I desperately wanted to do something: cook, shoot a posting, do anything but lie on the couch or in bed with my foot propped up a stack of pillows feeling sorry for myself. Best way is to distract myself so I started jotting down recipe ideas.

But as much as I wanted to, I just couldn’t prep the food and shoot the photos all by myself. My guy, who has taken care of me in a fantastic way, offered to help out and the weather really cooperated this weekend. Color me happy.

I wanted something light, flavorful and citrusy. Is that even a word, citrusy? Probably not, but I think you catch my drift.

“Chicken strips“, I thought. Best possible way to incorporate some delicate Asian flavors. Preferably woven onto skewers because J-man loves anything that is skewered. The kid has many idiosyncrasies for sure.

You can skewer them or just cook the strips. You can grill them or use a skillet. Whatever you like, you have options. These chicken strips turned out to be a real treat. They’re so flavorful you won’t even need a satay sauce to go with them.

Ingredients:

1 pound chicken fillet
1 tbsp fish sauce
1 tbsp brown sugar
thumb size piece of ginger
1 or 2 lemon grass stalks
2 garlic cloves
1 red long chili
3 tbsp light soy sauce
2 tbsp mirin
3 tbsp oil
1/2 tsp sesame oil
1/4 tsp chinese five-spice
1 tbsp sake

Topping: thinly sliced spring onion, chili pepper and crushed peanuts

Directions:

This angle will probably get boring soon but alas, I don’t have many options seeing as I have to do this sitting down.

Slam the lemon grass on the cutting board to release more of the flavor. Really smash it. Remove the outer layer and mince only the white part.

 
Nothing in this world can beat the scent of lemongrass or ginger to me. I used two stalks.
 

Peel the ginger and grate it along with 2 garlic cloves.

If you like spiciness leave in the seeds. I removed them.

Finely mince the chili pepper and put everything in a big bowl.

Add the fish sauce.

I used light soy sauce: it’s lighter in flavor and slightly saltier than the dark version. Add the mirin and sesame oil as well.

Pour in the oil (mine was peanut oil) add the chinese five spice and sugar and stir until the sugar dissolves.

 
This is a really fragrant marinade.
 

The sake is optional, of course, but it adds pizzazz to the marinade. You could also use some sherry or Marsala instead.

Cut the chicken breasts into long strips and add them to the marinade.

Cover the bowl with plastic wrap, put it in the fridge to let it all soak up the flavors for a couple of hours, preferably overnight.

Thread the chicken onto skewers that you’ve soaked for 30 minutes.

I got my BGE stable at 350F˚ (175C˚) and grilled the skewers for about 3 minutes on each side.

 
You could also just brown the strips in a skillet. Skewer the chicken and cook them in a skillet or use your stove top grill.
 

It smelled so good. The scent of the lemon grass really popped out.

 
Feel free to serve them with peanut sauce, but I opted for a little crunch, freshness and heat by adding thinly sliced spring onions and chili pepper and sprinkling crushed peanuts on top.
 

They were awesome. The flavor is amazing and they can be eaten as an appetizer, main course or even snack.