December 28, 2011: Orange Chicken Recipe

Unlike the very popular Orange Chicken you find on the menu at many Chinese restaurants, this recipe has fewer calories and a fresher taste. It’s easy to prepare and yummy served with plain or fried rice and a side of crisply sautéed veggies.

Orange Chicken served with fried rice.

Orange Chicken

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

Salt and pepper

¼ cup cornstarch

1 t. sesame oil

1 T. soy sauce

1 T. rice wine vinegar

1 T. water

2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced on the diagonal

3 green onions, thinly sliced on the diagonal, white and green parts separated

Sesame seeds

Vegetable oil

Orange Sauce:

1/3 cup orange juice

1 T. soy sauce

1 T. honey

1 t. ginger, finely minced

1 t. sesame oil

1 t. cornstarch

1 t. water

Sprinkle chicken breasts with salt and pepper on both sides. Cut chicken into approximately 1 1/2-inch square chunks. Toss together with cornstarch, soy sauce, vinegar and water. Refrigerate for several hours.

Prepare orange sauce by combining all ingredients in a small bowl.

Add enough oil to a wok to cover the bottom. Heat to medium high. Carefully place the chicken chunks into the oil and fry until completely cooked, turning as necessary, for a few minutes. You may have to cook two separate batches to ensure the chicken gets crispy and doesn’t overcrowd the wok. Remove with a slotted spoon to a paper plate or plate lined with paper towels. Set aside.

Reduce wok heat to low. Remove all but one tablespoon of oil from the wok. Add the white parts of the sliced green onions and garlic. Saute for one minute. Add the sauce and slowly bring to a boil. When sauce has thickened, add the cooked chicken back in and heat through.

To serve, spoon chicken and sauce onto plate or over plain cooked rice. Sprinkle with green parts of sliced onion and sesame seeds.

Serves 2

April 14, 2011: Sweet and Sour Chicken Recipe

Many years ago, when my dad needed to something to do (i.e. a hobby), he enrolled in a Chinese cooking course. He came away from that class with a small cookbook authored by the instructor and a passion for making Chinese food each and every day, using the methods he’d learned. I can definitely say that he has mastered the art!

Dad passed that cookbook along to me and I’ve used it ever since. Although it only contains eight menus of a few recipes each, it’s invaluable. The dishes are all ones that I’d eat (as opposed to some of the more exotic Chinese recipes I’ve come across) and the instructions are clear.

This recipe for Sweet and Sour Chicken (actually it’s for pork but I used chicken instead to go along with this month’s theme) comes from that cookbook, entitled Be a Chinese Cook Tonight by Sue Nelson. Ms. Nelson recommends using dry sherry in the sauces but that’s not an ingredient I normally have around the house so I’ve included here my own substitution.

Sweet and Sour Chicken served with Jasmine Fried Rice and sauteed snow peas with water chestnuts

Sweet and Sour Chicken

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into ½ inch cubes
1 T. + 1 t. cornstarch
1 T. rice wine vinegar
1 t. honey
½ t. salt
1 t. sesame oil
2 garlic cloves, coarsely chopped
½ bell pepper (orange or red is a nice change from green), cut into ½ inch cubes
½ onion, coarsely chopped into ½ long pieces
1 ½ cups fresh pineapple, cut into ½ inch chunks
Coconut or peanut oil, for frying

Combine the cornstarch, vinegar, honey, salt, and sesame oil in a large, nonreactive bowl. Add the cubes of chicken and let sit at room temperature about half an hour.

Meanwhile, prepare the vegetables and the sauce.

Sweet and Sour Chicken in the wok

Sweet and Sour Sauce:
Juice from pineapple
3 T. soy sauce
2 T. ketchup
2 T. chicken broth
2 T. rice wine vinegar
2 T. sugar
1 T. cornstarch

Mix all ingredients together in a small bowl and set aside.

Heat up your wok (or a large, deep saucepan) to 375 degrees. Add enough oil to cover one third of the chicken cubes. Fry the chicken in batches for about 5 minutes each batch, until done. Transfer to a bowl lined with paper towels and keep warm.

Drain off excess oil until you have about one tablespoon left. Heat to 325 degrees. Add a teaspoon of sesame oil. Quickly stir fry the garlic and onion, then add the bell peppers. Cook just until tender-crisp. Add the pineapple and stir fry for another minute. Pour in the sweet and sour sauce and reduce heat to low, stirring constantly until sauce thickens. Add in the reserved, cooked chicken and toss together until heated through.

Tips: To make cutting the chicken easier and the resting time safer, don’t thaw it all the way.
You can also use an 8-ounce can of pineapple in place of the fresh fruit.

To make the menu as shown above, start by frying the chicken cubes; reserve any leftover oil. Next, quickly stir fry the vegetables and remove; keep warm in the oven along with the chicken. Prepare the fried rice (recipe for fried rice here) and place in an oven-safe dish to keep warm alongside the vegetables and chicken. Finally, prepare the vegetables and sweet and sour sauce for the main dish and keep warm in the wok until dinner is served.

April 12, 2011: Teriyaki Roasted Chicken Recipe

One of my favorite Sunday dinners is roasted chicken. While I normally use a combination of lemon juice, garlic, and olive oil, I wanted something a bit different so I came up with this recipe for a teriyaki sauced chicken.

The soy sauce in this recipe turns the chicken a nice dark brown color while the honey crisps up the skin. Because it is so flavorful, side dishes needn’t be anything fancy; some rice (or Asian noodles as pictured here) and crispy sautéed sugar snap peas work really well.

Teriyaki Roasted Chicken
One small whole fryer chicken
½ cup soy sauce
1 t. sesame oil
1 T. olive oil
¼ cup honey
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 t. finely minced ginger (either fresh or bottled)

Rinse the chicken and pat it dry. Place it on a rack in a roasting pan, breast side down. Combine remaining ingredients and pour/rub over both sides of chicken. Bake at 325 degrees for an hour and a half or until done. Periodically baste with sauce in the bottom of the pan. About 15 minutes before cooking is complete, turn chicken over to crisp the breast skin.

March 7, 2011: Plum Sauce Recipe

Do you ever dream about food? I do, quite frequently (guess that says something about my psyche!). The other night my dream was about fried rice so, of course, I had to make a Chinese meal for dinner the next day. I thought about making sweet and sour pork to go along with the fried rice but I didn’t have any pineapple. What I did have, however, were plums I’d canned last summer. So instead of the traditional red sweet and sour sauce with pineapple, I decided to try my hand at plum sauce. After doing a bit of research online, I came up with my own variation.

I don’t know if it was because I was really hungry that night or whether the sauce was just plain good but the meal came out fantastic!

This sauce is really versatile. It can be used as I did – added to stir-fried chunks of pork, onion, and bell pepper – or as a unique brush-on glaze for pork loin or ham, a dipping sauce for egg rolls, or for any recipe in place of sweet-sour sauce.

Plum Sauce

1 clove garlic, minced
1 t. finely minced ginger
2 t. sesame oil
1 t. – 1 T. red chili sauce (found in the Chinese food section of the store; the amount depends on the level of heat you prefer)
1 pint jar canned plums (or a store-bought jar of plums or plum preserves)
¼ cup rice wine vinegar
¼ cup brown sugar

In a medium-sized saucepan, sauté the garlic and ginger in the sesame oil until soft and fragrant, approximately 2 – 3 minutes. While it’s cooking, pour the jar of plums plus liquid into a blender and liquefy (don’t worry if there are still small chunks of plums left). Add the chili sauce, plums, vinegar and sugar to the saucepan. Heat over medium heat until boiling. Reduce heat and simmer until thickened. If the sauce is too thin, thicken with a teaspoon or so of cornstarch mixed with water.

Enjoy!

February 10, 2011: Jasmine Fried Rice Recipe

Recently I started using jasmine rice instead of the plain old white variety and boy, is it ever scrumptious! I never would have guessed how much difference the type of rice could make but there’s simply nothing as fragrant and delicious as jasmine rice – and it makes a truly delectable fried rice, one of my husband’s favorite dishes.

The bad news is that jasmine rice costs more than regular white rice. Fortunately, I had a coupon and found a big bag of it on sale at the grocery store so I didn’t feel like I was blowing my food budget.

My fried rice is meant to be a side dish rather than an entrée but you could certainly add meat or tofu to this recipe to make a complete meal-in-one. As a side dish this recipe will serve 4 to 6 people and with added protein as a main dish will serve about 3 to 4 people.

Jasmine Fried Rice

2 (dry) cups jasmine rice, cooked according to package directions
2 t. water
1 medium carrot, peeled and cut into small dice
Oil
1 small clove garlic, minced
1 t. freshly grated ginger root
2 green onions, finely chopped
½ cup frozen or fresh green peas
2 eggs
Salt and pepper to taste
Soy sauce

Prepare the rice earlier in the day so it has enough time to cool completely before making the fried rice. Sprinkle with the water right before adding to the frying pan or wok.

Place the carrots in a microwave-safe dish and cover with water. Cover the dish with plastic wrap and microwave on high until the carrots are softened, about a minute or two.

Use a wok or a large saucepan. Heat it to medium high and add oil just to cover the bottom (about 1 to 2 tablespoons). Add garlic and ginger and sauté for half a minute. Add the dampened, cooled rice (it should sizzle when it hits the oil). Stir frequently with a spatula until it starts to get crispy. Add the cooked carrots and stir, followed by the green onions, and then the peas, stirring with the spatula after each addition (if you’re making this a main dish, add cooked meat such as shrimp, pork, or chicken now). Heat the vegetables through.

Make a well in the center of the wok or saucepan by pushing the rice mixture up the sides. Add another tablespoon of oil in the well, then break the two eggs into it. Scramble the eggs with a spatula so the whites and yolks are incorporated; cook just until they are slightly set. Add salt and pepper to taste and stir the rice into the eggs, mixing well. Sprinkle with soy sauce to taste and stir once more before serving.