This is not a cooking blog and never will be because I could never withstand the shame of readers learning about how I really eat. I mean, who needs a recipe for melty chocolate ice cream or jello with sugar and milk?
Nevertheless, here I am writing a recipe because I want to be able to find this again. It’s that good. And that’s not just the wine talking.
See?
Clean plate.
Most of my cooking is done in semi-panic mode. Life as we’re living it right now doesn’t lend itself to planning. At least that’s the story I’m telling myself. So while ritualistically googling recipes on the days when I expect the Electrician to be home for dinner, I get heart palpitations when I read things like “marinate for 4 hours.” Seriously? I’m lucky if I have something thawed.
Today I’d managed to have chicken breasts ready in the refrigerator but had no plan besides throwing them on the grill. Plain grilled chicken breast is the reason so many good people go bad, ya know? I can’t have that so I googled simple chicken marinades and, I swear, every recipe required the dreaded 4 hours or more to marinate and/or required Italian dressing or soy sauce.
I am bereft of both. Again with the shame. Who runs out of soy sauce?
Time to improvise.
So much for simple.
The recipe itself is pretty simple though, so I’ve got that going for me.
AWESOME SAUCE
About 2/3 cup of brown sugar, DARK brown sugar. Don’t mess around.
Less than a quarter cup of apple cider vinegar because I used a quarter and it was a wee bit too much
A half cup or so of vegetable oil named after one of your friends
A few squirts of barbecue sauce. I’m a fan of Sweet Baby Ray’s original. Obviously.
A couple shakes of Worcestershire Sauce and then a few more after you dip your finger in to taste the mixture. Maybe. Just bear that in mind.
Half the airplane-sized bottle of honey whiskey found next to the brown sugar in the cabinet because why not? It’s not like either of us are ever going to drink that whiskey.
Stir. Keep stirring. Stir until the sugar lumps disintegrate.
Here’s where you should dip your finger in to see how it’s going.
Does it need more Worcestershire Sauce? s Entirely up to you.
Add a tablespoon or so of creamy peanut butter and recommence stirring. Careful not to lick the peanut butter spoon or you won’t be able to give the finished sauce an honest taste test. As Julia Child frequently said – peanut butter is not a palate cleanser.
I poured some of the sauce over the chicken breasts and let it marinate for about 30 minutes. It was the best I could do. I saved some for dipping and maybe took a taste before relinquishing the stirring spoon to the depths of the dishwater.
While the chicken marinates in the marinade, contemplate the English language. The noun is marinade. The verb is marinate. It’s like the difference between accept and except or affect and effect. Sip the whiskey right from the bottle. No one is looking.
Grilling left a tasty coating on the chicken when the sugars carmelized. I warmed the reserved (how’s that for a fancy recipe word?) sauce for a few seconds in the microwave to use for dipping. A quick glance at the clean plate photo, tells me the dipping sauce was one of the better ideas I had today.
Looking over the recipe, I realize it’s pretty much hopped up barbecue sauce, but that’s such along name. I’m sticking with Awesome Sauce. Not Fancy Sauce. That’s something different.
Bon apetit!
Lisa H Golden 