Just Bento

The chicken recipes here on Just Bento are always very popular. And why not? Chicken is relatively inexpensive, cooks fast, and is fairly low-fat if you trim it judiciously.

This very simple Asian-fusionesque flavored marinated chicken breast recipe can be made without the skewers, but it’s just that much more fun, and somehow seems to taste better, if you put it on a stick.

Recipe: Very Easy Marinated Chicken Skewers

Makes 4 skewers, enough for 2 bentos. This takes only 5-6 minutes to cook, not including the marinating time, and can be prepped the night before. Each skewer is about 60 calories.

• 1 raw skinned chicken breast, about 120g / 4 oz

The marinade:

• 2 Tbs. soy sauce
• 1/2 Tbs. lime juice
• 1/2 Tbs. xiaoxing wine (available at Chinese or general Asian grocery stores; substitute sake or sherry if you don’t have it)
• About 1 tsp. grated fresh ginger
• Red chili pepper flakes, to taste
• A pinch of sugar (about 1/4 tsp.)

• A few drops of fish sauce (optional; available at Thai or general Asian grocery stores)

• oil for cooking, about 1 Tbs.

Cut the chicken breast into 4 strips lengthwise. Thread them onto skewers. The trick is to sort of fold the pieces accordion-style, and to skewer them through the folds.

Combine the marinade ingredients. Marinade the skewered chicken for at least 5 minutes, ideally about an hour. You can marinate it overnight.

You can grill the skewers, or just cook them in a frying pan. Here I’m cooking them with some sweet pepper strips. I put the peppers in the pan (with a little oil) first, since they take longer. Once they were nicely roasted I pushed them aside and put the chicken in the middle. The chicken only takes a 2 to 3 minutes per side to cook. Take out the pepper slices, and pour in the marinade to glaze the chicken.

You can take the chicken off the skewers, but I think it’s a lot more fun to eat them off the skewers. I did add quite a bit of chili pepper flakes here, but you can vary the amount to suit your heat preference.