Chicken Lo Mein

adapted from Ming Tsai

I'm not gonna lie - finding the ingredients for this was NOT fun. Smelling the individual ingredients before it was cooked was not a good idea. BUT, Once I tasted the final product to check for seasoning it was BAM in my mouth!!!! It is SOOOOO good!!!! It was so worth it and I WILL be making this again!

Here are the ingredients:

Marinade:
2 tbsp cornstarch
1/4 C rice wine vinegar
1/2 C oyster sauce (found mine at walmart)
2 tsp ground ginger
1/4 C sliced scallions
1/4 tsp black pepper
1 tbsp chile sauce

mix all that together in a bowl and add 1 pound boneless skinless chicken - thighs are traditional and hold up well in high heat cooking. let it marinate for 1-2 hours.

In a hot wok, add some canola oil and cook the chicken.  When the chicken is cooked, add:
1 C chicken stock
6 cloves sliced garlic
3/4 head cabbage, sliced thin (don't worry, it will cook down)

after the cabbage is cooked, add 8-10 ounces of blanched lo mein noodles. (you can use linguini, but I went and found real lo mein noodles).
toss until the noodles are warm and taste for salt and pepper seasoning. Mine didn't need anything extra.

This was awesome.
Even Dave said so.

Crock-Pot Creamy italian chicken

  I made this dish a couple weeks ago and our whole family LOVED it. It's a little like a stroganoff, but with chicken instead of steak or ground beef. plus, it's a good way to use up the extra egg noodles I have laying around!

Throw into a crockpot:

2 chicken breasts (they can be frozen)
8 oz. cream cheese
1 3/4 C milk
1/2 C cream
1 dry packet italian dressing
1 Tbsp chicken bullion
1 tbsp corn starch

cook on low for 6 hours or high for 4, then shred the chicken. If you just take a fork and stir it around the crockpot, it falls apart really easy! Cook a 12 oz. bag of egg noodles and dump in a huge bowl. Dump the chicken mixture on top of the noodles and stir it all around. YUM. YUM. YUM.

I really couldn't believe how yummy this was. Serve with some rolls and a salad and you're golden!

Chicken and Ham Tetrazzini

In my hunt for all things creamy, starchy, and have no tomato sauce in sight - I stumbled across this beauty. It's from my Complete Cooking Light cookbook from forever ago (one of my FAV's). You can buy one HERE for $10?! That's a deal!! Everything I've tried in this cookbook is a keeper!

Anyway, there are quite a few ingredients but don't let that scare you away!! This is SO yummy.

cook 7 oz. spaghetti in boiling water until done. drain and set aside.

melt 2 tbsp. margerine in a large skillet and add:
1 C sliced mushrooms (I took this out because I hate them)
1 C chopped onion
1 chopped bell pepper
2 garlic cloves.

saute until soft. Then add:

1/4 C flour
1/2 tsp poultry seasoning
1/2 tsp pepper

stir for 30 seconds. Add:

1 1/4 C low fat milk.

Stir until thick, about 2-3 minutes.

stir in 1/4 C shredded cheddar cheese,
1/4 C chicken stock,
1 can cream of mushroom soup and
1/3 C parmesan cheese. remove from heat.

Add 1 1/2 C chopped pre-cooked chicken,
3/4 C diced ham, and
1 4 oz. jar pimentos.

combine cooked spaghetti and ham/chicken mixture, and then pour into 9x13 sprayed with cooking spray. Top with 1/3 C parmesan cheese, 1/2 C cheddar, and a sprinkle of paprika.

Bake uncovered at 350 for 20 minutes. I served this with wheat rolls and corn. (any veggie side would work)

This is supposed to serve 6, but after my 3 kids ate kid-like servings and Dave and I ate full adult size servings, we still have more than half the pan left. This is SO creamy, I loved it. (keep in mind, this could be pregnancy talking)

CL Testing - Vanilla Balsamic Chicken

  Cooking Light April 2006

In a small saucepan:

1/2 C chicken broth/stock
1/2 C balsamic vinegar
1/4 C chopped onion
1/4 C brown sugar
1/4 tsp orange zest
1/4 C orange juice
2 tsp vanilla

Bring to a boil and then simmer until reduced to 1/2 C. It will be at least 20 minutes.

2-3 pounds Chicken thighs. Remove the skins and place in a single layer in a 9x13 pan. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Stick in a 450 degree oven for 10 minutes. Remove and baste with HALF the balsamic mixture. back in the oven for another 5 minutes. Pull out and top with the rest of the balsamic. Back in the oven for 15 minutes.

When I pulled my chicken out at this time, my thermometer did not register 180 degrees, so I basted one more time and stuck it back in the oven for another 5 minutes. They were perfect after that.

Verdict: subtly sweet chicken. Very moist and tasty. I liked it a lot but I have other chicken recipes that I like better.

Dave's vote: I liked it. Not my favorite but pretty dang good. (that's a direct quote) (and saying something since he hates chicken on the bone and didn't hate this.)

Recipe #2 - Chicken with Lime Sauce

4 boneless skinless chicken breasts, season with salt and pepper to taste.
Add 2 tsp. olive oil to a skillet and brown chicken on both sides (not cooked all the way through)

Remove from pan, keep warm.

In the pan add:

3/4 C chicken broth
1 tbsp brown sugar
2 tbsp lime juice (FRESH - I don't know what bottled will do the the finished product)
2 tsp. mustard

scrape up the bits on the bottom and simmer for a few minutes.

mix in a small bowl, 2 tbsp water and 2 tsp. cornstarch. Add to skillet.

Bring to a boil and reduce to simmer (BTBRTS)

Finish with 1 tbsp butter and 1 more tbsp lime juice. add chicken back into the pan until cooked through.  The sauce would be great on rice. I served this with a green salad and garlic roasted red potatoes.

Verdict: The sauce is strong. The chicken was really good, but I wish I had served it on a bed of rice instead of with potatoes. My kids ate it dipped in ketchup.

Cooking Magazine Test Run

 
I have way too many cooking magazines. I am trying to cut down and eliminate the excess. SO, I am FINALLY trying all the recipes I wanted to in each magazine and keeping the good ones and tossing the magazine when i'm done.

Magazine #1 - Cooking Light April 2006
Recipe: Chipotle Orange Chicken Cutlets

4 skinless boneless chicken breasts. Pound them flat in between 2 pieces of saran wrap.

Mix in a plate:
1/3 cup flour
2 tsp. cumin

Pour in a bowl:
1/4 C orange juice concentrate.

Coat the bottom of a hot skillet with veggie oil. salt the chicken and then dip in the bowl of OJ, and dredge in the flour mixture, and throw in the pan until nice and brown. Since brown food tastes good.

After the chicken is cooked, take out of the pan and add to the pan 3/4 C OJ concentrate, 1/2 C water, and 2 chipotle chilies in adobo, diced. Boil and let simmer for a couple of minutes. (You can add some more water to thin it out if you want.)

Add the chicken back to the pan to warm through. Serve over brown rice mixed with 1/3 C. chopped cilantro.

Dave would not stop talking about the sauce. He mentioned it like 12 times or something. And insisted that it was the best thing in the house to take for lunch tomorrow. (over my red beans and rice, even!)

This one is a KEEPER.

Chicken Shish-Kebabs

First off, I would like to say hello and thank you for adding me to your club! I too have been wanting to do something like this, you ladies just beat me to it! :-) My family is big on camping, and I wanted to do something a little different from the hamburger and hot dog scene for our campfire dinners. I was going to post this before the weekend, but then thought that it would probably be a better idea if I tried it out on the family first, haha! This one was so simple, there aren't even any measurements to do really, and my 5 and 3 year old girls loved helping me put together their own dinner...

Chicken Shish-kebabs

Package of chicken breast; cut into bite-size pieces
3 Green Bell Peppers; cut into bite-size pieces
Pineapple Chunks and Pineapple Juice; fresh or canned
Brown Sugar
Garlic Salt
Bamboo shish-kebab sticks soaked in water

In a saucepan, heat pineapple juice and add brown sugar so that they blend together well, I didn't measure, I just went with what looked right and then did a taste test. Add the garlic salt. Then I put the chicken chunks into a baggie with the marinade and let it set in the refridgerator for about 8 hours from the time that I prepared it to the time I was putting it on the skewers. You could even put a thickening agent into the sauce and make it a glaze instead of a marinade, too. The sticks don't have to soak long, just a few minutes... Then just string on the bits of chicken, pineapple, and peppers randomly. We cooked it over a campfire, which I think made it extra tastey! But over a bbq or whatever would be great too! My kids ate them so fast and had about 3 sticks, and didn't even complain about the 'green.' Hope you all enjoy, too!!