Super Bird Sandwich

When I went to Hawaii a billion years ago, ok not that long ago, but it seems like forever.  I figured out what the expensive part of the trip was.  It wasn't the flight or the hotel or even the activities for the day, it was the food.  Seriously!  We ate our first dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe in Honolulu and the bill for just myself was about $35.  Yikes!!  My friend and I discovered a Denny's right around the corner from our hotel and we averaged about $10 a meal.  Much more affordable, and thus my love of Denny's was born.

There are so many great things to eat there, from the pancake bites to the omelette's.  But my favorite sandwich is the Super Bird.  I order this about 95% of the time.  Then I figured out that I wanted to make it at home.  It's become a weekly thing for me now.  I hope you all enjoy!

Super Bird Sandwich

Sourdough Bread

Tomatoes

Turkey Lunch Meat

Bacon

Swiss Cheese

Butter

Butter one side of 2 slices of  bread.  Slice tomatoes.  Cook bacon (the best way is in the oven so they lay flat).  Then warm up either a frying pan or electric skillet to a medium heat.  You are going to make these the same way you would make a grilled cheese sandwich.  Lay one piece of bread, butter side down on warm skillet.  Then layer Swiss cheese, bacon, turkey, and tomato.  Then you put your second piece of bread on top, butter side up.  Cook on a medium heat till bread is toasted and a light golden brown.  Carefully flip your sandwich over and cook the other side.  Serve warm.

If you want to add mayonnaise or miracle whip you can, but I think the sandwich has enough flavor all on it's own.

Samoan Chicken

My mom and I talked one day, a few months ago, about our usual subjects and recipes came up.  I gave her my hummus recipe and I told her how sick I was of cooking the same things, or new recipes that just weren't very good.  She started naming old tried and true recipes to see if I'd cooked them in a while.  Nothing sounded good... then she said Samoan Chicken.  I had no idea what she was even talking about because this is not a recipe I grew up with.  She got it only a few years ago from my sister Katie's friend, Amy's- Husband, who is in fact Samoan...  So you know this has to be good!  So I made it, and loved it!   And the next day we warmed it up and threw it on our salads and loved it even more!!!  My husband regularly asks me to marinade it so he can cook it on the grill.  This chicken is so good the next day, it's almost worth it to cook it, and wait 24 hours just to reheat and eat again.  So when you make this make extra  so you can have a round 2 recipe for a few days later in the week!


Samoan Chicken

1 small bottle of soy sauce
1/2 bag of brown sugar
1 1/2 piece of ginger peeled and chopped fine
             (or get it in a squeeze tube like me and use 1 1/2 T.)
2 cloves garlic chopped fine (or 1 tsp minced from jar)
3-4 lbs chicken thighs (or we do breasts a lot)

Mix together the soy sauce and brown sugar until mostly dissolved.  Then add ginger and garlic, and mix.  At this point you can either 
1-add the chicken and the marinade into freezer bags and pop them right into the freezer (thaw in the fridge 24 hours before grilling)..... 
2- or you can leave the marinade in your fridge over night like my mom does to let the flavors marinade add the chicken and let marinade the next day for 2 hours.
3- be like me and instead of the thighs which although is really good, I add breasts instead because that's what I usually have on hand and let the chicken thaw in the marinade most of the day.

Then when it's all ready,  throw it on the grill add marinade on top a few time to add more criminalization while grilling.  Grill until no longer pink in the middle.

This chicken is so versatile there is a few ways we eat it---

1- with the thighs we serve it with potatoes and gravy and a veggie
2-with breasts we serve it with rice-a-roni and a fruit salad
3- you could do kabobs and put it on sticks with veggies before grilling
4- the next day for lunch we usually warm up the chicken and serve it over a cold, crisp salad with ranch dressing (as seen in picture)
5- on big rolls as a sandwich

This is seriously the best chicken marinade and so good with so many things... play around with different sides and leave us a comment with what you come up with!  

Honey Lime Grilled Chicken & Mango Salsa

Honey Lime Grilled Chicken

Marinade:
2 TBSP Honey
2 TBSP Lime Juice
1 tsp minced garlic
1/4 tsp chili powder
1/3 c water

Place chicken in a shallow dish (you can use any chicken pieces, I used chicken breasts cut in half).  Pour marinade over chicken.  Cover with plastic wrap and store in fridge for at least an hour.  Then cook chicken on grill till chicken is no longer pink inside.

Mango Salsa

1 peeled mango, seeded and diced (about 2 cups)
1/4 c diced white onion
1/4 c diced red bell pepper
1 tsp fresh cilantro, minced
1 tsp lime juice
pinch of salt

I love when the weather heats up and I can get out of my stuffy kitchen and outdoors.  My family loves fresh fruit, veggies and grilled food in the summer.  This was something new for us.  (I'm trying to incorporate more fruit into our diet).  At first my husband wasn't sure he even wanted to try it, but I asked everyone to eat 1 bite.  It turns out they loved it.  (We served our chicken over rice, but you could have it without)  You could also use this fresh mango salsa on fish tacos or even eat it by itself with a few corn chips.