Double Slaw Asian BBQ Sliders

My affection for Asian food is at an all-time high lately. We won't even get into my recent obsession with bubble tea (it's SO fun!). The idea for this recipe was born out of so many things. First of all, I have been dying to try kimchi.  I had a taste of it at a restaurant recently, but that wasn't enough. I knew that my local Harris Teeter carried it in the produce section and therefore I had ready access to it; I just needed to come up with a recipe with which to add it. I've also been seeing a bagillion recipes on Pinterest for barbeque sandwiches that look oh-so-delish! Being that I'm a vegetarian, I don't exactly get to enjoy such recipes. I wanted to think of a way to get the flavor and texture of shredded barbecue by using vegetarian means.  I came up with the idea to use mushrooms, since they are hardy and I could slice them real thin, like shredded meat - sort of. I wanted to include the kimchi in this recipe so I decided to do an Asian barbeque sauce in which to coat the "meat" and throw the kimchi on top of it in the sandwich. Kimchi is spicy though, so I wanted something to even out the spiciness. Regular barbeque sandwiches come with good ol' fashioned coleslaw either on the side or actually in the sandwich, so I figured I would do a coleslaw as well. It's not Asian-inspired, but hey - whatever! It tasted good!

Lastly - the sandwich part. I've been really into sliders lately, and again, the whole vegetarian thing tends to get in the way of a girl enjoying a slider! haha At least out at restaurants - when you make your own food at home, you can make it anyway you like! So instead of a full blown sami, I decided to do this recipe as sliders. Brilliant! I used Hawaiian sweet rolls because that was all my grocery store had that night, but feel free to use regular rolls instead if you prefer.

I don't recall ever having made barbeque sauce from scratch, so I researched the components of Asian barbeque sauce online before making my grocery list. I used this recipe for a base and added my own touches to tailor it to the flavor profile I was going for. I did the same thing with the coleslaw, though I ended up winging my own version instead of following a recipe and it turned out pretty well!

The thing I was most excited about for this recipe was that after looking at the recipe for the Asian bbq sauce, I realized a trip to my local Thai market would be prudent. That is seriously my favorite place to go to look for ingredients. It's like a foreign food wonderland! You never know what you're going to find. Go in with an open mind and heart and you will never leave unsatisfied.

Having said that, I understand that not everyone has a local Thai market located conveniently within their reach, but I think most of these ingredients should be easily found at a typical grocery store's Asian foods aisle.

OK, let's get cookin'!


Asian Inspired BBQ Sliders
Servings: Four mushroom sliders and four chicken sliders
Total time to cook and prepare: About an hour

I began with the coleslaw because you kind of want the flavors to marinate together and for the cabbage and carrots to get slightly softened. You need time on your side for this one.

Cole Slaw

Ingredients:
1/2 small head of cabbage, shredded
1/2 cup shredded carrots
4 tablespoons mayo
2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
1 teaspoon fresh cracked black pepper (FCBP), or to your taste
2 pinches salt

This recipe is pretty simple once you have all of your ingredients prepped, washed, and measured.

Make sure to rinse your shredded cabbage well. Place it in a colander and run cold water over it.

Lay some paper towels on your counter and spread the cabbage over them. Pat dry with more paper towels, then add your dry cabbage to a small bowl.

Add all of the rest of the ingredients to the bowl with your cabbage and stir to combine.

Stick the bowl in the fridge to chill and marinate while you make the rest of the meal.

BBQ Sauce

Ingredients:

6 tablespoons hoisin sauce

2 tablespoons rice vinegar (not seasoned)

1 tablespoon Asian fish sauce

1 tablespoon soy sauce

1 tablespoon agave nectar

1 teaspoon sriracha

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 sprig of sliced lemongrass

1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger root (don't forget to peel before you mince!)

1/8 teaspoon Chinese five-spice powder

1/3 cup sugar

 

Start by adding all of the ingredients, except the sugar, in a medium sized bowl.

 

Stir to combine.

 

Next, make the caramel base for the sauce. (I had never made caramel before so this was quite the challenge! Pay close attention while you are doing this. Do not multi-task while making the caramel. Trust me.)

 

Place the sugar in a dry, heavy saucepan over moderate heat.  

Cook, undisturbed, until the sugar begins to melt.

Continue to cook, stirring occasionally with a fork, until sugar is melted into a deep golden caramel.

Tilt the pan to one side and carefully pour in the hoisin mixture. The caramel will harden and steam  while you are doing this.

Adjust the temperature to moderately low heat and continue to cook, stirring the entire time, until caramel is dissolved and sauce is thickened - about 6 to 8 minutes.

By the end, your sauce should be more liquid-y.

Remove the pan from the heat and cool the sauce to room temperature. Use this time to make the mushrooms (and/or chicken).

 

P.S. I made more of this sauce the following day and used it to make barbeque chicken on the grill at a cookout. We tried to smother the chicken in the sauce before placing it on the grill - not a good idea. The sauce is SUPER sticky due to the caramel, so it would've been better to drizzle it over the warm chicken as it was grilling. Either way, I was informed that it turned out magnificently and everyone was really impressed. So that's another use for this delicious sauce :-)

Mushrooms (& Chicken)

There are so many varieties of mushrooms and everyone has their favorites. I couldn't decide which kinds of mushrooms to use for this dish, I like them all! My grocery store has them loose so you can choose what you want, so if you're lucky enough to be able to do that, I suggest choosing a few different ones. I did button, shitake, and cremini. The only ones I stayed away from were oyster because I don't think they work in this dish. So feel free to use whichever type you prefer.

Ingredients:
1 chicken breast
2 teaspoons peanut oil
2 teaspoons minced fresh ginger root (don't forget to peel before you mince!)
1 cup sliced mushrooms
1 teaspoons fresh cracked black pepper (FCBP)

1/8 teaspoon Chinese five-spice powder
3/4 cup Asian barbeque sauce

Start by grilling your chicken. We used a Forman grill, but it also works on an outdoor grill (obviously).

Just put the chicken breast on the grill and turn it over when the first side has golden brown grill marks on it.

Remove it from the grill and set it aside to let it rest for five minutes before shredding.

To shred the chicken, use two forks - one to hold the breast in place on your cutting board and the other to tear away at the meat.

Once the entire breast is shredded, place the meat in a small bowl.

 

Pour in about a half a cup of the Asian barbeque sauce and stir to coat the meat in the sauce.

Set aside until you're ready to make your sliders.

Now for the mushrooms!

Place a non-stick skillet over medium heat. Add the peanut oil and the minced ginger.

Allow the ginger to cook for about two minutes. Then add your mushrooms to the pan.

Sprinkle in the FCBP and Chinese five spice and stir.

Cook the mushrooms for about ten minutes, stirring occasionally. The mushrooms will cook down quite a bit.

Last, add 1/4 cup Asian barbeque sauce to the pan and stir to coat the mushrooms in the sauce.

Remove the pan from the heat.


Now, let's put it all together!! We are ready to make our sliders! Woot woot!

Sliders

Ingredients:
8 slider rolls
Mushroom mixture
1 chicken breast worth of shredded bbq chicken
Kimchi (to your taste)
About 8 tablespoons of coleslaw

I'm going to show you the chicken and mushroom slider assembly at the same time (even though they are pretty identical...)

Start by laying out the tops and bottoms of your sliders on a plate, like this:

Next, add a heaping tablespoon of either your mushroom mixture or shredded chicken to the bottom half of each slider bun.

Place a bit of kimchi over the mushrooms or chicken. Kimchi is rather spicy, so add as much or as little as you like.

Now, the coleslaw. Add a heaping spoonful of the coleslaw on top of the kimchi.

 

Lastly, place the top of the slider bun on top of all of the coleslaw.

How delicious do these look?! I am getting so hungry just looking at these babies!

Whip up a batch of my Thai Market Bangers or crack open a cold bottle of Kirin to go along with these little guys and enjoy! Salute!

And FYI - these are really filling! I could only eat three in one sitting, so I saved the fourth for lunch the next day. They taste just as good the following day as they did the first day, so don't be shy about saving one!