Chicken Skewers with Lime, Chilli and Mint

"What Came First - The Chicken or the Egg?", the theme for this week at I Heart Cooking Clubs (IHCC). Interesting, and always has been, Chicken or Eggs? What do you think?  

I was alone during one weekend, with nobody at home, the kids have gone to their cousins for the weekend, and hubby was out of town. I decided to make this chicken dish, as it is really very simple and quick to prepare. With things to do around the house, "spring cleaning", I was pretty occupied most of the day. So advance preparation with the ingredients! Which really is nothing, what I did for the "advance preparation" was to take out the half piece of chicken breast meat and two slices of frozen bread (for the salad) from my freezer, to thaw, that's all. 

When the chicken breast meat has been thawed, I cut it into chunks and marinated it with the marinating ingredients; zest and juice of limes, dried coarse chilli flakes (recipes uses fresh chilli, deseeded and shredded, but I did not have any fresh chillies), soy sauce, fish sauce, crushed garlic, chopped mint and black pepper. I added some sea salt as I've only used a minimum amount of fish sauce. Keep covered in refrigerator for a few hours. Place five wooden skewers in a plate, and pour some hot water to soak the skewers. Then back to my chores!

Note : Instead of chicken thigh meat as mentioned in the recipe, I have used the meat of half a chicken breast, since that was what I had. 

The original recipe is served with an Oriental Salad. I have however made another salad (Ottolenghi's) to go with the Chicken Skewers.

I left the meat marinated for about four hours. And the wooden skewers, I left them to soak for the same amount of time as the chicken meat. At the end of four hours, (I was pretty hungry by then, as I have skipped my lunch) thread the chicken meat on to the wooden skewers, and got exactly 5 skewers. I used a griddle pan, heat up with some oil, brush some oil over the chicken pieces and cook the chicken on both sides, sprinkle with more chilli flakes (I like them spicy!) until cooked through and have a nice good colour. Very quick, and fast! Takes less than 10 minutes of cooking time!

I had the Chicken Skewers with Seriously Zesty Bread Salad, from my previous post. And they are perfect together. This is one delicious meal! The Chicken Skewers is tender, moist and so tasty. All the flavours; chilli, mint and lime, comes together rather deliciously! And so good eaten with the fresh and zesty bread salad. A total winner! I enjoyed my meal so much that I wish my family was around to have it together. So I made this again two weeks later, made the same bread salad, for a weekend night dinner with my family, with another side dish. It was so good! There was no leftovers!

Chicken Skewers with Lime, Chilli and Mint
(adapted from "A Change of Appetite", Diana Henry, or here)
Serves 6
For the chicken :
12 boned and skinned chicken thighs
1-1/2 tbsp groundnut oil
juice of 1 lime

For the marinade :
grated zest of 4 limes
juice of 6 limes
2 red chillies, deseeded and shredded (I use coarse chilli flakes)
3 tbsp soy sauce
1/2 tbsp fish sauce
6 cloves garlic, crushed
2 tbsp chopped mint
freshly ground black pepper

Soak six long or 12 short wooden skewers in just-boiled water for 30 minutes. Cube the chicken. Make the marinade by mixing together all the ingredients for it. Put in the chicken, turning it over to make sure it is all coated, cover and refrigerate for one to four hours.

Thread the chicken on to the skewers and shake off any excess marinade. Heat the oil in a large frying-pan (big enough for the chicken to lie flat). Alternatively, heat a dry griddle pan and use the oil to paint the chicken. Cook on all sides until the chicken is cooked through, starting on a high heat to get a good colour all over then turning the heat down. The whole process takes about 10 minutes. Add salt and pepper and squeeze over some lime juice.

I'm linking this post with I Heart Cooking Clubs (IHCC), theme for this week, "What Came First - The Chicken or the Egg?"