Sesame Chicken and Rice

My children love the traditional modern Americanized Asian classic of "Sweet & Sour" Sesame Chicken that can be found at most Chinese/Japanese/Thai restaurants.  And what's not to like about sweet, deep-fried meat? ;-)

However, I was never raised with fried foods; my mother generally baked everything we ate... even fried chicken was oven-baked.  The only time my parents dusted off the electric frying pan and poured in some oil was when making homemade cinnamon-sugar doughnuts, or filleting trout and perch caught in the Deer Creek Reservoir when I went boating or ice fishing with my Dad.

So, I only fry on occasions as well.  I've tried a few different recipes for frying up sesame chicken, and they've been alright.  Most have been fairly intensive in preparation, so I haven't repeated them.  I have a lot of experience cooking and baking, and I love to tweak recipe's.  So how nice it was to stumble across this recipe!  Simple, fast, and requiring only minor modifications.

I did throw in half a can of pineapple tidbits, and substituted finely diced onions for green shoots.  Also, I didn't have any sesame oil; that's an ingredient I would like to add to or pantry.  The chicken came out tender and delicious!  And I'm pretty sure it wasn't rabbit.  As an aside, my wife has become quite adept at skinning rabbits, and when cooked right, rabbit taste like chicken!  So if you have some on hand to process, feel free to substitute some good rabbit meat for the chicken.  :-)

Ingredients:

• 1 pound Chicken Breast Strips (or diced chicken)
• 1 Tbsp + 2 Tbsp Soy Sauce
• ¼ cups Apple Cider Vinegar
• ⅓ cups thinly sliced green onions (or finely chopped yellow onion)
• 3 Tbsp each of Honey, Brown Sugar, and Sesame Oil
• 1 Tbsp grated fresh Ginger (or ¼ tsp ground)
• ¼ cup each of Flour and Cornstarch
• 3 Tsp Olive Oil
• 1 Tbsp Sesame Seeds (optional, but recommended for appearance)
• 2 cups long-grained white rice, cooked.
• ½ can of pineapple tidbits (optional)
• Steamed vegetables (recommended!)

Instructions:

1. Place raw Chicken and 1 Tbsp soy sauce in a sturdy zip-lock bag.
2. In a medium bowl, combine 2 Tbsp soy sauce, vinegar, onions, honey, brown sugar, sesame oil, and ginger.  Set aside.
3. Sift flour and cornstarch and pour into the bag with the chicken marinade.
4. Shake and roll bag to coat Chicken; let your kids do this until Chicken is coated thoroughly!
5. Heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat.
6. Stir-fry chicken tenders 4 - 5 minutes, or until no longer pink.  Don't over-cook!
7. Stir bowl of sauce mixture into pan of chicken, and add sesame seeds.
8. Stir until bubbly and thickened.  

Serve over hot rice!  2 cups of white rice can be easily prepared by rice to a boil in 4 cups of water, and then dropping heat to low for 20 minutes until water is fully absorbed.

As a mix-in, add a generous helping of pineapple to make it truly sweet  & sour!  My kids love it that way, and makes it more of a Hawaiian Chicken Stir-fry.

But feel free to expand on this recipe and steam whichever vegetables your family loves!  Fresh steamed broccoli, sliced carrots, water chestnuts, sugar-snap peas, peppers, and mushrooms.  It's a good way to sneak a salad into the main dish!

German Pancakes

Here is a recipe for a breakfast dish that I had never consumed nor heard of, but of which my sweetheart was familiar with.  Although it is great for the morning, we generally have it as a dinner course, partly due to the fact that it can be prepared so quickly!  :-)

While there are many variations to German Pancakes, some of which take more than an hour to bake, this one can be prepared and cooked in 30 minutes.  For those hectic nights that you want to prepare something quick, give this a try!

There are a myriad of recipes out there, and I'm not sure where our favorite disappeared to, but this comes close to matching what we like.  I took it from a Hyrum City Sesquicentennial cook book, with the recipe submitted by Eileen James in Hyrum.  I then doubled it and made some other modifications.  If you have some eggs available, give it a try!

Ingredients:

•   ½ cup butter
• 1½ cups flour
•   ⅔ cup sugar
•   ½ tsp salt
• 6 - 8 eggs
• 3 cups milk

Instructions:

• Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees.
• Cut butter into several pats and scatter them in a large glass cake pan.
• Heat pan for five minutes while oven is heating until butter is mostly melted.
• Increase heat to 400 degrees.
• Mix all ingredients together; if you have a large blender, that mixes it well!
• Blend until smooth.  Immediately pour into pan.
• Bake for 20 minutes. Edges will expand and firm up.  Center will be moist.
• Lower heat to 350 degrees until done (firm and light brown, but not scorched!)

Serves 6 - 8 people.

Cut into slices and serve hot.  Drizzle maple syrup or sprinkle powder sugar.  Enjoy!

Additional Notes:

• Previous recipes make a smaller amount, so the slices are thinner.  Because our family tends to consume this and still want more, this recipe variant makes extra thick slices.  
• If you want to experience the thinner  variety, or don't have as many mouths to feed, cut the ingredients back some... only 6 eggs, and less flour.
• Also, some recipes go WAY overboard on butter, calling for more than a cube of it!
• This version is healthier, though you can cut the butter even further if you like.
• Definitely use butter, not margarine!