June 16, 2011- Barbecued Chicken

Feeling a little better today, I decided to make the barbecued chicken I didn't make yesterday.  I rubbed four boneless, skinless chicken breasts with our standard bbq rub.  After brushing a little vegetable oil on the grill grates, I cooked the breasts for 10 minutes over Medium Direct heat.  I flipped them after 5 minutes.  At the end, I brushed on barbecue sauce while grilling a couple more minutes. Just now, as I was looking for the post on how to make the bbq rub, I remembered that we usually bbq chicken that is bone-in and skin-on.  That would explain why this chicken was more dry that usual.  The flavor was great, just missing a little moisture.   

I fixed a spinach salad with diced red pepper and a parmesan, roasted red pepper dressing to go with the chicken.  It was quite tasty!

Friday, 1/21/2011

We had oven fried chicken for dinner.  It is a really simple, delicious main dish.  The recipe can be found on this previous post: http://duckywhit-whatsfordinner.blogspot.com/2010/11/monday-11222010.html.  Tonight I used drumsticks for the chicken.  They were super moist and tasty.  Katie ate one and a half drumsticks.  I guess that means she liked it too:)  For a side, I sauteed strips of red and yellow bell peppers with some minced garlic and kosher salt.  They were tasty, but cool down too fast.  By the end of the meal, they were cold. 

Saturday, 9/19/2010

Our very good friend Sydney came over for dinner tonight.  Ben made Spicy Peanut Chicken for us.  We opted to serve it over plain white rice this time.  This is such a delicious dish.  And, other than having to cut chicken, bell pepper, and ginger, it is really easy to make.  Katie nibbled on some cinnamon bread that Sydney brought over, and then she ate corn and rice.  

After dinner, Katie finally figured out how to get her little feet into my big shoes and walk around.  She's been trying for a while, and today was her first success!  She had a little trouble navigating the threshold between the carpet and the kitchen tiles, but did amazingly well in my shoes.  I know this has nothing to do with dinner, but she is soo cute!  

After Katie went to bed, Ben, Sydney, and I played a round of Banagrams.  Then, Sydney stayed with Katie while Ben and I went out for a couple hours to celebrate the 13th anniversary of our friends Tracey and Troy.  What a fun evening! Thanks Sydney:)

Wednesday, 8/4/2010

We enjoyed leftover pork chops with stir-fried bell peppers this evening. Katie was kind enough to eat some of the pork today. Yesterday she wouldn't touch it. And, the bell peppers, red and yellow, were really good. Ben sauteed them in olive oil, salt, and minced garlic. I expected to have leftover peppers, but ended up eating 1/2 of them. They were super tasty. Unlike my previous attempts, Ben managed to avoid burning the garlic. Nicely done Ben!

Side note: at 9:40pm, Ben and I polished off the blackberry cobbler with a little ice cream. YUM!

Thursday, 6/24/2010

I decided to try another Simply Asia stir-fry sauce packet. This time I chose Spicy Kung Pao. I used 1 pound of thinly sliced chicken breast, 3 cups of cubed red and orange bell peppers, and about a 1/2 cup of cocktail peanuts . The flavor was ok, but really not that spicy. We definitely prefer the spicy peanut chicken we make from scratch. Ben thought it should have had bamboo shoots in it. Even though we won't be purchasing this one again, I must say, Katie really liked it.

Thursday, 6/10/2010

I got a little adventurous this week at the grocery store and decided to try something new. Ok, I know it isn't as adventurous as making it from scratch, but I did manage to make a decent General Tsao chicken dish. I followed the following instructions on the sauce packet:

Ingredients:
Prep Time: 10 minutes (I don't chop and cut very quickly, so I would say it took me 20 minutes to cut up the chicken and veggies.)
Cook Time: 10 minutes (Allow for 15 minutes, just in case your food doesn't cook quickly like mine.)

1 pouch Simply Asia® Stir-Fry Sauce
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
3 cups assorted fresh vegetables (I used one diced red bell pepper, one diced orange bell pepper, and then made up the difference with trimmed, fresh green beans.)
1 pound boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into thin strips

Directions:
HEAT oil in large skillet or wok on medium-high heat. Add vegetables; cook and stir 5 minutes or until tender-crisp. (I ended up cooking them for 8 minutes.)

ADD chicken; cook and stir 3 minutes or until cooked through. (Again, it took a couple minutes more for the chicken to cook through.)

STIR in Sauce until well mixed and heated through.

I served it with left over wild rice. We gave Katie a fork during dinner to help entertain her. She would willingly let me put chicken, rice, and peppers into her mouth as long as she had a hold of that fork. She is always game for trying a green bean, but she rarely does more than chomp on it once or twice and then give it back to me.

Tuesday, 3/23/2010

SPICY PEANUT CHICKEN

½ cup chicken broth
2 tablespoons cornstarch
2 tablespoons sugar
4 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons white vinegar
½ teaspoon ground red pepper (cayenne)
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 pound boneless, skinless chicken, cut into ¾-inch pieces
1 clove garlic, finely chopped or crushed
2 teaspoons grated gingerroot
1 medium red bell pepper, cut into ¾-inch pieces
1/3 cup unsalted cocktail peanuts

1. Mix broth, cornstarch, sugar, soy sauce, vinegar and red pepper.
2. Heat 12-inch skillet (or if you’re advanced, a wok) over high heat. Add oil, and stir-fry chicken, garlic, and gingerroot until chicken is done (about 3 minutes).
3. Add bell pepper to chicken and stir-fry for about 1 minute.
4. Add cornstarch mixture to chicken. Cook and stir about 1 minute or until sauce thickens. Stir in peanuts.
5. Serve over white rice.

For years I made white rice by using 2 parts water, 1 part rice. And then I saw a recipe where you saute minced garlic in a little vegetable oil in your pot until fragrant, and then add the rice and let it get a little opaque. Add chicken stock instead of water and bring to a boil. Cover and simmer on low for 20 minutes. The result is much more flavorful rice that doesn't dry out as much.

Dessert- simply Nestle's toll house cookies. The only things I do differently is that I add a 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon to the dry ingredients, put in 2 1/2 cups of chocolate chips instead of just 2, and leave out the nuts. Also, I find that bringing the eggs and butter to room temperature makes the cookies bake more evenly.

This recipe was one Ben adapted from a cookbook years ago. Tonight we made it for my friend Elly. Elly and I are planning a bridal shower for our friend Lauren. Katie scarfed the rice and only had a little of the red pepper and chicken. She was far more interested in hollaring at us to pay attention to her. Now, the chocolate chip cookies were a different matter. She couldn't get enough! Back and forth to Ben and I for nibbles;)