Mmmmm. Teriyaki and the Tropics!

Since it's the weekend, I thought I'd post a recipe for the grill. Teriyaki is something we've been missing since moving to Arizona. In our past life, we had a large selection of little mom & pop teriyaki joints close to us where we could call in an order and pick it up in 15 minutes. And usually one order of teriyaki chicken and rice was enough to feed both of us. Yum!

Recently we decided we were in a rut and I HAD to come up with a decent substitute for chicken teriyaki. So Cindy McCain style (the cookie debacle), I had my assistant (that would be me) do an internet search, pull a recipe off the internet, modify it slightly, and now I'm calling it my own.

Asian Teriyaki Chicken

1/4 c. low sodium soy sauce

1/4 c. packed brown sugar

1/4 t. curry powder

1/2 t. red pepper flakes

Juice of 1 lime along with lime zest

8 skinless boneless chicken thighs

Combine first 5 ingredients and pour over chicken thighs placed in a zip-lock bag. Marinate at least 4 hours, then grill. Drain marinade into saucepan and boil for at least a minute. Use this sauce to baste the chicken while grilling. We also grill pineapple slices to serve with the chicken and rice.

We like this recipe better than the Chicken Teriyaki carryout (which is a good thing since we haven't found a place here). I think it's a little spicier than the average teriyaki due to the red pepper flakes, but we're hooked!

Teriyaki always reminds me of the tropics. In addition to teriyaki chicken, I love a good teriyaki burger. My favorite on Kauai is the teriyaki burger with pineapple and cheese at Duane's Ono Burger. But it's a bit of a drive and there's usually a long line. So sometimes we just settle for Bubba's in Hanalei. It's not gourmet, but Bubba's is a quick place to pick up a quick dinner after an afternoon of snorkeling.

One evening we were sitting outside by Bubba's enjoying our burgers and fries. We'd been too hungry to make our nightly trip down to the beach to enjoy the sunset before dinner. It must have been good karma because we were presented with a beautiful 'fire in the sky' sunset right there at the picnic table!

Here's a little bit more spice from around the island.