ROLL (bacon will be like your wrapper) and put on a bbq stick. GRILL. :D

For remaining peppers, feel free to grill them... They become nice and sweet :D

Buffalo Chicken Wings

Ingredients
Chicken wings with wing from mini drumstick thing separated (Healthier option would be breast fillets cut into strips)

*Marinade in:
HOT SAUCE. The more the spicier
Salt and pepper (don't be afraid to put it in there)
Cayenne pepper powder
Pepper flakes

Buffalo wings sauce
Butter > sweet chili sauce
Salt and pepper, cayenne pepper
Spicy sili cut into small pieces/crushed and/or pepper flakes
Diced garlic

Directions

1. Bread chicken wings (optional) and then fry on medium to high heat oil until cooked and crispy in one pan. Take out wings and set aside.
   
2. In the same pan, leave only little of the used oil and then melt butter in it.
3. Saute garlic until it begins to brown
   
4. Add the sweet chili sauce, peppers, and a little salt
5. Add the crushed/cut spicy sili and/or pepper flakes
6. Stir on low heat til it begins to simmer.
7. Mix sauce and chicken together and voila!

You can use a ranch dressing dip or blue cheese dip with this. :)