Thai Pork Tenderloin

I could not stop eating this. I didn't have high hopes for how it would turn out, but I thought it was amazing. I didn't use 2 tenderloins as the recipe calls for, but still made the full amount of sauce. It ended up being a perfect amount of sauce for the one tenderloin, so if you use the full 2 tenderloins, you might want to double the sauce recipe if you are a sauce lover like me. Also, my tenderloin took much longer than the specified 8-10 minutes to reach 145 degrees. I don't know if it was my stove top or a misprint in the recipe.













1 TB vegetable oil
2 (12-ounce) pork tenderloins, trimmed
1 1/4 cup coconut milk
1 TB grated fresh ginger
1 tsp sambal oelek chili paste (in the Asian food section of the supermarket)
1/4 cup minced fresh cilantro

Pat pork dry with paper towels and season with salt and pepper. Heat oil in a 12-inch skillet over medium-high heat until just smoking. Cook pork until browned, 3 to 4 minutes per side. Transfer to plate.

Add ginger to now-empty skillet and cook over medium-high heat until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Stir in coconut milk and chili paste, scraping up any browned bits, until incorporated. Add pork and any accumulated juices and cook, turning occasionally, until sauce is thickened and meat registers 145 degrees, 8-10 minutes. Transfer pork to carving board, tent loosely with foil, and rest for 5 minutes. Off heat, stir cilantro into sauce. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Slice pork and serve with sauce.

Recipe source: Cook's Country Magazine

Sticky Coconut Chicken

Okay, nobody is probably going to try this recipe once they're done reading my introduction, but we honestly liked it and are definitely going to make it again. There were just a couple of bumps in the road on the way to liking it.

#1 When I saw the recipe, it looked really good so I tried it as written below. I ended up throwing it all out before Nate got home. I HATED the chicken thighs and the glaze was too spicy for me. So I tried it again this week and substituted chicken tenderloins for the thighs and cut the red pepper flakes in the glaze down to a couple of sprinkles. By the time it reduced down to a glaze, it still had quite a bit of heat.

#2 It smelled really strange before it all came together. Something about the coconut milk marinade on the grill and the vinegar-based sauce simmering on the stove made for a weird smell combination and I wasn't sure how things were going to go. But once it was off the grill and the glaze was on the chicken, it was so delicious. I know, I'm really selling this recipe, huh? But try it--it was delicious.

Chicken and Marinade:
6-8 boneless, skinless chicken thighs (see note above)
1 cup canned coconut milk
1 TB minced fresh ginger
1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1 tsp red pepper flakes

Marinate the chicken in coconut milk, ginger, black pepper, and red pepper flakes at least one hour (I did mine overnight). Grill.

Glaze:
3/4 cup rice vinegar
1/2 cup sugar
3 TB soy sauce
1 tsp red pepper flakes (see note above)

While the chicken is grilling, bring glaze ingredients to a boil over medium-high heat and cook until mixture is reduced and thickened, about 8-10 minutes. Be patient because it takes a little while. Once it starts getting really thick, remove from heat. Glaze both sides of chicken the last couple of minutes of grilling, or wait and glaze it after removing from the grill to prevent a sticky grill grate. Serve over rice.

Recipe Source: www.melskitchencafe.com