New York Street Food

Grilled chicken tikka skewers (picture not from recipe)

Once Hurricane Earl passes today, it should be a beautiful weekend for grillin’.  If you want something a little more interesting than burgers and hot dogs, how about some chicken tikka skewers.  For city folk like me, you can also do this one on the broiler.

GRILLED CHICKEN TIKKA SKEWERS

1/2 cup thick plain whole-milk yogurt such as Greek

1 tbsp fresh lime juice

1 tsp grated ginger

1 tsp grated garlic

3/4 tsp garam masala

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp cayenne

1 lb skinless boneless chicken thighs cut into 1-inch cubes

18 6-inch wooden skewers soaked in warm water for 30 minutes

• Stir together all ingredients except chicken in a medium bowl, then add chicken, stirring to coat. Marinate, covered and chilled, 30 minutes to 1 hour.
• Prepare a grill for cooking over medium-hot charcoal.
• Thread 3 or 4 pieces of chicken onto each skewer, leaving a little space between pieces, and transfer to a tray lined with plastic wrap.
• Oil grill rack, then grill chicken, turning occasionally until browned and just cooked through, about 5-7 minutes total.  Close cover if using a gas grill.
• Serve with cilantro-mint chutney (see recipe below) or your favorite chutney.

Note: This can also be broiled on a foil-lined broiler pan.

Cilantro Mint Chutney

2 cups fresh cilantro sprigs

1 cup fresh mint leaves

1/2 cup chopped white onion

1/3 cup water

1 tbsp fresh lime juice

1 tsp chopped green chilies such as serrano

1 tsp suger

1/2 tsp salt, or to taste

Puree all ingredients in a blender, leaving some texture.

A good way to start a fight in Philly (which is not hard to do) is to talk about who has the best cheesesteak in town.  Pat’s and Geno’s are the most popular, but there are many others serving delicious cheesesteaks as well.

In New York, Steak Truck and Magdy’s are both good, and Tony Dragonas has a huge steak and portobello hero with mozzarella cheese under the meat.

It’s pretty easy to make a good cheesesteak yourself – just make sure you use decent steak.  Other than that, you only need onions, peppers, salt & pepper, cheese and bread.

Some people (including the video below) like to use melted Cheez Whiz, but if we want to ingest chemicals, it will be for our mind, not our body.

Our cheese preference is for provolone.  It’s similar to mozzarella, but with a little more bite.  In our opinion, mozzarella is too mild to stand up to the onions and peppers.

Thanks to Denver Food Guy for the link.

I received a new follower on twitter a few days ago and was amused by the name of the blog – I Burn Popcorn – so I checked it out.  The writer, Carmen Kiew, had recently posted her family’s recipe for eggrolls, and it looked great.

She reveals some of her family’s secrets, including rolling techniques, so please be discreet and use this recipe for personal use only.  Take it away Carmen. [I Burn Popcorn]

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chicarrones and home fries

Not long ago, we were stuck in San Juan, Puerto Rico overnight because of an airline snafu on the way back from vacation.  Since it was their screw-up, the airline put us up in a hotel and gave us meal vouchers.  The closest place to the hotel to use the meal vouchers was packed with locals, and I had chicarrones de pollo for the first time.  They were a form of chicken nuggets, but much tastier with a Latin flavor.

Here’s Friday’s Recipe – chicarrones de pollo.

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For Friday’s Recipe this week, we’re going to keep things easy, both in terms of ingredients and cooking.  This Easy Chicken Satay does not need skewers or a grill, and uses ingredients commonly found in American households.

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