Sesame Chicken with Snap Peas and Jasmine Rice

It's no big secret that one of my biggest weaknesses is Chinese food. Any Chinese food. I am not picky when it comes to that. I could eat it every day for every meal and (probably - never say never!) not tire of it. The combinations, the flavors, the tastes...

Let's just say that I am just short of drinking soy sauce straight from the bottle and leave it at that, shall we?

Not to mention that stir fry is a fast, easy and inexpensive meal. Yeah, that always helps. Especially if you're me. Which you are not. And you wouldn't want to be me, trust me. Especially if you don't like stir fry.

This is an easy peasy one that is a snap (pun intended, thank you) to make and tastes out of this world.

I like to mix the marinade in a ziplock for less cleaning later.

Dice up your chicken.

Bathe it in soy saucy goodness...

Mix up the sauce.

Plate it up and go to town.

Sesame Chicken with Snap Peas and Jasmine Rice

serves 4

5 tbsp soy sauce
4 tsp dark sesame oil
2 tsp honey
4 boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite sized pieces
6 tsp oil
3 scallions, thinly sliced
1 tbsp grated or finely minced ginger
3 cloves minced garlic
1-1/4 cup chicken broth
3 tbsp sugar
4 tbsp cornstarch
1 tbsp rice vinegar
1 tsp chili paste (more if you like additional heat)
4 cups steamed snap peas
4 cups cooked jasmine rice
2 tbsp sesame seeds, toasted

Whisk 3 tbsp soy sauce with 2 tsp sesame oil and honey. Add chicken and marinate 30 minutes or longer.

Heat 4 tsp oil on wok or skillet over medium high heat. Cook chicken until browned, 3-5 minutes. Transfer chicken to a plate and wipe wok or skillet clean.

Heat remaining 2 tsp oil over medium high heat. Add scallions, ginger and garlic; stir fry about 1 minute. Whisk together the chicken broth, sugar, cornstarch, vinegar, chili paste and remaining 2 tbsp soy sauce. Add mixture to skillet; stir and cook until thickened, about 3-4 minutes. Stir in the remaining sesame oil.

Return chicken to pan, stir to coat and heat through.

Serve chicken with steamed snap peas and jasmine rice. Top with a sprinkling of toasted sesame seeds.

Sweet Chili Lime Wings and Bok Choy & Radish Stir Fry

Wings are an easy weeknight dinner, not to mention that I can cook the wings earlier in the day and warm them up for saucing later when everybody's hungry. And no one sees me sneak a cold wing or seven while waiting for said dinner time...

Normally I bake my wings, not fry them.  I do this for two reasons:


(1) Frying is not particularly healthy for you...yes, fried tastes better and yields a way, way tastier texture on the wings, but baking (if done right) can come pretty darned close. Not exact, but close.

(2) Deep frying frightens me. One day, I will blow something up by accident. Once I tried to deep fry fish nuggets in my trusty cast iron dutch oven and I either burned them or they didn't cook completely.  Deep frying is an art that I am still working to master.  I am much more comfortable skillet-frying my way into dinner.  Yet, I will continue to face my fear of frying in more than 2 inches of oil without whimpering in the corner.

I decided to fry the wings this time and face my fear of frying. It worked out pretty well. The texture was just about perfect and not too greasy.

I decided to experiment with a new sauce this time too. We always have the standard buffalo wing sauce, although the brand may vary from time to time.  We have tried (and liked):

* Crystal Hot Sauce and (melted) butter
* Budweiser Wing Sauce (even though I hate their beer other than American Ale)
* Crystal Wing Sauce

This time, however, I wanted to veer away from the traditional buffalo sauce and try something different.  I knew going into this that I was forbidden from making a strictly asian-type of sauce (i.e., using soy sauce in any way, shape or form) because the probability of Papa Bear eating them or liking them would drop below a 30% chance. He has issues with soy sauce that I shall save for another time...

I wanted sweet and spicy instead of just rip-your-tongue-out spicy. I decided on a maple syrup/chili sauce/lime sauce.  It was a little too sweet for Papa Bear and Crazy Artist, but everyone else thought it was pretty darned good. If you give it a try, let me know what you think.

Instead of the standard celery and carrot sticks with dressing, I decided to mix it up and do a quick stir fry with some bok choy and radish.  I cooked until just warm and slightly tender, but it still had a nice crunch to it. I also threw in a little shallot and lemon pepper for some zing.

All in all, this was really enjoyable.  Wings are always on our dinner rotation, and I think the sauce and stir fry side will be too...

Chili Lime Wings

3 pounds whole chicken wings
1 cup real maple syrup (not pancake syrup!)
1 cup chili sauce
2 Tbsp lime juice
2 Tbsp dijon mustard
1 cup all purpose flour
2 tsp salt
2 tsp paprika
1 tsp pepper
1 tsp chili powder
Oil for frying

Cut the wings into three sections and discard the wing tips. In a deep skillet or dutch oven, heat oil to 375.  While the oil is heating, combine flour, salt, paprika, pepper and chili powder in a large ziplock bag and shake to combine. Add wings a few at a time and shake to coat.

Fry wings in batches for 8-12 minutes or until no longer pink, turning once. Drain on paper towels. You can stop at this point if you choose. You can refrigerate the wings until you're almost ready to eat; just heat your oven to 375 and heat the wings on a single layer on a baking sheet for 15-20 minutes. If you can't wait for wing-y goodness, continue to the next step.

In a medium saucepan, combine maple syrup, chili sauce, lime juice and mustard and bring to a boil over medium heat. Cook until liquid has reduced to about 1 cup.  Transfer hot wings to a big bowl; add sauce mixture and toss to coat. Eat immediately or serve to your family...


Bok Choy & Radish Stir Fry

2 Tbsp butter
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 head of Bok Choy
15-20 radishes, trimmed and thinly sliced
1 shallot, thinly sliced
3/4 tsp salt
2 tsp lemon pepper seasoning

Cut off root end of bok choy; you can use this as a garnish (as I did) if it looks particularly pretty.  If not, discard the root end. Cut leaves from stalks and cut into one inch slices. Cut stalks into one inch pieces.

In a large skillet, melt butter with oil over medium high heat.  When butter is melted, add bok choy and cook for 5 minutes, or until crisp-tender. Add the radishes, shallot, salt and lemon pepper. Cook and stir for about 3-4 minutes or until heated through.

Sneakified Fried Rice

I love Chinese takeout.  I just can't afford it very often.  Usually, I am the only one who could eat it four or five nights a week, so....needless to say - we don't get it very often.  I love stir fry, fried rice, potstickers...all of it! It's easy, quick, inexpensive and probably way better for you than most dishes you can come up with on the fly. Well, in our house, anyway....

And, yes...I did just make 'sneaky' into an adjective in the post title. Believe me when I tell you that it will fill a huge void in your vocabulary that you never even knew was there. Trust me.

I can sneak a stir fry or something into the menu every once in awhile and nobody complains too much. Drama Queen and I could eat Chinese, stir fry or sushi every day...but alas, we are the only ones who would. When I can sneak it in, believe me, I will.

This is a quick-and-dirty Fried Rice that I have done a million and five times. It's idiot proof, not to mention the versatility it has! You can add just about anything and I promise it will be fantastic!

Here's what I had on hand:  Shrimp, leftover veggies (like broccoli, carrots, snow peas) leftover basmati rice, soy sauce and sesame oil, green onion, minced garlic, and parsley.  I also pulled two eggs out of the fridge.

 Heat some oil in a frying pan.  When it's hot, dump the rice in and cook until it just starts to brown and get nice and golden.  Make a well in the center of the pan.

Pour the eggs in the center and scramble.

Mix the eggs into the rice.

Stir in the green onions, garlic and parsley.

Add the soy sauce and sesame oil.

Add in any veggies you have on hand, or use a bag of frozen stir fry veggies...whatever you like!

Add in any meat or seafood you like - leftover pork, chicken, steak, mussels, crab, shrimp...I had some shrimp that I diced and threw in. Stir it all together and let it get all toasty and hot.

I pan fried some egg rolls from the deli, which will do in a pinch if you don't have the time or ingredients to make them yourself.  I have never cared for 'baked' egg rolls at all.  You can bake them in the oven, but they don't have the texture or flavor of a real egg roll. I find them slightly gummy and chewy when they are cooked in the oven. You don't have to deep fry them, either; just pan fry them in an inch or two of oil and you get the same taste and texture.

And there you have it. A quick pseudo-takeout that can (and usually will) use up those leftovers in the fridge that you would have probably thrown away this weekend...

The versatility of a dish like this just astounds me.  You could do just about anything here; steak and peppers (Philly Fried Rice!), taco meat, tomatoes and chilis (Mexi-fried anyone?), crumbled bacon slices and more egg (Breakfast Fried Rice), chorizo and queso fresco - I mean, really! I could go on and on and on here...

Let me know what you'd do with it!! I would love to try your ideas...