Chicken with a Kick

Sorry for the lack of pictures. I will say this was awesome and is my new favorite marinade!
I have
been terribly distracted, and hope to get back to the blog…however the other night we had our CSA chicken and I decided to marinate the old gal. This had a kick to it, but if you are not a lover of spice use less sriracha.

Marinade:

½ c. Ponzu sauce
½ c. rice wine vinegar
1/8 c (depending on like of spice I probably did between 1/8 c. -¼c) Sriracha sauce

Mix together in bag, throw chicken in and marinate for 2 hours.

Kung Pao

I don’t know what else to say about this other than, really folks you have to try it. It was so good, I had to beg my husband to leave me just a cups worth to have for lunch the next day. He did. I ate it for breakfast. I swear I couldn’t wait for lunch!!

I stole this from Cinnamon and Spice, you really MUST go see her http://cinnamonspiceandeverythingnice.blogspot.com/


I had been dying to make this recipe for weeks and kept forgetting to get certain things I needed. I finally got most of it and decided to make do with what I had on hand. That said, I used about ¾ of a teaspoon of red pepper flakes instead of the chilis and Sichuan. For me, my dish was great, but could have had more heat, so do what you want. Also I used regular onion, 1 bell pepper and 2 medium carrots diced. I just wanted some more veggies. Since I had more volume I doubled the sauce. I think however you could use a banana peel and this would still be amazing (yes it really was that good, don‘t know why, just good). So give it a try.

http://cinnamonspiceandeverythingnice.blogspot.com/2009/04/spicy-chicken-with-peanuts-or-kung-pao.html

Kung Pao Chicken
Spicy Chicken with peanuts
Gong bao ju ding
(adapted from Why the Chinese Don't Count Calories by Lorraine Clissold
page 109)

For the chicken
2 cups chicken breast
3/4 cup roasted peanuts
2 teaspoon beaten egg or egg white
3 teaspoon corn flour or cornstarch
pinch of salt
1 teaspoon white wine

Supporting vegetables
1 tablespoon spring/green onion(we added extra), cut in 1/2 pieces
3-4 cloves garlic, sliced
4-6 fine slices ginger, each cut into quarters
3-6 dried red chilies, roughly chopped
1 teaspoon Sichuan peppercorns(we used black)

For the sauce mix
2 teaspoon soy sauce
2 teaspoon sugar
3 teaspoon red rice vinegar
1 teaspoon cooking wine
1-2 tablespoon of a 1-2 cornflour and water mix(we used cornstarch)
1-2 tablespoon additional water
salt to taste
1 and 1/2 tablespoon oil

Brown rice, for serving over

Cube the chicken breast in small pieces a little bigger than the peanuts. Sprinkle them with
salt and wine and mix well with egg/egg white and cornflour. Make sure they are coated but not
sloppy.

Mix together the sauce ingredients.

To cook, heat the wok to a high heat, add the oil, swirl around, and fry the chilies and peppercorns
for a few minutes until fragrant. Add the chicken, garlic, ginger, and onion.
Stir-fry these to allow the flavor to come out, then add the peanuts.

Add the liquid ingredients (stirring first to dissolve the cornflour) and allow it to come to the boil stirring
gently. Let the sauce simmer for a few minutes, to thicken, and then add additional liquid until the sauce
reaches the desired consistency. Add extra salt to taste, mix well, remove from heat, and serve over rice
if desired.

Just Kebabing Along

There is not a lot of recipe in this, but I will do my best. I love spring. I do! However, this spring has been an odd one here. It gets warm, I get all excited with thoughts of fresh tomatoes, and lettuce, and squash, all from my very own yard. I just can’t tell you, it makes me so happy. Then, low and behold it gets cold again. Grrrr. This is not too atypical of Virginia weather, however it has been going on for about 6-8 weeks and typically by now it is warm and has been for quite a while.

Warm weather also means patio and dinning outdoors…and of course the grill (yippee!). There are so many things I look forward to on the grill and shish kebabs is definitely one. I made this with chicken because it is what I had. The reality is, you could use whatever, just veggies, fruit, really anything, so I am just going to give the marinade recipe and you figure out what to marinade!


1 large container of Greek yogurt.
2 cloves of garlic minced or grated
¼ c. lemon juice
3 tbs Penzeys Italian dressing base (if you don’t have this use 3 tbs of any dry seasoning Italian)

Mix in a bowl, put in meat and/or veggies and let sit 2-4 hours. Grill.

Just a note, I have not tried this, but I think mango, and pineapple in Greek yogurt and honey (maybe a touch of fresh mint?) then grilled would make an awesome dessert. Maybe some fresh soft goat cheese to serve with it???? Just an idea.




We had some non traditional tabouli, another summer favorite. As we can’t get good tomatoes yet, I used some red pepper. Also, I had a huge basil plant I had to use, so I used basil instead of parsley. It was good, but I missed the tomatoes!!




Luckily we got to enjoy it all on our patio with some wine, so all was not lost…and we will have tomatoes soon enough!!

Asian Noodles on the Cheap

Over at the Alchemist Chef http://alchemistchef.blogspot.com/2009/03/call-for-submissions-recession-proof.html they are calling for some recession proof dinning. Seeing how I started family meals for less, (but never did much with it) I thought it was a great idea. Money is tight for some many of us, and the reality is you can still eat great food that is healthy on a dime. So for this post I also included the price of the items and the number of servings.

The other day the grocery store had a ton of veggies on sale and that is what inspired this. I think you could put any you like in (I thought asparagus and tomato would also be great)but this is what I did.

1 bunch of broccoli broken into small pieces ($1.65)
1 bag of matchstick carrots ($1.25)
1 zucchini (I used a peeler to ribbon mine, but you can chop it too) (.75)
1 bunch of green onion chopped (.75)
1 lb chicken (1.99 on sale, 3.99 otherwise)
1 package of soba noodles (1.75)
2 tbs sesame oil (.50?)
4 tbs soy sauce (.25?)
¼ c. of sweet chili sauce ($1)
Salt and pepper
1 clove of garlic
Pinch of red pepper
1 tbs olive oil

Serves 6
The total cost if you get the chicken on sale is $8.99 it is $10.99 otherwise


I started by seasoning the chicken breasts with salt, pepper, and a pinch of red pepper. I heated the oil and added the garlic to pan and cooked the chicken. Set aside and let it cool.

Meanwhile cook the soba noodles and drain.

Toss the soba with the vegetables and shred or chop the chicken and add. In a small bow add the sesame oil, soy and chili sauce and mix. Pour the sauce over the noodles and toss.

Just a reminder, please stop by to see these blogs!!


Wonderings http://bunnytrailthoughts.blogspot.com/ .
My Tasty Treasures http://mytastytreasures.blogspot.com/
Chef E at Behind the Wheel Chef http://cookappeal.blogspot.com/

Hungarian Chicken

I am calling this Hungarian Chicken, for lack of a better idea of what to call it. This is how this came into being. It is cold here, and I think to myself, “Hungarian!” I mill it about in my head and finally decided on Chicken Paprika. So at the market I pick up a green pepper. When I got home I look up some recipes, none had green pepper and all called for split chicken breast and I just had boneless/skinless. What?? So what does any good blooded girl do? I called my mom. She said, “No, you are thinking of that pork recipe.” Shoot, she was right…but I had chicken defrosted. Hence the experiment began.

1 package of egg noodles
1 tbs oil
1 onion
1.5 lbs chicken cubed
3 tbs flour
3 cups chicken broth
1 c. white wine
1 green pepper sliced
2 tbs paprika (Hungarian sweet)
1 C. full fat Greek yogurt or sour cream





Sautee onion and chicken for 5 minutes.

Sprinkle 3 tbs flour over mixture and stir to coat.

Add 3 cup chicken broth and 1 tsp thyme and simmer for 20 minutes.

Add pepper to taste, paprika, 1 cup of dry white wine (preferably not a chardonnay) and sliced green pepper and simmer for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile prepare egg noodles.

Turn the burner down. Scoop the yogurt (or sour cream if you want) into a bowl. Add to the yogurt about ½ of the hot sauce from the pan and stir and then add the yogurt mixture to the pan with the chicken and green pepper. Add the hot liquid to the yogurt fist and than adding that mixture to the pan should prevent you from getting a lumpy or grainy texture from the yogurt curdling.


Sever over noodles and enjoy.

chicken curry

1 tbs olive oil
1 cu chopped carrots
2 bay leave
1 small chopped onion
2 cups chicken stock
2 chopped tomatoes
4 chicken thighs bone out skinless
1 tbs soy sauce
4 tbs Penzeys sweet curry powder
½ c. peas
Salt and pepper
Rice
Okay you can use any curry powder(and boneless skinless chicken if you must), however, Penzeys sweet curry powder is great. I just got it and this is the first time I have used it. Despite what the sales guy told me, it does pack some heat, just not the heat you typically think of when you think of curry. It has a heave cardamom flavor, which I adore.
Heat oil. Add carrots and onion and sauté for 3 minutes. Add stock and bay leaves and bring to boil. Add tomatoes and cook 10 minutes on low. Add chicken , curry and soy and cook. Once chicken is done or mostly done add peas., and cook for 3 minutes. Test for salt and if needed add salt. Serve over rice.

Thai Chicken Empañadas

Finally someone contributed a recipe to share! This is my fathers (Bill Walkers) creation. I have not tried it but he said it came out great so I can't wait to try it. He also said that a spring roll wrapper would be a good substitute for the empanada dough (also an easier substitute).

Dipping Sauce:
2 T. brown sugar
4 T. lime juice
1 T. Thai red curry
½ cup peanut butter
½ cup water
¼ cup shallots, chopped
¼ cup soy sauce
2 T. fresh ginger, chopped
3 garlic cloves, chopped
Chicken Filling:
½ cup water
2 T. brown sugar
4 T. fresh lime juice
1 T. Thai red curry paste
¼ t. red pepper flakes
1 T. fish sauce
½ t. salt
2 pounds chicken thighs, skinned
¼ cup green onions finely sliced
¼ cilantro, chopped
½ cup dipping sauce (below)
Empañ ada Dough:
2¼ cup all purpose flour
1 stick unsalted butter, chilled and cubed
1 t. kosher salt
½ t. sugar
Egg Wash:

1/3 cup cold water
1 egg

1. Place all the Dipping Sauce ingredients in the food processor and blend until smooth. Put into bowl and set aside. Clean food processor bowl.
2. Pulse first 4 ingredients for the empañ ada dough together in food processor until crumbly.
3. Add water and egg and pulse until dough forms a ball. Wrap dough in plastic wrap and chill until needed 1 hour.
4. Preheat oven to 350. Place the first 8 Chicken Filling ingredients in a bowl and mix until it combines into a cooking sauce.
5. Place the cooking sauce and chicken in a medium oven-proof pot, cover, and bake until the meat falls from the bones (about 1½ hours).
6. Let chicken cool. Discard bones and sauce. Coarsely chop the meat, mix with the green onions, cilantro and Dipping Sauce and set aside. Save remaining sauce for dipping the empañ adas.
7. Place dough on a lightly floured surface and roll out until it is thin, no more than 1/8” thick. Using a 4 inch diameter cookie cutter, (I used a large martini glass) cut dough into rounds. Set rounds on a cutting board and cover with a damp towel. Re-roll dough scraps and cut more rounds. Continue rolling and cutting until most of the dough has been used. I got 18 rounds, but my dough was a little thick. I think you should be able to get 20 rounds.
Assembly and Baking:
8. Preheat oven to 400. Put about a ½ T. of the chicken mixture in the center of a round. Fold the round in half and use a fork to seal the edges. Continue until all the rounds have been filled. I had about ¾ cup of filling left.
9. Transfer the empañ adas to a baking sheet. Thoroughly mix the egg and water. Brush the tops with the egg wash and bake until golden, about 30 minutes.