Chicken and Waffles

 

In my perfect world, there would be no dirty dishes; I could eat as much as I want without having to wear spanx under my dress and I would never have to worry about applying eye cream before going to bed.

But as we all know, that world doesn’t exist.

We have to create our own perfect world to find happiness. And that is exactly what I did. As soon as I started to dip the chicken in rich buttermilk, i was already doing my happy dance in my head. Then, by the time the batter hit the waffle iron and started to sizzle I was already in heaven. In no time, I fixed myself a plate, poured hot peppermint tea in my big pink mug and found my seat on the couch next to the window and started tearing down the chicken and the waffle greedily. At this point, you can just forget about being a lady with the fork and knife, once the syrup, butter, chicken and waffle start to play; things will get crazy. Crazy good!

I’ll tell you what, this whole sweet and savory combo is the real deal.

 

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Chinese Steamed Chicken

I woke up today with a massive craving for some Chinese steamed chicken for breakfast. Yes, for breakfast. Just because the weather lately has been wet and cold and that really makes me crave for something nice and comforting. I have been obsessing with Chinese dishes lately. There is something really explosive about the combination of rich soy sauce, ginger and rice wine. When mix together, they just make my belly so happy.

For the past couple of weeks, I have been filling that hole with different types of soup and now, i want some steamed chicken for breakfast. What I love about this dish is that it’s really easy to put together with just a few simple ingredients.

Chinese Steamed Chicken

2 lbs chicken thighs, bone-in
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground white pepper
2 tsp soy sauce
1 tbs fresh ginger, thinly sliced
1 tbs Shaoxing rice wine
1/2 tsp sugar

Mix the salt, pepper, soy sauce and ginger in a bowl and then allow the chicken thighs to marinate in that mixture for 30 minutes.

Using your steamer, let the water come to a boil. Then, place the chicken in an even layer and arranged the sliced ginger all over the chicken and steam over medium heat for 30 minutes or until the chicken is cooked thoroughly. It may take a longer time to cook if the chicken pieces are larger.

When it’s done cooking, reserved the liquid that comes out of the chicken after steaming. Score the chicken meat out of the bone with a knife. Arrange the chicken pieces on to a serving platter. Mix the reserved liquid with 1/2 tsp of sugar and 1 tbs of Shaoxing rice wine. Add more soy sauce if necessary. You may garnish the platter with some sliced cucumbers and cilantro and then serve this over steamed rice or noodles.

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Sweet and Sour Chicken

Sweet and sour chicken is definitely my all-time favorite Chinese dish. I just love making this at home whenever I get the chance. I have to be honest and say that preparing this can get a little time consuming when you have to deep fry those chicken bits (although this is a great way to get over your fear of deep frying) but none the less the end result is very rewarding.

The lovely deep fried bite size chicken bits just lightly coated in the rich sweet and sour sauce is absolutely heavenly with a big bowl of steamed white rice. I love using boneless chicken thighs, simple because I find it has more flavor and the meat stays tender and moist. But feel free to substitute this for white meat chicken.

If you’re making this dish a head of time, do not coat the chicken with the sauce right away or it will get a little soggy.

Sweet and Sour Chicken

8 boneless and skinless chicken thighs (cut in bite size)
Salt and pepper
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup corn starch
3/4 cup water
Vegetable oil for frying

Marinate the bite size chicken with some salt and pepper.

Combine the flour, corn starch and water to make a thick batter. Drop the chicken pieces into the batter and mix until the chicken is well coated. Shake off excess batter before frying.

Heat up the oil in the wok on medium high heat and deep fry the batter coated chicken until it is golden. Remove chicken and drain on paper towel. Drain excess oil and reserved 1 tablespoon for the sauce.

Sweet and Sour Sauce

1/3 cup ketchup
2 tablespoon plum sauce
1/4 teaspoon rice wine vinegar
3 tablespoon sugar
1/4 cup water or chicken stock
1 teaspoon corn starch

1 small clove of garlic (minced)
1 small shallot (chopped)
1 small green or red bell pepper (clean and cut into squares)

1/2 cup fresh pineapple (cut in cubes)
1/3 cup cucumber (peeled and cut in cubes)

In a small bowl, mix together the ketchup, plum sauce, rice wine vinegar, sugar, water or chicken stock and corn starch and then set aside.

Next, heat the wok with a tablespoon of reserved oil. Drop in the garlic, shallots and the bell pepper. Stir fry for a minute and then add the sauce mixture and bring it up to a boil until it thickens. Then add in the fried chicken, pineapple and cucumber and continue to stir fry. Serve it immediately with steamed white rice or egg fried rice.

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Easy Lemon Chicken with Cheesy Potato Au Gratin and A Game of Tag.

I have a good track record for being absolutely indecisive. Just ask anyone in my family and they will be happy to share that fact. For instance, when I go out shopping and I see something that I like, I can never just decide right then and there if I should get it or not. I have to sit and marinate on that for a long while before I finally make up my mind. This is a constant dilemma for me really. I also I have this problem trying to figure out what to order when we eat out. I literally have to scan the menu several times before I decide on my entrée.

Yeah I know, it can get very exhausting and extremely frustrating. This is why I appreciate my family for being so patient with me. Even though I sometimes catch them rolling their eyes whenever they think I’m not looking. But that’s ok. I know they still love me no matter what right? Right.

The other day after defrosting some chicken from the freezer, I planned on stir frying that with some vegetables which was going to be really fast and easy. Then out of the blue I changed my game plan and made grilled lemon chicken and cheesy potato gratin. Unfortunately, I didn’t get a chance to photograph a slice of the gratin. We got carried away during dinner and just clean the entire dish. 

Easy Grilled Lemon Chicken

4 Skinless boneless chicken thighs
Salt & Pepper
Olive oil

1 tablespoon butter
1 small clove garlic, minced
1 teaspoon lemon rind, grated.
¼ cup white wine
¼ cup chicken stock
1 teaspoon honey
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon parsley, chopped

Clean chicken and then pat dry with paper towel. Season with salt and pepper and then set aside. Preheat your grill or you can use a sauté pan and set it on a medium high heat. Light oil it with some olive oil and then place your chicken on the pan and cook it until the juices run clear.

Remove the chicken from the pan and set on a plate.Add the butter on to the pan and with the garlic and the grated lemon rind. Now, add in the wine and chicken stock and let the sauce cook down a little further for about 5 minutes.
Place the chicken back into the pan with the sauce. Then add in the honey and lemon juice. Lastly drop in the chopped parsley and then serve it warm.

Cheesy Potato Au Gratin

1 tablespoon butter
3 russet potato, peeled and cubed
1/3 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup milk (use 2%)
1/3 cup sour cream
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
¼ teaspoon grated nutmeg
salt and black pepper to taste
1 cup grated medium Cheddar cheese

Preheat  oven to 350 degrees F.  Then, grease a 8 inch baking pan with some cooking spray.
Spread potatoes evenly in the pan.

Mix together heavy cream, milk, sour cream, flour, nutmeg, salt, pepper and grated cheddar cheese in a large bowl. Pour cream mixture over the potatoes and cover the pan with foil.

Bake in the preheated oven for 30 minutes, and then remove the foil. Continue baking for another 10 minutes or until the cheese is melted. Allow to cool for 5 minutes before serving.

A GAME OF TAG

I had this passed on to me by Becky of Baking and Cooking, A Tale of Two Loves to join in a fun game of tag. Now that I’ve been tagged, all I have to do is answer eight questions by Becky and then I need to come up with my own set of eight questions and choose eight blogger friends to tag them to join in this fun! So basically this all about getting to know your new blogger friend a little bit more.

1.Who is the person that has inspired you the most in your life, and why?
   My mother.  She bought me my very first cookbook when I was nine years old and thought me everything I know about cooking.
 

2.What is your favorite Family activity, besides cooking or eating?
   I love taking family vacations. It is something I cherish.

3.What is the last book or magazine that you read?
     Australian Women’s weekly.

4.What is your favorite color?
     It depends on my mood, but right now it’s navy blue.

5.What do you do for your “me” time?
     I watch reruns of Law and Order SVU.

6.Who if your BFF, and why?
    To be honest, I don’t really have one. Is that weird?

7.What is your favorite go-to dish to cook or bake?
    It would be penne with turkey pesto.

8.What is your favorite utensil or gadget in your kitchen,that you could not live without?
  I can’t live without my Kitchen Aid stand mixer.

 So, here is my own set of eight questions for my eight friends that I tagged.

1. What is your favorite cookbook?
2. What is on your wish list right now?
3. What was your favorite TV show?
4. What is your idea of the perfect date?
5. What is your favorite salad dressing?
6. If you were going to cook a romantic dinner, what would be on your menu?
7. What is the one thing you will never eat?
8. If you were an ice cream, what flavor would you be?

And here are my eight blogger friends that I tagged.

Debbi Does Dinner Healthy

Roasted Roots and Pumpkin Spice

A Canadian Foodie

Dessert for Two

Melanie Cooks

Anecdotes and apple cores

Fancy that Fancy This

Heaven Housewives

This game is all in the name of fun and to get to know each other better. And just like Becky says, this isnt for everyone so it’s ok if you decide not to play. Just give me a buzz once you have answered. Have Fun!

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Carrot Orzo & Butter Grilled Chicken

This is what I’m having for dinner tonight.

After all the endless conversations on what do you feel like having for dinner tonight talk I finally decided that this is what we’re having. (so much drama in such a tiny kitchen) The thing is, one of us felt like pasta and the other wanted chicken but only one us was doing the cooking. Guess which one?

Anyway, I made some carrot orzo which is definitely a nice alternative to your everyday pasta dish. You can make this as a side dish or you can have it as your main dish accompanied by your favorite choice of protein. Naturally, I went with the chicken. I use boneless skinless chicken thigh, grilled with some butter, garlic and season it with salt and pepper. You can always use chicken breast if you like which is nice and lean.

Aside from how tasty this dish is, I also love how pretty it looks. The pretty diced carrot and the tiny orzo does marry well together don’t you think?

Carrot Orzo

1 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 cup uncooked orzo pasta
1/2 cup carrots, diced
15 ounce chicken or vegetable broth
Salt and pepper to taste
1 tablespoon fresh parsley, chopped 

Sauté orzo with extra virgin olive oil in a heavy pan or skillet over medium-high heat until lightly browned.

Add in the carrots and then stir in chicken stock and bring to boil.

Cover and reduce heat and simmer until orzo and carrot is tender and liquid is absorbed for about 15 – 20 minutes.

Add more broth if necessary. Season the orzo with salt and pepper and the chopped parsley.

Serve immediately with grilled butter chicken.

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Green Chicken Curry

Think green.

A beautiful mix of fresh mint, cilantro, jalapeno, shallots, garlic and ginger all blend in a food processor to a smooth paste. Then use this to marinate your chicken along with some turmeric, ground coriander, cumin, chili powder and salt. Let this lovely blend of flavors rest in your refrigerator to get to know each other for about an hour.

Then heat your pan with some canola oil on medium and throw in a couple cardamom seeds, cloves and whole black peppercorn. Then add in the marinated chicken and pan fry until it’s nice and brown. Then add in some chicken stock and greek yogurt. Stir well and let simmer until the sauce thickens with a lovely vibrant green color. Sounds good? Serve this with basmati rice or warm naan bread or both.

This dish is inspired by my husband who has a serious obsession with Indian food. He loves eating anything from biryani to naan to samosas. This all started way back during his college days when he used to hang out with his friends at their local Indian restaurant to get their fix. One of his favorite dishes is this particular green chicken curry. He would order it all the time. Now, I make this at home all the time. To me, the presence of the mint in here is very subtle not as strong as how I thought it would be, even though there is about a cup of it in here. I even tried making this with lamb and it turned out great.

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Honey Herb Roasted Chicken

Honey Herb Roasted Chicken

Mmmmm roasted chicken. Good old comfort cooking. I love the simplicity of cooking this pretty little bird. You can pair this up with any kind of sides you like. Today I wanted to go with something really really easy, so I went with potatoes and carrots. All toss in together with the chicken in a roasting dish.

I used 4 different types of fresh herb, Parsley, Basil, Rosemary and Oregano. After cleaning the chicken, season it with salt, pepper and about a teaspoon of smoke paprika. Use that to rub the chicken. Then sear the chicken, skin side down on a hot skillet until nice and golden brown. Place the chicken in a roasting dish with the potatoes and carrots. Then mix all the fresh herbs with a tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil and brush it on the chicken.

Pour in ½ cup of chicken stock and ¼ cup of white wine. Then cover it with aluminum foil and bake in a preheated oven at 375 degrees F for 1 hour.

Mix together 2 tablespoon of apricot jam, a tablespoon of honey and a juice of a whole lemon. Remove foil after an hour and brush the chicken with the jam-honey mixture.

Return to bake in the oven uncovered for further 20 minutes till the skin is nicely brown. Serve with your choice of sides.

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