Rugjen (my husband and gaming sensei) and I recently started watching videos by Sam the Cooking Guy. Sam is a content creator that Rugjen stumbled on by accident. Sam represents himself in a more relatable way than most cooking creators. He doesn’t shy away from showing his mistakes and dropping the occasional “F” bomb. I know foul language bothers a lot of people, but used the correct way, it cracks me up. He doesn’t over use foul language. It’s just the salt and pepper on top that makes his reactions funny to me.
The first thing my husband watched was this video titled: THE GRILLED CHICKEN DINNER THAT MY WIFE AND I CAN’T STOP MAKING.
Rugjen has talked non-stop about how he wants to try this particular Sam the Cooking Guy recipe. So, being the good wife that I am, I decided that I’d give it a try. It didn’t look too complicated at all. It’s just marinated chicken in naan bread. It was something I could accomplish at half capacity.
What do I mean by half capacity? Well, I took a sick day on Friday because. Well…I was sick. I woke up with a fever and sore throat. It was nothing serious. I’m diabetic and these things happen. Rugjen took a half-day off to bring me lunch and take care of me because I was pretty much helpless. When I get sick enough to miss work, it’s pretty serious. I often need someone to make sure my blood sugar stays compliant as it is easy for me to crash or skyrocket. Illness throws a wrench into things. I am still currently under the weather, but I don’t do well in captivity. We did run some errands today, and I did wear a mask. I was fever free and I am confident it is not communicable. It’s just my body breaking down. Thanks, diabetes.
We haven’t used our infrared grill in a few years. We go to turn it on…the igniter switch is dead. We tried replacing the battery. Still not firing. We’re pretty sure the entire assembly is toast. So, we ran out to the store and bought a cute, small portable charcoal grill so I cook these damn tacos. Now, before you tell me I could’ve just cooked them inside in a frying pan…I don’t want to hear that. This guy grilled the chicken, and by George, so will I!
Completely unrelated, but I also bought a new lens for my Canon M50. It’s fully manual, so I wanted to play around with it. The results aren’t too great. It was really the wrong lens for the job, so the pictures might be blurry in some areas. It still took some really nice pictures.
Back on topic. First up, the marinade.
Marinade Ingredients:
- 3/4 cup olive oil;
- 2 tablespoons fish sauce;
- 1 tablespoon soy paste (we used sweet soy glaze);
- 1 tablespoon Dijon;
- 2 tablespoons garlic paste (we used squeezable minced garlic);
- 2 tsp dried thyme;
- 2 tsp dried rosemary;
- juice of 2 lemons; and
- salt and pepper.
Method: Combine all of the ingredients and whisk. If you watch the video, he scores the chicken breasts before placing them in a Ziploc bag with 3/4 of the marinade. The other 1/4 will be used to baste the chicken while it is on the grill.
Allow the chicken to sit in the marinade a couple of hours. Sam the Cooking Guy only marinated his for 1-1.5 hours. I allowed ours to marinate for about four hours.
In the next step, Sam the Cooking Guy made homemade naan. I wasn’t about that life. I purchased pre-made naan to use, but you can most certainly make the naan dough, which honestly did not look too difficult. I’m still at half capacity, so it was a no-go for me.
Ingredients to the Yogurt Spread:
- Equal parts Greek yogurt to mayonnaise (we used Japanese Kewpie);
- 2 tablespoons garlic paste;
- Juice of a lemon;
- Salt and pepper; and
- Chopped parsley.
Method: Stir everything together and throw back into the fridge until you need it. Now, I used 1/4 cup of yogurt and mayonnaise and it made entirely too much spread. You could probably get away with less. After all, you aren’t going to bathe the chicken in it. It’s just a spread.
Four hours have passed. It should be grill time, right? No. We go to use our charcoal and it just crumbles to dust. We didn’t store it properly. Another trip back to the store. NOW it’s grill time. Except, I forgot to take pictures. Sorry.
It took maybe 5-7 minutes to grill the chicken. I had purchase thinly-sliced chicken breasts, so they didn’t take any time at all to cook. Sam, on the other hand, used regular chicken breasts that he coated in oil, placed in a Ziploc, and thinned out. While the chicken was cooking, I used the leftover marinade to baste the chicken. While I handled the grill, Rugjen heated up the naan, slathered the naan in the yogurt/mayo sauce, and this was the result.
Honestly, this labor of love was worth it. If you have a working gas/infrared grill, you won’t have to suffer as much as I did. It was a bit of a pain to get that small charcoal grill going for a few chicken breasts, but the effort was worth it. The chicken had a nice lemon garlic flavor. I can only describe it as a “bright” flavor. Along with the char from the grill made for a very tasty taco thingy. The naan and the yogurt/mayo sauce brings it all home. The sauce also has a very lemony garlic flavor that is complimented by the yogurt. Now, I ate mine sans toppings, but I think it could benefit from some vegetable toppings. If you are feeling like you need to kick it up, brush your naan in garlic butter. It really adds another layer of flavor.
Earlier in the day, we went to H-Mart, which is a Korean supermarket in our area. That’s where we picked up the Japanese mayo (Kewpie). My blood sugar was crashing, so Rugjen let me hit up the small bakery. I had a caramel apple danish in the car while I battled low blood sugar. I also picked up another pastry with chocolate inside. It’s what I ended up having after that delicious dinner.
Tomorrow, Rugjen and I will be trying Disney’s buffalo chicken grilled cheese, except we decided on a few alterations. Instead of a gooey sandwich, we decided that making the filling into a hot dip would be easier to eat. I think we’re going to toast up some slices of baguette and dip those into the “grilled cheese” filling. I think it will be a nice adaptation of their recipe, which we also learned about from Sam the Cooking Guy.
Keeping busy like this makes the illness less of a focal point to me. When I feel feeble and incapable, I get into a dark place mentally. I know it is customary to rest, but that really makes me feel more terrible. Our next little food adventure is not near as complex as today’s foray, so I should be able to get some more rest before the work week starts.
See you all in the next post! Please excuse typos and such. I’m too tired to properly proofread lol.
Filthy Casual for Life 