Season 3, Bonus 2:
Summer Shorts: Make Your Own Chicken Marinade (Small Plate)
Conner: (00:00)
Welcome to Kiddos in the Kitchen. A podcast hosted by my mom.
Stephanie Conner: (00:17)
In our house grilled chicken is a weekly staple. Sometimes I buy pre-marinated chicken from the store, but most of the time I'm throwing together my own. My son has named them. Mommy chicken number one, mommy chicken number two and so on. As a summer project I decided he should make his own marinade. So we spent some time in the kitchen, letting him develop Conner chicken number one. Spoiler alert, he loved the chicken and the process.
Conner: (00:48)
Yeah. I loved experimenting.
Stephanie Conner: (00:53)
Welcome to Kiddos in the Kitchen, a podcast about helping busy adults find the inspiration and information they need to teach the kids in their lives how to cook. I'm your host, Stephanie Conner. And in today's small plate bonus episode I'm sharing a second Mommy Summer School kitchen activity.
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Stephanie Conner: (01:35)
This second Mommy Summer School kitchen activity is an easy and fun way to have kids develop a recipe that's totally original and 100 percent theirs while they explore some new flavors. Here's the basic ratio I use for our chicken marinades: equal parts spices, water, and oil. I start with a third-cup measuring cup and add a couple tablespoons of sugar and a couple tablespoons of kosher salt. Now the rest of the cup will be filled with our choice of herbs and spices. Then I'll add a third cup of water and a third cup of olive oil. For this project I pulled out all, literally all of my spices and I invited my son to smell as many as his little nose could handle.
Stephanie Conner: (02:25)
Do we use chili powder? There's chili powder, whew.
Conner: (02:29)
Oh no, no. I might have to sneeze from all these spices.
Stephanie Conner: (02:35)
My son likes foods with a little kick. So there were a few sneezes, always away from the food, of course.
Stephanie Conner: (02:40)
That's the Chili 3000.
Conner: (02:41)
Oh, yeah. I want the Chili 3000.
Stephanie Conner: (02:49)
Whew. There's Sunny Spain and there's Four Seasons Pepper.
Stephanie Conner: (02:58)
Bless you. There's Singapore Seasoning. See what that smells like.
Conner: (03:03)
Smells good.
Stephanie Conner: (03:07)
You could also smell the garlic.
Conner: (03:09)
Oh, that smells good. Yeah.
Stephanie Conner: (03:13)
Mustard seed.
Conner: (03:15)
Oh mustard seed, add some of that.
Stephanie Conner: (03:19)
When he liked something, we set it aside for further consideration. After he'd had enough of smelling the spices, it was time to do the marinade.
Stephanie Conner: (03:29)
Do you want to do all of these or some of these? How do you want to do this?
Conner: (03:32)
I want to do all of them.
Stephanie Conner: (03:34)
Okay.
Conner: (03:34)
Yeah, I so want to do all of them.
Stephanie Conner: (03:37)
As he poured each spice into the cup I jotted down what he was doing in a notebook the official recipe. After all, if we really liked it we were going to need to know how to recreate it. He started with dried chives, then crushed red pepper.
Stephanie Conner: (03:54)
Crushed red pepper.
Conner: (03:57)
Yep.
Conner: (03:59)
I absolutely love this. This was that cross [inaudible 00:04:03].
Stephanie Conner: (04:04)
Yep, I think you're right.
Stephanie Conner: (04:08)
He added Chili 3000, a Penzeys spice blend, and then some dried shallots.
Conner: (04:16)
This is going to be so good.
Stephanie Conner: (04:16)
Maybe a teaspoon of that.
Conner: (04:16)
I hope that tastes good.
Stephanie Conner: (04:22)
We added our water and olive oil and let him whisk the marinade.
Conner: (04:30)
Oh, that tastes pretty good actually. Hey, Mom, come smell this. Smells pretty good.
Stephanie Conner: (04:30)
It does smell pretty good.
Stephanie Conner: (04:34)
Then it was time to taste test.
Stephanie Conner: (04:37)
Is the spice good?
Conner: (04:40)
Yeah, it's super good.
Stephanie Conner: (04:41)
Does it need to be spicier or garlickier?
Conner: (04:46)
No, it's good.
Stephanie Conner: (04:47)
All right.
Conner: (04:47)
Why are you not tasting it?
Stephanie Conner: (04:49)
No, it's yours, I trust you. I trust you, the chef, to create this marinate. I'm going to put the chicken in.
Stephanie Conner: (04:55)
We served his chicken with rice and a salad. And we all agreed the chicken was a winner. This was time in the kitchen well spent. He is exploring new flavors and eager to eat his chicken at dinner. He's experimenting with how flavors combine, and he's discovering the joy of playing in the kitchen. It's a pretty low-risk project as we're unlikely to make anything terrible. We also made Conner chicken number two and it was even better, he thought. And he has plans for Conner chicken number three.
Conner: (05:31)
I'm going to do more herbs. Conner chicken number two was just using the spices.
Stephanie Conner: (05:40)
I can't wait to see what he comes up with. Now it's your turn. I'll share Conner's chicken marinade recipes on kiddoscook.com. And I invite you to share your experiences with us. Tag @kiddoscook on social media and show us what you're making. Happy experimenting.
Stephanie Conner: (06:00)
Thanks for joining me for this Kiddos in the Kitchen Small Plate. I'm your host, Stephanie Conner, with a reminder from my son.
Conner: (06:07)
If you like my mom's podcast as much as I do, you can subscribe at Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Stephanie Conner: (06:26)
That's right, Conner. You can also view the show notes, subscribe to our newsletter and check out all of our other content at kiddosinthekitchen.com. We're Kiddos Cook on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. I encourage you to get your kiddos in the kitchen.