Sweet And Sour Chicken

http://therecipecritic.com/2013/07/baked-sweet-and-sour-chicken/



I found this recipe last summer and my family really loves it! I followed her recipe pretty close with a few slight variations for my personal tastes. As with anything requiring frying, this is a bit more involved and a little messier. Having said that, it is not really complicated or difficult for even a cooking novice with my step by step instructions.

I'm no Asian Cuisine expert by any means but my family really enjoys to eat Asian so I've tried expanding my cooking horizons. I'm not sure how "authentic" this recipe is but it sure is tasty! lol

Ingredients

FOR THE CHICKEN:

• 4 chicken breast or 8 chicken breast portions, thawed
• 1.5 cups corn starch 

• Salt and Pepper
• 4 eggs, beaten

FOR THE Sauce:

• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1 cup sugar
• 5 Tbsp ketchup
• 1/4 cup white vinegar
• 4 tsp soy sauce
• 1/4 Apple cider vinegar
• 1 tsp garlic salt

Utensils you Need:

• Frying pan
• Cutting board
• Cutting knife
• 2 small bowls (for cornstarch and eggs)
• 1 medium bowl (for sauce)
• 9x13 baking dish
• Fork or spoon for turning chicken in oil
• Serving spoon

Directions

FOR THE CHICKEN:

1. Preheat oven to 325
2. Pour measured cornstarch and beaten eggs into separate small bowls
3. Pour oil into frying pan and turn heat onto medium-high or 6-7
4. Using cutting board, trim fat, and cut chicken into bite size pieces
5. Dredge seasoned chicken pieces first into eggs then into cornstarch ensuring chicken is thoroughly covered. 
6. Check to see if oil is ready for frying. Easiest way to do this is to run your fingers under the water real quick and flick excess water into oil. If it bubbles and pops the. The oil is ready. If no reaction the. Wait a bit longer. If the oil is not hot enough then the coated chicken will simply soak up the oil and will not get crisp or brown. 
7. Shaking off excess cornstarch, place chicken into hot oil until brown. About 2-3 minutes depending on your stove and cookware. Using fork or spoon, turn until seared on both sides. We aren't worried about it being cooked all the way through because this is going into the oven to cook further.                                                                    
8. Once browned, remove from oil and place straight into 9x13 baking dish. 
9. Repeat dredging and browning process until all chicken has been fried and is now in the baking dish. 

FOR THE Sauce:

1. Mix all sauce ingredients together in medium bowl. Be sure to drag your fork along the bottom of the bowl as the sugar will settle on the bottom. 
2. Once well mixed pour evenly over top of chicken.                     
3. Using mixing spoon, stir chicken in sauce to ensure an even coating of sauce. 
4. Place baking dish in middle rack of oven and bake for 45-60 minutes stirring every 15 minutes to make sure the chicken all get covered well with sauce. You will know it is done cooking when the sauce has thickened enough to coat the chicken without excess sauce still on the bottom of the dish                                                                                                            

****Optional****

FOR THE white rice and bok choy:

1. While chicken is baking rinse out the same pan you fried the chicken in. 
2. Cut end off of bok choy                                           
3. Rinse well to remove all dirt 
4. Chop into smaller 2-3 inch pieces
5. Pour 2Tbsp vegetable oil into cold pan along with 2 Tbsp crushed garlic and 1Tbsp ground ginger 
6. Turn heat onto medium 
7. Sautée ginger and garlic for about 3 minutes until aromatic (smells good lol) without singeing at all. 
8. Add chopped bok choy and stir well to coat with garlic and ginger. 
9. Pan will be full at first but as with all greens, quickly cooks down. 
10. Keep turning greens (I prefer to use tongs but a spoon will work as well) to keep anything from singeing. If the garlic starts to do more than lightly brown then it will quickly become very bitter. No good. 
11. Greens are done when they are soft yet not mushy. You still want some nice texture to them. 
12. When done take off heat and cover to keep warm until chicken is done
13. Start cooking your rice per package instructions. even though you want "plain" white rice to pair with the very seasoned chicken, I still put a good dollop (or 2) or butter in my rice for a bit extra flavor.                                                                       







This recipe fed my family of 2 adults, 1 teenage boy, and 1 toddler with ZERO leftovers











































































































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Baked Basil Pesto Chicken

If you've never had a good pesto sauce then you my friend are in for a treat!! Pesto is a very traditional Italian sauce make from crushed basil, garlic, Parmesan, olive oil, and pine nuts. There are many variations you can make from scratch. Or you can do like me and find an amazing fresh Artesian basil pesto locally. I have tried many decent to good pestos over the years but my absolute favorite is found at my local Sam's Club.

There are many great recipes with pesto and here is one of my family's favorites. Hope you enjoy it as much as we do!!

Ingredients

FOR THE Chicken:

• 4 chicken breast or 8 chicken breast portions, thawed
• 1.5 cups (24 Tbsp) Basil Pesto 
• Salt and Pepper
• Mozzarella Cheese
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Utensils Needed

• 9x13 baking dish
• Spoon for dishing out pesto

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375
2. Trim fat off of chicken breasts. I use chicken breast portions because neither I or the kids can ever finish off a whole chicken breast. If you are using whole chicken breasts then you want to cut them in half for this recipe.                                                         Eww look at all that fat!
3. Place chicken in 9x13 baking dish, salt and pepper 
4. Spoon about 3 Tbsp pesto over each chicken breast. You can't really have too much as this will serve not only as flavoring for the chicken but also sauce for your pasta.  Depending on the pesto you bought it may need to be stored well first so you aren't spooning only oil onto your chicken. 
5. Cover dish with tin foil and bake on middle rack for 25-45 minutes depending on the thickness of your chicken. Set you timer for 25 minutes and keep checking for done-ness. 
6. Once cooked through, remove tin foil, cover chicken with as much or as little cheese as you'd like (I like LOTS of cheese)                                                                                         
7. Place dish back in oven and turn to Broil. Keep an eye on this stage the whole time! Do not leave the oven! You are only melting and browning the cheese and this only takes minutes (like 2 minutes). 
8. Once cheese is brown, remove from oven and start making your favorite pasta per package instructions. My favorite pasta is angel hair but spaghetti, fettuccine, and linguine would all work just as well.                         
9. Once pasta is cooked and drained, serve up like you would spaghetti. Pasta covered in pesto sauce. Topped with a chicken breast. 
10. Enjoy!!!

Roasted Caulifower

Roasted Cauliflower is something I got turned onto a couple years ago when my father-in-law was diagnosed with Diabetes. I was desperately looking for healthy, yummy, low carb snack foods. There are only so many raw veggies and sugar free jellos a person can take. Cauliflower is a veggie that raw can be pretty well blah. But when cooked it can take on the flavors of so many amazing things! Roasted is one of those ways that takes about 5 minutes to prep, 25 minutes to roast, and everyone including small children love! Here is one on my family's favorite. 

Ingredients

FOR THE CAULIFLOWER:

• 1 head of Cauliflower
• 1/2 cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• 1 Tbsp Garlic Salt
• 1 tsp Creole Seasoning
• 2 Tbsp Lemon Juice
• Pinch Red Pepper Flakes **optional
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Utensils You'll need:

• Cutting Board
• Sharp Cutting Knife
• Small Bowl For Oil
• Basting Brush
• Fork 
• Baking Dish

directions

FOR THE ROASTED Cauliflower:

1. Preheat oven to 425                                                   
2. Turn cauliflower upside down and with sharp knife trim off the majority of the greenery with one cut.
3. Next cut cauliflower head in half.                          
4. Take 1 half and make a triangle cut like pictured here to remove the stem. The cauliflower will start to fall apart into smaller florets.                                
5. Repeat with second half. 
6. Place florets in baking dish. I used my Pampered Chef Stone and place a drip pan underneath because it WILL make a mess in your oven.                           
7. Next take a small bowl and pour about 1/2 cup of olive oil and mix lemon juice, Creole, garlic salt, and a few red pepper flakes if you like a little heat or a lot of heat. Depending on the size of Cauliflower you have you may need more oil and seasoning. I bought a huge head from Sam's so had to make about twice as much as I do for Cauliflower bought from say Wal-Mart. 
8. Rotate cauliflower to make sure it gets completely coated in oil mixture. 
9. Place baking dish in preheated oven and roast for 25 minutes. 
10. It will be very hot when it comes out but you need to taste a small piece (carefully) often though not always the cauliflower needs a hit of salt while still hot. Taste and you decide.

Hope you like this as much as my family does

PS Cutting the cauliflower leaves a bit of a mess that cleans up best with a damp cloth or sponge. A dry cloth leaves most of it still behind                  

Goulash

Goulash is a very traditional Hungarian meat and vegetable stew. It is very regional with many variations. This is my more international take on the goulash that I grew up with. It is one of the easiest dishes to make!

This fed 6 adults so if you have a smaller family and don't want leftovers then half this. 

Ingredients

For the stew

2  lbs ground beef

2 Tbsp butter

• 4 cups chicken broth
• 3 28oz cans Stewed Tomatoes 
• 1 large yellow onion, diced
• 3 Tbsp crushed garlic
• 1 lb Elbow Noodles
• Garlic Salt to taste
• Pepper to taste
• Creole Seasoning to taste
• Pinch Red pepper flakes
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    UTENSILS YOU WILL NEED

    Frying pan 

      Stew Pot

      Pot to cook noodles

      Cutting Board

      Cutting knife

      Stew stirring spoon

      Fork and butter knife

Directions

1. Saute diced onion and garlic with butter in stew pot until onions are soft. Season with 1 tsp garlic salt and tsp pepper.                                                 
2. Add un-drained cans of stewed tomatoes one at a time taking a fork and butter knife to cut up the tomatoes slices into smaller pieces. I hate getting big chunks of tomato slices so this is a personal preference to cut them up into more manageable pieces.
3. Next add chicken broth, turn burner up to 6 and let stew during following steps.
4. Begin browning ground beef in frying pan. No oil needed. If anything I often drain excess grease  out of pan as I go or else you just have ground beef boiling in fat. Yuk!
5. Once beef is browned drain well in colander, shaking the colander a few times to help drain off excess grease, add meat to stew, stirring well. 
6. Boil water for noodles remembering to add salt and a Tbsp of oil.
7. Cook elbow noodles for about 8 minutes or until cooked slightly less than done. They may cook a     little more in the stew and the last thing you want is mushy noodles.
8. Add noodles to stew and stir well turning the burner down to a simmer (Low 1-2).
9. From here on out the seasoning is going to be to taste. The base flavor is already there. I like just       a smidge of heat so I add a couple red pepper flakes and about a tablespoon of my favorite Creole     Seasoning pictured here.                                                                 
10. Let the stew sit for about 30 minutes then serve up and Enjoy!!

Corn muffins also go well with a nice bowl of stew :)