Chicken + Ham = Chickham?

My favorite fella likes to tease me about how specific my food cravings can be sometimes. But I use it to my advantage when it comes to meal planning! When the billboard for the new Wendy's pretzel burger was making my mouth water, I got some pretzel buns and made my own! (Not to mention, taking the time to make extra burger patties to freeze for easier prep next time.)

Anyway, I've been craving colcannon for the past couple of weeks. It's an Irish dish I discovered a few years back that boils down to (ha! I'm keeping that!) mashed potatoes with shredded cabbage. It goes really well with salty, cured meats like ham, bacon and corned beef (mmmmm). 

However, I'm not buying a lot of those pricier meats until I get my credit cards paid off. Time for some creative internet searching...

Enter torihamu!

Thank you, Japan!

I took my first crack at it, and it's quite good! This article at JustBento.com explains the process much more thoroughly, but, basically, you brine the chicken breasts in a mix of honey and salt in the refrigerator for two days. You can also add seasonings of your choice (I used a bit of garlic and clove to make it more ham-ish.) Then you rinse it really well, and steam or bake it at a low temperature. I went with baking, since the author of the article liked it best and seemed to know what she* was talking about. 

It ends up with a texture very like country ham! It got a big stamp of approval from my guy, so I can definitely see this being repeated, and it complimented the colcannon nicely!

 

 

Maybe this blog will force me to learn how to take nice photos someday

P. S. I made colcannon with red cabbage, since someone nabbed the entire crate of green while I was wandering the produce section. It tastes the same, and looks like purple Easter grass! Kinda fun. :)

*Please correct my pronoun if need be, maki!