Kung Pao Chicken Tacos

I absolutely LOVE Chinese food. If given a choice of cuisine, it's usually one of my top picks. Maybe from growing up in Seattle? I don't know. I haven't played around with cooking too much of it on my own (even though a few years ago I did invest in a pretty heavy duty Chinese cookbook). I was excited when I saw this recipe in October's Cooking Light because Kung Pao Chicken is one of our favorite Chinese take-out dishes. Since it has a little kick to it I decided to make it for a date night dinner for the husband and me since my kiddos don't like spicy.

Kung Pao Chicken Tacos
Source: Cooking Light magazine, October 2012

6 skinless, boneless chicken thighs, cut into bite-sized pieces
3 tablespoons lower-sodium soy sauce, divided
1/4 cup plus 1 1/2 teaspoons cornstarch, divided
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
2 tablespoons canola oil, divided
1 1/2 tablespoons honey
1 tablespoon dark sesame oil
2 teaspoons rice vinegar
1 teaspoon sambal oelek (ground fresh chile paste)
1 large garlic clove, minced
3 tablespoons coarsely chopped dry-roasted peanuts
3/4 cup diagonally sliced celery (about 2 stalks)
8 (6-inch) corn tortillas
1/3 cup sliced green onions
1/2 medium red bell pepper, thinly sliced
4 lime wedges

1. Place chicken in a large zip-top plastic bag. Add 1 tablespoon soy sauce to bag; seal. Marinate at room temperature for 30 minutes. Remove chicken from bag; discard marinade. Place 1/4 cup cornstarch in a shallow dish. Sprinkle the chicken evenly with salt. Add chicken to cornstarch in dish, and toss chicken to thoroughly coat. Shake off excess cornstarch.

2. Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add 1 tablespoon canola oil to pan; swirl to coat. Add half of coated chicken; sauté for 6 minutes or until done, turning to brown. Remove chicken from pan using a slotted spoon; drain on paper towels. Repeat the procedure with remaining 1 tablespoon canola oil and coated chicken.

3. Combine remaining 1 1/2 teaspoons cornstarch, remaining 2 tablespoons soy sauce, honey, and next 3 ingredients (through sambal oelek) in a microwave-safe bowl, stirring with a whisk until smooth. Microwave at HIGH for 1 1/2 minutes or until slightly thick, stirring twice. Stir in garlic. Combine soy sauce mixture, chicken, peanuts, and celery; toss to coat chicken.

4. Toast tortillas under broiler or on a griddle until lightly blistered, turning frequently. Place 2 tortillas on each of 4 plates; divide chicken mixture evenly among tortillas. Top each taco with green onions and bell pepper strips; serve with lime wedges.

*****

I used chicken breasts instead of thighs because it's what I had on hand. That was my only change, though. We LOVED the taste of the chicken, but we did not like it in the tortillas. I had even bought fresh corn tortillas from a nearby Hispanic market, and we just didn't like it in the tortillas. The actual Kung Pao Chicken was FANTASTIC. There were no leftovers--we devoured every single bite, it was that good. This is definitely something I'll be making again, but I'll skip the tortillas in the future!

Baked Sweet and Sour Chicken

It's 7:30 in the morning right now which is by no means an optimal time at my house for me being on the computer, but this dinner last night was so good that I couldn't wait! Plus my kids are upstairs (supposedly getting dressed, but I think in actuality they're watching Pink Panther cartoons) and I'm waiting for my coffee to cool off a bit, so I figured I might as well jump on the computer. I'm sure I'll regret it when I'm scrambling an hour from now to get us out the door. Oh well.

This, of course, came from Pinterest. Boy #1 LOVES sweet and sour chicken when we get Chinese take-out, so I thought he'd be all over this. I was going to make it one night last week until I saw it had to bake for an hour and knew that just wasn't going to fit into the time frame I had to prepare dinner that night. Boy #1 was disappointed, but he was super excited to come home from school yesterday and find out we were having it last night.

Baked Sweet and Sour Chicken
Source: Life As A Lofthouse blog via Pinterest.com

The chicken coating:
3-4 boneless chicken breasts
salt + pepper
1 cup cornstarch
2 eggs, beaten
1/4 cup canola oil

The sweet and sour sauce:
3/4 cup sugar
4 tbs ketchup
1/2 cup vinegar
1 tbs soy sauce
1 tsp garlic salt

Start by preheating your oven to 325 degrees. Rinse your chicken breasts in water and then cut into cubes. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Dip chicken into the cornstarch to coat then dip into the eggs. Heat your 1/4 cup oil in a large skillet and cook your chicken until browned but not cooked through. Place the chicken in a 9x13 greased baking dish. Mix all of your sweet and sour sauce ingredients in a bowl with a whisk and then pour evenly over the chicken. Bake for one hour and during the baking process you will need to turn the chicken every 15 minutes.

*****

I have to say that this was pretty time consuming to make. It took me awhile to find a groove with the breading/egg wash/frying. Eventually I figured out to move a batch to the egg wash once I had put a batch in the skillet and start a new batch then in the cornstarch. When I flipped the chicken in the skillet, I flipped the chicken pieces in the egg wash, then they were ready to go once I took the skillet batch out. Did you follow that? I also had to adjust the cooking time and temperature. My chicken took longer to thaw than I anticipated, and we had to eat at a certain time last night. I ended up baking it for 30 minutes at 375, and it turned out great. I stirred it around once during baking and then again once it came out of the oven.

We all really liked this. REALLY liked it. Boy #1 is taking the leftovers in his lunch today. The husband and I were both standing over the baking dish taking bites last night once we were done eating. My only real concern with it was the 3/4 cup of sugar in the sauce. It seems like a lot. Next time I may try to scale that back a bit and see what happens. This is definitely something I'll make again, I'll just be sure to allow enough time for all the steps!

Almond Fried Chicken

Don't you hate when you get a hankering for something that there's no possible way you can obtain? Growing up, we'd get Chinese take out from a restaurant called Ming Tree. And we'd always get the same thing--some kind of family meal that came with all sorts of yummy awesomeness. One of the items was Almond Fried Chicken and it had this really yummy gravy/sauce that went on it. I have never found it anywhere else. My mom is in Seattle right now for a sewing expo she flies up for every year, and she's found a place near the expo that has it on the menu. I was very jealous when she was talking recently about having it while she was there, so I did some Googling. I found recipe that sounded similar, but I didn't like the heavy breading and frying. I'm not good at frying food. I've accepted that and am fine with it, but I try to avoid it because of my lack of frying skill and health reasons. So I set about to make a healthier version that didn't include frying the chicken. The recipe below is what I came up with.

Claire's Almond Fried Chicken

2 whole skinless chicken breasts, boned and cut in half
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon dry sherry
2 eggs
1 cup flour
1 cup Panko breadcrumbs
Cooking spray

Sauce
4 tablespoons cornstarch
3 tablespoons water
3 cups chicken broth
3 tablespoons butter
2 teaspoons soy sauce
3 teaspoons chicken bouillon granules

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

In a large bowl, combine first three ingredients. Let marinate for 15 minutes.

In a shallow dish or pie plate, lightly beat eggs and add 1 Tbsp water. Place the flour in a separate shallow dish or pie plate, and place the panko in a third dish. Dredge the chicken pieces in flour, then dip in egg wash, then breadcrumbs, turning to coat each time. Place chicken pieces on a cooling rack that's been placed on a baking sheet. Spray with cooking spray. Bake at 400 for 10 minutes. Turn chicken, spray again with cooking spray, and bake another 10 minutes or until juices run clear.

Prepare sauce: In a small saucepan, stir together cornstarch and water until smooth. Gradually stir in chicken broth, butter, soy sauce and bouillon granules. Bring the mixture to a boil, stirring constantly. Let boil 1 minute. Keep warm.

When ready to serve, sprinkle chicken with almonds and green onion. Spoon sauce over chicken and serve immediately.

*****

I used chicken tender for mine, so I guessed at the cooking time. I was pretty skeptical of how this was going to be, especially the gravy, but it's something I really miss having, so I figured it was worth a shot. My family really liked it. The husband absolutely loved it. I thought it was pretty good, but the gravy definitely wasn't the same. The husband said it was probably because I didn't add MSG to mine like the Chinese restaurant most likely did. I'm sure he's right. It was a good "fix" for the original until I can find it somewhere and dissect the sauce to figure out what's in it exactly. It is something I'll make again because it did go over well and with my modifications it was pretty healthy.

Sorry, I forgot to take a picture.