Chicken Ka-Babs of an Asian Persuasion

Tonight was chicken night, it was also low carbohydrate night and it was Bob needs to eat more veggies night as well. My sister has been sending me photos of kabobs she has been cooking, so I decided to make them, cause they were in my head. Well, here goes.

The  Aromatics:
1/4 cup each onion, celery and carrots, diced
3 large cloves garlic, minced
7 or so slices of ginger

Mash the aromatics lightly and set side.

Liquids:
1/4 cup Red Boat Fish Sauce
1/4 cup Braggs Amino Acid
1/8 cup water
4 little packs of Truvia
2 tablespoon coconut infused white balsamic vinegar (I got mine from Victorino Olive Oil in Livermore)

Blend all ingredients along with aromatics. This forms the marinade for the chicken. I added one skinless, boneless breast of chicken cut into chunks. This was covered and allowed to marinate for 6 hours. The salt in the fish sauce will be enough to add some moisture and pull the marinade into the chicken over this period of time.

Chicken added and ready for chilling.

Later that day, some veggies were prepared for the kabobs, I chose to go with onion, baby shittake mushrooms, red bell pepper and Thai sweet basil, which I put against the chicken to get one final layer of flavor added.

To the skewers, I choose to use two skewers to avoid twisting, I find the two skewers work well for keeping the meat in place and avoiding loss of meat on the grill. I made sure to layer things to create as much interplay of the flavors, making sure the basil was next to the chicken.

I did a little something different with the kettle tonight, since I was looking for a little heat, but, not wanting to mess with the kettle setup too much, I left the smoker baffle in place and loaded the entire side of the kettle with charcoal and got it going nice and hot. The effect was a more vertical fire that was throwing heat across the grate. I added the skewers so the heat ran across them, A few changes of position and they were done. I did try a baste, using more fish sauce, cider vinegar, coconut white balsamic vinegar and Truvia. I ended up with these.

The baste worked pretty well in giving the meat a shiny finish and added just one more layer of flavor and aroma to the final product. Here is a close-up for those who need a little more detail.

I only ate one and a half of these, not all three. It was a good dinner and although some Jasmine rice would have been nice, it certainly wasn't missed. Plus, I ate too much at lunch anyways.