A little mid week Chinese chicken

Back in the day……

There was nothing I loved more than a great Chinese Buffet!

I had this one particular friend, who she and I would dawn our most spacious sun dresses and steal away to the buffet and eat till we could barely walk!

But times of have changed.

Now I try to eat healthy and then since I developed that pesky shell fish allergy, going buffets where I don’t know exactly what’s in everything, is simply just high risk behaviour!

But every now and again, I get a strong craving for some Chinese style chicken!

So last night I googled “Sweet and Sour Chicken” and so this recipe is loosely based on the first three or four that I looked at.

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Start by cutting and appropriate amount of  fresh chicken ( I used boneless breast) into nice manageable strips or bite size chunks.

Place the chicken in a bowl with one egg white,  2 tsp of cornstarch and 1/4 tsp of salt.   Mix throughly till the chicken bits are well coated, then set aside.

Meanwhile chop up a bunch of your favorite Asian style veg into nice strips.

I used:

• red pepper
• yellow pepper
• red cabbage
• broccoli

But any nice firm veg will do.

And some finely chopped fresh ginger, about 1″ knob or at least 1 tbsp.

 

Oh yes…..and you will probably want to be cooking some rice or noodles or something on the side to go with it……or not.

Okay, now you are ready to go.

Get out your wok, or in my case big skillet and get it pretty smokin hot!

Then add about 1 tbsp of high smoking temp oil.  Do NOT use olive oil!!  I used coconut, it has a nice neutral flavour and can get nice and hot before burning.

 

Once the oil is nice and hot, dump your chicken in the pan and quickly spread it out to a single layer.  But then DON’T touch it!!  And yes it will immediately stick!

But then after a minute or two of cooking, with a good strong spatula, flip it over and let it go another minute or two.

Then remove it to a CLEAN bowl or plate.  Don’t worry if it still looks a little pinkish, it will cook some more soon.

Then add a little more oil to the pan, let it heat, then toss in all of your veg, including the ginger and give them a good toss.

 

 

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NOTE:   now in all the “Sweet and Sour” recipes I looked at, they were using pineapple as the “Sweet”.   I didn’t have any so I substituted in the sauce (coming next) but if you WERE to use pineapple chucks, this is where you would toss them in, with the veg and then use the juice in the sauce.

 

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Sauce:   So as mentioned, the real recipes called for canned pineapple and then the juice in the sauce.   But the closest thing I had was oranges.

• 1/2 cup orange juice
• 1/4 cup ketchup
• 1/4 white or rice vinegar
• 3 tbsp brown sugar
• pinch of salt
• and in hind sight, I would have used a pinch of chili flakes

Mix that up well.

Once the veg have cooked for a minute or two, pour in the sauce, mix well and turn up the heat until the sauce starts to bubble.

Then add the chicken back in to the pan.   Stir it all up, put the lid on and let simmer for a couple of minutes until everything is well cooked.

Serve with your favorite side dish!

Easy chicken!  And the best part is……you know EXACTLY what’s in it!!

 

Salmon on a stick

It’s been award show season and on this particular occasion, I wanted to make something interesting to eat while we watched but wasn’t really feeling like the usual “party snack” fare, so this is what I came up with.

First and foremost important thing?  Soak your sticks in water!!  I was using bamboo skewers, but these or any wooden ones must be soaked for at least 1/2 hour in water so they don’t catch fire in the oven or one the grill!

Then I placed a few strips of bacon on a parchment covered tray and put them in the oven at about 300 degrees because you want them to cook slowly and not crisp up at all.  When they are almost done, but still very bendy, take them out and let them cool down till they are cool enough to touch.

Meanwhile, chop your salmon into nice 1 inch by 1 inch chunks, or there abouts.

Then add the dry rub which today, I was going for a bit of a “Cajun” type taste, but whatever you want is fine.  Maybe you even have an actual prepared dry rub that you already like.   But I mixed up:

• cumin
• coriander
• smokie paprika
• thyme
• chili powder
• clove ( small bit)
• oregano

Mix it into the salmon chunks and let sit a bit to get acquainted.

Then as side dishes I made my old stand by “roasted yams” with toasted walnuts.

And a nice little pineapple black bean salsa.

For the salsa combine:

• bite size chunks of fresh pineapple
• 1/4 of a small red onion VERY finely minced
• a large handful of freshly chopped cilantro
• 1 cup or 1/2 a tin of well rinsed black beans
• 1 tbsp cumin
• a generous squeeze of fresh lemon or lime juice
• salt and pepper

Then set that aside to exchange flavours too.

So when the roasted yams are done, take them out and turn the oven up to at least 400 degrees.

While it is pre-heating, it is time to assemble your salmon on a stick.

Start with a piece of bacon at one end and push it on to the stick, then add a piece of salmon, then bend over the bacon and poke that on, then another piece of salmon and so on.  As though you are weaving a ribbon of bacon between your salmon chunks.

Replace back on to the same tray that the bacon was cooked on.  Both for easier clean up but also to get any added flavour from bacon drippings.

Bake in the hot oven for probably no more than 10 minutes.  If even that.

Keep a close eye to make sure the bacon doesn’t start to burn.

Remove and add to your favorite side dishes and you will have a great meal for any occasion!