Anna Does Sorted: Sticky chicken

Spoiler alert: This is my new favorite Sorted recipe. It was another spontaneous cooking decision and it's by far the most rewarding thing I've made taste-wise. For how amazing it tasted, you would think it took a long while to make. I know I said in my last post that the next thing I would make is the tandoori chicken burger but I totally lied. The sticky chicken was too appetizing to pass up.



Sticky chicken is absolutely magical. And I loved the idea of vegetable kebabs because of how versatile they are. The vegetables I used were sweet potato, red pepper and carrots. I didn't have any zucchini around and I have never bought mushrooms in my entire life so that wasn't going to happen. Next time I'll definitely try to include zucchini though. I think adding red potatoes to the skewers could also be a good addition. While the vegetables were quite tasty, the chicken was amazing.

The sauce/glaze/marinade was so easy. Luckily we had a random jar of apricot jam in the fridge I used up and the only thing I was missing was Worcestershire sauce. I tried to find some substitutes for it but for all the things I looked up I didn't have the ingredients to make it work. I added in a little extra soy sauce to make up for it. While the sauce is supposed to caramelize a bit, that didn't happen for me. I'm not sure what the deal was with that but it didn't really make a difference. The chicken itself was incredibly tender and cooked perfectly so I didn't bother leaving it in the oven longer to see if the sauce would caramelize at all.

I didn't make a salad or rice to go with it but this morning for breakfast (yeah, I ate the leftovers for breakfast) I drizzled the sauce on some leftover rice, from my sweet potato curry, and boy was that great! I'll have to remember to make rice along with it next time. Though adding the vegetables, chicken and sauce to a salad could be fantastic as well.

If you need a super quick dinner, this is it. I love the idea of using the sauce for other things as well. Like, I don't always have chicken to use but the sauce could go great on any number of other foods. This would be a great meal to cook when having friends over as well because it's easy to make in large portions.

Last YouTube video I watched: Dent In the Moon

Anna Does Sorted: Sweet potato & spinach curry

This recipe was a super spontaneous one. I needed dinner, wanted to do a Sorted recipe but also wanted to use up some ingredients. The main thing I had in the kitchen to use was sweet potato. I've been on quite the sweet potato kick lately. The cool thing about this recipe was I somehow had everything I needed for it, except the spinach but I'm not very fond of it anyway so no harm no foul. Watching the video for this one was a nice surprise on account of how it's "old school" Sorted. They filmed this one over 2 years ago!

 

I usually don't have naan just sitting in my cupboard so I improvised with tortillas instead. That worked well enough. My favorite part of this dish was definitely the yogurt-based dip. So tasty! And a perfect complement to the kick of the curry. The other curry I made from Sorted isn't a spicy kind so this was a nice change; not that this one was all that spicy but in comparison it was much stronger. This was super quick to make as well. Once again, the most difficult part was chopping the sweet potato and onions because A) crappy knives and B) my eyes are super sensitive to onions. (I sure do hate onions.)

I'm definitely interested in adding in more things to this curry beyond just onions and sweet potato. I guess I could start by actually including spinach but I'd prefer other vegetables or maybe some chicken. Having actual naan will be the next step as well. I imagine Sorted has a naan recipe just waiting for me to discover. (And indeed it does, featured with the naan bread pizza recipe. Yum.)

My next recipe will definitely be the tandoori chicken burger, though. Hopefully I can get that one done before going to Yellowstone this weekend. I'm thinking of taking Sorted along on the camping trip by making the smokey BBQ beans and jacket. Camping food is some of my favorite, so look forward to a post on some of the things we make!

And speaking of more personal things beyond my cooking as of late, I'm now a college graduate. Or mostly. I still have a couple classes for fall but I did walk in the graduation ceremonies this past weekend. I'm still feeling pretty accomplished.

Last YouTube video I watched: Human bungee slingshot