Sirloin or Pork Skewers- The Filipino Way

Pork skewers, or "BBQ" as the Filipinos call them, are one of my all-time favorite family recipes. So much so, that we had our family bring them from California to Michigan for our wedding (shown above with Kyle). They were such a hit! I naively assumed that when we got married I would be given the "keys to the city", aka given the family recipe for the BBQ, but no luck so far.

I made the below marinade last week using top sirloin for kabobs, and when eating, I noticed it tasted strangely familiar, and amazing, and when naming off ingredients used to my husband, he responded with, "That's the BBQ marinade!". So, it may be a little off here and there with proportions, etc., but it is pretty dang close. They use pork butt for the meat, and it is soooo good, but if you don't eat pork, or can't find pork butt at your local Asian market, then top sirloin tastes pretty dang good too!

Cheesy Factor (1 no cheese, 10 all cheese): 1
Dummy Factor (1 easiest, 10 hardest): 2
Time Factor (1 shortest, 10 longest): 7, but only because need to marinate minimum 8 hours or over night

Sirloin or Pork "BBQ" Skewers
1/4 cup soy sauce
3 Tbl brown sugar
3 Tbl distilled white vinegar
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp seasoned salt
1/2 tsp garlic pepper seasoning
4 fluid ounces of Sprite or 7-up
1 lb top sirloin, cut into 1.5 inch pieces, OR 1 lb pork butt, cut into 1 inch strips

In medium bowl, mix all ingredients except meat. Pour half of the mixture into a plastic bag with meat, seal, and marinate minimum 8 hours, or over-night, in refrigerator. Save the other half of marinade for basting. Preheat grill to high heat. Put meat onto skewers, discard marinade in bag. Lightly oil grill grate and cook skewers about 10 minutes, turning and basting heavily last 5 minutes of grilling. Serve hot.

You can also thread vegetables onto skewers if desired. 

Easy, Fast Chicken Kabob Marinade

This marinade is super random, but it is full of flavor, and the best part is: you only need to marinate for 30 minutes. There are so many amazing marinades, but so many of them require you to marinate for like 4 hours or something ridiculous. I'm not that organized most of the time, so I like ones that are quick and painless. This is also a great marinade in that most of the ingredients, aside from a fresh herb, you probably already have in your fridge and pantry!

Cheesy Factor (1 no cheese, 10 all cheese): 0
Dummy Factor (1 easiest, 10 hardest): 1
Time Factor (1 shortest, 10 longest): 3

30 Minute Ranch Chicken Marinade
1/3 cup olive oil
1/3 ranch dressing
2 Tbl Worcestershire Sauce
2 and 1/2 tsp minced fresh rosemary
1 and 1/4 tsp salt
3/4 tsp lemon juice
3/4 tsp white (distilled) vinegar
1/4 tsp pepper
2 tsp white sugar
2-4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1 in pieces (1 breast per person)

Put all ingredients (except chicken) into bowl and whisk together. Let stand 5 minutes. In plastic bag, combine chicken and marinade. Seal bag and put in refrigerator for 30 minutes. Preheat grill to medium-high heat. Put chicken onto skewers and discard marinade. Lightly oil grill grate, and then grill chicken skewers for 8-12 minutes or until cooked through center and juices run clear.

That's it! So simple! So yummy. And I don't even like ranch dressing, but it doesn't really taste like ranch at all. This marinade makes enough for 4 chicken breasts, but I make the full amount even if only make 2 breasts. And this is the one time I will say don't try and substitute dried herb for fresh herb. It really makes a difference.

Caribben Chicken Kebabs and the 30-day Blog Challenge

My friend Jessica started doing this "30-day Blog Challenge", where there is a list of things to enter on your blog each day. Not sure I can keep up with it, especially since this is really a food/cooking blog, and not an Abby blog, but figured I would tie in some of the things if possible.

Day 1 and day 2 are to put a picture up of yourself, describe your day, and then put a picture of something you ate today.

This is a picture of me on our wedding day, in case you couldn't tell. Ha! My mom and dad had arranged as a special treat for us to be taken from the church to the reception in all these old, cool vintage muscle cars!

As far as a day description, I will do yesterday. We woke up at 5am (on a Sunday!), and drove to Snow Summit to go snowboarding! The weather was good, and the snow was awesome. We rode hard from open until about noon, when it started to get busy, then hopped back in the car and drove home, just in time to watch the 2nd half of the football game. Our friends Javier and Danielle watched Guinness for us, and she had a very fun day playing. We came home, ordered some Chinese food, and were asleep by 8:45pm! It was great.

A picture of something I ate today? Well, I will conveniently use this opportunity to post on the blog what I am making for dinner tonight instead: Caribbean Chicken Kebabs!

This is a recipe I have been wanting to try from Coastal Living magazine. (PS, if you live by water, you want this magazine. It's awesome!)

Cheesy Factor (1 no cheese, 10 all cheese): zilch
Dummy Factor (1 easiest, 10 hardest): 2
Time Factor (1 shortest, 10 longest): 5 but only because of marinating

Caribbean Chicken Kebabs
1/3 cup orange juice
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 tsp fresh minced ginger
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1.5 in pieces
1 sweet onion, cut into 1.5 in pieces
2 bell peppers (red or orange) cut into 1.5 in pieces
1 pineapple, cubed
1 pint cherry or grape tomatoes
1/2 cup butter
1.5 Tbls fresh lime juice
1.5 tsp cayenne pepper
1.5 tsp garlic salt

Combine first 4 ingredients in bowl, mix. Pour marinade, chicken and onions into plastic ziploc and put into refrigerator for 3-6 hours to marinate. Take out, discard marinade, and skewer onions and chicken along with remaining veggies. In small sauce pan, melt butter, and stir in lime, cayenne, and garlic salt. Use this as butter-baste for skewers. Grill skewers over medium heat 8-10 minutes, or until chicken is cooked through, turning and basting with Lime-Cayenne butter multiple times.

I am going to serve this with a wild rice mixture and a side salad. All while watching the Ducks win!