Double Crunch Honey Chicken

Life changing? I think so. I have seen this recipe from Rock Recipes on Pinterest for months and it always catches my eye. So tonight, was the night.

Crispy crunchy fried chicken and wow was it good. The flour mix has a nice Asian kick to it. If you don't like heat use less of the paprika and cayanne pepper.

I used 4 pieces of thigh meat because I think it is tastier than chicken breast. I omitted the sage because it was expensive. I eye balled the quantities of ingredients for the Honey Garlic Sauce. Served it with brown rice and stir fried broccoli.

I would like to try the double flour dipping method for making eggplant. Maybe use oregano and Italian seasoning and serve with pasta or something to that idea. 

Flatten the meat between two pieces of plastic wrap

Dredge the chicken in the
flour/spice mix

Dip it in egg, then flour mix again.
Then fry it in some hot oil

Let drain on a rack/paper towel.
Do you see how crispy that is??

Top with sauce, serve with broccoli and brown rice

Crunchy Chicken with Honey Garlic Sauce

Serves 2

Chicken:
2 large boneless chicken breasts
 

Place the chicken breasts between 2 sheets of plastic wrap and using a meat mallet (or a can or rolling pin); pound the meat to an even 1/2 inch thickness. Or slice the breasts by placing them flat on a cutting board and using a very sharp knife to slice them into halves horizontally.

Breading:
1 cup flour
2 tsp salt
2 tsp black pepper
1 1/2 tbsp ground ginger
1 tbsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp ground thyme
1 tbsp paprika
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

Combine in a bowl

Egg wash:
1 egg
4 tbsp water

To Assemble and Cook:
Season the chicken with salt and pepper, and then dip the meat in the breading mixture. Dip the breast into the egg wash and then a final time into the flour and spice mix, pressing the mix into the meat to get good contact.

Heat a skillet on the stove with about a quarter inch of oil (I used vegetable) covering the bottom. When oil is hot (I do a test crumb to see if it bubbles) fry them gently for about 4 or 5 minutes per side until golden brown and crispy. These will cook very quickly since they are so thin.

Drain on a wire rack for a couple of minutes.

While cooking the chicken make the Honey Garlic sauce.

Honey Garlic Sauce
2 tbsp olive oil
1 heaping tsp of garlic powder

1 cup of honey

¼ cup soy sauce

1 tsp ground black pepper

In a medium saucepan combine ingredients and let simmer over medium heat for about 5 minutes or until warmed and combined.

 

The Easiest Guacamole

I made nachos with my Guac!

Seriously. The. Easiest. Guacamole. This is great for when you are looking for a quick snack to assemble and don't want to buy or find lots of ingredients.

Avocados are ripe when the skin is
starting darken and when you gently
squeeze it it is soft (similar to a peach!).

Cut in half, remove the pit

Slide a spoon around the edge to separate out of the skin

 


Put the avocado insides into a bowl and then mash it up with a fork.

Add in salsa (little less than 1/4 cup) and continue to mash/mix until combined.

And you are done!! This might not be the prettiest as the salsa juice makes it a little muddy since I didn't/don't bother to strain it. However, get some good quality salsa because that adds the spices and the onion and tomatoes and everything else!

I like the Trader Joe's salsa since it has quite a kick to it. 

Yum!

Wonton Soup

Are you ready for my Wonton Soup recipe? I know you have been waiting to see when it would be posted.

While the assembly might take a while (maybe about 1 1/2 hours), this will provide you with lots of meals if you eat alone like me *tear* or a big family meal and a couple small meals. If I am making this for dinner for someone or with my family, I convince my brother or whoever is around to help with the folding.

You can buy all the ingredients at the Chinese grocery store, but also at your regular market. These are in the refrigerated section. Stop and Shop has them near the fresh produce area I think. I normally get the white ones. This time I did a taste test and they have a different texture when cooked but both are fine and I don't really have a preference.

Twin Marquis, Wonton Wrapper (Shanghai style)

Twin Marquis, Wonton Wrapper (Hong Kong style)

The recipe is easy to adjust based on your tastes. Add in more or less of things. Add more meat to the dumplings or make them smaller. Since this is a easy to make/time consuming to assemble recipe I make a double batch to freeze a bunch. That becomes my I'm-starving-after-work-and-need-to-eat-right-now dinner.

I will use ground turkey or pork depending what is on hand at the time. If I had a choice I think the pork is a better texture and has more flavor. For the shrimp, cut them into about 4 pieces and close to the same size. The shrimp cooks fast and you don't want it to over cook. Until you know what seasonings you want for ground pepper/soy sauce/ginger/etc, make and cook a test dumpling then add in more of whatever seasoning you are looking for.

I have never have the correct amount of wrappers to filling so I sometimes toss in some of the wrappers in the water with the wontons and eat them as noodles.

Freeze them on a flat cookie sheet for a couple hours. Then feel free to put into a freezer Ziploc baggie or in a container of your choice!

I made a video of how to fold them but it didn't save properly... I'll make another one next time. In the meantime here is a YouTube video (sorry, music is really loud): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJ33n10ht88. There are many different ways to fold them, as simple as a triangle or really fancy folding techniques. The only problem with the triangle is when you freeze them, the corners may break off.

Put it all in the bowl!

Between a tsp and a tbs of filling, wet two connecting edges
with water, fold into a triangle

Be sure to press out all the air and seal the edges well

Hold triangle flat, middle tip facing you. Wet the top of the right
corner. Fold straight outwards and place the left
corner over the right corner, press to seal.

If you layer them separate with plastic wrap, parchment paper,
or wax paper to prevent sticking

Enjoy!!

Wonton Soup
Makes 1 package of wonton wrappers

1 lb ground turkey or pork

3 - 6 stems of scallion (green onion), chopped

5 - 10 shrimp, not cooked, chopped into fourths (optional)

1 can water chestnuts, chopped

Square Wonton wrappers

1 egg

Ground black pepper
1 - 3 tbsp Soy sauce
1/2 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp rice wine
1 big can Chicken Broth
Optional: Green Veggies

Mix everything but the chicken broth and green veg until just combined.
Use a spoon and put the tsp of filling into the middle of each wonton wrapper.
Wet 2 sides of the wrapper with water and fold into a triangle. You can leave them like that or hold the triangle flat, with the point facing you. Place one edge of the right corner over the left edge and pinch together.
Boil water in one pot and heat up chicken broth in another. Cook the vegetables in the chicken broth.
It takes about 4 minutes to cook the wontons if they are fresh. About 6-8 minutes if they are frozen. Cut one open and see if the meat (no pink) and shrimp (pink) are cooked through, if so, serve up! (Bigger ones take a bit longer and smaller ones will cook faster!)

Pizza Attempt #2

You should make your own pizza at home. You might say, "Alas! I have no time!" or "How could I possibly make a pizza when I get home from work? I am far to hungry!" or "Frozen is just the easier option." Ok, well you are partly right. Sometimes frozen pizza can be easier. However, in 20 minutes you can still have fresh pizza!

I bought an herb flavored pizza dough from Trader Joe's, this is a ready to go ball of dough. The ball of dough is sized out for 2, so I split it in half. Tomorrow's dinner!

Ready to start cooking? Start the clock!

Preheat oven to 425F. Press out the dough, spread with tomato sauce, top with cheese! By this time the oven should be just about preheated. Pop it in for 6-10 minutes.

In that 6-10 minutes I was able to wash some dishes and make a small Caesar salad.

The sauce I used was plain tomato sauce. I added a 1/4 tsp of garlic powder and oregano, and a sprinkle of red pepper flakes.

I cooked it on my silpat mat and it crisped up nicely, I didn't use cornmeal or anything on the bottom of the crust.

Happy Eating!!

Hasselbeck Potatoes

Birthday Dinner!! Fancy sliced baked potatoes! I kept seeing this potato style on Pinterest and have been looking for a good excuse to try it! Apparently these are called Hasselback Potatoes (or Accordion Potatoes) and are the Swedish version of a baked potato!

I combined a recipe from several blogs and from Sunny Anderson on Food Network. I omitted the Parmesan cheese but feel free to sprinkle some on!

I did one baked potato per person. I would double the sauce recipe (listed below) because I wanted a bit more flavor. I would take the rest of the sauce and pour it on after baking or pour more on before cooking. I baked mine at 350 for a little over an hour but they don't get as crispy.

Other options include swapping out the butter for more olive oil to make it a bit healthier!


Birthday Menu: Beef Tenderloin, Swedish baked potatoes, roasted onions and mushrooms, and a Gluten Freeblueberry cobbler!

Potatoes!

Used a chopstick to help with the cuts. I also cut at an angle.

Pretty cut potatoes :)

Greased and seasoned!

Slightly crispy and all cooked!

Fried left over potatoes in bacon grease for breakfast

Hasselback Potatoes  

6 potatoes, medium size

3-5 garlic cloves, thin sliced or 1 ½ tsp garlic powder (2 tsp)

4 tbsp unsalted butter, melted

3 tbsp olive oil

¼ paprika

¼ onion powder

¼ Salt and pepper

1 tsp oregano

Heat oven to 425F. 

Slice each potato crosswise at 1/8-inch intervals, cutting to within 1/4 inch of the bottom. Be careful not to slice all the way through. Use the back of a spoon to ensure you don’t cut all the way through. 

Combine olive oil, butter, garlic, salt, smoked paprika and onion powder and mozzarella cheese in a small bowl. 

Place the potatoes on a baking sheet. 

Carefully insert pinches of this mixture in between the slits of the potatoes. 

Rub the outsides of the potatoes with residual oil. 

Bake for about 40-45 minutes. The inside should be cooked through and the outside of the potato should be a bit crispy

Roasted Savory Mushrooms & Onions

Birthday dinner! Ok, so while I was buying that beef tenderloin, the butcher convinced me to go to the veggie section and have a sample of one of the veggie sides. He also told me that Caesar salad isn't a vegetable. 

Anyways, I went and bought 2 packages of prepackaged veggies. The recipe below is from the Wegman's website. I was going to buy the finishing sauce, however it contains gluten and this was to be a gluten free meal! I took a picture of the bottle and made up my own recipe without the soy sauce!
 
Birthday Menu: Beef Tenderloin, Swedish baked potatoes, roasted onions and mushrooms, and a Gluten Freeblueberry cobbler!


Gluten Free Copycat of Wegman's Finishing Sauce (more or less)
2 tbsp Butter, melted
2 tbsp Balsamic Vinegar
1 tbsp Tomato Sauce (I didn't have tomato paste)
1 tsp Sugar
1/2 tsp Ginger
1/2 tsp Onion Powder
1/4 tsp Salt

Combine all the ingredients and then adjust any flavors for your personal taste!

Savory Mushrooms and Onions
2 pkgs(10 oz each) Baby Bella Mushrooms, halved
1 pkg(6 oz) Cipolline Onions
1 pkg(6 oz) Pearl Onions
Salt and pepper
1/4 cup Wegmans Basting Oil
2 Tbsp Wegmans Savory Finishing Sauce
 

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Toss mushrooms and onions with basting oil in large bowl; arrange in single layer on baking sheet. Season with salt and pepper. Roast on center rack of oven 15 min.
Reduce heat to 350 degrees; cook 25-30 min, until vegetables are caramelized. Spoon vegetables into serving dish; drizzle with sauce.

Gluten Free Blueberry Cobbler

Birthday dessert!! I was looking for another gluten free dessert recipe. I made a gluten free blueberry cobbler from here! I made these in individual 6 oz bowls. The blueberry part tasted like blueberry pie, but the almond part on top... was good but didn't make me feel very cobbler-ish. I was just expecting it to be more like a pastry, the almond topping is very thick and doesn't spread very easily but you can just dollop it around.

We made Pamela's Gluten Free Pancakes and the pancakes were great! Since the batter can also be used as a baking mix I would try making a topping with that instead next time.

However it was very easy to make, great for a quick snack, and I would give it another shot!

Birthday Menu: Beef Tenderloin, Swedish baked potatoes, roasted onions and mushrooms, and a Gluten Freeblueberry cobbler!

Gluten Free Blueberry Cobbler

Ingredients

• 16 oz frozen blueberries (I used frozen but I can imagine the fresh would be great too)
• 1/2 cup sugar, divided
• 1 Tbsp cornstarch
• 1 Tbsp lemon juice
• 1 cup slivered blanched almonds ground in a food processor
• 4 Tbsp butter
• 1 whole egg
• pinch of salt

Preheat oven to 400.  In a large bowl gently toss together the blueberries, 1/4 cup of sugar, cornstarch and lemon juice.  Pour into a buttered 2-quart baking dish.  In another bowl mix together the ground almonds/almond meal, butter, the other 1/4 cup of sugar, egg and salt until well combined.  Spread topping over the blueberries.  Bake for 25-35 minutes until the fruit is bubbly and the top is golden brown.  Let cool at least 10 minutes before eating.  Serve hot or at room temperature with vanilla ice cream!