Sweet n Sour Chicken

Who needs take out when you can make this meal?!  That was exactly what I asked Brian when I set this new recipe in front of him.  I made this last week for the first time and it turned out really well. There are a lot of ingredients so it was a little overwhelming making it the first time - I was nervous about omitting an ingredient (which I have been guilty of in the past).  This was a great meal and it definitely satisfied my craving for take out Chinese and sweet and sour!  Enjoy!

Here's the recipe (a modified Rachael Ray one)
Serves 4

Ingredients:

1 cup of brown rice (or white)
2 scallions, finely chopped

2 T vegetable oil
4 chicken breasts, diced
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1 inch ginger, peeled and grated
2 green bell peppers, seeded and diced
1 L onion, diced
1 can pineapple chunks, reserve the juice
pepper

Sauce:
1 T hot sauce (I use Frank's Red Hot sauce)
Juice of 1 lime
3 T honey
3 T soy sauce
3 T red vinegar
1 can (8 oz) tomato sauce
1 T cornstarch

Method:

Prepare rice according to package directions.  Once cooked, stir in scallions.

While rice is cooking, place a large skillet over High heat.  Add oil to pan.  While oil is heating up, combine hot sauce, lime juice, honey, soy sauce, tomato sauce and cornstarch in a small bowl, stirring to dissolve the cornstarch.  Set aside.

When skillet is hot, add chicken and cook until browned.  Add garlic, ginger, peppers and onions.  Stir fry the meat and veggies for 2 minutes more.  Add pineapple and some juice (I did this to help prevent everything from burning).  Add in tomato sauce.  Stir everything together.  Bring to a boil and cook for 1 minute more to thicken sauce.

Season everything with pepper and serve chicken over the scallion rice.

Buffalo Chicken Wrap

Buffalo chicken sandwiches were one of the first things I started cooking. I learned how to make the sauce from one of Rachael Ray’s cookbook. After the sauce, there isn’t much needed in order to make the sandwich. Well, after a recent visit to Cheddar’s, I decided to transform my buffalo chicken sandwich into a wrap. The wrap is definitely less messy and delicious and has taken the place of the sandwich.

Here’s the recipe:
For 2 wraps

Disclaimer: I never measure ingredients when I make this sauce, just eye ball it. Here are my best estimates as to what I use.
Sauce:
1 T butter
1 T flour
1.5 – 2 T hot sauce
Wrap:
8 oz cooked chicken, cubed
~1 cup of coleslaw or cabbage (I’ve been using the pre-made coleslaw mix – not the deli version)
¼ c + shredded cheese
about 6 dill pickle slices
Ranch dressing

For the sauce: melt butter in a small sauce pan over low heat. Add flour and whisk. Add hot sauce, allow sauce to thicken and heat through. If sauce is too thin, add flour. If too thick, add water. When sauce is ready, stir in cooked chicken to coat.

Warm up tortillas in microwave for about 20 seconds (this make the tortilla easier to roll and less likely to tear). Keep ingredients down the center of the tortilla. Top with cheese and coleslaw. Top with coated chicken and pickles. Drizzle Ranch on top.  Roll up tortilla. Slice in the middle.

Here’s the result (shown with Parm Potatoes and asparagus)!

Reese Cupcakes

Today is Brian's birthday!  HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my gorgeous husband!  In honor of his birthday, I made cupcakes!  Baking is not really my thing.  It's messy and I hate having temptations around because I have no self control when it comes to chocolate.  All that being said, it was amazing making this from stratch (except the Reese cup part).  I think in the future I will always try to make things from scratch as opposed from a box.  It's a much bigger feeling of self accomplishment and it's not really that difficult! 

For this recipe I used a chocolate cake recipe and added a Reese's Cup to each cupcake liner.  They turned out delicious, but the bottoms of my cupcakes stuck to the paper liners.  I'm not sure if this is because I used paper liners (instead of foil) or if I cooked them just a little too long (22 minutes) and maybe the bottom burnt a little?  The rest of the cupcake is fine so I'm leaning toward the paper liners being the culprit.

Here's the cake recipe:
Makes 30 cupcakes or 1 cake
Ingredients
2 c sugar
1 3/4 c all-purpose flour
3/4 c hershey's cocoa
1 1/2 t baking powder
1 1/2 t baking soda
1 t salt
2 eggs
1 c milk
1/2 c vegetable oil
2 t vanilla extract
1 c boiling water

Method
Preheat oven to 350F.  Grease and flour two 9-inch round baking pans (if making the cake).

Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl.  Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla.  Beat on medium speed for 2 minutes.  Stir in boiling water (batter will be thin). 

Pour batter into prepared pans.  Bake 30-35 minutes or until a wooden toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Or for the cupcake version: Put the liners in the pans.  Add a reese's cup to each liner.  Add batter over the reese cup.  And fill about 2/3 full.  bake 22-25 minutes. Cool completely.  Frost!

Peanut Butter Icing
Ingredients
Peanut butter (I used about 2 c for 1/2 of the above recipe - which really made 20 cupcakes since the reese's cup takes up some room).
dash of milk
dash of vanilla
powdered sugar to desired consistency

Mix peanut butter, vanilla and milk.  Add sugar to get desired consistency.  I used enough sugar until the peanut better was moldable (and not sticky).

Yum!  Here's a picture!

 

Peanut Orange Carrot Salad

I've been trying to find more veggie sides instead of only focusing on the main course.  With this one I hit the jackpot!  I am not very fond of carrots for some reason, but I know they are a good souce of vitamins.  Well pair them with peanut butter and I will eat them!  The second time I made this, I used orange juice instead of juice from a fresh orange - it was an ok substitution, but I think the fresh juice makes a difference.

Here's the recipe:
Serves 4

Ingredients
1/4 c peanut butter
3 T soy sauce
Juice from 1 orange
1 inch piece of ginger, grated
1 lb grated carrots
4 scallions
1/4 c peanuts

Method
Microwave peanut butter about 10 seconds to soften.  Add soy sauce, orange juice, and ginger.  Whisk.  Stir carrots into dressing.  Top with scallions and peanuts.  Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Here is the carrot salad paired with Thai Chicken Pizza!

Thai Chicken Pizza

This week my parents moved to Thailand.  So in honor of their new adventure, I chose to make Thai Chicken Pizza for my new recipe of the week.  This new recipe was a winner!  It was super easy - the only complaint I had was that I got tired from cutting the raw chicken.  I wanted to cut it super tiny (recipe says diced) so it would cook quickly and also because smaller pieces seemed to make more sense as a pizza topping.  If I ever need this to be a super quick dinner then I plan on cooking the chicken ahead of time.  Here's the recipe:

Ingredients
1 whole wheat pizza crust (use homemade dough if desired)
1/4 c smooth peanut butter (microwave ~10 seconds to soften and make whisking easier)
3 T water
2 t soy sauce
2 t rice vinegar (I actually used red wine vinegar)
2 t fresh ginger, grated
1 clove garlic, minced
1 t oil
8 oz chicken breast, diced
1 red bell pepper, diced
4 scallions, thinly sliced
2/3 c shredded mozzarella

Method
Preheat oven to 450F.  Heat oil in a medium skillet over medium high heat.  Add chicken and cook, stirring until cooked through about 5 minutes. 

Whisk peanut butter, water, soy sauce, vinegar, ginger and garlic in a medium sized bowl.  Reserve about 1 tablespoon of sauce and spread remainder on crust.  Add cooked chicken, bell pepper and scallions to reserved peanut buter sauce.  Mix to coat.  Add to pizza.  Top with cheese.  Bake 11-13 minutes, until cheese is melted and golden.

And now the picture!

This pizza went really well with a new side I discovered: Peanut Orange Carrot Salad!

Chicken and Black Beans

I just realized that I haven't made a 2011 post yet.  How lazy of me!  I will try to post a few within the next week to make up for the non-existent January posts.

One of my favorite dinners is Chicken and Black Beans.  I really like this meal for a few reasons: it's easy to make, it's delicious, and it's easy to modify.  I have done this like the recipe says by serving with rice, but I have also omitted the rice and just served it on chips.  I have also tried it as a burrito.  Once I even used leftovers as toppings for a baked potato.  All these different ways were delicious.

 Here it is waiting in the skillet.

Here it is as a burrito!

Here's the recipe:
Ingredients
3 tablespoons EVOO, divided
4 large cloves garlic, 3 chopped or finely grated, 1 crushed
1 1/2 cups white rice (or tortilla chips or tortillas)
Salt and pepper
3 cups chicken stock, (for the rice)
1 1/2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs or breasts or a combo, cut up into bite-size pieces
1 tablespoon ground cumin (a palmful)
1/2 tablespoon ground coriander (half a palmful)
1 large red onion, thinly sliced
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1 chipotle pepper in adobo sauce, chopped (remove the seeds for less heat)
1 can black beans (15 ounces), drained and rinsed
1/4 cup flat leaf parsley (a couple of handfuls), chopped (I use dry about 1-2 tsp)
4 plum tomatoes, seeded and roughly chopped
1 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese

Method
Place a medium saucepot over medium-high heat with one turn of the pan of EVOO, about 1 tablespoon. Add the crushed garlic clove and the rice, then add some salt and pepper and stir to coat in the EVOO. Add 3 cups of chicken stock and bring up to a simmer. Cover with a lid and cook until tender, about 18 minutes.

Once you have the rice going, place a large skillet over high heat with two turns of the pan of EVOO, about 2 tablespoons. Add the chicken and season with some salt, pepper, cumin and coriander. Spread the chicken out in an even layer and let it brown up for about 3-4 minutes. Give the chicken a stir, add the onion, garlic, red bell pepper, and chipotle in adobo, stir to combine, then continue to cook for 5 minutes. Add the black beans and simmer for 5 more minutes. Add the parsley, and chopped tomatoes and stir to combine.

Fluff the rice with a fork and remove and discard the garlic clove. Divide the rice between four shallow serving bowls. Top with some of the black beans and chicken mixture, sprinkle with some of the cheddar cheese and serve!