Tried and Tested Recipe - Three Cup Chicken

I have always loved East Asian cuisine particularly Thai and Chinese. Their blend of flavors and combinations have always intrigued me and delighted my taste buds. I have been wanting to give a try to making both of these types of cuisine, but I have always felt intimidated by the ingredients required. Thank goodness for Cooking Channel's Ching-He Huang and her show Easy Chinese. She takes you through the process of making excellent Chinese food at home in a very comfortable manner and her recipes are great.

I found the recipe for Three Cup Chicken in Cooking Channel's website after watching the show and thought I should get out of my comfort zone and try it. This recipe was easy to follow and the results were absolutely delicious. I modified it slightly because I did not have a few ingredients and I also thought that sliced almonds would make a great addition to give it a little crunch. Here is what you will need for my modified version.

Three Cup Chicken

1 TBSP peanut oil
Garlic - 5 cloves finely chopped
Ginger - 1 inch piece, thinly sliced
1 pound boneless, skinless chicken thighs cut into 1/2 inch pieces
1/4 Cup Soy Sauce
1/4 Cup White Cooking Wine
1/4 Cup Toasted Sesame Oil
1 TBSP Brown Sugar
1/4 Sliced Almonds

Follow the link above to the recipe on Cooking Channel's website and follow the cooking instructions. Add the sliced almonds at the very end tossing them into the chicken to integrate them evenly through the chicken pieces. 

This is a great recipe to get into making Chinese food at home. Serve with either white or Jasmine rice and vegetables. Enjoy :)

Roast Sesame Chicken with Tangerine Ginger Glaze

OK I know another chicken recipe from me. I promise you that we will get away from this protein (not entirely, but we will look into the use of others) at some point. I made this because the hubby did the shopping this week and he had already defrosted the chicken thighs so I did not want them to go to waste. Great thing about cooking is that there are as many ways to make things as there are ingredients available in the world so you can have the same protein made a million different ways. Today I bring you a very simple but tasty recipe:

Roast Sesame Chicken with Tangerine Ginger Glaze
Makes 8-10 portions

1 Pack chicken thighs (with 8-10 pieces in it - totally recommend Whole Foods Family Packs)
3 TBSP Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 tsp Sesame Oil
1 tsp Soy Sauce
Salt and Pepper to taste
1-2 TBSP Sesame Seeds
Ginger Root (1 inch piece thinly sliced length wise)
1 Large Tangarine (Pealed, sliced in half and segments separated)
2 TBSP Honey 
1 Cup Water

Preheat oven to 420 degrees Fahrenheit. In a large, deep baking dish put in your olive oil, sesame oil, soy sauce, salt and pepper and sesame seeds and mix with a whisk until all the ingredients are evenly distributed. 

Take your chicken thighs one by one and coat them with the mixture in the baking dish. Add in your thinly sliced ginger, 1TBSP of the honey and tangerine pieces and spread them out as evenly as possible in the baking dish. Once all the pieces are coated arrange them in the baking dish with the skin side up (if you are using skinless chicken put the meatier side up). 

Add the water using a measuring cup and making sure to add it in from the edge of the dish so that you do not remove the coating from the chicken pieces. Cover the dish with either a tight fitting lid or aluminum foil. Place in the oven and bake for about 45 minutes or until you can tell that the pieces are cooked through. 

Remove from oven, uncover and sprinkle the last TBSP of honey on the chicken. Set your oven to broil and place the baking dish halfway away from the broiler surface and allow chicken skin to crisp up for about 5 minutes or until you see the skin is gold and crispy. 

Serve over rice or spinach with a generous amount of the juices from the baking dish for a little extra love and taste.