I’m going to be trying out a new naming scheme for everything we cook.  Instead of the usual [Seasoning][Protein] naming convention, from now on, it’s going to be called something that has meaning to me.  Whether it’s a person, place, or thing, will be left up to how I feel that particular day.

Today’s meal will be named after the neighbourhood I grew up in – Marpole!  It’s Vancouvers oldest ‘hood.  Located on the south side, it’s almost all residential, with  very little commercial, and the concentration of industry is all along the riverbank.

The dish today came about because I was in the mood to try something new and different.  Hipsters seem to love sriracha sauce, so I figured I could make something starring it!  This is what I came up with.

Ingredients:

• Boneless chicken thighs
• 1/2 cup Sriracha sauce
• 1/2 cup Soy sauce
• 1/2 cup Oil
• 1/4 cup Lime juice
• 1/2 cup Honey
• 1 Garlic
• Handful of Green onion or Chives
• 1 thumbnail of Ginger

Prep:

Grab your chicken thighs, and peel the skin off of them.  This marinade works well on chicken wings as well!  Place them all in a large dish or plastic interlocking bag.

Get your marinade ready.

Dice your green onions or chives, smash your garlic, and do the same with the ginger.  Make sure you peel the skin off the ginger first.  Once again, using a spoon is the easiest way of doing this!

Throw everything into your blender, along with all of the liquids.  Equal parts of honey, soy, and sriracha.  Use 1/2 as much lime juice as the other ingredients.

Blend the hell out of it until it’s nice and smooth.  You don’t want any chunky texture in this marinade!

Pour it over your chicken evenly, then massage it in.

Cover and refrigerate overnight.  You can toss it every couple of hours to ensure everything is coated evenly.

Cooking:

When you are ready to cook it, take it out and place each piece on a rack.  If you have a bbq, use it!  This will be the preferred method.  I however, was lazy, and didn’t want to walk outside since it is the middle of winter.  I used my oven instead.

Don’t have a rack?  No problem — Use a baking dish instead.  Keep all of the extra marinade in the dish.  This will keep the chicken moist.  If you cover it with a foil, it will also keep it more moist.

After roughly 45 min – 1 hour at 350 F, take it out.

If you have been cooking it in a dish covered with foil , remove the cover and bake for another 15 mins.

Side by side, it will be easy to notice how the different cooking methods influence the final product.

Ta da!  There you have it — Marpole Honey Sriracha Chicken!  Since sriracha is associated with nammer food, why not have an avocado shake with the meal?  Pair it with some basic greens and rice, and it’s a Canadianized take on a Vietnamese meal! 🙂

Bonus:

With the chicken skins that you peeled off earlier, why not fry it up to make a crispy treat?

Deep frying it would do wonders, but as you all know about my dislike of deep frying, pan frying works well.  It releases so much oil, that it’s almost like deep frying anyways.

Once it’s done, it will be golden, and crispy!  You can eat these just how they are, or if you are like me, feed it to your dog as a treat 🙂