Sticky Coconut Chicken with Grilled Pineapple

I am ready for grilling.  Actually I grill year round.  I just brush the snow off the grill and light!  I'm excited spring is on it's way and  I no longer have to brush the snow off the grill  or wear boots to grill in.  

This recipe for Sticky Coconut Chicken is a family favorite and very easy to prepare.  I have prepared this recipe for 50 at a girls camp and it was so easy. 

Start by marinating the chicken breasts.  You will need soy sauce, coconut milk, hot chili flakes and fresh ginger.  Don't use the ground powdered ginger.  Fresh is best.  I LOVE fresh ginger.  The fragrance of the kitchen while you are chopping is divine. 

Before I make the marinade, I want to show you how I cut and store fresh ginger.  If you keep the fresh ginger is the plastic bag from the produce department and throw it in the refrigerator, after a while it will go moldy.  Not good.  I really love to have fresh ginger on hand at all times.  So I by a large chunk.  Make sure it is firm and not starting to dry out or wrinkle. 

With a paring knife carefully peel the outer skin. 

I like to slice them into disks.

Then I slice them into matchsticks.

Put the matchstick slices of ginger in a re-sealable freezer bag.

Label the bag and place in the freezer.  Don't forget to reserve the tablespoon that you need for the marinade.  After the ginger has frozen you can just break off pieces and chop for recipes.  It lasts in the freezer for months.

Finely dice a tablespoon of ginger for the marinade.

Do you remember the ingredients after all of that?  Combine the coconut milk, soy sauce, ginger and chile flakes.

Give it a stir.

Place the chicken in a gallon size re-sealable bag.

Pour the coconut marinade over the chicken breasts.

Make sure all of the chicken pieces are covered well with the marinade.

Seal the bag closed and refrigerate for at least 4 hours or overnight.  I like to marinate overnight because the coconut flavor goes all the way through the chicken.  The coconut milk, also, acts as a tenderizer and adds moisture to the white meat of the chicken breast.

When ready to grill, remove chicken from marinade and place on a preheated hot grill.  Disgard any left over marinade.  Grill chicken breast for about 6-8 minutes per side.   Meanwhile...

Let's make the sticky sauce for the chicken.  You can make this in advance and refrigerate then just heat before serving.  You will need rice vinegar, soy sauce, sugar and hot chile flakes or crushed red pepper.

Pour the rice vinegar into a small saucepan. 

Add the soy sauce, chile flakes and sugar.

Bring to a boil over medium-high heat.

Boil until reduced to 1/2 cup.  Watch carefully toward the end of boiling because it can burn quite quickly.

Remove from heat. 

Back to the chicken.  Turn the chicken over after about 6 minutes of cooking time.  If the chicken does not release from the grill, just cook a little longer then it should easily release.   Cook another 6-8 minutes and if the chicken is cooked through and no longer pink on the inside, remove from the grill and let set 5 minutes.

For the garnish.  Chop 4-5 green onions.  I like to use the white part as well as the green.  I just wanted you to see how I store my green onions.  I wash them and place them in a container with a little water.  I cover the tops with a plastic bag and store in the refrigerator.  If I just want the green tops, I just snip off what I need.  After a few days the green starts to grow back.  Can you believe it?  I have been able to store green onions like this for over 3 weeks.  

I like to garnish with sliced green onions and black sesame seeds or "Ninja food" (my son told me that black sesame seeds are what Ninja's eat.  Is that true?)

I like to slice the chicken and put in on the serving plate, drizzle with sticky sauce then garnish with the green onions and black sesame seeds.   Serve with white rice and grilled pineapple, which I'm going to do next.

Start with one ripe pineapple.

Cut off the top.

Save the top for Grandpa.  I'm sure you're wondering why I save the top for Grandpa?  Well, my dad plants the tops.  Yep, he just sticks the top of the pineapple in some potting soil and starts to water it.  Now this particular top has seen better days, but it doesn't matter.  Eventually it will start to grow.  Some day this man is going to grow pineapple in Utah!  My mom and dad have lived several years as missionaries in Tahiti.  Everytime my dad gets a pineapple plant large, they leave on another mission and put me in charge of watering the pineapple plant.  After about 6 months it dies.  I'm a terrible daughter.

Back to the pineapple.  Now cut off the bottom.  No need to save.

Cut down the sides.  Make sure you remove all those little brown things.  They hurt your tongue.

I'm cutting my pineapple into spears.  Cut it in half. 

Then cut the halves into quarters.

I like to remove the center core.

Slice into spears.

Put half of the pineapple in a re-sealable bag.  Reserve the remaining pineapple spears or just eat them.  That's what I plan on doing.

Pour a 1/2 cup coconut milk over the pineapple and reseal the bag and refrigerate with the chicken.  I like to marinate overnight so the the coconut flavor penetrates the pineapple.

I like to put pinepple on the grill after I have turned the chicken over for the first time.  You can put the pineapple directly onto the grill, if you want.  I love this new nonstick aluminum foil by Renolds Wrap called Reynolds Release.  Awesome stuff!  The pineapple will not stick to the foil.  It's great.

After 3-4 minutes turn over the pineapple.  Sprinkle with brown sugar.  The pineapple is sweet enough so you really don't have to spinkle on the brown sugar.  I just love the deeper flavor and the carmelization of the brown sugar.

Cook for an additional 3-4 minutes.  Watch carefully so the pineapple does not burn.  Remove from the grill. 

I have sliced the pineapple into rings then after grilling placed a scoop of coconut ice cream on top.  Divine!

Serve along the side of sticky chicken.  That was a lot for one day.  You can now start purchasing fresh ginger.  You can slice and store it for later uses AND you can cut and grill a pineapple. 

Sticky Coconut Chicken

4-6 bones, skinned chicken breasts

1 cup canned coconut milk

1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger

1 tablespoon soy sauce

1 teaspoon hot chile flakes

4-5 green onions, chopped for garnish

1. Rinse chicken and pat dry and place in a large re-sealable plastic bag. In a small bowl, mix coconut milk, ginger, soy sauce, and hot chile flakes. Pour mixture over chicken breasts. Re-seal bag and refrigerate at least 4 hours or over night.

2. Lift chicken from bag. Grill over medium heat. Close lid on gas grill. Cook, turning as needed to brown on both sides, until meat is no longer pink in center of thickest part approximately 10-12 minutes.

3. Transfer chicken to a warm platter and pour sticky sauce over meat. Garnish platter with green onions.

Sticky Sauce

¾ cup rice vinegar

½ cup sugar

3 tablespoons soy sauce

1 teaspoon hot chile flakes

In a 2- to 3-quart pan combine all ingredients. Bring to a boil over high heat and cook until mixture is reduced to ¾ cup, 8 – 10 minutes. Pour over grilled chicken. Can be made ahead and refrigerated to up to 1 week. Reheat before using.

If by chance you are a pansy and don't like a little spice, you can adjust the hot chile flakes to 1/2 teaspoon.

Coconut Marinated Grilled Pineapple

1/2 ripe pineapple

1/2 cup coconut milk

2 tablespoons brown sugar

Peel and cut pineapple into spears, rings or desired shape. Place the pineapple in a re-sealable plastic bag and pour coconut milk over. Re-seal and refrigerate for 4 hours or overnight.

Place the marinated pineapple on a hot grill. Grill for 3-4 minutes. Turn the pineapple and sprinkle with brown sugar. Grill an additional 3-4 minutes or until the brown sugar begins to caramelize. If you put the pineapple directly onto the grill grates, be sure to watch carefully so the pineapple does not burn.

Dark Chocolate Crepe Cake Step # 3 Chocolate Ganache

My Crepe cake is finally complete!  How awesome is that?  Wow that took FOREVERRR!  This final step shouldn't take you longer than an hour.  Unless you stop and take 20 pictures of each step.  Then count on about 4 hours. 

I can't believe I cut a wedge out of LaNae's birthday cake.  How tacky is that?  I just thought you'd really like to see a slice of the final crepe cake.  Don't worry I put the slice back...yes you can tell that I sliced it and put it back.  I don't like the look of the card board disk that I used.  I should have removed it.  Too late!

THE ganache.  If I were to bottle and sell one product, it would be chocolate ganache.  It has so many uses. 

The ganache recipe takes 1 pound of chopped chocolate.  I have just cut off about a pound from my ten pound block.  I find the easiest way to cut it off the block is to use a serrated knife.

You want the pieces to be small.  The chocolate won't completely melt if you have large chunks of chocolate.

You will need 1 pound of semi-sweet chocolate and 1 1/2 cups heavy cream.

Place the chocolate in a large bowl. 

Oh wait?  That piece is too big.  I better eat it.

Pour the cream in a small sauce pan.

Bring it to a simmer.  Stir it once or twice to make sure the cream is not just heated around the edges of the pan.  You want the cream to be very hot.  Simmering and steaming.

Pour the hot cream over the chocolate pieces. 

Let it sit there for 5 minutes. Don't touch it! Just let it sit.

After 5 minurtes the chocolate should be melted.  Starting in the center, start whisking the cream and chocolate together.

As you whisk, the mixture will start to come together.  Keep whisking until the chocolate and cream are completely mixed together and no cream shows.  If by chance you still have a few chocolate pieces left that haven't melted, just remove them.  If you have alot that have not melted, you can place the bowl in the microwave for about 10 seconds.  The continue stirring.

This is what the ganache should look like.  At this point you can just let the ganache sit on the counter until it sets up, but that could take a couple of hours.  You could put it in the refrigerator for an hour and stir every 10 minutes or so until it sets.  I like to put it in an ice bath. 

Put ice and water in a very large bowl.  Place the bowl of ganache in the ice water.  Don't fill it too full because you don't want the water flowing into your ganache.  Not good.  Now just keep stirring until it reaches the perfect spreadable consistancy.

Keep stirring.  It could take as long as 10 minutes.  I like using the ice bath because it also helps the ganache keeps it's pretty glossy sheen.

Bahhhh!  I love it when it get's to this consistancy.  LOVE IT!!!  Look at how creamy it is.  I haven't found ANYTHING that glides over a cake like chocolate ganache.  Seriously all I need is a bowl of this and a spoon.   Oh, be sure to remove from the ice bath now or it will harden.  We don't want that to happen.

Unwrap your crepe cake.  If you froze your crepe cake, make sure it has thawed.  If it is still frozen, it will make the ganache harden too quickly and the ganache will dull.

I like to put pieces of waxed paper under the crepes to keep the plate clean. 

Our goal is to make this crepe cake look nice and smooth.  At first just go aorund the cake and put a skimming of ganache over the crepes.  Start to fill in gaps and smooth out ridges.

That was easy.  Now go around the cake again with a thicker layer of the ganache.  Smooth out the ganache and make it look nice.

Keep spreading, smoothing and filling.  If the top is a little slanted, just fill in the space with ganache.  No one is going to complain that their ganache is a little thicker on one side.

Once the sides are complete, start spreading the ganache on the top of the cake.

Note:  If you keep going over the ganache in an effort to make it look perfect, the ganache will start to dull.  Personally I think that it's ok not to have the ganache completely perfect because it makes it look homemade and it's cool to look homemade.  As you can see my cake looks "homemade".

My finished crepe cake.  You can now remove the waxed paper.  It pulls out very easily.  Lick them clean then throw them away.  If you have any ganache left over, you can put it in a container and keep it in the refrigerator.  I only had about 1/4 cup left over.  I'm sure someone will eat it.

The cake will feel pretty heavy and probably weighs close to 5 pounds.  No kidding.  You have to remember that it has one pound of chocolate spread on top.  That's ok!  You're not going to eat the whole cake, just a slice - right?

C'est Magnifique!

Chocolate Ganache

1 lb. semi-sweet chocolate, chopped

1 1/2 cup heavy cream

Place chocolate in a large bowl.  Set aside.  In a small sauce pan heat the cream to simmering.  Pour the hot cream over chocolate.  Let sit for 5 minutes without stirring.  After 5 minutes the chocolate should be melted.  Start whisking the cream and chocolate together.  Start in the center working outward as the chocolate and cream blend together.  Mix until smooth and creamy.  If there are any large pieces of chocolate that have not melted, just remove the pieces. 

Ganache can be used for fondue.  Drizzled over ice cream.  Stirred into hot milk to make a rich hot chocolate.  I'm sure you can think of hundreds of uses.  My favorite is just a bowl of ganache and a spoon.  Enough said.

I would love to hear back from anyone who has been brave enough to make the famous "Crepe Cake". 

You will be a legend serving this delight!  I promise.