Char Siu

 

I grew up having this Asian pork dish for years and have sorely missed it.  One time when Jenna came to visit us, she brought us a few packets and made me so happy!  My mom always made it differently than what the packet says, and that's the way I love it and prefer it.  Instead of cooking in the oven or whatever, she always cut the pork into thin slices, marinaded it overnight and pan-fried the pork in a pan on the stove.  It's a very simple dish, tasty and fun--because of the bright pink color!  I usually have this with rice and steamed zucchini or broccoli, delicious!

1 packet char siu seasoning--NOH is the brand I grew up with
1 1/2 lb. pork chops, cut into thin strips
1/2 c. water

1.  Mix seasoning packet in with water.
2.  Cut pork into thin strips, place in ziplock bag (I always 'double-bag' when I marinade, just in case it leaks).
3.  Pour in marinade, let sit at least 6 - 8 hours, overnight is best.
4.  Cook in big skillet on stove on medium-high heat, probably about 5 - 8 minutes.

pretty pink pork!

so pink!

when Jenna came to visit, we made blue rice, such a colorful dinner!

Nutritional Facts
servings per recipe: 6 
amount per serving (3 oz.)

Calories: 205.9
Total Fat: 9.6 g
Saturated Fat: 3.7 g
Polyunsaturated Fat: 0.7 g
Monounsaturated Fat: 4.6 g
Cholesterol: 67.1 mg
Sodium: 118.7 mg
Potassium: 382.5 mg
Total Carbohydrate: 1.5 g
Dietary Fiber: --
Sugar: 1.5 g
Protein: 26.6 g
Vitamin A: 0.3 %
Vitamin C: 0.6 %
Calcium: 0.8 %
Iron: 5.5 % 

My Mom's Teriyaki Marinade

Here is the best teriyaki marinade you will find. It is the best and I cut this recipe in half for the two of us.

1 c. soy sauce
1 c. sugar
1/2 c. water
1/4 c. vegetable oil
1 clove garlic, minced
sprinkle of ginger

1. Whisk it all up. Marinade meat.

To make a glaze, measure left-over marinade in glass measuring cup. Whatever amount it comes to, add half that amount of cold water to it. Add in some cornstarch, throw it in the microwave for a few minutes until it's thick, clear and medium brown.

Teriyaki Chicken Kabobs

This meal is definitely a keeper. Zak didn't really want to come home and grill after a sub-par day at work, but once we got the kabobs on the grill and he smelled the delicious scent of grilled, teriyaki chicken, he knew he was in the wrong. I had decided earlier that day to make the kabobs, after getting a craving for them. And I wasn't going to pay over $5 a pound when I could easily make the same meal for cheaper! I mostly made it up as I went along, with the exclusion of my mom's teriyaki recipe. Which is:

1 c. soy sauce
1 c. sugar
1/2 c. water
1/4 c. vegetable oil
1 clove garlic, minced
sprinkle of ginger

I made half of that recipe and had previously turned it into a glaze for chicken tenders on the stove a few days earlier. But I figured whether glaze or marinade, it would still work for our purposes.

I put two chicken breasts (probably 3/4 - 1 pound) in a Ziploc bag and added enough sauce for them to sit in. And then I went to work.

I read in a recipe book that if you soak wooden skewers in water for 30 minutes before grilling, they won't burn on the grill. So as those soaked, I cut up:

1 onion
1 yellow pepper

into decent chunks. I cut them on the smaller size, but they worked out great us. I also cut up the chicken into pieces about 3/4 - 1" in size. And I opened a can of pineapple chunks.

Then I threaded them onto the skewers, somewhat in this manner:

chicken/pineapple/onion/chicken/pepper/onion/chicken/pineapple/pepper/onion/chicken

I tried to get about 4 pieces of chicken on one skewer. And I got 8 kabobs out of the ingredients, with some of the vegetables leftover.

Then Zak grilled them, and once they were almost done we added a glaze. I was initially just going to heat up the remaining teriyaki sauce and stir in some of the pineapple juice, but Zak thought we should add some spices to make it really yummy. I probably used half of the pineapple juice drained from the can. Zak added pinches of:
cinnamon (small amount)
garlic salt
pepper
ginger
chili powder (small amount)

He brushed it on both sides and they came out really well. We had them with corn on the cob and now we can't wait to have them again!

Here's a kind of recipe for those who didn't want to read my awesome explanation of everything:

1/2 recipe of teriyaki sauce, as provided above (which had been made thicker, into a glaze)
3/4 - 1 lb. chicken breasts, marinated in said sauce for 3 - 4 hours, cut into 3/4 - 1" cubes
1 onion, cut into similar sized cubes
1 yellow pepper, cut into similar sized cubes as well
1 can of pineapple chunks + juice (reserve in a bowl)
8 wooden skewers [if you use metal, I read to brush them with oil first]
pinches and dashes of [here pinches are the larger of the two]:
ginger (pinches)
garlic salt (pinches)
pepper (pinches)
chili powder (dash)
cinnamon (dash)

1. Make teriyaki sauce into glaze (add water that is equal to 1/2 of the total amount of sauce + cornstarch, microwave until thick and clear).
2. Put chicken (cut up before or after, doesn't matter) in bag, add maybe 1/2 of the sauce.
3. Marinate for 3 - 4 hours.
4. Soak wooden skewers in water for 30 minutes.
5. Cut onion and pepper up, into 3 /4 - 1" cubes.
6. Open pineapple can.
7. Cut chicken, if you haven't already.
8. Thread on ingredients in some semblance of this order: chicken/pineapple/onion/chicken/pepper/onion/pineapple/chicken, etc. I got 4 pieces of chicken onto each skewer.
9. Grill for 10 - 20 minutes, turning every 5 - 8 minutes.
10. Heat up remaining teriyaki sauce, add about half of the pineapple juice as well as the spices. Mix to taste.
11. Brush glaze onto kabobs once they are almost done cooking.

The moment he realized that I was right, and he was wrong. ;)