Honey Sesame Chicken

Lately my afternoons have been starting out with me camped out on the floor outside Boy #2's room waiting for him to fall asleep for his nap. Otherwise he constantly gets out of bed and I'm constantly coming upstairs to put him back in bed. I think he's heading towards dropping his nap, but so far he still takes one most days, thankfully. Some days I sit here for a very long time. Other days he falls asleep pretty quickly. Normally I have my phone with me and do something like catch up on Scrabble or Words With Friends or Draw Something, but today I brought my laptop up and decided to do a blog post. I just uploaded our Easter pictures and that included some dinner pics from recently. It was a tough choice which one to do because we've had some tasty things, but I figured I'd start with this one. I tend to be somewhat against cooking chicken in the crockpot because it ALWAYS seems to turn out dry. Dry chicken is not delicious, and personally I like to eat delicious food. This one sounded tasty and since there was a sauce with it, I thought that maybe it would be okay...because sometimes dry chicken can at least be masked with enough sauce.

Honey Sesame Chicken
Source: Adapted from Table For Two blog via Pinterest

1 to 1.5 lb. boneless, skinless chicken breasts
Salt and pepper
3/4 cup of honey
1/2 cup of low sodium soy sauce
1/2 cup ketchup
2 tbsp. vegetable oil
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder
1/4 tsp. red pepper flakes
Cornstarch
Sesame seeds

Place the chicken breasts in the crockpot insert and sprinkle salt and pepper on both sides.
In a medium sized bowl, combine honey, soy sauce, ketchup, oil, garlic powder, onion powder, and red pepper flakes. Stir to combine well. Pour over the chicken in the crockpot.

Cook on low for 3-4 hours or high for 1 1/2-2 1/2 hours.

When done, remove chicken and cut into chunks. Prior to putting the chicken back in the stockpot, combine some cornstarch in water and whisk it into the crockpot to thicken up the sauce a bit. Throw the chicken back in and stir around to recoat the chicken in the sauce.
Serve hot over a bed of white rice or quinoa (optional) and sprinkle some sesame seeds on top.

*****

The original recipe called for chicken thighs, but I only had chicken breasts. And the original recipe had more honey and less ketchup and real garlic and real onion, but I didn't have enough honey, I accidentally used too much ketchup, and I was too lazy to chop up garlic and onion. Hey, at least I'm honest. Also, since I'm being honest, I forgot to get this started when I had planned, so I had to throw my chicken into the crockpot frozen and say a prayer and cross my fingers it was done in time for dinner. Thankfully it was. And you know what? It wasn't dried out!!! Perhaps using frozen chicken and checking the chicken when you think it might not be cooked yet are the keys? Maybe I've just been leaving it in the crockpot for too long all these years. I don't know. But, I do know that this was DELICIOUS and my whole family really liked it. I opted to serve it with quinoa instead of rice because I only had brown rice and not enough time for it to cook, plus I love the nutritional content of quinoa over rice.

This is definitely something we'll have again, especially since most of the ingredients are things I always have on hand.

Rick Bayless Barbecue Sauce

I think it's really hard to find a reasonably priced bottled barbecue sauce that doesn't have a bunch of unnecessary junk in it like high fructose corn syrup. I've made my own in the past a few times but wasn't ever super impressed with any of the recipes I tried. So I was beyond delighted to see this recipe in the Rick and Lanie cookbook.

Hickory House Barbecue Sauce
Copyright 2004, Rick and Lanie's Excellent Kitchen Adventures

2 garlic cloves
1 cup ketchup
1 Tbsp vinegar (cider vinegar or distilled white vinegar)
2 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1/3 cup dark brown sugar
1/2 to 1 tsp barbecue spice (recipe below) or chili powder
1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
Salt

Peel garlic and crush through galic press into a small saucepan. Add all the remaining ingredients and 3/4 cup water. Simmer over medium-low heat for 30 minutes. Taste and season with salt if you think necessary. The sauce is ready to use. It can be stored, refrigerated in a sealed jar, for up to a month.

Barbecue Spice

2 large garlic cloves
1/4 cup plain ground chile or paprika
2 tsp ground black pepper
2 tsp sugar
2 tsp dried oregano (preferably Mexican oregano)
1 tsp dried thyme
4 tsp salt

Peel garlic and crush through garlic press into a small bowl. add remaining ingredients. Stir, making sure to thoroughly mix in garlic. If not using right away, store in small jar in refrigerator up to 1 month.

*****

Wowee, wow, wow!! This is definitely some of the best barbecue sauce I have ever had!! It had just a hint of spice from the chile powder and was a great consistency--not too thick, not too thin. Once again, Rick Bayless totally rocked it!

Barbecue spice mix:


Finished barbecue sauce (after I'd taken what I needed for the baked beans):

Cook's Illustrated Bacon Wrapped Meatloaf

This was the only new thing we had this past week, so I probably won't bother posting the other recipes. I love meatloaf. My mom makes a version similar to this with bacon on the top, only hers has significantly less bacon. My brother and I would always fight over who got to eat the bacon off the top of the meatloaf because it was so good with the ketchup-y sauce on it. This recipe, though, solves that problem by having bacon go cross-ways on it instead of long-ways. And, yes, those are both official terms.

I had mentioned recently the Best Of Cook's Illustrated magazine I got recently at Costco. This was in it, and I'd been dying to try it. I recently bought a ton of ground beef (okay, not literally a ton, but it was six pounds which is quite a bit) and figured this was a good time to make it. Plus I could get it assembled during naptime and then just throw it in the oven when it was time for dinner. Thankfully I found it typed out online already because you know how I hate to type out recipes if I don't have to.

Cook's Illustrated Bacon Wrapped Meatloaf

Brown Sugar - Ketchup Glaze
1/2 cup ketchup or chili sauce
4 tablespoons brown sugar
4 teaspoons cider vinegar or white vinegar

Meat Loaf
2 teaspoons vegetable oil
1 medium onion, chopped medium
2 medium cloves garlic , minced
2 large eggs
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon table salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
1/4 teaspoon hot pepper sauce
1/2 cup whole milk or plain yogurt
1 pound ground beef chuck
1/2 pound ground pork
1/2 pound ground veal
2/3 cup Saltine crackers, crushed (about 16), or quick oatmeal, or 1 1/3 cups fresh bread crumbs
1/3 cup minced fresh parsley leaves
6 - 8 ounces bacon, thin sliced (8 to 12 slices, depending on loaf shape)

1. For the glaze: Mix all ingredients in small saucepan; set aside.
2. For the meat loaf: Heat oven to 350 degrees. Heat oil in medium skillet. Add onion and garlic; sauté until softened, about 5 minutes. Set aside to cool while preparing remaining ingredients.
3. Mix eggs with thyme, salt, pepper, mustard, Worcestershire sauce, pepper sauce, and milk or yogurt. Add egg mixture to meat in large bowl along with crackers, parsley, and cooked onion and garlic; mix with fork until evenly blended and meat mixture does not stick to bowl. (If mixture sticks, add additional milk or yogurt, a couple tablespoons at a time until mix no longer sticks.)
4. Turn meat mixture onto work surface. With wet hands, pat mixture into approximately 9-by-5-inch loaf shape. Place on foil-lined (for easy cleanup) shallow baking pan. Brush with half the glaze, then arrange bacon slices, crosswise, over loaf, overlapping slightly and tucking only bacon tip ends under loaf, (see illustration 1, below).
5. Bake loaf until bacon is crisp and loaf registers 160 degrees, about 1 hour. Cool at least 20 minutes. Simmer remaining glaze over medium heat until thickened slightly. Slice meat loaf and serve with extra glaze passed separately.

*****

I used oatmeal for this because it's what I had. I buy instant oatmeal packets at Costco, but none of us like the plain ones. This was a great use for them--two packets was just the right amount! Also, I just used two pounds of ground beef because, again, it's what I had. I ended up brushing some more glaze on top of the bacon when there was about 20 minutes of cooking time left. Oh, and I wrapped a cooling rack in foil and poked some holes in it and placed that on a cookie sheet with the meatloaf on top of the cooling rack. In hindsight I should have covered the cookie sheet as well because it was a pain to clean off the spillage.

This was REALLY good! Like I said, I love meatloaf, so I was really excited to have this. We had leftover mashed potatoes with it from Thanksgiving #2 and some cooked carrots. I will definitely make this again, and laying the bacon cross-wise made sure that everyone had some bacon on their piece and no fights had to take place because of it. And trust me, in this house, a fight would break out over bacon!

Honestly, as much as I liked this, I view meatloaf strictly as a means to have meatloaf sandwiches the next day. As much as I love meatloaf, I love meatloaf sandwiches even more. And that's exactly what we had for dinner the next night. :)

BBQ Veggie Joes

We had this last night. I still need to figure out dinner for tonight because what I had planned just isn't sounding good, so I'm going to keep this short and sweet to figure out what to have in, oh, an hour.

I was looking at lentil recipes on RecipeZaar.com and thought this sounded good and easy.

BBQ Veggie Joes Recipe
#77364 by ratherbeswimmin'

1 cup dried lentils, sorted and rinsed
2 cups water
1 1/2 cups chopped celery
1 1/2 cups chopped carrots
1 cup chopped onion
3/4 cup ketchup
2 tablespoons packed dark brown sugar
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
2 tablespoons cider vinegar
salt and pepper
5 pita breads, cut in half to form pockets (6-inch diameter)
lettuce leaf

Add lentils and water to a saucepan; bring to a boil; lower heat, cover, and simmer 10 minutes.

Add celery, carrots, onion, ketchup, brown sugar, Worcestershire sauce, and lentils w/ water into a 4-quart slow-cooker.

Cover and cook on LOW for 8-10-12 hours or until vegetables are tender.

Just before serving, add vinegar and salt/pepper to taste.

Fill pita pocket with a lettuce leaf and 1/2 cup lentil mixture.

© 2009 Recipezaar. All Rights Reserved. http://www.recipezaar.com

*****

This was okay. I didn't have enough ketchup, so I used 1/4 cup ketchup and an 8 ounce can of tomato sauce, but I didn't take into account that tomato sauce tastes different than ketchup, so the flavor was a little too tomato, the husband said it smelled like tomato soup. I don't know if I'll bother trying it again. It made a ton, and since we weren't totally wild about it, I don't know if we'll want to have it again after we get through all the leftovers. Oh, and we had them on hamburger buns...I don't do well with pitas.