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| For the Sriracha sauce, we just used the popular Rooster sauce by Huy Fong. You can see that trademark red bottle and green cap in the background. |
I was instantly inspired for this sauce at breakfast a few weeks ago. It's All So Yummy Cafe in Knoxville is our favorite locally owned sandwich, soup, and ice cream place. Their grilled sandwiches are amazingly good, their soups made from scratch, and their ice cream flavors are creative. A few weeks ago they started opening for breakfast and Alexis got the Big Orange Stacker.
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| The Big Orange Stacker from It's All So Yummy Cafe. They are open for breakfast on Saturdays now. If you're in Knoxville, check them out. |
It's a tower of homemade buttermilk biscuits, avocado, swiss cheese, fresh tomatoes, fried egg, crisp bacon, and an orange sriracha sauce. I reached over to her plate and dabbed my pinky into the sauce for a little taste. Damn, I never knew my pinky finger tasted so good. I came home and whipped up this version of the sauce that afternoon.
This sauce is powerful with bold sweetness, a sharp citrus twang, and the mild complex heat of Sriracha. This sauce is fantastic brushed onto grilled chicken or shrimp in the last few minutes of cooking. I think it would work on pork tenderloins or BBQ ribs for something different. It is dynamite mixed with a little soy sauce and tossed with stir fried chicken for Orange Chicken. I even used it to make a bright citrus vinaigrette.
We have tried 5 different brands of orange marmalade for this, from Smucker's off of the shelf to small batch versions that have to be mail ordered. For off of the shelf, Smucker's worked better than the more expensive gourmet brands at the store. But the hands down winner for this recipe was Sarabeth's Blood Orange Marmalade. It has a much more organic texture, you can actually pour it, compared to pretty much all of the rest that are gelatinous marmalades that you have to spoon out of the jar. The major difference was taste, the sweetness seems more natural from the oranges than added sugar.
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| Our preferred marmalade after trying several. |
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| I couldn't wait to try it so I grilled a couple of chicken breasts on the BGE Mini-Max kamado grill. It was excellent, exactly what I was looking for. |
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| This past weekend was gorgeous and Springlike, so I rolled out the Kettleman grill to do some "old school" grilling like when I first started barbecuing. |
A kamado grill is my preferred weapon of choice so people are sometimes curious why I use different grills, if the kamado grill is really that good. In business there's a saying that if the only tool in your toolbag is a hammer, you treat every opportunity as a nail. Same with grilling, I like to use a variety of grills because:
- it challenges my skill set,
- it helps me keep an open mind,
- it helps me connect better with my audience - only about half are kamado users, the rest are using kettles, gas grills, and such,
- and most importantly, sometimes I just feel like it.
Sponsorships? Sure, it's nice to have them but I have used a variety of grills (Brinkman SnP, Brinkmann Professional Charcoal Grill, Smoke Hollow gas/coal combo unit, and more) since the start of this blog and long before sponsorships were rolling in.
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| I used about 1/2 chimney of briquettes. |
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| I made a simple rub of 1 tablespoon salt, 1/2 tablespoon Lawry's Seasoned Salt, 1 teaspoon granulated garlic, and 1/4 teaspoon dried parsley. |
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| I spritzed 3 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves with spray butter and then seasoned them with the rub. The butter acts as a binder for the rub but also oils the meat to help prevent sticking and get a nice crust. |
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| I arranged the coals in a single layer and left room for an indirect area. |
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| My target for grilling chicken breasts, whether grilling on a kamado or kettle, is in the 350-400°F. |
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| If I'm doing thick breasts (not butterflied), I typically do about 6 minutes per side directly over the hot coals. |
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| After 12 total minutes, I brush them with the sauce on both sides and then shift the chicken to the indirect area that is not directly over the coals. I close the grill lid and let them finish cooking until they hit an internal temp of 160°f. That's usually about 10 minutes. |
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| The indirect heat bakes the sauce on without burning it. |
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| Since we were putting this chicken on salads, I let them sit for 15 minutes or the hot meat would wilt the lettuce and veggies. |
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We had sauce leftover so I decided to whisk up a vinaigrette for our salad with the sauce.
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Sriracha Orange Vinaigrette
1/3 cup Sriracha Orange Sauce
1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar
3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 teaspoon sriracha sauce
2/3 cup olive oil
Mix together the sauce, vinegar, salt, pepper, and Sriracha. Slowly drizzle in the olive oil while whisking vigorously. Or briskly. Whatever your whisking style is, just do it fast and the oil slow.
We put together a salad of mixed greens and Swiss chard, onions, avocado, Mandarin orange segments, homemade bacon, and rice noodles. Then we sliced the chicken breast and topped that with the vinaigrette.
I still call this bunny rabbit food, but it's damn good bunny rabbit food!
Sriracha Wings
Speaking of Sriracha Week, our friends Brian and Marilyn at Hot Sauce Daily posted this recipe post for Garlic Sriracha Chicken Wings based on one of our favorite wing recipes by Michael Symon. Click on over there to check it out.
Sriracha....BEER?
Also, did you know that there is a Sriracha beer? Rouge Ale and Spirits has brought to market a Sriracha flavored stout beer. The tell-tale rooster and green cap are a nod to Huy Fong's brand of Sriracha sauce.
I like beer but I'm not sure that this one is for me. I mean I'd try one if you had it in your fridge but I wouldn't go out of my way to buy one. How about you - would you try it?
Happy Sriracha Week! Errrr....well there's only 2 days left. Happy Sriracha Weekend!
[FTC Standard Disclaimer] I received no compensation for this post. We paid full price for the Sarabeth marmalade and Rooster sauce. I bought the BGE Mini-Max. I got the Char-Broil Kettleman as part of my sponsorship package last year. I have no affiliation with Huy Fong or Rogue Ale.