Asia's best contributions to America...

...according to Chris anyway, Asia's best contributions to America are Nintendo and teriyaki. So that's where we focused today - we played wii and made teriyaki chicken. And it was awesome. At least the teriyaki chicken part was. I'm just not very good at wii tennis. So Alex and Chris played wii tennis, and, like Warren Buffet, I stuck with what I knew and focused on the teriyaki and dessert.

The teriyaki chicken was another Cooks Illustrated special. We love that magazine. It makes us look like we know what we're doing. We'd eat gruel and burnt toast without it.


For dessert, I made ice cream. Alex would tell you that's because I hate him. But really, it's because I love ice cream. Sorry Alex. And just so you don't think I only make things from Cooks Illustrated, this recipe came from Elise at Simply Recipes, a site that I stupidly neglected to add to my list of links (until today). The recipe is for Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream, but I wanted Mint Oreo Ice Cream, as a nod to my days as a Ben & Jerry's employee, so that's what I made.




BETTER CHICKEN TERIYAKI
From the January and February 2005 issue of COOKS ILLUSTRATED
INGREDIENTS
8 bone-in skin-on chicken thighs (about 5 ounces each), trimmed, boned and skin slashed
Table salt and ground black pepper
0.5 c soy sauce
0.5 c sugar
0.5 tsp grated fresh ginger
1 medium garlic clove, minced or pressed through garlic press (about 1 tsp)
2 tbsp mirin
0.5 tsp cornstarch


INSTRUCTIONS
1. Position oven rack about 8 inches from heat source; heat broiler. Season chicken thighs with salt and pepper; set thighs skin side up on broiler pan (or foil-lined rimmed baking sheet fitted with flat wire rack), tucking exposed meat under skin and lightly flattening thighs to be of relatively even thickness. Broil until skin is crips and golden brown and thickest parts of thighs register 175 degrees on instant read thermometer, 8 to 14 minutes, rotating pan halfway through cooking time for even browning. [Kathleen note: sometimes, like tonight, these need a little more time to cook and may even need to be flipped over to be certain they cook through. We were able to see this when we lifted the chicken off the rack and it wasn't quite cooked on the bottom. A few more minutes did the trick.]
2. While chicken cooks, combine soy sauce, sugar, ginger, and garlic in small saucepan; stir together mirin and cornstarch in small bowl until no lumps remain, then stir mirin mixture into saucepan. Bring sauce to boil over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally; reduce heat to medium-low and simmer, stirring occasionally, until sauce is reduced to 3/4 cup and forms syrupy glaze, about 4 minutes. Cover to keep warm.
3. Transfer chicken to cutting board; let rest 2 to 3 minutes. Cut meat crosswise into 1/2 inch wide strips. Transfer chicken to serving platter; stir teriyaki sauce to recombine, then drizzle to taste over chicken. Serve immediately, passing remaining sauce separately.
[Kathleen note: Because Chris the Carnivore was joining us for dinner, we used 12 chicken thighs, but did not increase the amount of sauce in the recipe - there's plenty for the chicken and for dousing your rice, veggies, etc. We served this with our favorite brown rice.]