The weather is warming up and I just want to be outside! Spring has arrived slowly in Chicago this year, and everyone is eager to enjoy sunshine and warmer temps. We have experienced some warmer days, and you can spot overly excited Chicagoans wearing t-shirts and carrying charcoal for their grills on 65 degree days. We took advantage of one of the nicer Saturdays by grilling. Charles was very specific that he wanted chicken with a sweet and spicy marinade, so I whipped this up and loved how it turned out.
Charles had asked me to make a Grilled Thai Chicken, and this is my version. I used soy sauce instead of fish sauce, but I stuck with the concept of a sweet and spicy flavor profile. The base of the sauce is soy sauce, and it is seasoned with brown sugar, ginger, lemon, garlic, and sriracha. It took just a few minutes to prepare the marinade, and I liked how the brown sugar and sriracha balanced each other out.
The trick to using soy sauce to make a marinade is to use less sodium soy sauce, and to only let the chicken marinate for 2 hours. Otherwise the chicken will become too salty. One of the benefits of this marinade is that the chicken really soaks in the flavor in just 2 hours.
Charles made some veggie skewers to serve with the chicken. While the veggies cooked he brushed them with a simple seasoned garlic butter. I made the garlic butter by placing two tablespoons of butter, two cloves of crushed garlic, and some salt and pepper in a small bowl and microwaving it to melt the butter. I like to melt the butter with the garlic in it to infuse the butter with more garlic flavor.
I loved that this meal was so easy to prepare and healthy!
Ingredients
- 1 Pound of Chicken
- 1 cup Less Sodium Soy Sauce
- ⅓ cup Lemon Juice
- ¼ cup Brown Sugar
- 1 tablespoon Sriracha
- 3 cloves Garlic minced
- 1 teaspoon minced Ginger
- Skewers
Instructions
- If you are using wooden skewers, soak them in water.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the soy sauce, lemon juice, brown sugar, sriracha, garlic, and ginger.
- Cut the chicken into 2-3 inch pieces and place them in the marinade. Refrigerate for 1-2 hours.
- Place the chicken on the skewers, and grill!
