Honey Sriracha Chicken

I have spent too many years of my life scared of food. While I'm not exactly at the point of being willing to try anything, I am working at stepping out of self imposed box. Many of you may not think of this type of chicken as "out of the box," but I assure you for me that it is. I tried a pizza at a local restaurant that had honey sriracha chicken on it, and I was floored at how much I like it. So, I went on a search to find a recipe that sounded good and I found this one for Honey Sriracha Grilled Chicken Skewers on Pinterest, and my daughter and I have loved it! I have found another use for this chicken in a pizza variety I'm making of Honey Sriracha Chicken, Spinach Alfredo pizza. Again, this is delicious (blog coming soon) and everyone who has tried it has loved it!

6-8 boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into large cubes (I use 2.25-2.5 lbs separated into two batches)
1/2 cup honey or agave
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 cup sriracha chile sauce
1/2 tsp salt

Cube chicken and place chicken cubes into two quart size freezer ziplock bags, set aside.

In a small bowl, combine honey, soy sauce, extra virgin olive oil, garlic, sriracha, and salt; whisk well.

Pour  mixture evenly into the two bags of chicken. Squeeze air out of bag and seal bag, coat chicken with sauce.

Here is where you choose which course you're going to take. If you are planning on cooking a bag of the chicken that day, then marinate it in the fridge for at least 30 minutes. A few hours would be better. I generally prep a 5-lb or 10-lb bag of chicken at one time and divide it among multiple bags for freezing. The night before I plan to cook the chicken, I pull it out of the freezer and place it in the fridge. When I get home from work the next evening, I remove the bag from the fridge for an hour or so while I do chores around the house. There is already oil in the marinade, so you don't need extra in your skillet before cooking. Just heat up the skillet on medium-high heat; either drain the chicken in a colander or use  tongs to remove chicken and let the sauce drip off. Either way, once the skillet is heated, add the chicken to begin cooking.

I have found that marinade and other juices tend to build while the chicken is cooking and to get a nice char mark on the chicken this liquid will need to be drained during the cooking process. Keep stirring and draining chicken until you have the amount of browning that you desire. This is one of my 15 minute meals - cook a pot of Minute Rice and a veggie and dinner is served.

Baklava

Bakalava. Flaky patry. Slightly sweetened cinnamon-y nut filling, sweet honey drizzle. There's just not much better than baklava. That's why I decided I wanted to find a good recipe and try making it from scratch. I did a good bit of research and learned quite a bit about this delicacy. While most of us probably think of Greek cuisine, baklava, in fact, originated in the Ottoman Empire, and the word itself is Arabic. The variations found in baklava will indicate where the recipe originated. I won't go into all the history, but which nuts are used, what is used to create the syrup all indicate the region of origin. I finally settled on this recipe: Easy Baklava. I liked the idea of using various nuts, so I went with a mixture of walnuts, pecans, almonds, and hazelnuts. I always imagined baklava was very difficult to make, and I've always heard about how hard it is to work with phyllo dough. Honestly, while this was a bit time consuming (to do it right anyway), it really was rather easy!

Pastry

1 lb mixed nuts, chopped
1 tsp ground cinnamon
16 oz package phyllo dough
1 cup butter, melted

Syrup

1 cup white sugar
1 cup water
1⁄2 cup honey
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp lemon zest, grated

To ensure a smooth process, make sure you have all of your ingredients prepped and ready to go. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Butter a 9x13 inch baking dish. Toss together cinnamon and nuts. Unroll phyllo and cut whole stack in half to fit the dish, if needed. The dough I got was already cut for a 9X13. Cover phyllo with a damp cloth while assembling the baklava, to keep it from drying out.

Place two sheets of phyllo in the bottom of the prepared dish. Brush generously with butter. Sprinkle 2 to 3 tablespoons of the nut mixture on top. 

Repeat layers until all ingredients are used, ending with about 6 sheets of phyllo. 

Using a sharp knife, cut baklava into desired shapes. I had a little trouble with this part, I think, because I buttered the top layer before cutting. The phyllo kept sticking to my knife. Lesson learned. :-)

Bake in preheated oven 50 minutes, until golden and crisp. While baklava is baking, combine sugar and water in a small saucepan over medium heat and bring to a boil. 

Stir in honey, vanilla and lemon zest, reduce heat and simmer 20 minutes.

Remove the baklava from the oven and immediately spoon the syrup over it. 

Let cool completely before serving. I ended up adding just a bit extra honey to the baklava before serving. Just added a little bit more oomph to it. Store in an airtight container.