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!

Lanny's Yummy Rice

I use a large flatish broiler pan with the drip tray.

First, chop up an onion and and some garlic and you can either put it in the broiler pan, or brown it in butter first (tastes better this latter way) and mix it with a couple of cups of brown or white rice in the pan itself. If you have the green onions, or if your onions have decided to group and sprouted a little, it adds some color to chop up the sprout part and add that. You can also add thinly sliced carrots if you like. Mix in a large can of cream of chicken soup. Add a small can of mushrooms or several chopped up fresh ones if you prefer. Add a couple of cups of water, salt and pepper to taste. (You can add a packet of instant chicken gravy if you like).

Place a cut-up chicken (or should I say "sliced up" so you don't get a creepy image of a hyperactive chicken spouting one-liners?) on the drip tray, and cover with foil. Bake for about an hour at 350 degrees, but depending on altitude and my poor memory, it could be a little more than that.

Remove the foil and put the chicken on a serving tray. If you're a heathen, you can serve the rice right out of the broiler pan like I prefer to do, or if you're more civilized you can put it in a serving bowl. Either way, you should stir it up to mix any settled ingredients evenly.

Dinner in a Pumpkin #2

Scoop guts out of one medium or two small pumpkins. Begin baking them at 350 degrees while preparing the meat and rice on the stovetop to save time as the pumpkins need to bake for at least an hour, depending on size. Begin cooking 3/4 c. rice and water in one saucepan. In another, saute one diced onion. Brown ground beef and drain excess fat. Add: 2 TBSP soy sauce, 2 TBSP brown sugar, and 1 can Cream of Mushroom soup When rice is done, add that as well as 1 can of corn and 1 can of green beans. Remove pumpkin(s) from oven and fill with meat/rice mixture. Continue cooking until pumpkin is soft and easily pierced with a fork (about one hour total cooking time of pumpkin, give or take, depending on size). Serve by scooping out meat and rice mixture and slicing up pumpkin. I like to add a little salt and pepper to my pumpkin slice, and Thayne likes ketchup on his meat and rice. [Picture pending cuz it was cute]

Not Yo Mama's Enchilada's

Then again, they might be yo mama's enchilada's. (If so, she totally rocks and we should be friends!) I just thought that sort of title sounds cool too, hehe! Make them mild, medium, spicy, green or red. Whatever floats your boat, tops your ice cream, bakes your burrito. Eh, you get the point. You can also use ground beef, chicken, or (my fav) leftover steak.

1 cup +/- cooked rice
1 can refried beans
1 to 2 cups cooked meat of your choice, cubed or shredded
1 to 2 cups cheese (there is no such thing as too much of a good thing...sometimes)
2 small cans (or one big can) Enchilada sauce (Old El-Paso is a really good brand)
Package of soft tortilla shells

Prepare a 13x9 casserole dish with some pan (from experience, don't miss this step). Stir together rice, one small can (or half of big can) of sauce, one cup of cheese, and meat in a metal bowl (from experience again, trust me when I suggest a metal bowl for this because red enchilada sauce stains plastic bowls, #@$#%!). Smear a tortilla shell with one or two spoonfuls of beans. Top with two spoonfuls of meat mixture. Like this, m'dearie:


Roll up and place in dish. Repeat as many times as necessary until meat mixture is used up. Smother with rest of enchilada sauce and cheese. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until hot and bubbly. Ring the dinner bell to signal to the troops that dinner is on. Top with sour cream, lettuce, tomato, salsa, jalapenos, etc.

Eryn's Crockpot Chicken Soup

This is nothing fancy, but turned out pretty good!

Ingredients:
8 cups chicken broth (I just used 8 cups of water and some bouillon cubes)
2 cups diced celery
1 medium onion
2 cups diced carrots
1-2 lbs chicken, diced (can throw it in raw or throw it in a pan for a couple minutes with the onion to seal in juices)
Bag of frozen mixed vegetables
2 cups rice (I used brown)
3 cloves garlic
Some lemon pepper
Some thyme
Some basil

Preparation

Throw (or place) everything in the crockpot except for the rice and leave on high for 2-3 hours. Throw the rice into the pot for another hour and you should be good to go!

I will post a picture later - I took one using my phone.

Chicken Divine Alternative Rock #1

For a little while, we had to avoid feeding eggs to Lizzy due to a luckily short-lived allergy. That meant avoiding some salad dressings like Mayonnaise. Oh dear, mayonnaise is in daddy's Chicken Divine! Well, have no fear, we'll just oust from the recipe! I also experimented with a few other changes. We were out of broccoli, the main and really only veggie in the dish. Well have no fear, we'll just use some other veggies like oh, a can of corn and a can of green beans!

2 cups cooked rice
1-2 chicken boobies, cut up and cooked (sorry, old habit from my Aunt Jane)
2 cans cream of chicken soup
2 large dollops of sour cream (hehe, I love the word 'dollop'!)
A splash or two of milk
Handful or two of cheese
1 can corn
1 can green beans
Curry powder (daddy would be heartbroken if forgotten)
Mrs. dash (addicting stuff)
Lemon pepper (also addictive)
Any other seasonings you see fit to use
More cheese

Layer the cooked rice into a 9x13 pan. Mix together soup, sour cream, milk, cheese, veggies, seasonings, and chicken in a bowl and spread over rice. Sprinkle a little more cheese on top (mustn't forget or else I'll be heartbroken). Warm in oven at 350 degrees until bubbly and cheese is gooey. Now devour the divine stuff!

Chicken Divine

Blend:
2 c. cooked chicken
1 c. mayonnaise
2 cans cream (of chicken, of mushroom or of celery) soup
1 t. curry
1 T. lemon juice

Rice:
Stir 2 c. raw rice into 5 c. cold water. Bring to boil. Turn heat to low. Cover. Cook 20 minutes.

Cook 1 bunch cut-up broccoli (or use 2-10 oz. packages of broccoli). Drain. Layer cooked rice, broccoli, chicken, sauce and top with grated cheese and/or toast crumbs.

Bake 30 minutes at 350º.