Tag Archives: Asian

Asian-Glazed Chicken

I don’t know how or why or when this happened but I’ve become a total sucker for homemade Asian-inspired dishes.  I’ve always loved soy sauce and often would eat plain white rice and soy sauce when I was a vegetarian.  Now that I’ve discovered other heavy-hitting flavors, like ginger, chili sauce, peanut sauce, and sesame oil, I’ve realized what I’ve been missing out on.  This Asian-Glazed Chicken combines some of those flavors for a slightly sweet, slightly spicy,  and overall delicious chicken dish.  Chicken breasts are marinated in a mixture of rice wine vinegar, soy sauce, honey, sesame oil, chile paste, and garlic and baked until perfect.  The marinade, which is later cooked and used as a basting sauce, is sweet, tart, spicy, and garlicky.  As usual, I used chicken breasts but this recipe uses chicken thighs so use whichever you prefer.  I served this with some Asian-inspired green beans which I’ll have for you later this week!

The ingredients:

Combine vinegar, soy sauce, honey, sesame oil, chile paste, and garlic, stirring until honey dissolves.

Pour vinegar mixture into a zip-top plastic bag and add chicken.  Marinate in the refrigerator for one hour, turning occasionally.  Remove chicken from bag, reserving marinade.

Place reserved marinade in a small saucepan over medium-high heat and bring to a boil.  Cook for 2 minutes or until sauce has thickened and is syrupy.  

Place chicken on a rack coated with cooking spray inside a baking sheet.  Baste chicken with reserved marinade and sprinkle evenly with salt.  Bake at 425° for 10 minutes and baste again. 

Bake an additional 8-10 minutes until fully cooked or the internal temperature reads 165°F on a cooking thermometer.  Discard remaining marinade.  (If using chicken thighs, follow directions on recipe for cooking process.)   

Additions:  None

Omissions:  None

Substitutions:  None

Overall Rating:  Love It

Source:  Cooking Light Magazine

Chicken Pot Stickers

I don’t know about you but whenever I go to an event or a get-together and I see pot stickers, I lunge for them (if they are vegetarian or chicken, that is).  When I think about the appetizers my friends most go for, pot stickers or any kind of Asian dumplings are usually the first to go.  Making these Chicken Pot Stickers seem like a slam dunk to me.

A simple mixture of ground chicken, cooked cabbage, garlic, ginger, scallions, and sesame oil are wrapped up in wonton wrappers, browned slightly, and steamed until cooked to perfection.  I don’t think I’ve ever bought a head of cabbage before and as I cooked this cabbage, I realized that the vegetables in the vegetables and rice I get from the food cart outside work is made with cabbage (I thought it was bok choy this whole time!).  I now realize I’m a huge cabbage fan and will incorporate it into all of my stir-fry recipes from now on.  But, I digress…these pot stickers are fragrant and gingery and I honestly can’t rave about these enough.  They are the perfect little bite to dunk into salty soy sauce or any other of your favorite Asian dipping sauce.  I dare you to stop at one.  Or two.  Or three.  Seriously.  They are that good.

The ingredients:

Shred or chop the cabbage and add it to a skillet with vegetable oil over medium-high heat.  Cook the cabbage until slightly brown, adding the water a tablespoon at a time.

Move cabbage to a large bowl and allow to cool.

Add ground chicken, scallions, ginger, garlic, salt, sesame oil, and egg white to the cabbage and mix.

Spoon a tablespoon of the chicken mixture into the middle of a wonton.  Using your fingers, moisten the edges of the wonton with water.

Bring 2 opposite corners of the wonton to the center and pinch to seal.  Bring the other 2 corners to center and pinch all 4 edges together to seal.  Place wontons on a baking sheet covered in cornstarch or parchment.  Cover wontons with a wet papertowl to prevent them from drying out as you prepare the remaining pot stickers.

  

Place 1/2 of the wontons into a skillet coated with vegetable oil and cook until brown, about 3 minutes.

 

Pour 1/2 cup of water into the skillet and cover, allowing wontons to steam for 3 minutes.

 

Move steamed wontons to a plate and repeat procedure with remaining wontons.  Serve with your favorite Asian dipping sauce.

Omissions:  None

Additions:  None

Substitutions:  None

Overall Rating:  Love It

Source:  Cooking Light Magazine

Asian Lettuce Cups

Have you ever eaten lettuce wraps at an Asian restaurant and thought, “I want to make these”? Or at least, “I wish someone would make these for me”? Well, here you go. These Asian Lettuce Cups turned out exactly how I wanted them to and didn’t disappoint at all. For some reason, I expected lettuce cups to be difficult, or at least annoying, to make but they were so easy!

You brown mushrooms and ground turkey with garlic and ginger over the stove and move it to a bowl. In another bowl is mixed a simple sauce of hoisin, soy, vinegar, and hot chile sauce. These tasty cups have a slight sweetness from the hoisin, a subtle saltiness from the soy, a real kick of spice from the chile sauce and a delicious crunch from the butter lettuce and celery. The recipe calls for water chestnuts which I don’t really care for so I used celery instead but I think carrots would be great too. I think you could use ground beef or chicken here too so use whatever you like! One serving is two lettuce cups but trust me, it’s difficult to stop at just two!

The ingredients:

Heat oil in a non-stick skillet and cook mushrooms until soft. I chopped mine up a bit because I don’t like big chunks of mushrooms but feel free to leave the caps whole if you prefer.

Once mushrooms are soft, move them to a large bowl to cool. In the same skillet, add the remaining oil, turkey, garlic, and ginger. Cook until turkey is fully browned.

Move turkey mixture to the bowl with the mushrooms and add scallions and celery (or water chestnuts). Mix well.

In a small bowl, combine hoisin sauce, soy sauce, rice vinegar, and hot chile sauce.

Spoon two tablespoons of turkey mixture into one lettuce cup and top with a tablespoon of sauce. Enjoy!

Additions:

  • Celery

Omissions:

  • Water chestnuts

Substitutions:

  • Dried ginger for fresh ginger

Overall Rating: Love It

Source: Cooking Light Magazine

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