A1 Original Steak Marinade Review

DH decided to BBQ today out of the blue and surprise, surprise..I hadn't anticipated defrosting meat because it's January and I had planned on making Beef Stew today. But not to worry, because I am frequently unprepared and forget to pull meat out of the freezer ahead of time, so I knew just what to do. I figured it would be the perfect excuse to try out this A1 marinade packet I've been dying to use! 

The instructions are fairly self-explanatory.  I mostly followed them, using the white vinegar because I didn't see my red wine vinegar within the first 30 seconds of looking and of course I used evoo. 

I was kind of expecting it to look darker colored like A1 sauce and the color that it did look like was not that appetizing, just to be honest, but the show must go on!

I mixed it up well and then stuck my frozen steaks straight in the marinade, sealing it up and smooshing the marinade all over the steaks so they were covered in this brown goopy stuff. 

Then I stuck the bag in a bowl of cold water on the counter to help it defrost. 

Once defrosted, hubby grilled these bad boys up. 

But, I have to say that the seasoning left much to be desired. It wasn't bad. It just wasn't knock your socks off good. I actually prefer my homemade steak rub. I love love love A1 steak sauce so I bought 2 of these. Now I'm kind of thinking I will just use the other packet as a meat rub and call it a day, but I can definitely say I'll not be buying this again.

Mojito Lime Chicken

Add 2 TBS water, 1/4 cup evoo, a packet of Mojito lime McCormick grill mates, and 2 TBS of white wine vinegar. Add in 2 lbs of chicken. Mix to coat chicken well.

Can be frozen at this point. When ready to eat, just grill or bake at 375 degrees until fully cooked. Awesome over rice.

Bruschetta Chicken

Add 1/3 of a cup of evoo to a gallon freezer bag. Add in one pkg of McCormick gourmet sweet basil & oregano Bruschetta Chicken recipe and seasoning mix. 

Add in 1 lb of chicken. I chose boneless, skinless chicken thighs. 

And 1 big can with juice (approx 28 oz) or approx 2 lbs fresh (around 10) plum tomatoes, quartered.

Then add in a TBS of balsamic vinegar.

Seal and mix well.

At this point, it can be frozen if you are making the freezer meal version.

Add to a baking pan and bake at 425 degrees for approx 30 minutes. 

Meanwhile, cook and then drain a pkg of speggetti or angel hair pasta or start a batch of rice in the rice cooker. 

When chicken mixture is cooked and cool enough to handle, cut chicken into bite size pieces. As you can see from the picture, it will be a big soupy, delicious mess when it's finished.

Toss with the pasta and sprinkle with a little parmesan, if desired or serve over rice.

Delicious! Even my kiddo that's a tomato-hater always asks for seconds. 

Tandoori chicken

We have a rather large family, so this is a fairly large batch. Feel free to half this recipe or freeze half the batch as a freezer meal. 

First I started with about 2/3 cup plain yogurt. 

Then you add in 4 tsps each (or in my case about 2 small glugs each) of lemon juice and olive oil.

Next, you add 2-3 TBS of tandoori seasoning. 

You can make your own if you wish. (Post soon to follow.) But to give you some kind of idea, this is which spices my store bought spice mix contains.

Then add a sprinkle of salt and mix well. 

I then added in 12 chicken legs. (Which is 1.5 of the bags of frozen chicken legs that Aldis sells, just FYI. I always buy 3 bags and that equals 24 drumsticks, which I just split in half for 2 meals. These bags are only $2.69 at my Aldi.)

Then you mix well, making sure all the chicken is well-coated (because the yogurt helps tenderize the chicken while the spices amp up the volume). It ends up looking something like this.

I let it sit in the refrigerator like this for 2-3 hours or overnight if I'm actually planning ahead. (At this point you could freeze half the batch in a gallon freezer bag if you so desired.) 

Oh and quick note, I never remember to defrost meat ahead of time so my chicken usually goes in frozen and defrosts in the marinade.

After it's done marinating, I give it a good stir and pop the entire contents of the bowl in 2 square silicone pans. Feel free to use pans of your choosing or even stick them on the grill. I just like the way silicone pans never have to be scrubbed too hard so I use them for almost everything.

Bake at 425 degrees for 45 mins to an hour or until done to your liking. At my house that means well, well done, hence the very crispy chicken in the picture. Feel free to cook yours to your family's specifications. 

And if you can't tell from my plate, this chicken is lovely with jasmine rice soaked in the leftover marinade/juices in the pan. So, so yummy!