A quick, saucy, spicy and tasty mid-week meal

Time is short, work is long. Here is my go-to dinner for a quick and tasty mid-week meal. I originally found the recipe via one of those supermarket magazines a very long time ago as a uni student. Who knows which supermarket, or which volume or title. But I've been making this recipe since I was in my early twenties when I was living in a one bedroom flat about 20 mins walk from my lectures. I guess because of that, you could say it is "tried and true".

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So without further ado, here is my all-time favourite mid-week quickie (of the food variety - let's not get *too* saucy here people).


You will need.

• The juice of 3 (and a half if you're making the dressed cucumber as a side) squishy limes (if they aren't squishy, then squish them yourself before squeezing the juice, just roll them on the counter top, or zap them in the microwave for a few mini-seconds, I just give them a quick massage and find they tend to yield a lot more juice that way),
• A clove or so of smashed garlic (smash it yourself, our use the jar stuff, no-one here is judging you, especially not me),
• A generous helping of crushed ginger (again, do it yourself or go to the jar),
• A smidgen of chilli (feel free to chop - but don't de-seed, and if you like you can use either green or red - it will slightly change the flavour of the dish in a good way - I like both - and again if you are time poor, go to the jar),
• Chicken thighs or chicken breast (if breast, try to slice effortlessly and lazily into some chunks, it just works better and is more tender that way),
• A few generous tablespoons of soy sauce (oh, I dunno, 3 or 4?),
• Steamed rice and/or vegetables to serve (or dressed cucumber, see recipe below).

Method.

1. Wrangle the lime juice, garlic, ginger, chilli and soy sauce into a bowl suitable for a quick marinade (because of the lime juice I suggest you don't marinade the meat for very long - which is great for mid-week, because you can actually cook it straight away or let it sit for about 15 mins in the bowl).
2. Add the chicken (I have tried this with pork with limited success, my next goal is to try it with a nice piece of beef on the BBQ) and allow to steep in the marinade for a few minutes.
3. Fry, grill or BBQ your marinated meat, basting with the rest of the marinade as you go. It should form a sticky, yummy, dark and gooey sauce of a slightly jammy consistency that is extremely addictive (watch out for people licking it off the plate, not that I've done that before ... very often).
4. Serve with steamed rice if you like, or some steamed baby bok choy or broccoli. Or both. I usually chop up some cucumber, squeeze over some extra lime and a dash of salt (not too much, because the cucumber will just leech a whole bunch of water if you go overboard). I often go without the salt if I'm taking leftovers to work the next day and you shouldn't really need it with the lime juice anyway. Sometimes I eat it with rice and cucumber, mostly just the dressed cucumber. 

Get around it, make it, photograph it, Instagram it, blog it, whatever. Try it and tell me what you think.



Handy tip #1: Make sure you soak or rinse or wipe down whatever you've cooked the meat on asap - it will stick and it will be hard to clean otherwise. If you cook the meat in a frying pan, then just fill the pan with water and put it back on the hotplate as it cools down (make sure it's turned off - do not leave it on!). This will break down the cooked-on bits and make it a lot easier when you go to do the washing up. Trust.

Handy tip #2: Depending on your lime juice wrangling skills and/or how quickly you cook the meat, you may end up with extra jammy-saucy bits. I quite like those poured on top of the meat when served, but these bits can be quite strong (not necessarily hot or spicy, but very strong on flavour), so go carefully. Use your discretion.

Handy tip #3: The measurements for garlic, chilli, ginger and lime juice are quite vague, because firstly, the rest will depend on how much lime juice you can extract, so do that job first. Then, it will depend on how much chilli and ginger (and therefore heat) you like. I like to keep the seeds in when using fresh chilli, but you don't have to (but it does kind of defeat the purpose of it - so I say be brave). I have found green chilli in this recipe to be milder than red (depending on the size of the red chilli - small = hothothot). Be conservative the first time you make it and then adjust each time afterwards. Eventually you'll get the whole thing down pat and will be able to do it blindfolded.