General Tso's Chicken

Marinade & Sauce
1/2 C hoisin sauce
1 T tomato paste
1/4 C white vinegar
3 T soy sauce
3 T sugar
2 T cornstarch
1 1/2 C water
4 chicken breasts, cut into 1 in chunks

(I used just 2)

Whisk together marinade. Reserve 3T of marinade for the coating.


Take out 6T of marinade, place in ziplock with chicken and marinate for 30 min.

Sauce
1 T oil
3 garlic cloves, minced
2 T ginger, grated
1 t red pepper flakes
2 C marinade (take out 3 T for coating)

Heat oil over medium heat. Add garlic, ginger and pepper flakes until fragrant for 1 min.
Add almost 2C marinade, whisking until dark and thickened.
2 min. Cover and keep warm.

Coating
2 large egg whites
3/4 C cornstarch
1/4 C flour
1/4 t baking soda
3 T of remaining marinade
oil
Remove chicken from marinade and pat dry.

Whisk egg whites until foamy. Combine coating ingredients and remaining hoisin mixture. Toss chicken in egg whites until coated and dredge in cornstarch mixture.

Heat oil to 350F.


Fry until golden brown - about 3min.
Drain on paper towels.

Warm sauce until simmering and mix with chicken.

This came out very good! I wish it had a little more heat/kick, so I think next time I'll try cooking with chili pods.

I fried half of the chicken with beer batter and the other half with this coating recipe for a taste test. Dev and I enjoyed Both! The beer batter was light and crispy and the General's coating was denser, but crispy as well. Neither tasted oily and both coatings held up well with the sauce. I'd definitely make this again.
ENJOY!

Chicken Cordon Bleu

Dev and I never had Chicken Cordon Bleu before. It sounded pretty close to Chicken Parmesan, which we love, but stuffed with ham and cheese...and without Marinara sauce so, we gave it a try...

Chicken Cordon Bleu

2 chicken breasts
4 thin slices of ham
Gruyere cheese
Swiss cheese

1C fresh breadcrumbs (I like Shokupan)
1/4C Italian breadcrumbs
1/4C grated Parmesan cheese
1 tsp fresh Thyme leaves
salt and pepper

1 egg
milk and water

Dijon mustard
Honey


Cut the crusts off 1 slice Shokupan, break into pieces and pulse into crumbs. Mix in Italian breadcrumbs, parmesan cheese and thyme leaves. Add salt and pepper.

Set aside the ham and cheese for prep. Pound chicken breasts to 1/4in thickness - I put them in a heavy duty ziplock bag and pounded them out with a heavy bottom drinking glass - it worked like a charm!

Mix together a little mustard and honey. Salt and pepper the chicken pieces and spread a very thin layer of sauce on top.

Layer the swiss cheese on top of the chicken, ham, Gruyere cheese ending with the second slice of ham.

Roll up chicken and secure with toothpicks. I used saran wrap on one of them, which helped with the rolling process. Dust with flour.

Dip in egg mixture and then coat in breadcrumb mixture.

I drizzled a little melted butter on top and misted with cooking spray to moisten the breadcrumbs. Bake at 350F for 20 minutes, then increase the oven temp. to 400F and bake an additional 8 minutes or so until browned. I ended up putting them under the broiler for a few minutes as well.

Wine pairing: Wente Riva Ranch Chardonnay.
(note: if you buy it at Safeway w/clubcard, you can save $4.50!)

Mandarin Chicken : Second attempt

The last time I made this dish (in Sept.), I wasn't quite satisfied with the batter - it wasn't crispy enough. I decided to alter the recipe a bit, and it turned out exactly as I hoped! YAY!

Marinade
2 T soy sauce
1.5 tsp sugar
1.5 tsp sesame oil
1.5 tsp cornstarch
dash of white pepper


Combine ingredients and marinate the chicken for about 30min.

Batter
6 T flour
6 T cornstarch
3 T rice flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda

1 egg white
dash of salt
water


Batter should be the consistency of thick pancake batter



Dip the chicken in batter and deep fry until golden brown.

Sauce
Juice from 1 can Mandarin oranges
2 spoonfuls sugar
2 spoonfuls vinegar
2 spoonfuls ketchup

salt to taste
(a few spoonfuls of cornstarch mixed with water to thicken)

Mix together ingredients and simmer until thickened.


Fry up chicken a second time to crisp up coating.
Lightly drizzle sauce over chicken.

Serve!
*UPDATE: 2010.  I've made a few adjustments to this recipe over time. I ditched the rice flour - mostly because I don't always have it on hand. I now us 3/4C flour, 1 tsp baking powder, 1/4 tsp  baking soda, salt and 3T cornstarch. Also, and updated sauce:  The juice of one small can of mandarin oranges (squeezing all from the segments as well), 2T sugar, 1T vinegar, a couple of big squirts of ketchup, dash of rice wine, dash of white pepper, dash of soy sauce, 1 chopped garlic clove. I heat to a boil and reduce until thick! I hope you like this as well!

Chicken Strips!

Dev and I were in the mood for a late night snack - not hungry enough for a full-on dinner, so we decided on Chicken Strips! I came across a 'copy cat' recipe for Kentucky Fried Chicken Strips, but I didn't have most of the ingredients - potassium cholride, accent salt, bottle of chicken base... so, I made due with what I had on hand:

Marinade
1 Knorr Tomato bouillon with Chicken flavor (Caldo de Tomate)
2 C water
1 T kosher salt
1/4 tsp garlic powder

Egg wash
1 egg
1 C whole milk

Coating
2 C all purpose flour
2 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp baking powder



Mix marinade ingredients and simmer on the stove until bouillon cube dissolves. Let cool.


Cut chicken into strips and marinate for 1.5 hours (or longer). Take chicken out of marinade and dry on paper towels and take off excess moisture.

Combine coating ingredients in a shallow pan.

Beat together milk and egg. Dip strips into egg wash.


..then coating, then egg and flour again.

Coat all chicken pieces and let rest on cookie sheet.

Heat oil to 375F and deep fry until golden brown!  

Okay, I did NOT take the 'healthy' route here and heated Crisco shortening. 

YUM!

These strips were surprisingly tasty! Next time, I might try marinating it for an hour longer. The coating was fairly crisp, but nothing at all like KFC. Still, it was delicious.

ENJOY!