Hong Kong Style Barbecue Garlic Marinade

What is better than having a barbecue in summer! But are you getting tired of the supermarket marinade meat? Why not trying to make it by yourself and impress your friends and family with this simple, yet extremely delicious recipe.

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Hong Kong Style Garlic Marinade  (text recipe) 

- Yield: 500g
- Preparation time: 8 hours
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/Ingredients/

• 500g boneless chicken thighs/breast/fillet or chicken wings
• ½ teaspoon salt 
• ½ teaspoon corn flour
• ½ teaspoon white pepper
• 1 ½ teaspoon sugar
• ½ teaspoon mustard
• ½ teaspoon chili oil
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic
• ¼ teaspoon sesame oil

/Directions/

1. Mix together all the ingredients. 
2. Transfer the meat to a freezer bag. Get rid of the air as much as possible and tie a tight knot.
3. Refrigerate it for at least 8 hours.  

adapted from: Bonbon Kitchen

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A Hong Kong Barbecue can be an eight-hour activity and it's so different from the western style. Everyone sits around this kind of grill and takes care of their own food - if you can't get someone to grill it for you. 

I especially miss the Hong Kong style marinade for the meat being barbecued! There are several flavors commonly used (garlic, lemongrass, black pepper and honey). They're so distinguishable from each other and the tastes are all very intense, so you really don't need to add extra sauces.

Firstly the garlic taste -  my all time favorite! You can use this for different kinds of meat, but I think it tastes the best with chicken thighs and chicken wings - a match made in heaven. Feel free to try it with other meats and don't forget to tell me what you think - I don't want to miss a thing!

The ingredients for this marinade are just something very standard, you may already have them in your cupboard or, if not, you can easily find most of them in supermarkets - once again the perfect recipe; simple yet delicious!

You might need to get the sesame oil in an Asian market, they taste differently from those bought in the supermarket oil section - I've tried both and now this big bottle, mistakenly bought from the supermarket, is nothing more than a huge decoration in my small cupboard. But if you can't find any, you can just simply leave this out - it will still taste heavenly. 

Simply mix all the ingredients together in a large bowl, and then transfer it to a freezer bag. Lazy people like me may sometimes do it directly in a freezer bag.

Now we come to the most important step: getting rid of the air in the bag. This allows the meat to completely absorb the marinade - making the chicken nice and moist and bursting with that paradise flavor. Tie a tight knot and refrigerate it. It's recommanded to prepare one day in advance, but I tried to just kepp it in the fridge for around 8 hours and I think the intensity is more or less the same -  but you can experiment and let me know how it goes.

Want to try some more local Hong Kong barbecue tricks? When you're grilling the meat, put on some honey when the meat is 80% done and then grill it for one more minute. It gives an extra honey flavor to your meat and also a light golden touch on top - like the sun on those long summer nights. Guten Appetit~!