Week 3 - Alcohol

I pondered a number of different options for the Week 3 alcohol challenge. Should I use vodka? I did a couple of beer dishes last year for the challenge (there was a beer week!), but with so many types of beer, should I just do a different beer? Should I find something that would use the big bottle of dark rum in the closet from last year's Jamaica challenge? What about using sample size bottles of guavaberry liqueur as a nod to our recent visit to St. Maarten? In the end, I decided to just go with beer, because it was easy and I really enjoyed the flavors that came out from beer braising chicken last year. For the challenge recipes last year, I used an oatmeal stout and a light Corona-like beer, so this time I wanted to do something different. I found a recipe for BBQ chicken sliders that recommended using a porter, so I chose that, and also picked out a slaw to accompany it.

ASIAN-STYLE SLAW

The first thing I made on "alcohol night" was the slaw to give it time to rest and meld. I based the slaw on this recipe for an Asian style slaw by Dave Lieberman. I was making the slaw as the accompaniment to the chicken sliders that had the alcohol component to dinner, but it occurred to me a few hours after dinner that if I had just used rice wine vinegar in place of white vinegar, perhaps this could have counted for alcohol week too!

Since the original recipe called for 32 oz of cabbage and I was only planning to use one 10 oz bag, I had to make some adjustments to the original recipe. I also decided to add some cilantro leaves, since cilantro is always a great addition to an Asian salad. The ingredients I used were:

- 10 oz bag of shredded cabbage ($1.69)

- 6 scallions ($0.65)

- 1/2 red onion ($0.69 - should have been half that but the rest had to go to waste)

- 1/2 bunch of cilantro ($0.50)

- 2.5 tbsp soy sauce ($0.20)

- 2.5 tbsp lemon juice ($0.25)

- 2.5 tbsp canola oil ($0.25)

- 1 tbsp minced ginger ($0.25)

- 1.5 tbsp white vinegar ($0.15)

- 1.5 tbsp brown sugar ($0.10)

- 1.5 tbsp sesame oil ($0.60)

- 1 tsp sesame seeds ($0.05)

- salt to taste (about 5 grinds) ($0.03)

- black pepper to taste (about 20 grinds) ($0.05)

The slaw total was about $5.50. It made quite a bit of slaw, although we did eat all of it that night.

The process of making the slaw was:

1. Slice red onion into thin slivers. Cut scallions thinly on a diagonal. Tear cilantro leaves from stems. Mix onions, scallions, and cilantro with the shredded cabbage in a large bowl.

2. Prepare dressing in a small bowl - mix soy sauce, lemon juice, canola oil, ginger, white vinegar, brown sugar, sesame oil, sesame seeds, salt, and pepper.

3. Pour dressing over vegetables and stir until well mixed. You can eat it right away or chill it for a bit (we chilled it in the fridge for an hour or more and it was fine, not "wilty and sad" like the original recipe said). 

We really liked this slaw and it's great to have a slaw recipe in our repertoire now that doesn't require the use of lots of mayo. I couldn't stop eating it while prepping it, as it was so light and refreshing (and it was during the week where all I wanted was salad). I'm not sure we would change anything or that it required any improvements to the recipe. What a great slaw.

BEER BRAISED BBQ CHICKEN SLIDERS

When searching for recipes that had beer braised chicken, I found this recipe from The Beeroness for beer braised chicken sliders with hoisin beer barbecue sauce, and was really intrigued by it. I'm not a beer expert so I went with that recommendation for a porter and picked up 2 bottles from Trader Joe's (we drank the ~4 oz of beer that was leftover from cooking).

The ingredients needed for the recipe, slightly adapted, were:

BBQ sauce:

- 2 tbsp olive oil ($0.40)

- 5 cloves of garlic, minced ($0.08)
- 2/3 cup of hoisin sauce ($1.80)
- 1 tsp chili powder ($0.05)
- 1/4 cup soy sauce ($0.35)
- 1 cup beer ($0.73)

Chicken sliders:

- 2 tbsp canola oil ($0.20)
- 3 boneless skinless chicken breasts ($3)
- salt and pepper ($0.08)
- 1.5 cups beer ($1.09)
- 1/2 cup chicken broth ($0.10)
- 6 whole wheat dinner rolls ($1.40)

The chicken portion cost about $9.30, so together with the slaw, this wasn't a very inexpensive meal. It did make a lot of food, but with all the components, it wasn't as affordable as I thought it would be.

To make the sliders, here's what we did:

1. In one pot, heat up canola oil. Sprinkle chicken with salt and pepper and then add to the pot. Sprinkle salt and pepper on the other side of chicken while it is browning. Flip. Once browned, remove to plate and drain excess oil (if too much). 

2. Add the beer and chicken broth, bring to a boil, cover, reduce heat to simmer. Cook for about 20 minutes.

3. While chicken is cooking, make BBQ sauce. In another pot, heat olive oil, then add garlic and saute. Add beer, hoisin sauce, chili powder, and soy sauce. Cook at least 15 minutes so it gets a little thicker.

4. Once chicken is cooked, shred chicken and then add to the BBQ sauce. Stir well.

4. Add shredded chicken to rolls to make sliders.

The sliders were tasty, although they had way too much sodium for our tastes. I had even cut the original recipe's 1 cup of hoisin sauce down to 2/3 cup, but probably should have used even less. I love hoisin sauce, but it was so, so salty. We were really glad we had the slaw to counteract some of the sodium. The salt-filled hoisin was the overwhelming flavor of the dish and we didn't really get that much beer flavor coming through. Maybe it was the porter we used or maybe it was just the power of the hoisin, we're not sure. The chicken, before mixed with the sauce, didn't have a tremendously strong beer flavor either, even after braising in it for over 20 minutes, so it might have been the beer choice. I did like the idea of eating shredded chicken sliders, but the sauce was just a bit too much.

Overall, we had a nice summery meal in the middle of January for alcohol night. The sliders in theory were good, but the sauce, for our tastes, would need some more tweaking to make it less salty. The slaw was fantastic. We'll definitely make that again!