Category: Grub Garage
Hey,
I cook a lot now I'm living away from home, and I was wondering what are your favourite marinades or seasonings for meat?
I want to try new things.
We used worchestshire seasoning on our chicken just this week. You should see if you all have it.
Teriyaki can be nice, and it's not particularly difficult.
Same goes for a buffalo-style sauce, though you'll only like that if you like slightly vinegary slightly hot stuff. It's not for everyone.
I've done chicken with a honey-dijon marinade as well, and that works fairly nicely. It's fairly tame, but flavourful for all of that.
I like pretty much anything based on really hot peppers so that flavor really jumps out. Liquid smoke is good too.
Here's one I kinda like. If you want more, let me know. Please note: this isn't a true marinade, it's more like a shake & bake with better flavour.
Ingredients:
6 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves (about 1/4 pound each)
1/4 cup margarine or butter (or about 1/2 of an average stick)
3/4 cup dry bread crumbs
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
Method
1. If the chicken is frozen, thaw in the refrigerator for approximately 12 hours. Otherwise, skip to step 2.
2. Trim fat from thawed chicken with kitchen scissors. Discard the fat, then rinse the chicken under cold water. Pat dry with paper towels, making sure that the chicken is as dry as possible afterword. If it's still quite wet when you try and proceed, the mixture will not adhere to it properly. (I've done this without trimming off the fat, by the way, and it still works, so do this only if you want to or if there's a lot of fat; a little here and there won't matter.)
3. Heat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.
4. Melt the margarine, either in the microwave (on high for about fifteen seconds) or in the oven (for approximately 1 minute). I prefer the microwave.
5. Mix the bread crumbs and Parmesan cheese in a large ziplock bag.
6. Stir the mustard into the melted margarine until the two are well mixed.
7. Dip the chicken into the margarine-mustard mixture one piece at a time, doing your best to coat all sides. Then place each piece of chicken into the bag of crumbs and cheese. When all of the chicken is in the bag, seal it tightly and shake it vigorously to coat the chicken with the breadcrumb mixture.
8. Put the chicken in a single layer in a rectangular baking pan or on a cookie sheet. The cooking surface should not be greased.
9. Bake uncovered 25 to 30 minutes.
If you want to make your own bread crumbs, here's a really easy way to do it.
Put 3-4 pieces of bread onto a cookie sheet. Bake it in the oven at 200 degrees Fahrenheit. the bread will be quite dry. Crush and crumble it with a rolling pin.
I'm not sure where your tastes run, so if this isn't to your liking, maybe give me an idea of what sort of flavours you're looking to try. Do you like your meat sweeter or more savoury? Spicy or non-spicy? Do you like chicken, fish, beef, pork, or what?
I'm happy to help a little here if I can. It hasn't been too long since I started actually cooking for myself...I was very willing to just take my meals out of a box, stick 'em on a cookie sheet and bake 'em in the oven, or worse, throw 'em in the microwave. I'm still nobody's idea of an excellent cook, but this recipe is quite nice. I've got more if you want 'em.
One last note, just in case it's not evident. Make very, very sure of hygiene when playing with raw poultry. You don't want to get sick. I say this only as a warning, not as an insult to your skills in the kitchen. Many otherwise smart people have, say, forgotten to thoroughly wash their hands, then went and hal a little snack while their chicken is baking. You might get away with it, but you might not.
NNice, Greg. I'd eat that. You could also modify that same recipe with other spices too.
I like a good tanduri marronade myself. For this particular one, I just cheat and buy a jar of the stuff, pour enough into a plastic bag containing thaughed chicken, enough to coat all the chicken, then let it marronade all night. Cook it in the oven after that and it's pretty darn fantastic. You can also do it with pork. Really good for fried rice.
Define meat? Spices and sauces change depending on the type of meat. I don't
like marinades as a general rule. They are overdone, and cehmically inaccurate.
A brine will do just as much and will do it a lot faster, but even that won't really
change the flavor all that much. Dry rubs do a lot more.
Thanks guys, I'm definitely going to try some of these.
I just want to make my cooking more interesting honestly. I tend to only eat chicken and turkey. Though I will eat sausage too.