A Yucatán Barbecue Feast

      I have resorted to several of my quick and easy standby meals during the past couple of weeks as our family has been extra busy. The weeks leading up to the end of the school year are always hectic.  Finally, we have a weekend with nothing scheduled...and a three-day weekend at that. Tonight, I asked my 13-year-old son to choose a dinner, preferably something we could grill. I therefore suggested that we look at Bobby Flay's recipes on the Food Network website. My son chose Yucatán Chicken Skewers, Grilled Sweet Potatoes with Lime and Cilantro, and Avocado Salad with Tomatoes, Lime and (Toasted) Cumin Vinaigrette.

     My son has been taking a cooking class in middle school this year (called "Foods") so he wanted to help prepare the meal. We went to a nearby grocery store to purchase our supplies and found almost everything except for ancho chile powder and cumin seeds.
     We began by soaking the skewers and making the marinade. I taught my son how to put pressure on and roll the limes before squeezing them to get out the most juice.

We then added some fresh orange juice, minced garlic and  canola oil. I poured the marinade over 3/4 of the pieces of chicken thighs before I added some chipotle chile powder (in place of the ancho chile powder that I couldn't find) for my husband's portion. (I didn't skewer the chicken until after it had marinated since the skewers needed additional time to soak.)

     Next, we put three sweet potatoes in a tall stockpot to boil.  Our grocery store only had gigantic sweet potatoes, with the exception of one. This created a problem as they cooked: while the outsides of the two large potatoes cooked until they were soft, the inner cores were still rather hard. I couldn't keep cooking them, however, as the outsides would have fallen apart.

As the sweet potatoes cooked, we mixed kosher salt, a little bit of cayenne pepper, and lime zest. My son didn't realize that the outer portion of citrus fruits is sometimes used in cooking - it was fun to give him some cooking instruction as we made our meal.

Once the potatoes cooled, I sliced them into wedges, brushed them with canola oil, and sprinkled kosher salt and pepper on them.
     Lastly, we began working on our salad. We first made the dressing, a whisked mixture of lime juice, olive oil, canola oil, chopped cilantro, rice wine vinegar, honey, and cumin (the recipe called for toasted cumin seeds here but I couldn't find any so I just used some ground cumin).

I then coarsely chopped up avocados and tomatoes, added sliced red onion, fresh chopped cilantro, and arugula.
     My husband fired up the grill and we put the now-skewered chicken thighs on it as well as the sweet potato wedges, plus some whole scallions (green onions) that my son had brushed with olive oil. The chicken recipe called for raw chopped scallions to be served on the chicken when it was done but I thought it would be nicer to grill some instead, Mexican-style.
     Once the sweet potatoes cooked, I sprinkled them with the salt/cayenne/lime zest mixture. I was actually supposed to sprinkle some fresh cilantro on them as well but totally forgot - oops! I tossed the dressing with the salad while my son set the outdoor table. My husband carried over the chicken skewers and we dug into our delicious meal. My son did not eat the salad, as he will never eat salad, but we all thoroughly enjoyed the dishes that we ate. I particularly liked the grilled sweet potatoes as I had never had anything like them before tonight.

     Dirty Dish Count: I kind of lost track since there were so many! I know I used: One large stockpot, two cutting boards, two small bowls, one basting brush, one whisk, three measuring spoons, three measuring cups, one fork, one spoon, one zester, one garlic peeling tube, one garlic mincer, two pairs of tongs, one salad tossing set (fork and spoon), two casserole dishes, 24 skewers, one rectangular tupperware (without lid), three kitchen knives, two serving platters, one serving bowl, barbecue thermometer, and one pair of barbecue tongs. (The photo below shows about 1/3 of the dirty dishes!)

     It was so much fun to cook with my son. And I really enjoyed trying out some Bobby Flay recipes - something I have always intended to do. Next time, I'll have my daughter choose the menu and help me prepare it. Wish me luck!