Vegetable Chicken Chowder

16 October, 201315 October, 2013Marissa

The first time I made this soup, my family was praising the smell even before they got a taste of it. The basic recipe comes from an old cookbook my grandmother gave my mother called Country Classic Pioneer Cookbook. I’ve changed it a little, streamlining the recipe instructions and adding meat. This version calls for chicken, but you could easily make it with beef (which is what I did the first time I tried it). It goes well with bread, such as these Easy Bread Sticks.

Vegetable Chicken Chowder

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2 cups water

3 cups chicken broth

1 can tomato soup

1 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons onion powder

¼ teaspoon pepper

½ cup rice

2 cups chopped potatoes

½ cup diced celery

1 cup diced carrot

2 cups chopped chicken

1 cup milk

3 Tablespoons flour

Combine liquid, seasonings, and rice in a large sauce pot. Heat to boil. When soup boils, add chopped potatoes, celery, and carrots. Reduce heat and simmer for 45 minutes.

Meanwhile, cook chicken. Add to soup after the 45 minutes cooking time or when the rice is tender. Whisk milk and flour, add to soup. Bring to boil and serve immediately.

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Oriental Salad Dressing

31 July, 201321 October, 2013Marissa

Oriental Chicken Salad dressing recipe — Oriental Chicken Salad

Since the oven is still not working (the repair man said he should have it fixed this Friday), I had to come up with something other than blueberry cheesecake bars to post this week. I’ve had this salad dressing recipe for some time, but for lunch yesterday I decided to try something different.

Instead of breading the chicken tenders, I marinaded the chicken in a mixture of soy sauce, rice wine, ginger, garlic, sesame oil, and little bit of red pepper. Thankfully the broiler is still working, so we were able to cook the chicken. My family agreed it tasted marvelous.

The original dressing recipe came in the same e-mail that I got my General Tso’s Chicken recipe from. It’s the dressing for Applebee’s Oriental Chicken Salad. We usually serve the it over salad with rice noodles and sliced almonds.

Oriental Salad Dressing

Applebee's oriental chicken salad dressing — Dressing before and after being mixed (I think it’s lumpy because I didn’t let the ingredients sit at room temperature. Still tastes good, though).

1/3 cup honey

3 tablespoons rice wine vinegar

½ cup mayonnaise

2 teaspoon Grey Poupon Dijon mustard

¼ teaspoon sesame oil

Prepare dressing ingredients by mixing in a small bowl. Refrigerate until ready to use.

Sesame Stir Fry

24 July, 20138 July, 2014Marissa

On Friday, my oven stopped working. I was in the middle of trying out a new recipe for snickerdoodle bars, and the oven refused to heat up beyond 165 degrees. The repair man said he wouldn’t make it out to our house until this Friday, so I’m stuck making stove-top meals.

sesame chicken stir-fry recipe — sesame chicken

Well, maybe “stuck” isn’t the right word when I can cook things like this wonderful stir fry. It is has a thick, sweet sauce and works equally well with chicken or beef. Unlike the sesame chicken or beef you usually find at Chinese take-out places, this meat isn’t deep fried. I like the un-fried taste for this dish, but if you want to try crispy chicken in the sesame sauce you could use the chicken from my General Tso’s recipe.

Sesame Stir Fry

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3 whole boneless chicken breasts or 1 pound of beef

Marinade

2 tablespoons soy sauce

1 tablespoon rice wine

1 tablespoon tapioca starch

a few drops of sesame oil

Cut the meat into 1-inch cubes. Mix the marinade ingredients and marinate the meat for 20 minutes.

Sauce

½ cup water

¼ cup tapioca starch (or cornstarch)

1 cup chicken or beef broth

1/8 cup rice vinegar

¾ cup sugar

2 tablespoons soy sauce

2 tablespoons sesame oil

1 clove garlic (minced)

Mix together the water and tapioca starch in a small sauce pan. Add broth, and the remainder of the sauce ingredients. Set aside (you’ll be heating this to a boil in a little while).

Cooking

Sesame beef stir-fry recipe — Sesame Beef

Fry the meat in a wok or deep skillet until done. Add desired vegetables and stir fry. I typically use carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, and mushrooms. When I have them, I add bamboo shoots and cabbage. Really, you can use whatever you like.

Just before vegetables are finished cooking, bring sauce to a boil, stirring continuously. Pour the sauce over the chicken and vegetables. Sprinkle with sesame seeds and serve with rice.

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Bowtie Pasta Bake

10 July, 201316 November, 2014Marissa

bow ties are cool Doctor Who invented pasta — Bow-ties are cool

This is the first pasta recipe I made that my dad (a confirmed anti-pasta man) actually liked. It had a long, tumultuous history. My first attempt at making it was a disaster of soggy noodles, but there was something in the flavor that made me think it could be perfect. As a Doctor Who fan, I know that bow-tie pasta was the solution, and I was right (actually, any pasta that stays pretty firm when cooked, like penne, would have fixed [most] of the problems with this dish). Even after the pasta switch, though, I had to tweak the sauce several times before it got to it’s current state of yumminess. So, without further ado or sci-fi digressions, here’s the recipe.

Bowtie Pasta Bake

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6 ounces dried bowtie pasta

3/4 pound boneless chicken breast, cut into bite-size pieces

1 cup sliced fresh mushrooms

1 head of broccoli, chopped

1-2 carrots, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

½ cup chicken broth

bow tie pasta bake ready to go in oven — Ready to sprinkle with bread crumbs and bake

1, 10 ¾-ounce can condensed cream of chicken soup

12 ounces dairy sour cream

1 teaspoon onion powder

¼ teaspoon pepper

1 slice of bread, lightly toasted and crumbled

1 tablespoon butter, melted

Coat a large skillet with olive and cook chicken until it is no longer pink. While cooking, sprinkle chicken with powdered garlic and black pepper to taste.

Cook pasta until al dente according to package directions. Drain. Rinse with cold water and drain.

Cook mushrooms, broccoli, carrots, garlic, and chicken broth in small sauce pan. Bring to boiling and immediately remove from heat. Do not drain.

Add soup, sour cream, onion powder, and pepper to large bowl. Stir in chicken, pasta, and vegetables. Spoon into a 13x9x2-inch baking dish coated with cooking spray.

bow tie pasta bake recipe — fresh from the oven delicious

Mix bread crumbs and melted butter. Sprinkle over noodles. Cover with foil. Bake in a 350°F oven for 15 minutes. Remove foil. Bake 5 minutes more or until heated through.

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Baked Parmesan Chicken Skillet

3 July, 201316 November, 2014Marissa

Pasta is probably my favorite food. So when I came across this recipe through Pinterest, I was really excited to try it. Problem was, I didn’t have any pasta shells, I don’t like diced tomatoes, and all the basil in my house is dried. So I came up with a variation using spaghetti sauce and threw in some rotini I wasn’t sure what to do with (which was great, since the little spirals trap the sauce and hold flavor). It was a lovely dish, but a bit dry so I added more liquids the next time and it worked perfectly. I hope you enjoy!

Baked Parmesan Chicken Skillet

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1 lb boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite-sized pieces

1 tablespoon olive oil

3 garlic cloves, minced

1/8 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

Baked Parmesan Chicken Skillet — nicely melted cheese on top

1 cup tomato sauce

2 cups water

1½ cup low-sodium chicken broth

10-12 oz pasta (I used rotini)

¾ cup grated Parmesan cheese, divided

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

1 teaspoon dried basil.

Cook chicken in an oven-safe 12-inch skillet over medium-high heat. Once done, remove from skillet and set aside. Preheat the oven to 450°F.

Add the oil, garlic, red pepper flakes, and salt to the skillet and cook just until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add the tomato sauce, water, chicken broth, and the pasta to the pan, stirring to combine. Bring the mixture to a vigorous simmer, then cover the pan and continue simmering until the pasta is tender, about 16-18 minutes. Stir the pasta frequently as it cooks.

Once pasta is tender, remove the cover and stir in 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, the pepper, and the chicken. Sprinkle the top evenly with the mozzarella cheese, the remaining Parmesan cheese, and finally the basil. Transfer the pan to the oven and bake for 5-10 minutes, or until the cheese has melted and bubbles around the edges.

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General Tso’s Chicken

16 May, 20138 July, 2014Marissa

This is one of the recipes that has earned me the title “Red-Headed Chinese Chef” here at home. The original recipe came from a forwarded e-mail, and I don’t know the exact source. It’s one of the more involved Chinese recipes I make and takes at least an hour to prepare (count on longer for the first time making it), but it’s well worth the effort. We mainly cook this for special occasions — it is the dish my mom requested for Mother’s Day.

The most important step for this dish is frying the chicken. You want to make sure the breading is sticky, almost to the point where you can’t stir the chicken/breading mixture. That will make for a nice crispy coating that won’t get soggy once you add the sauce.

General Tso’s Chicken

Chicken/Breading

3 lbs. chicken meat (this recipe tastes best with thigh meat, but chicken breast works as well)

¼ cup soy sauce

1 tsp pepper

1 egg

1 cup tapioca starch (corn starch will work as well)

Cut chicken into medium-size chunks. In medium bowl, mix chicken, ¼ cup soy sauce and pepper. Stir in egg. Add 1 cup tapioca starch and mix until chicken pieces are coated evenly. Chicken should be sticky with coating. If breading seems too thin, add more starch.

Add a little vegetable oil to help separate chicken pieces. Divide chicken into small quantities and deep−fry until crispy.

Sauce

½ cup tapioca starch

¼ cup water

1 ½ tsp. minced garlic

1 ½ tsp. minced ginger root

¾ cup sugar

½ cup soy sauce

¼ cup rice vinegar

¼ cup rice wine

1½ cup hot chicken broth

For sauce, mix cup tapioca starch with water. Add garlic, ginger, sugar, ½ cup soy sauce, vinegar, wine, and chicken broth. Stir until sugar dissolves. Refrigerate until needed.

Place a small amount of oil in wok and heat until wok is hot. Add 4-10 hot peppers and stir−fry briefly. (The number of peppers depends on how hot you want the dish and the type of peppers you are using. Lately, I’ve been using frozen cyan peppers, and I need 4-6.)

Add desired vegetables and stir-fry. (I use broccoli, carrots, and cauliflower. Some General Tso’s Chicken is served without vegetables, others with only broccoli and water chestnuts. It’s an individual choice.) Stir sauce and add to wok. Place chicken in sauce and cook until sauce thickens. Serve with hot rice.