Friday, August 26, 2011

Rum-Glazed Pineapple, Mango and Chicken Kebabs

The end of summer is approaching and I am sad to see it go... however... I have a feeling the heat will definitely be sticking around until Thanksgiving or longer... But, with summer goes some of the awesome summer produce and that I will definitely mourn. I had two of my friends over for dinner last week and was looking for a super summery dish to serve before Labor Day weekend arrived :)

I nosed around Cooking Light and then I found it! Rum-Glazed Pineapple, Mango, and Chicken Kebabs. I loooove the idea of kebabs and the fact they were Caribbean inspired made it even better. They are colorful and make it easy for people to choose their own portion sizes. I would definitely make this again! They would be awesome and easy peasy for a party as well. I only changed a few things from the original recipe and I would also recommend adding whatever fruits and vegetables you think would go with them! I really enjoyed how the flavors blended together and the colors as well. I included the amount of chicken, mango, and pineapple the original recipe required as well as what I used in parenthesis. I served four people with this. (Gotta feed my man too!) All of my guests ate two kebabs and I served them with a salad of butter lettuce, strawberries, green onion and balsamic vinaigrette and a packaged Caribbean rice I honestly bought as a joke but turned out pretty well! I just found it in the Caribbean section of the grocery store. I also cooked mine in the oven because I had no desire to grill in 107 degree heat. My oven is a little weird but you could definitely broil these or bake them like I did. If you want to broil them follow the grilling directions I also put below.

Rum-Glazed Pineapple, Mango and Chicken Kebabs Print Version
From Cooking Light

Ingredients

3/4 cup pineapple juice ( I used a can of crushed pineapples for the juice and also threw some crushed pineapples in there)
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup rum ( I used Bacardi, it was in the bar!)
2 tablespoons finely chopped seeded jalapeño pepper
2 tablespoons cider vinegar
2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
1 1/2 teaspoons grated lime rind
1 1/2 pounds skinless, boneless chicken breast, cut into 30 cubes ( I used 2 medium sized chicken breasts for four people)
2 mangoes, peeled and each cut into 9 (1-inch) cubes
1 red bell pepper cute into 1-inch squares
18 (1-inch) cubes fresh pineapple
1 1/2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 pkg of wood or metal skewers

Preparation

1. Cut chicken, pineapple, mango and red bell pepper into cubes and put aside. if you are going to grill them, preheat the grill and if you are going to use the oven preheat to 350 degrees.

2. In a medium saucepan mix together the pineapple juice, brown sugar, rum and jalapeño peppers and bring to a boil. Then reduce heat to simmer for 5 minutes.



3. Add the cider vinegar and bring to a boil again for 1 minute stirring constantly. Let it stand for 5 minutes and if it is still too runny don't worry about simmering it until it reaches the desired thickness. (The original recipe had 2 tablespoons of cornstarch but when I tried putting it in it didn't take and I would up picking it out when it turned into little nuggets.) Add in the cilantro and lime rind when it's ready.


4. Make the kabobs. I did a red pepper on each end with pineapple, mango, two chickens and repeat. Do whatever you think looks nice and have fun with it! If you are using the numbers from the original recipe it comes to 5 chicken, 3 mango, and 3 pineapple alternately onto each of 6 (12-inch) skewers.
5. GRILL: Place kebabs on grill rack, brush and cook for 4 minutes. Turn kebabs; brush with half of glaze. Cook 4 minutes. Turn kebabs; brush with remaining glaze. Cook 2 minutes or until they are cooked through.

OVEN: Brush the kebabs with 1/2 the glaze. Cook for about 10 minutes, then turn over the kebabs and brush with the second half of the glaze. Cook for 5-10 minutes or until cooked through and serve hot!


Enjoy!!!

ME

No comments:

Post a Comment