Korean Marinaded Chicken Filet, Brussel Sprouts with Balsamic Glaze, and Toasted Avocado

Hello! When I first started this blog, I had a lot of posts that featured my own cooking and recipes, but as the blog developed, it mostly revolved around restaurant reviews. I have had a couple of friends telling me about how much they enjoyed my recipes and how they learnt how to make a specific dish from my blog. Hearing such things has always made me so happy so I will make it a point to include more cooking/recipe posts!

This was a meal I made for T and I didn't take too many step by step pictures as I was not originally planning to post this! T is always talking about his salads and chicken breasts and I wanted to make him something just as healthy but a little bit more interesting. I got my Brussels Sprouts recipe from The Pioneer Woman and just made some minor adjustments. The recipes here are super simple and T seemed to have quite enjoyed it even though he was suffering from a raging hangover :)

Korean Marinated Chicken

Ingredients
- Chicken filets
- Korean Marinade (you can get these in most supermarkets but I am certain they have it at City Super and the supermarket in SOGO. The one I used was actually for beef kalbi but it worked really well with the chicken too!
- Ziplock bag (This is not essential as you can also marinade the meat in a bowl but I had to bring the ingredients to T's house to cook it therefore the ziplock bag was very convenient)

Directions
1) Wash and pat dry the chicken filets with paper towels.
2) Poke holes into the chicken filets with a fork. This will help the marinade penetrate the meat more. 
3) Place chicken filets in the ziplock bag and pour in a decent amount of marinade. I did not measure the amount but you need to make sure that there is enough marinade for all the chicken pieces to be submerged and exposed to the marinade.
4) Close the bag (duh) and massage around the chicken to ensure that the marinade is distributed evenly and that all the pieces of chicken are covered. 
5) Place in fridge and marinate overnight. 

The next day

1) Heat olive oil in a frying pan and allow the pan to get quite hot in order to get a nice browning on the chicken.
2) Cook each side for approximately 5 minutes. After browning the chicken for around 1 minute, turn down the heat or else it will be burnt. 

Brussels Sprouts with Balsamic Glaze 

Ingredients
- 2 packs of Brussels Sprouts (I forgot to check how large each bag was but you can get a estimate of the amount from the pictures. These were washed and trimmed already but I still trimmed off some stalks and gave them a quick rinse anyways)
- 1/2 cup balsamic vinegar 
- Salt and Pepper 

Directions 
1) Preheat oven to 375˚F/180˚C
2) Trim and wash the Brussels Sprouts. Lightly pat dry with paper towels. Do not get rid of the leaves that fall out, they turn deliciously crispy when baked! 
3) I preferred my Brussels Sprouts to be halved but I kept the smaller ones intact. 
4) Line a baking pan with aluminum foil and pour in the Brussels Sprouts. 

5) Sprinkle with salt, pepper, and olive oil. Toss to distribute evenly. 

6) Bake for around 25-30 minutes or until the Brussels Sprouts are nicely golden. The glaze takes around 15 minutes to make so plan accordingly. 

Tip: do not be fooled by the color on the top, it will be slightly golden but the bottom of the sprouts which are touching the foil will be very nicely browned. If you wait until the top is very brown the bottom will most likely be burnt! 

Making the Glaze 

1) Pour 1/2 cup of balsamic vinegar into a pot and simmer for 15 minutes until the vinegar is nice and thick. The Pioneer Woman recipe called for sugar too but I felt that the reduced vinegar is quite sweet enough. 
2) Drizzle the glaze over the Brussels Sprouts and toss around. 

Toasted Avocado

This is pretty straight forward, you can easily eat the avocado as it is but T wanted to contribute to the cooking and I do think that the toasting of the avocado does make it slightly more creamy :) Sprinkle with some black pepper. 

Tada!