Crockpot Sesame Chicken

Posted on March 16, 2012 by admin

My crock-pot really doesn’t get as much action as I’d like. I really want it to get out more.

Most slowcooker meals need to cook 4-6 hours. There’s an occasional 8 hours but when I’m gone about 11 hours it just seems like if it has to “keep warm” so long after the cook time that it won’t be that great. I decided to do something with chicken on a Sunday since I’d be able to cook it just the required 4 or 5 hours. I’d be home for the wonderful smells in those hours too!

It wasn’t fantastic. I guess you can judge this one on your own. Mr. J wasn’t crazy about it, but he’s just really crazy about sesame chicken at his hometown restaurant and it couldn’t compete with that. This is a good one to switch things up if you’re eating the same things over and over again.

Slowcooker Sesame Chicken

(adapted from Keeping Up With the Joneses)

Ingredients:

3 chicken breasts
1 bag of baby carrots
1 cup chicken broth
¼ cup honey
2 tbs garlic, minced
2 tbs ginger, minced
2 tbs soy sauce
2 tbs sesame oil (optional)
4 tbs cornstarch (with 3 tsp water)
2 tbs sesame seeds

Directions:

Cut chicken into cube chunks and add to the slow cooker with carrots.

Mix chicken broth, honey, garlic, giner, soy sauce, sesame oil and add to the slow cooker.

Cook on high for 4-5 hours.
Remove chicken and keep warm while mixing the rest of the sauce in the slow cooker itself or in a pot on the stove.
Mix the cornstarch and water and whisk into the sauce.
Let it cook on medium high for about 5 minutes as it thickens.
Serve it all together and top with sesame seeds.

We had this over rice (his = white, hers = brown). I liked that it had some different flavors than we’d had recently, but it really couldn’t beat the deep fried version of Mr. J’s favorite Chinese restaurant.

The leftovers were pretty good the next day for lunch too! I just felt like it didn’t add anything for this to cook that long. I think I could have pretty easily made the same thing, if not better, by adapting the recipe and cooking it to serve, rather than in the crock-pot.

Chicken Cordon Bleu Made Easy

Posted on March 7, 2012 by admin

Chicken Cordon Bleu sounds tricky but my way is very simple and could easily be tweaked into anything else! (Isn’t my new serving plate awesome??)

I don’t exactly have “knife skills”, or great butterflying technique so I cut a pocket and filled it. It is much easier than trying to roll it back up and keep the good stuff inside.

Ingredients:

2 Chicken Breasts
1 cup shredded Swiss cheese
2 slices of deli ham, sliced thick and chopped
1 egg
1 tsp Dijon mustard
½ cup panko breadcrumbs
¼ cup breadcrumbs

Directions:

Cut a pocket into the side of the chicken breast carefully not cutting through the top, bottom, or all the way through.

Stuff it with the cheese, then the ham.

Whisk the egg with mustard and 1 tsp water.
Combine the breadcrumbs and add salt & pepper to taste.
Dip each stuffed chicken breast into the egg mixture then into the breadcrumbs.

Bake 30 minutes at 375 degrees.

I was really happy with these! I think I did well cutting the pockets to get almost all the way to each end so the filling was well spread out.

I mixed up a little roux with more cheese and more mustard to put on top. It wasn’t the most perfect cheese sauce I’ve ever made but wasn’t too bad.

This would be a great meal to impress guests because you could have it pretty prepped before they even came. It isn’t even many ingredients.

I think I might see what I could to making this into a casserole. Each chicken breast is a lot of food for one person and when you add ham and cheese it’s not a light meal.

I served this with a sliced potato bake thing. It really was an excuse to use my new le creuset and I wanted to make something in it that would be appropriate for the gifter.

I was trying to just par-boil the potatoes a bit but they went further than I planned on while the chicken was coming together. The potatoes were too soft to mandolin so I did thicker slices and topped them with butter, sour cream, and rosemary fleur de sel.

Curry Chicken Salad fit for Dr. Seuss

Posted on March 2, 2012 by admin

Happy Birthday to Dr. Seuss! This Curry Chicken Salad was the best I could do to honor the late writer of The Butter Battle Book, the Lorax, and Sneetches as an example of ooblek or wumbus because of the zing, bam, wow, pow this has.

I expect my birthday tomorrow to have the same kind of impact! My birthday food theme might be my best yet!

I pretty much only like sandwiches when I make one myself and eat it immediately, or if it has all sorts of crazy things on it and it gets pressed, and occasionally when a restaurant makes it. That might sound like all the sandwiches you can think of, BUT I don’t bring them to work as lunch. If I’m going to have one, it has to be packed separately and assembled and eaten immediately.

I thought of curry chicken salad because it doesn’t have to be a sandwich and it is different. It was a great use of some leftover rotisserie chicken.

Ingredients:
2 cups, chicken breast or rotisserie chicken
2 tbs curry sauce
1 cup red seedless grapes, halved
1 tbs light mayo

Directions:
Shred chicken into bite size pieces

Mix chicken with curry sauce, grapes, and add mayo to taste.

Refrigerate at least 1 hour before serving.

This made about 3 size-able servings. I had one as a sandwich and two other servings topped salads. I think the grapes are necessary to cut the spice with some sweetness. The zing makes this great.

Balsamic Citrus Chicken, You Heard That Right

Posted on February 27, 2012 by admin

At my wedding shower, the guests each gave me recipes and I couldn’t have been more excited. I got some great one including one of the only things my Grandma could cook, in her own handwriting, a few from grandmothers on both of Mr. J’s sides.

I broke out this chicken one with the littlest bit of hesitation. I questioned balsamic and citrus but was widely impressed with Mrs. P’s Chicken with Balsamic Citrus Sauce. Mr. J called it one of the best things I’ve made in awhile! I was a bit snap-happy so feast your eyes on this.

Ingredients:

1 lb boneless chicken breasts
salt, pepper, and flour
1 shallot
1 tbs honey
1 cup chicken stock1 tsp lemon juice
¼ cup heavy cream
1 tbs balsamic vinegar

Directions:

Pound chicken breasts thin and dredge in flour, salt, and pepper mix. (Check out how easily I pounded chicken tenders…unpounded is on the right)

Heat a large skillet with 1 ½ tbs butter and 1 ½ tbs olive oil to medium temperature and saute chicken in batches, keeping the others warm.

Leaving 1 tablespoon of fat in the pan, add shallots, honey cooking until shallots wilted. Increase heat to high.

Add chicken stock and lemon juice.
Boil until reduced to about ½ cup.
Reduce to medium temperature and add heavy cream. Cook until slightly thickened.
Add balsamic vinegar and return to a boil.

Add chicken back in until heated through (about 1 minute).

This. was. amazing.

I loved the balsamic flavor since it reduced down and was creamy. The vinegar wasn’t too assertive. I had questioned the citrus in there but it was a great touch.

I served it with some mashed “potatoes”. I did half potato and half cauliflower florets.

I whipped them and mixed in some plain greek yogurt and butter. Mr. J didn’t suspect a thing before I told him! The mashed potatoes were light, fluffy, and a great accompaniment.

Have you ever been asked to give a recipe to a bride-to-be? Did you think she’d actually make the recipe? I really treasure these and will have more to come!

As Southern as Fried Chicken

Posted on December 12, 2011 by admin

I went to Charleston, SC to celebrate my favorite sister’s 30th birthday. These posts are wayy overdue but you know how it is. One day it’s a beautiful early fall day and the next a turkey is on the table!

I did my research before we went as in I perused menus and took a gander at historical sites. I actually included a list of foods we had to eat in the south including: fried chicken, fried pickles, grits, fried green tomatoes, dirty rice, and bbq. I have to say we did a pretty good job.For her birthday we enjoyed a totally memorable meal of fried chicken. Finger lickin’ good. We went to Jestine’s Kitchen and loved every bite.

They brought some homemade pickles to get us started. Yum! Totally tart and crunchy. I love when people give me pickles!

Then we got an order of corn fritters. They were more filler than corn but they were good…especially with the spicy compote.

I got the fried chicken basket which meant I got 2 pieces of chicken, a side, and slaw. I chose fried okra because fried + fried = delicious. It was so good! I’ve only ever had pickled okra but even that is rare and not something you see in the north.
This was the best fried chicken I’ve ever had.

Sis got the fried chicken plate with collards and mac & cheese. It was all really good and was wayyy too much.

The atmosphere was really nice. I liked how casual it was. It felt homey and friendly. There was a line around the corner when we left.Pssst! I have some tastes of the south coming up as well so stay tuned!