Sesame Chicken

Sharing this recipe with you today is bittersweet for me, because it’s making me remember how much I liked it -- and how much my husband did not like it. Does that ever happen in your house? Even if I make the meal exactly as the recipe indicates, I always take it really personally when he doesn’t like something -- even if I didn’t come up with the recipe myself. It’s also irritating when I make something that I (and my toddler, who doesn’t eat anything!) really like, and he doesn’t like it so I can’t really make it again. Eh, I’ll stop whining now.

Anyway, I liked this version of sesame chicken a lot. I always order sesame chicken at Chinese restaurants, so it was nice to find an at-home version. As an added bonus, in this recipe the chicken isn’t breaded, so it’s a lot healthier than take-out. Joe’s main problem with this dish was that it had too much soy sauce in it, and I can sort of see where he’s coming from. If I made this again, I’d probably cut the soy sauce by half. I served ours over brown rice with some simple steamed broccoli on the side, and (Andrew and I thought) this was a delicious, healthy dinner. Maybe I’ll try to sneak it onto the menu again one of these days.

Sesame Chicken
adapted from Food.com

6 boneless skinless chicken breast halves, patted dry with paper towels
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup soy sauce
1 cup chicken stock
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon fresh or ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes (optional)
1 tablespoon toasted sesame seeds

1. Cut chicken breasts into 1 inch strips or bite size pieces.

2. Heat a large non-stick skillet with a small amount of oil (olive, vegetable, or peanut) over medium-high heat.

3. Cook chicken for about 6 minutes or until no longer pink. Add garlic; cook and stir for 30 seconds.

4. Mix together honey, soy sauce, chicken stock, corn starch, ginger and red pepper flakes. Whisk until no corn starch lumps appear.

5. Pour sauce mixture into skillet with chicken and garlic. Cook until sauce thickens slightly. Sprinkle with sesame seeds.

6. Cover and simmer for 10 minutes or until chicken starts to soak up the sauce.

Classic Fried Rice

Fried rice is so ridiculously easy to make at home. This may seem pretty obvious to most of you, but up until pretty recently, I have to confess that I always used the boxed version when I made Chinese food at home. Don’t get me wrong; I have nothing against boxed rice and pasta products (rice pilaf and white shells and cheddar, I’m looking at you), but when I went to buy a box of fried rice recently I thought to myself, “C’mon, Cassie. You can make this yourself.”

And so I did. And it was good! This is a very classic version of fried rice, made with eggs, onions, peas, carrots, and soy sauce. It’s still pretty quick since it’s made with instant rice, but the rice still has tons of flavor because it’s cooked in chicken stock. My soy sauce measurement below is approximate; I just kept glugging it over the rice until I was happy with the color and flavor, so be sure you taste often and adjust up or down accordingly. My husband thought my version was really good, and he's a huge fan of fried rice, so I'll definitely take his word for it!

I served this alongside our favorite chicken lettuce wraps, and it would also be delicious as a bed for a heaping serving of Asian shredded beef. Yum!

Classic Fried Rice

1 cup uncooked instant rice
1 cup chicken stock
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 small onion, chopped
2 eggs, scrambled
Salt and pepper to taste
1/2 cup frozen peas
1 carrot, shredded
Approximately 2 tablespoons soy sauce

1. Cook the rice in chicken stock according to package directions; set aside.

2. Meanwhile, heat the vegetable oil in a large, high-sided skillet over medium-high heat. Add the onion and cook until softened, about 3 minutes. Reduce heat to medium, add the eggs, and season with salt and pepper (go easy on the salt).

3. When the eggs are nearly cooked, add the rice to skillet. Cook and stir for about 5 minutes, or until rice begins to get just slightly brown. Add the peas, carrots and soy sauce and stir to combine.

Sweet and Sour Chicken

This is one of our new favorite meals. We’ve only had it once, and it’s already sky-rocketed right to the top of the “most-requested” list in our house. You wouldn’t think that something with so few ingredients would be so delicious, but you’d be wrong. The chicken is really moist and the sauce is so incredibly flavorful. Andrew could not get enough of the chicken, which is really saying something since he’s sometimes funny about the texture of certain meats.

In addition to tasting really good, this requires very little hands-on preparation, which is perfect for one of my crazy weeknights. We will definitely be making this over and over again, because it’s delicious, but also because Andrew calls it “see-sa kitchen,” and I want to hear him say that all the time. Thanks for another great recipe, Deborah!

Sweet and Sour Chicken
source: Taste and Tell

4 chicken breast halves

1 cup Catalina salad dressing

1 cup brown sugar

1 envelope dry onion soup mix

Rice, for serving

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place chicken in a casserole dish.

2. In a small bowl, combine the dressing, brown sugar and onion soup mix. Pour over chicken breasts. Cook in preheated oven for about 45 minutes, or until no longer pink in the middle.

3. Serve over rice.

Crock Pot Asian Shredded Beef

When I saw this recipe on A Year of CrockPotting, I just knew I had to give it a try. I tend to be very boring with roasts; I've only ever made a beef roast one way, and this Asian version was definitely something different for me. I'd had a beef roast in the freezer for a long time that I'd never got around to cooking, and I had all of the other ingredients on hand.

I wish I would have used less 5-spice powder. That was my one complaint. I'm not a huge fan of the flavor of anise, which I should have taken into consideration. Other than that, though, this was a delicious meal that we really enjoyed. I added some cole slaw mix to the beef for the last fifteen minutes of cooking, and I served the beef over beef-flavored ramen noodles (how college freshman of me, right?). This was a flavorful meal and was very simple to throw together. I love my Crock pot, and I really do need to learn to use it more often.

Crock Pot Asian Shredded Beef
Source: adapted from A Year of CrockPotting

4 pounds boneless beef roast
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup hoisin sauce
6 tablespoons ketchup
6 tablespoons honey
2 teaspoons Chinese 5-spice powder
2 teaspoons garlic powder

Sprinkle the dried spices directly onto the beef. Add to Crock pot and top with the ketchup and honey. Pour in the soy and hoisin sauces. Cover and cook on low for 8 to 9 hours, or until the meat shreds easily with a fork. About 15 minutes before serving, add a handful of cole slaw mix to the Crock pot to wilt. Serve over white or brown rice or noodles.

Sesame Ginger Chicken Lettuce Wraps

More and more I find myself turning to Better Homes and Gardens for dinner ideas. I get a weekly e-mail from them with loads of delicious-sounding recipes that are simple to prepare and use few ingredients. That's where I found these sesame ginger chicken lettuce wraps. Joe and I both thought the filling was flavorful, and with some fried rice on the side, this was a delicious and simple meal. I made a few additions to the recipe, which are reflected below, but you can click the link to get to the original.

Sesame Ginger Chicken Lettuce Wraps
Source: Better Homes and Gardens

1 pound boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite-size strips
1/2 cup bottled light Asian-style dressing with sesame and ginger
2 cups shredded carrots
1 red bell pepper, cut into thin strips
1 bunch of green onions, sliced
1/8 teaspoon crushed red pepper
1 head iceberg lettuce, leaves separated

1. Sprinkle chicken lightly with salt and pepper. Lightly coat a large skillet with cooking spray; heat over medium-high heat. Add chicken; cook and stir for 3 minutes or until browned.

2. Add 3 tablespoons of the dressing, the carrots, the bell pepper, and the green onions to the skillet; cook and stir for 3 minutes more or until vegetables are crisp-tender and chicken is no longer pink. Stir in red pepper. On a large platter arrange 4 stacks of lettuce leaves. Serve by filling leaves with chicken mixture.

Kung Po Chicken

I inherited Betty Crocker's Chinese Cookbook from my mom, and until I made this dish, I'd never cooked anything out of it before. Aside from stir fries, I don't typically make a lot of Chinese food at home. The ingredients lists are always so long, and there always seem to be so many steps required. To be honest, I was sort of dreading cooking from this cookbook during the Year of the Cookbook, just because I thought the recipes would be too complicated -- and also too dated, since this was initially published in 1981. I let Joe pick the recipe, and he chose kung po chicken (I always thought it was kung pao, but maybe that's an entirely different dish? I don't know).

Imagine my surprise when I ended up really, really enjoying this meal! The sauce was really tasty, and I loved the crunch of the crispy peanuts on top of the dish. When I'm making something like this, with lots of different steps and things that need to be added at certain times, I find it's best to organize everything I'm going to need before I even start cooking. That's what I did with this meal, and it came together flawlessly. This was a great MYOTO meal, MSG free, and it didn't taste "dated" at all -- just yummy. I definitely think I'll be using this cookbook more in the future.

Kung Po Chicken
Source: adapted from Betty Crocker's Chinese Cookbook

2 boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 egg white
1 teaspoon cornstarch
1 teaspoon soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon salt
Dash of white pepper

1 large green pepper
1 medium onion

1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 tablespoon cold water
1 tablespoon dry white wine
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon sesame oil

1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup unsalted roasted peanuts
1/8 teaspoon salt

1 clove garlic, crushed
1 teaspoon finely chopped gingerroot
2 tablespoons Hoisin sauce
1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1/2 cup chicken broth

1. Cut chicken into thin strips. Mix egg white, 1 teaspoon corn starch, the soy sauce, 1/2 teaspoon salt and the white pepper in a bowl; stir in chicken. Cover and refrigerate 15 minutes.

2. Meanwhile, cut green pepper and onion into bite-size pieces.

3. Mix 1 tablespoon cornstarch, the water, wine, sugar, and sesame oil in a separate bowl.

4. Heat wok until 1 or 2 drops of water bubble and skitter when sprinkled in wok. Add 1/4 cup vegetable oil. Fry peanuts until light brown, about 30 seconds. Remove peanuts from wok; drain on paper towel. Sprinkle with 1/8 teaspoon salt.

5. Add onion, garlic and gingerroot to wok and stir-fry until onion is light brown, about 1 minute. Add chicken and green pepper; stir-fry until chicken turns white. Add Hoisin sauce and crushed red pepper flakes; cook and stir 30 seconds. Stir in chicken broth and heat to boiling. Stir in cornstarch mixture and cook and stir until thickened. Serve over rice or noodles.

Szechwan Beef Stir-Fry

Let's be honest: Sometimes there's nothing that tastes as good as take-out Chinese food. Am I right, or am I right? Friday night's dinner was a MYOTO version of a traditional Chinese stir fry, and it was absolutely delicious. I can't rave enough about the sauce; it was perfectly sweet and salty and had the perfect tinge of sourness in the background. Joe and I both absolutely loved this meal. I don't think it'll replace my hankering for really good Chinese take-out, but it's a nice back-up for when I'm too lazy to go pick up the food from the restaurant!


Szechwan Beef Stir-Fry
Source: Our Best Recipes, also found on the Better Homes and Gardens website

12 ounces boneless beef top round steak or sirloin steak
3 tablespoons dry sherry or orange juice (I used orange juice)
3 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons water
2 tablespoons bottled hoisin sauce
1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger or 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger (I used fresh)
2 teaspoons cornstarch
1 teaspoon sugar
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper (optional)
1 tablespoon cooking oil
1 cup thinly bias-sliced carrot
1 14-ounce can whole baby corn, drained
1 red sweet pepper, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 cup frozen broccoli florets
2 cups hot cooked rice
Thinly sliced green onions (optional)

1. For easier slicing, partially freeze meat. Trim fat from meat. Thinly slice meat across the grain into bite-size strips. Set aside.

2. For sauce, in a small bowl stir together sherry, soy sauce, water, hoisin sauce, ginger, cornstarch, sugar, garlic, and crushed red pepper (if using); set aside.

3. In a wok or large skillet heat oil over medium-high heat (add more oil if necessary during cooking). Add carrot; cook and stir in hot oil for 2 minutes. Add baby corn and sweet pepper. Cook and stir for 1 to 2 minutes or until vegetables are crisp-tender. Remove from wok.

4. Add meat to wok. Cook and stir for 2 to 3 minutes or until meat is slightly pink in center. Push meat from center of wok.

5. Stir sauce. Add sauce to center of wok. Cook and stir until thickened and bubbly. Return cooked vegetables to wok. Stir all ingredients together to coat. Cook and stir for 1 to 2 minutes more or until heated through. Serve immediately with hot cooked rice. If desired, sprinkle with sliced green onions.