Chicken? ?מה זה

Today I cooked chicken...weird right? I haven't had meat since Passover this year, and that was back in April. Kosher meat is expensive and hard to find...or so I thought. Did you know that the Foggy Bottom Trader Joe's has kosher meat? Jews for the win! In any event, raw meat is über gross to work with, but totally worth it in the end.
Anyway, onto the good stuff. I had a friend coming over for dinner who I had told that I was thinking of transferring to culinary school. So the dinner was sort of a last hurrah in DC slash my proof to him that I can cook. So I made this awesome recipe called Vietnamese Sticky Chicken. It's something that my mom found once upon a time, and I proceeded to become obsessed with it. Basically, it's this chicken marinated in garlic, fish sauce (warning, this ingredient sounds gross, and it is...it smells like wet dog, but it adds amazing flavor,) lime juice, and sugar, grilled and then eaten by hand rolled in a big lettuce leaf with a pickle of radishes and carrots to top it. I know it sounds weird but I promise it's amazing. Here's the recipe:

Vietnamese Sticky chicken

2 cloves garlic, minced
3 tablespoons sugar (can use less)
1 1/2 tablespoons Asian fish sauce
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
1 1/2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 1/2 teaspoons Sricha or other Asian hot chile sauce (optional)
1 1/2 pounds skinless boneless chicken breast, cut crosswise into 1/4 inch thick slices or tofu (must drain out water from tofu)

For Pickle
2 medium carrots, peeled
1/2 pound daikon radish, peeled (I always use just regular radishes)
1/2 cup rice vinegar
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon salt

garnish
leaf lettuce leaves
8 fresh mint, basil and /or cilantro sprigs

Marinate chicken:
Whisk together garlic, sugar, fish sauce, oil, lime juice and optional hot sauce in a large bowl until sugar is dissolved. Add chicken and toss to coat; then marinate at least 15 minutes.


2. Make pickle while chicken marinates;
Cut carrots and radish into 1/8 inch thick matchsticks (2 inches long) with slicer. Whisk together vinegar, sugar and salt in a bowl until sugar is dissolved, then add vegetables and toss to combine. Let stand, tossing occasionally, until wilted, about 15 minutes.

3. Grill Chicken:
Heat grill pan over moderately high heat until hot, then grill chicken in 4 batches, turning over once with tongs, until just cooked through, about 1 minute total per batch. Transfer chicken to a plate as grilled and keep warm, covered with foil. Serve with pickle and accompaniments.

There aren't a lot of pictures from this for a couple of reasons:
1. Raw chicken is GROSS!

2. My camera ran out of batteries and I had to use the webcam on my computer, which I wasn't going to schlep all over the place.
I did take pictures of a few things though, including the marinade:

It says the sugar should be totally dissolved, but if you can't get all the crystals to totally disappear, that's okay. Once the liquid is saturated, there's really nothing you can do about it.


Notice that this recipe includes grilling. So I had another grilling adventure. So now you guys think I've figured out how to turn one on, right? WRONG. Due to circumstances beyond both of our controls, my friend and I had to change the time of dinner, and the chicken was not grilled when he arrived at my apartment. So of course, we went up to the roof to grill together. Guess who was the one who figured out how to work the grill? Not me, obviously! My friend (Zach) was able to figure out how to light the grill because I'm clearly inept at operating large machinery (thanks Zach!)
I'll figure out the grill eventually, but until then, the Vietnamese Sticky Chicken was an absolute success! Although next time I'm going to try to make it with tofu...I'll keep you posted.