Tag: rice wine vinegar

Categories
Main Dish

Prepare a honey of a meal for dinner this week

Honey garlic chicken is a great combination of just a little sweetness with plenty of savory flavor from chicken thighs, garlic and bell pepper.
Honey garlic chicken is a great combination of just a little sweetness with plenty of savory flavor from chicken thighs, garlic and bell pepper.

One of the most popular questions I get from people when they find out I write a recipe column is whether I have had any food fails when trying new dishes.

The answer is a resounding yes.

And if you were to ask me what the biggest fail of all time was, I would, without hesitation, tell you about a honey lime crockpot chicken I made nearly a decade ago. It still haunts me.

It was so disgusting that Joey and I begrudgingly threw it out. There was no saving it. It tasted like somebody tried to combine candy and chicken into one dish. It was positively awful.

Since that experience, any time I see a recipe that has “honey” and “chicken” in the title, I get a little flashback and wonder if I will be making another huge mistake if I give it a try.

This week, I decided to take the plunge anyway. Thankfully, no chicken ended up in the garbage, and we ended up with a tasty dinner and some leftovers, to boot.

This comes from the blog “Kitchen Sanctuary” by Nicky Corbishley. You can find her original post at https://www.kitchensanctuary.com/honey-garlic-chicken/. I added vegetables and a ton of extra garlic to my version.

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Honey Garlic Chicken

Honey garlic chicken is a great combination of just a little sweetness with plenty of savory flavor from chicken thighs, garlic and bell pepper.
Course Main Course
Keyword bell pepper, chicken thighs, garlic, honey, minced garlic, rice wine vinegar, soy sauce, yellow onion

Ingredients

  • 4 tablespoons vegetable oil divided
  • 1 large bell pepper diced (any color)
  • 1/2 small yellow onion diced
  • 6 to 8 boneless skinless chicken thighs, sliced into one-inch strips
  • 2 tablespoons cornstarch
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon pepper
  • 1 tablespoon butter
  • 8 to 10 cloves garlic minced
  • 1/3 cup honey
  • 1/3 cup chicken or vegetable stock
  • 1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar
  • 1 tablespoon soy sauce
  • Cooked rice for serving
  • 1 tablespoon sesame seeds toasted (optional)
  • 1 teaspoon red chili flakes optional

Instructions

  • Heat two tablespoons of oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the bell pepper and onions, and saute until they are cooked through.
  • Remove the peppers and onions from the skillet and place them in a bowl to the side.
  • While the vegetables cook, prepare the chicken thighs. Mix the cornstarch, salt and pepper in a large mixing bowl, and then add the chicken thighs, tossing until the cornstarch mixture is well distributed.
  • When the veggies are done, add the other two tablespoons of oil to the pan and turn the heat to medium-high. Add the chicken to the skillet, and saute until it is browned on all sides and fully cooked through (165 degrees internal temperature).
  • Turn the heat back to medium and prepare the sauce.
  • In a small bowl, whisk together the honey, chicken stock, rice wine vinegar and soy sauce.
  • Next, toss the butter and garlic into the skillet, stirring to melt the butter and saute the garlic. Once the garlic is lightly browned and fragrant, stir in the sauce and the peppers and onions. Let the sauce come to a low boil and then simmer for several minutes until the sauce reduces.
  • Serve over rice and sprinkled with sesame seeds and chili flakes.

This had a good savory sweetness that we really enjoyed. If you leave out the chili flakes, it has no spice whatsoever and should be a good crowd pleaser.

I made my white rice with chicken stock instead of water to add a little more flavor, and I even threw in both regular and black sesame seeds and sliced green onions to try to make it look fancy.

I was so glad this wasn’t a horrible sequel to my honey lime chicken experiment. I’m sure I’ll have a major kitchen fail again sometime in the future, but luckily, this wasn’t the time.

This piece first appeared in print April 25, 2024.

Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.

Categories
Main Dish

Don’t tarry(yaki), and make this chicken dish today

Chicken teriyaki has a rich sauce that is easy to make and is perfect to eat over fried or white rice.
Chicken teriyaki has a rich sauce that is easy to make and is perfect to eat over fried or white rice.

On evenings where there isn’t much on television and we can’t decide on something to stream from the myriad of services we subscribe to, Joey and I will often find ourselves scrolling through our respective social media feeds, sending each other funny or interesting videos from our spots across the couch from one another.

Quite a few of them tend to feature new recipes. I send him videos of delicious food to make on a smoker or grill, and he sends me a variety of dishes he thinks I ought to try.

Such was the origin of this week’s recipe. After watching the video for this dish probably 20 times, I finally had the ingredients and the procedure figured out, so the good news for you is that it’s all here now, in writing.

This came from an online video by Gideon General. You can find him on Instagram @gidsgids. I added extra garlic to my version.

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Chicken Teriyaki

Chicken teriyaki has a rich sauce that is easy to make and is perfect to eat over fried or white rice.
Course Main Course
Keyword chicken, chicken thighs, garlic, ginger, rice vinegar, rice wine, rice wine vinegar, sake, sesame seeds, soy sauce, teriyaki

Ingredients

  • 2 tablespoons oil divided
  • 2-4 boneless chicken thighs
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • 2 tablespoons fresh ginger minced
  • 6 cloves garlic minced
  • 1/2 cup rice vinegar
  • 1/2 cup sake rice wine
  • 1/4 cup soy sauce
  • 1/2 cup water
  • 1 1/2 tablespoons sugar
  • 1 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch
  • 3 tablespoons water
  • 1 tablespoon sesame seeds

Instructions

  • Trim any excess fat from the chicken thighs and season them with salt and pepper.
  • In a skillet with a lid, heat one tablespoon of oil over medium heat. Add the chicken thighs and cook for five to 10 minutes or until the chicken is nicely browned on one side. Flip the thighs over and saute for another five to 10 minutes, with the lid on, until the chicken reaches an internal temperature of 165 degrees.
  • While the chicken cooks, add the other tablespoon of oil to a saucepan over medium heat.
  • Add the ginger and saute for three to five minutes. Toss in the minced garlic and saute for a few more minutes until it is very lightly browned.
  • Add the rice vinegar, sake, soy sauce, half-cup water and sugar to the saucepan. Stir to combine, and raise the temperature to medium-high to bring the mixture to a boil.
  • In a small bowl, combine the cornstarch with three tablespoons water.
  • Once the mixture in the saucepan is boiling, stir in the cornstarch. When it is again boiling, remove the pan from the heat and stir in the sesame seeds.
  • Pour the sauce in the skillet with the chicken (lid off), and let it cook down a bit to thicken the sauce, making sure to baste the chicken in the sauce as it cooks. After a few minutes, serve the chicken, along with extra sauce. We had ours over fried rice.

The leftovers we had from this were also out of this world. Those we ate over white rice, and it was a great combination, too. We also sauteed some bell peppers and mushrooms to go into the sauce with our leftovers, and it was an excellent addition, so I highly recommend doing that if you want to stretch your meal a little further.

And I finally got something good out of social media for a change, which I appreciated. The only drawback to trying to glean a recipe from a video, though, is after watching beautiful, perfectly cooked chicken over and over and over again, you get pretty hungry.

This piece first appeared in print on June 1, 2023.

Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.

Categories
Main Dish

Sprinkle in something new with peppered beef

Peppered beef is lightly spiced with black pepper and complemented with Asian seasonings and fresh vegetables.
Peppered beef is lightly spiced with black pepper and complemented with Asian seasonings and fresh vegetables.

When my sister and I were growing up, my mom always joked she was going to open a restaurant called “I don’t care,” thanks to the number of times we uttered the phrase when the family was choosing where to eat.

On the occasions when we did care, there were certain places that turned into a bit of a debate for us in the back seat.

I, for one, loved going to a good Chinese buffet. My sister, not so much.

On the rare occasions I would convince her that, yes, she would find plenty to eat that suited her tastes, one of my favorite food items to grab was some peppered beef. The combination of steak with sauteed peppers and onions was (and still is) one of my favorites.

I was reminded of those trips this week when I decided to try making some peppered beef in my own kitchen, and I have to say that it turned out great.

This comes from the blog “Kitchen Sanctuary” by Nicky Corbishley. You can find the original post at https://www.kitchensanctuary.com/black-pepper-beef/. I added extra garlic to my version.

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Peppered Beef

Peppered beef is lightly spiced with black pepper and complemented with Asian seasonings and fresh vegetables.
Course Main Course
Cuisine Chinese
Keyword bell pepper, black pepper, fish sauce, garlic, ginger, oyster sauce, rice wine vinegar, sesame oil, soy sauce, steak, yellow onion

Ingredients

  • 1 pound steak sliced thinly (I used charcoal steak)
  • 2 teaspoons black pepper or more, to taste
  • salt to taste
  • 4 tablespoons oil I used canola
  • 1 teaspoon sesame oil
  • 1 large onion cut into quarter-inch strips
  • 2 large bell peppers cut into quarter-inch strips (any color)
  • 2 tablespoons cornstarch
  • 2 tablespoons soy sauce
  • 2 tablespoons fish sauce or oyster sauce
  • 1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar
  • 1/2 cup beef stock or broth
  • 4 to 6 cloves garlic minced
  • 1 teaspoon fresh ginger minced
  • rice for serving

Instructions

  • Season the sliced steak with the black pepper and salt.
  • In a wok or deep frying pan, heat the canola and sesame oils over high heat. Once the pan is hot, add the steak and fry for a couple minutes, until it is browned, stirring constantly.
  • Remove the steak from the pan and turn the heat to medium. If there isn’t much oil left in the pan, add another tablespoon of canola oil and toss in the onions and peppers.
  • Saute for several minutes until they reach your desired level of tenderness.
  • While the vegetables cook, combine the cornstarch, soy sauce, fish/oyster sauce, rice wine vinegar, beef stock and more black pepper (to taste) in a small bowl. Stir to combine.
  • Once your vegetables are cooked through, add the garlic and ginger to the pan and saute for about two minutes.
  • Add the sauce from the bowl, along with the steak (and any accumulated juices) to the pan, and stir to coat the vegetables and meat with the sauce. Turn the heat to medium-low and cook for another couple of minutes until the sauce thickens and everything is heated through.
  • Serve over rice.

Joey raved about how good this meal was all during dinner. It was peppery without being overly spicy, and the sauce was fantastic. I ended up doubling the recipe for plenty of leftovers later in the week, which was a great move. Who doesn’t like leftover Chinese food?

Actually, I can tell you one person who isn’t a fan of Chinese food—fresh or left over. Or at least that was true. After we were both adults, my sister and I were spending an afternoon together, and when it came time for us to decide what to grab for lunch, she suggested a nearby Chinese restaurant.

“I thought you hated Chinese food?!” I told her, remembering all of our backseat battles.

She just shrugged.

“I guess I got over it,” she said.

Sisters…am I right?

This piece first appeared in print on Jan. 20, 2022.

Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.

Categories
Crockpot Main Dish

Don’t let me ‘cashew’ skipping this recipe

Cashew chicken finishes cooking in the crockpot and features great flavors as well as a wonderful, nutty crunch.
Cashew chicken finishes cooking in the crockpot and features great flavors as well as a wonderful, nutty crunch.

If you’re bored and want to blow your mind sometime, I highly recommend doing a quick web search for how cashews grow.

I have assumed for a long time that cashews, just grow inside a normal shell and look pretty much like a walnut or a peanut. But they don’t. At all.

Instead, the nut, which hails from Brazil, grows like a little tail off the bottom of a cashew apple. According to an article by Matthew Baron, people thought cashews were poisonous for a long time, because their shell contains a skin irritant—kind of like poison ivy.

Baron points out that, for that reason, you can’t actually buy unshelled cashews. I had never really considered that I haven’t ever cracked open a cashew before.

I started thinking about cashews this week, because Joey forwarded me a social media post with a recipe for cashew chicken and asked if I would be willing to add it to my experiment list. I, of course, obliged, and the results were great.

I don’t have a source for this recipe. It’s one of those that has been out circulating on Facebook, and the original author hasn’t been included. I did adjust the garlic and ginger for my version, though.

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Cashew Chicken

Cashew chicken finishes cooking in the crockpot and features great flavors as well as a wonderful, nutty crunch.
Course Main Course
Cuisine Chinese
Keyword cashew, chicken, crockpot

Ingredients

  • 2 pounds boneless chicken breasts or thighs
  • 1/4 cup flour
  • 1/2 to 1 teaspoon black pepper
  • 1 tablespoon canola oil
  • 1/4 cup soy sauce
  • 2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
  • 2 tablespoons ketchup
  • 1 tablespoon brown sugar
  • 4 garlic cloves minced
  • 1/2 rounded teaspoon ginger
  • 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
  • 1/2 cup cashews

Instructions

  • Cut the chicken into about one-inch chunks. Combine the flour and black pepper in a large Ziploc, and add the chicken. Seal the bag and shake to evenly coat the chicken in the flour and pepper mixture.
  • Heat the canola oil over medium heat in a skillet and add the coated chicken, sauteing until it’s browned. (Don’t worry about whether it’s cooked through; it’s going to go into a crockpot next.)
  • Place the browned chicken into a crockpot.
  • In a bowl, whisk together the soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, ketchup, brown sugar, garlic, ginger and red pepper flakes and then pour over the chicken in the crockpot.
  • Cook for four hours on low heat.
  • Mix in the cashews, and serve over rice or lo mein noodles.

This was absolutely delicious. The cashews added a nice crunch, and the sauce was awesome. It was just the right amount of sweet and not spicy at all.

This is also really easy to double, which is what we did, and the leftovers heat up really nicely in the microwave.

And I was excited to have some leftover cashews in my pantry to snack on. Apparently, they’re a lot more interesting than I ever knew and have come a long way from being a “poisonous” nut on a tree to hanging out in my crockpot.

This piece first appeared in print on Nov. 19, 2020.

Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.

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