Honolulu Soy Kabobs (aka Hawaiian Chicken)

This week was my old roommate Cathy's birthday, and as a fortuitous coincidence I happened to be cooking one of her recipes. Seriously, I didn't plan this.

Cathy and I first met at freshman orientation at college, at which point we discovered we would be living on the same floor of the same dorm. We became fast friends and lived together every year afterward, both of which facts are pretty interesting given that we are very different people.

Cathy, a well-behaved chemistry student, would routinely do things like wake up out of a dead sleep to come to the kitchen and make sure I didn't burn the house down should I decide at 2 AM that what I needed to do was boil eggs (why I was boiling eggs at 2 AM is another story). I would routinely go to her room and make fun of her for doing things like being anal enough to tweeze hairs out of her dustbuster (note: adding insult literally to injury, said hairs were most likely mine after I'd borrowed aforementioned dustbuster). Peas and carrots we were.

In the frightfully many ensuing years since college, Cathy has gone on to become a doctor of chemistry (dear lord) and lives with her husband and two boys in the Twin Cities. We do not get to see each other anywhere near enough (I've never met either of the boys, although I have at least visited after a week at a Unitarian family camp in Northern Minnesota with Josh's family--naturally). However, I do enjoy periodic emails from her which describe the most recent July snowstorm or winter mud-fly infestation or whatever other horror of nature they get up there, as well as photos of her ever-blonder brood.

Amongst other things, Cathy is an avid reader of this blog, and has been very concerned that she didn't send me a recipe. So concerned that she recently sent me an article on various ways to top/finish a pie, which I must say I am pretty excited to have. But that aside, I have tried to assure her that I knew her recipes were lurking, and now the day has come.

Cathy gave me a recipe for Honolulu Soy Kabobs (aka Hawaiian Chicken), i.e., a BBQ marinade that she and her husband Dave like to use on chicken kabobs. I will admit I had my reservations about this recipe. Well, okay, maybe not reservations, per se, but I didn't Expect the Best, as they say in Singles. Here are my reasons:

1. I do not really like chicken all that much. I don't dislike it, per se, I'm more neutral-to-eh on it. Let's just say that if being vegetarian only involved not eating chicken, I would totally do it and it wouldn't be very hard.

2. I have not had amazing experiences with marinades. Not that they all taste the same or are all terrible or whatever, but in general they just don't seem to do much, don't hold the flavor, blah blah. Have I not been marinating long enough? Have I used sucky marinades? I don't know. I just know my marinade experience to date has been underwhelming.

3. Cathy's taste in food (and I suppose most things) tended to be more conservative than mine did. This is based on four years in college, which was over 10 years ago. So obviously very current information.

Still, I figured this was more of an exercise in eh than anything else.

I am pleased--nay delighted--to inform you that I was gravely mistaken. As it turns out, Cathy's Soy Kabob marinade (and ensuing Soy Kabobs) were really, really good. Color me surprised. The marinade, for some inexplicable reason actually really stayed with the chicken, so even post-BBQing they were really tasty. And the taste was great--just tangy enough. I couldn't believe it. I ate my whole thing. And then I had the rest the next morning for breakfast. Oh yeah, you heard me. I have started eating dinner food for breakfast. It makes me much happier, so stick it.

Furthermore, Cathy's Kabobs have another distinguishing factor: they were my inaugural BBQ recipe. Throughout my marriage, and even before, I have stalwartly refused to learn to use the BBQ, on the auspices that if I learned how to use it that would be one more thing I would have to do. As long as I stayed unawares, BBQing is a chore I could slough off onto Josh. I think this was a good plan.

But the Recipe Book wanted me to BBQ, so a BBQing Heather it got. Josh stood out on the porch with me and coached me through my first grilling experience. And it couldn't have been with a nicer dish.

Jealous much? Oh yeah, it kicked ass.
(Gorgeous photo provided by the always awesome Josh Huntington)

Cathy's Surprise Soy Kabobs of Deliciousness

(for 1 1/2 cup of marinade sauce)
3/4 cup soy sauce (lite works well)
3/4 cup pineapple juice (6 oz can, which it turns out you have to get in a 6 pack, so you can do this lots more times, and drink pineapple juice while you make it)
1/2 cup cooking oil (canola--yes! i finished my old bottle and finally have space to put the weird new one, which looks like a liquid laundry detergent bottle, in the drawer)
1 1/2 tsp dry mustard
1 1/2 tbsp brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp ginger (ground)
1-2 cloves of garlic, chopped
1/4 tsp freshly ground pepper (so fresh you ground with your mill because you are out of ground pepper)

chicken and other things for kabobs (pineapple, onions*, green pepper, tomatoes, mushrooms)

Combine all ingredients for marinade (soy through pepper) in a saucepan and simmer 5 mins, whisking occasionally. Think, hum, this looks kind of foamy and separate and greasy and weird, as there appears to be two distinct colors in the liquids, but whatevs.

Cool. Or forget to cool and wonder if, when you put the freshly very hot marinade into the plastic marinating bag with the chicken, you are going to melt the bag and cause a marinade explosion all over the kitchen/fridge. Decide to remedy this problem by putting the marinade bag in a large bowl to catch the juice should the worst occur.

Marinate 1 1/4" pieces of skinned & boneless chicken for 4-8 hours (2 will work, but more is better!). Opt for more like 3 hours because a girl's gotta eat. In retrospect, wonder of the deliciosity of an 8 hour marinade with this stuff. Yum.

When Josh gets home, have him give you instructions on how to use the BBQ, which involves picking up the grate and lighting it, which seems like you're just asking for trouble. Be thankful that the rain stopped, because otherwise this would be one soggy lesson.

Add chicken and other stuff listed above to skewers and grill (yes) or broil (cheating!). Spend way longer than you expected adorning (metal) skewers (that were a wedding present from ?? yay registry!) with onion, orange pepper, tomato, mushroom, pineapple, and chicken, making sure to sprinkle raw-chicken-infused marinade droplets all over the counter/into the pineapple tin (so much for those extra pieces)/on the dog's head. He should get a bath.

Learn that Josh says for skewer type things, you should turn the grill down to medium, put skewers on right next to each other, and then flip them after about 5 minutes. Do this. After 10 minutes (i.e., 5 per side) have Josh declare them done.

Serve with rice, or green beans and garlic bread because that is what you have so that is what you'll get.

Cathy notes: Much love on your wedding day and throughout your marriage. So happy you found each other.

Heather notes: Thanks! Me too.

*Cutting method: Squeaky Kitty, as kabob onions have to be cut in a specific shape, Mike Milch's method is DQed here. Note, I have no idea what that specific shape is.