This recipe calls for grilling chicken thighs with a honey glaze. The chicken, along with mint, cilantro and lettuce, is rolled up in a tortilla and served with a peanut dipping sauce.
Overall, I liked this recipe but there were a couple of problems or confusions.
First, the title of this recipe is Soy-Ginger Chicken Rolled in Crisp Lettuce with Peanut Dipping Sauce. The introduction to the recipe explains that in Vietnam, "hot food such as grilled beef or fried spring rolls is often rolled up in cool, crisp lettuce leaves with large sprigs of mint and cilantro." So, naturally I thought that the lettuce acted as the wrap, but then the recipes goes on to include tortillas. Not only that, but it calls for 16 6-inch tortillas for 8 chicken thighs in which 2 pieces of chicken go in each tortilla and the recipe says it serves 4. Um, that doesn't quite compute, does it? Must be a typo. Anyway, I decided to try the recipe with tortillas and it's a good thing I did because the lettuce I bought would not have been good for rolling anyway.
As far as flavor goes, this recipe was tasty but was unfortunately overpowered by some local wildflower honey I had purchased on a whim. The wildflower flavor was so strong and perfumy, it overwhelmed the other flavors in this dish. It was still good, but a milder honey would have worked out much better here. The peanut sauce was good, but I have other recipes I like better.
Although this recipe wasn't the greatest success in the world, we did enjoy it overall and I would like to try the glaze again with a milder honey. And perhaps a different peanut sauce - many sauces I've made call for cooking the sauce first and perhaps that was all that was needed here to kick up the flavors a bit.
I've renewed the book for 3 more weeks and am looking forward to looking through it more thoroughly and picking out a few more recipes to try.
I bought the newest Bobby Flay grilling book and I'm sorry to say it's also filled with inconsistent directions like this. The book does have great ideas, but Bobby Flay, you need to get a good editor!
ReplyDeleteKalyn - Interesting. I know mistakes do sometimes slip through, but it sounds like a little more care is in order here. I do love the ideas for grilling though....
ReplyDeleteLooks like a scrumptious meal. The kebab does not looks dried out at all.
ReplyDeleteI'm intrigued by the combo of honey with chicken. Earlier today I ran across a whole chicken roasted with a honey glaze -- and it just sounds fantastic. Will definitely keep the strength of the honey in mind when I try it out, though.
ReplyDeleteNina - Thanks - it was pretty tasty, despite the honey.
ReplyDeleteLo - I'm not a big honey fan, but I do like it in glazes for chicken. But yeah, maybe a generic honey would work better here.
I just made the same recipe from the same book.
ReplyDeleteYou could totally cut the glaze recipe in half. it uses a lot of honey too. I loved the peanut sauce with mine. Do you have a copy of the recipe on your blog? I want to share it with friends.
Sorry. I just saw the recipe on your page.
ReplyDelete