Six Sisters Honey Sesame Chicken

 Although I love coming up with my own recipes, I also cook thing from other blogs and cookbooks on a regular basis.  Now, I'm very guilty of rarely following those recipes to a tee - I make changes and substitutions based on preference and experience. Usually that works in my favor (although it backfires occasionally too!).

This recipe from Six Sisters Stuff looked too good to pass up on - and so simple to make! After perusing the comments and considering our own tastes, I made a few changes that are noted below. Overall, this recipe gets two forks up, and I know we'll be making it again.

I made the following changes to the ingredients:
- The recipe called for 4 chicken breasts (no weight given) - I used 1.5 lbs chicken tenders. Tenders worked really well, but in the future I would use 2 lbs or slightly more chicken.
- used light soy sauce instead of regular
- substituted tomato paste for ketchup
- reduced oil from 2 tbsp to 1 tbsp, and used toasted sesame oil instead of vegetable oil
- added 1 tbsp fresh grated ginger root
- omitted red pepper flakes
- topped with green onions and sesame seeds, served over brown rice

The directions worked well, with one exception.  I cooked the chicken on low for about 3 hours, which was perfect. After adding the corn starch, my crockpot would not get hot enough to thicken the mixture. This might be the fault of my machine - perhaps more powerful models could do this - but I had to transfer everything to a pot on the stove, over medium heat, until it thickened.  Not a big deal, but an issue to be aware of, so you don't stand around all day waiting for it to thicken. It needs to simmer to thicken, which was more than my machine could manage without a lot of time to catch up.

 This recipe makes plenty of sauce with the chicken, which we like a lot. There was enough sauce to stir in some steamed broccoli along with the rice, which is just how I like my sesame chicken!

I'm sorry I haven't been around in a while - I got a new job and have been quite busy with that. My goal now is to post a few new things a week - I've got some great things that I want to share with you! 

Like what you read? Subscribe to the feed in your favorite feed reader, or follow me on Twitter to keep up with new posts! And don't forget to like me on Facebook!! 

Soup and Beans

I love soups in the winter. Truthfully, I love soups all the time, but especially in the coldest months of the year. And it has been COLD here lately - as in single-digit cold. So I've been on a soup kick these past few weeks, in some kind of effort to stay warm. This soup is mostly veggies, but thanks to the addition of a little bread and milk, it is quite hearty.

 

Creamy Veggie Bisque
For broth, I used 1 tsp of this home-made bouillon per cup of water - it works great here and in the bean recipe below. 

INGREDIENTS
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 medium onion, diced
5 carrots, diced
5 ribs of celery, diced
2 cloves of garlic, chopped
2 cups vegetable broth
2 14.5 oz cans tomatoes (diced, whole, or whatever you have)
2 tsp dried Italian herb seasoning, or 1 tsp each dried basil and oregano
fresh ground pepper, to taste
1/2-1 tsp salt, to taste
3/4 cup bread crumbs
1 cup milk (almond milk or cow's milk)

DIRECTIONS
1. Heat the oil in a pot over medium heat, and add the onions. Sautee for about 3 minutes, until the onions are soft.
2. Add celery and carrots, and saute 5 to 10 minutes more, until the veggies begin to brown the bottom of the pot. Add garlic and cook 1 minute more.
3. Add broth, tomatoes, herbs, salt and pepper, and stir well (scraping the bottom of the pot).
4. Cover, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes.
5. Puree the soup. Use an imersion blender if you have one, or let the soup cool slightly and blend in batches.
6. Stir in the bread crumbs and milk. Bring back to a simmer, and simmer for a few minutes while the bread crumbs thicken the soup.

We enjoyed this soup with grilled cheese sandwiches (naturally). For a side dish, I tossed this kidney bean recipe in the slow cooker.

Slow Cooker Kidney Beans
Did you know the slow cooker was initially invented to be a bean pot? It works super-well for cooking beans - you don't have to worry about boiling over, and I find the beans come out much more evenly cooked than on the stove top.

INGREDIENTS
1 cup kidney beans, soaked over night, drained, and rinsed
3-4 cups water
3-4 cups veggie broth
1 bay leaf
2 cloves garlic, peeled and smashed (but still whole)
1/2 medium onion, chopped
1 tsp dried italian herbs
1/4 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp coriander

DIRECTIONS
1. Spray a 3.5 quart crock pot with non-stick cooking spray. Add all ingredients, using enough liquid to cover the beans by 2-3 inches.
2. Cook for 3 hours on high.
3. Drain beans, and discard bay leaf and garlic cloves.

I suggest re-heating these in a non-stick skillet sprayed with a little olive oil - let the beans and onion brown a bit.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...which has me in the baking mood! Recipe for iced cutouts is coming later this week.