Recently, I had the opportunity to collaborate with Kikkoman and Latina Bloggers Connect to create a recipe or re-work one a favorite dish. I had so much fun experimenting and it was compensated! I’ll give you a hint, Kikkoman is more versatile than you can imagine. Think outside of the Asian inspired box. I did. Kikkoman can actually be used in lieu of salt in every type of cuisine. In fact, to reduce the sodium content of your dish by 1000 mg swap ½ teaspoon of Kikkoman Soy Sauce in place of ½ a teaspoon of salt.
Anyways, if you are like me, the minute you hear the name Kikkoman, you instantly think of soy sauce for your sushi but Kikkoman is so much more than just soy sauce, they make Teriyaki sauce, Ponzu and many more products than I ever knew about. After all you can’t get much more perfect than Kikkoman soy sauce when cooking because 19 generations and 300 years of living by the family philosophy of it’s founder, “Isogaba Maware” (Make Haste Slowly; Advance and grow with tremendous thought and care) can’t be wrong. All this means is that Kikkoman takes it’s 6-month natural brewing process seriously and has since the seventeenth century. We should all advance and grow with such thought and care. True haste without thought will surely make waste in everything from food ingredient choices to life choices.
I actually adapted two recipes for dinner last night using Kikkoman soy sauce.
I chose Citrus Honey Grilled BBQ Chicken and paired it with a nice, refreshing summer watermelon and feta salad.
Here is the recipe for the Citrus Honey Grilled BBQ Chicken
Ingredients:
6 Large Chicken Breasts
Marinade:
1 ½ cup of Orange Juice
½ cup of olive oil
¼ cup of La Preferida hot sauce
½ cup of Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons of grated orange zest
2 tablespoons of Kikkoman soy sauce
½ cup of honey
Dash of Paprika
Glaze:
1 stick of unsalted butter
½ cup of honey
½ cup of orange juice
¼ cup of brown sugar
½ cup of honey BBQ sauce
2 tablespoons of grated orange zest
Between ¼- ½ cup of Dijon mustard (to taste)
3 tablespoons of Kikkoman soy Sauce
Directions:
Whisk together orange juice, olive oil, hot sauce, Dijon mustard, Kikkoman soy sauce, orange zest, honey and paprika together in a large bowl. Add the chicken breasts to the marinade and toss to combine and cover chicken breasts. Cover bowl with lid or saran wrap and let marinate overnight or at least 1 hour, but for best results marinate over night in the refrigerator.
When ready to cook, pull chicken out of fridge and let it come to room temperature before you grill. Room temperature meats cook more evenly and don’t lose as much moisture. Prepare the grill and set to medium and direct heat.
Drain your chicken breasts from the marinade and pat dry. Grill for 5 minutes on each side, then turn heat down to medium-low, close the grill lid and continue cooking for 25 minutes.
While the chicken breasts are on the grill for those 25 minutes, start making the glaze. Melt the butter in a medium saucepan on medium heat or on grill burner. Whisk in honey, orange juice, brown sugar, honey bbq sauce, orange zest, Dijon mustard and Kikkoman soy sauce. When it’s time to glaze the chicken breasts, reserve some of the glaze in a separate container to serve with the meal, in case someone wants more sauce on their chicken. I, personally, love my food saucy but some others don’t so reserve some. Stir occasionally. Check that poultry is cooked to 160 degrees before serving.
Then brush chicken breast with glaze, flip glaze side down, glaze other side and then continue cooking for 3 more minutes. Glaze once more, flip over, glaze top, cook for 3 minutes more. Then take chicken off the grill, loosely tent with foil and let it rest for 5 minutes, so the juices will reabsorb into the meat.
The interval when my chicken was on the grill for 25 minutes was when I started my side dish Watermelon Feta Salad. It’s quick and easy but you need 20 minutes to let it refrigerate it so you can totally make this ahead of time.
This recipe for Watermelon Feta salad serves about 6 people, generously.
Ingredients for salad:
4 cups of cooked quinoa (cooked and cooled)
4 cups of fresh watermelon (cut into bite sized cubes)
2 tablespoons of Kikkoman Soy Sauce
12 ounces of Feta cheese (crumbled)
2 cucumbers (cubed)
Ingredients for dressing:
3/4-cup fresh organic basil {packed}
Fresh squeezed juice from 2 large lemons
1/2 cup olive oil
Sprinkle the 2 tablespoons of Kikkoman soy sauce on the watermelon as a flavor enhancer.
Then combine the quinoa, watermelon, feta cheese and cucumbers in the bowl.
Using a food processor, process basil, lemon juice and olive oil together until well combined then gingerly toss sauce with quinoa/watermelon/feta combination. Cover and chill for 20 minutes in refrigerator to allow flavors to combine appropriately.
Serve as a side to the Citrus Honey BBQ grilled chicken. It is absolutely delicious; light, filling and mostly guilt-free. My girls and husband gobbled it right up. The dinner table was quiet and that is always a good sign.
So were you surprised with how I used my Kikkoman soy sauce? My husband even used it in his recipe for sausage gravy and biscuits. It was one of his best batches and none of us knew it had soy sauce in it until he told us and think of how much better it was for our health with less sodium.