Backyard Luau
I’m back - bringing the themed date nights + festive vibes to these Summer nights at home. & I have a car ride to Yosemite that freed up lots of time to Pinterest, plan, and essentially recognize how much I’ve missed going just a little overboard to thank for the renewed effort. Being that’s is Summer, and my husband loves Hawaiian takeout, injecting some tropical vibes into a weekly meal just seemed warranted. So I leaned into the Backyard Luau theme, & can officially confirm that nothing shakes a Monday like pina-coladas at-home.
So Hawaiian food. My familiarity with Hawaiian food has many caveats, but I dove head first into typical plate lunch, so think Hawaiian BBQ takeout. Why? My husband LOVES Hawaiian food of this nature, & I love him for it. There was quite the stretch of time where if I was off doing my own thing during a Saturday afternoon, this guy was taking himself to the local Hawaiian BBQ spot for a little plate lunch. It was like his special weekend treat, sometimes something to look forward to after household chores. It was like “a thing” and I actually look back on this memory as one that’s kind of charming. Big picture - it told me that my husband is a guy who appreciates a Hawaiian plate lunch. But full on Hawaiian dinner has never really made it’s way to our at-home menu. Closest we’ve gotten is at-home sushi.
& as we’ve grown together, enjoyed a lot of meals together, I’ve come to find out that it’s mac salad that really puts it over the edge for him. & I can safely put an old school, nothing fancy mac salad in the category of Jordan’s top 5 things to eat. So really the goal of this dinner was to whip out a mac salad that was the best one my husband had ever had (mission accomplished by the way) & prepare supporting dishes that paired well with it. I landed on grilled teriyaki chicken + tropical fruit.
It’s all in the sauce
A Hawaiian plate lunch (in this case dinner) has to have some teriyaki vibes in my opinion. What is actually needs is a meat component + pairing sauce. I was dying to do this all grill-side, so teriyaki chicken that is heavy on the pineapple infusion was the route I went. I was for sure that kid that ordered teriyaki chicken while sitting at beachside restaurants in Hawaii with my parents. So to me - it’s island reminiscent. & whatever - it tastes great with mac salad, which was kind of the main goal here. I always loves getting a little bit of extra sauce to drizzle over sticky rice, dip my veggies in, & essentially enjoy to the fullest. This homemade sauce is super flavorful, the perfect combo or sweet + salty, it’s the part of this whole meal that just makes it real tasty.
Have you ever gone & bought a teriyaki sauce, been so excited to drizzle it over stick rice + stir fry, and then been so disappointed when you bite in because it just tastes off? That’s me literally every-time I buy a store bought teriyaki. This sauce is the savior to my at-home teriyaki dreams. First & most important - it’s delish. But it’s just the simplest, most delish teriyaki sauce ever. Pineapple juice + soy sauce + brown sugar simmered on low for at least 30 minutes thickens up like a dream and is just really freakin’ good. & it’s a sauce that tastes supremely good with everything in this meal. Like drizzled over the chicken + the rice - no brainer. But also not mad about any sauce that just nestles up next to the mac salad. Just all works perfectly together.
My little x-factor - smashed garlic cloves. Instead of just mincing everything up, I just gave each garlic clove a good smash & kept them whole. When this sauce goes from marinade to sauce-pan, the garlic cloves go with it. As it all heats up an cooks, the cloves get soft + tender, taking on all the flavor of the soy + pineapple, & remain a delish bite in themselves. & the whole cloves of garlic look really nice when it comes to plating & your spooning the sauce over the chicken, and a couple of the garlic cloves make their way onto the plate. Very appetizing!
It’s a carbo-load kind of vibe
Rice + mac salad + a sticky teriyaki sauce. I mean that’s how these Hawaiian BBQ places do it, & I wasn’t about to drift from tradition. & it’s kind of wrong that all these carby things taste so good togehter. Particularly macaroni salad + white rice. It’s pretty much the ultimate sin in my house to have any type of pasta + any type of rice in one meal, but when in Rome I guess. Here, it really is just so good. It’s like you need the rice to soak up all the teriyaki chicken goodness, and that creamy mac salad is the perfect side. Dangerous. Dangerous. DANGEROUS. But delicious all together, & I’m chalking this one up as being worth the once in a while carbo load.
The key - sneak in the veggies where you can. That’s something that’s super important to me (in general) + a theme for so many dinners at our home. In the case of macaroni salad, particularly Hawaiian mac salad, so many recipes look something like pasta + mayo + like 1 carrot. My thought - why? I combed through several online recipes, tried to catalogue all the different veggies I saw that people used, and like quadruple it. I went grabbed like 7 carrots out of the fridge, 5 ribs of celery, & shredded half an onion right into the dressing. And, I didn’t do this here, but hindsight tells me that even adding some shredded cabbage would work well to bulk up + lighten the mac salad.
We did however make good use of our garden lettuce. We plucked our ready to use butter lettuce and laid them right on the bottom of our plated rice + chicken. A pop of color + a refreshing crunchy element. Highly recommend adding a cruciferous green to your plate for a little freshness and contrast.
Keep the sides simple
I’m definitely no pro, but I’m pretty confident in saying that the key to pull off a composed, really nice meal at home is having a mix of hands-on + hands-off options. In other words, a balance between dishes that are taking a lot of time + attention (in this case, it was the chicken, sauce, & mac salad) with those that are throw and go. This can mean maybe it’s store bought (no shame, particularly if it’s a store bought item you enjoy and you’re pairing it with other food you’ve worked hard to prepare) or it just requires no real assembly. I went the no assembly route & steered my attention towards fresh fruit. Fresh pineapple + fresh papaya for simple, healthy sides, and a bite of a little something sweet. Takes 5 minutes to cut them up + throw in the fridge, so I highly recommend.
Tip: If you’re trying papaya, cube it up and drizzle with a squeeze of lime. The flavor is insanely good.
I really loved this date night at home. Pina coladas + Catan in the yard was a nice way to break up a Monday (which is our usual day off), & just a nice way to relax and enjoy our home together. Which is really the purpose of all of this - the food + the cocktail + the decorations - it’s about enjoying your own. I even asked my husband this go around “so what do you think of this? is the table-setting too extra + lame? or is it fun?” I was happy to hear him tell me he thinks it’s fun. His sentiment was that it’s not something we do all the time, & we get to really enjoy it. Ya - I snap a couple pictures in just a few seconds, but the key is to always be present and enjoy a date-night at home.
Usually we just cook-out + plate up with our “normal” dishware, and the bit of extra decor is few + far between. & it’s not really that over the top, both budget wise + effort wise. I spent $13 on those palm leaves on Amazon, it took about 2 minutes to lay them out on a table runner. The candles are my everyday table decor, and if you had candle-sticks or other tea lights, they’d work great too. It’s about enhancing what you have + not devoting that much time to throw together so you can really enjoy it. So hopefully this is a little inspo for anyone else trying to make date-night at home a little extra special.
But also - how cute are my husband + pup? So on theme I die.
For the mac salad
1 lb. elbow pasta
3 tbsp apple cider vinegar
1/2 a yellow onion, shredded
6-7 carrots, peeled and shredded
5-6 celery ribs, thinly sliced (included the leafy parts)
2 1/2 c. organic mayo
1 tbsp. almond milk (or other milk of choice)
2 heaping tsp. white sugar
Salt + pepper
Teriyaki chicken
2 lb chicken thighs
1 c. soy sauce
1 c. pineapple juice
1 c. brown sugar
4-5 garlic cloves, smashed
1 tbsp minced ginger
1 red onion, quartered
1 bunch of scallions, thinly sliced
1 c. white rice
1 pineapple, quartered, ribbed, & sliced
1 papaya, but into chunks
1 lime
sesame seeds or poke seasoning for garnish
Get the chicken marinading first. Whisk the soy, pineapple juice, sugar, garlic cloves, & ginger in a large glass dish. Add in the chicken, cover with saran, and refrigerate for at least 6 hours.
Move to making your mac salad (should be made at least 3 hours ahead of time but can be done even the day before). Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil, and cook the macaroni to al dente. Once cooked, drain, and toss the pasta with the vinegar, carrots, celery, + onion immediately. You want to do this while the pasta is hot. Let it sit for 15-20 minutes. In separates bowl, add the mayo, milk + sugar, and whisk together. Toss the pasta with dressing, cover, and set in the fridge until you’re ready to eat.
To grill the chicken, get the grill up to 400-450. As the grill is heating up, remove the chicken from the marinade, place the marinade in a saucepan over medium low heat, and bring to a simmer. Let the sauce simmer, reduce, and thicken up as you cook the chicken.
Simultaneously, bring 3 cups water to a boil, add in the white rice & cook while boiling for 3 minutes. Reduce the heat to medium low, cover, and let cook for 15-20 minutes (or until the rice is cooked through).
Place the cut pineapple & papaya in a bowl or on a plate, + drizzle the papaya with the juice of half a lime, Place in the fridge until you’re ready to eat.
As the rice + sauce cook, place the chicken on the grill. Cook on one side for about 7 minutes, keeping the temp at 400-450. Flip, and cook another 5 minutes or so. Add on the red onion when you flip. Once the cook time is up, remove the sauce from the stove & place in a ramekin with a spoon. Bring the sauce & serving tray to your BBQ, transferring the chicken + onion from bbq right to the serving platter. Drizzle with a couple spoonfuls of the sauce, & sprinkle with the sliced scallions.
When the rice has finished cooking, stir in a tsp of rice wine vinegar. Transfer to a boil & top with sesame seeds or poke seasoning.
Fill your table with the chicken, mac salad, rice, & fruit, and serve family style, Enjoy!