Tag: main dish

General Tsao’s Chicken

Like many of you, my favorite Chinese take out dish is General Tsao’s Chicken.  I’m also a big fan of chow mein, fried rice, beef and broccoli, and egg rolls.  But I don’t think I’ve ordered Chinese take out without getting some form of General Tsao’s Chicken.  There’s just something about that crispy breaded chicken slathered in that sweet and tangy, sometimes spicy suace that gets my taste buds going.

Now, I’m pretty sure that even though it is a “Chinese” dish, I’m almost positive that they don’t have General Tsao’s Chicken in China.  It’s one of those dishes that is totally Americanized, but we like to pretend that we’re actually eating Chinese food.

I was watching a segment on TV one time where these journalists were walking around some of the busiest cities in China handing out fortune cookies asking the locals if they knew what it was.  Almost 100% of the people they talked to had no clue what a fortune cookie was, and the ones that actually took a bite were shocked to find a piece of paper inside the cookie.  If that doesn’t give you a clue as to where our “Chinese Food” actually originated, I don’t know what does.

Ok enough rambling.  Now that I’ve completely gone off on a tangent, how about a delicious new recipe to add to your repertoire?  Can you guess what that recipe is?  That’s right!!!!  General Tsao’s Chicken!  Did the title give it away?

Here’s what you’ll need: (serves 2)

  • 2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
  • 2 Tbsp sherry
  • salt
  • 1/3 cup cornstarch
  • 1 cup broccoli (chopped)
  • 1 cup green or red bell pepper (chopped)
  • peanut oil, enough to coat the pan (I didn’t have this so I used olive oil)
  • 1/3 – 1/2 cup General Tsao’s sauce (found in the international foods aisle at your grocery store)

Chop bell pepper into thick strips (about an inch thick).

 

Then turn the pepper to the side and chop again into bite sized pieces. (Steve took this picture for me so I could use both hands…..how nice of him!)

 

Here’s a nice little pile of chopped bell pepper.  This Christmas, Steve gave me a new WONDERFUL lens for my camera, as well as a tripod, so my pictures are turning out clearer than ever!  Thanks, Baby!

 

Next, chop up some broccoli into bite-sized pieces.

 

Chop your chicken into……you guessed it…..bite-sized pieces.  Place in a bowl, add the sherry, and mix around with your fingers so that each piece of chicken is coated in the sherry.  Let sit for 15 minutes.  (You could do this step first so the chicken can marinate while you’re chopping your veggies, but I was waiting for my chicken to defrost, so that is why I waited until now).

 

Add cornstarch to a plate.

 

Once the chicken has finished marinating, add to the cornstarch and toss to coat.  Make sure every piece is completely covered and there are no wet spots.  You may want to scoop the chicken out of the bowl by hand instead of just dumping it onto the plate.  It will probably help keep the wetness to a minimum.

 

Add your cooking oil to a large skillet and heat over medium high heat.  Add your chicken in a single layer to the hot oil.

 

Make sure you turn chicken periodically during cooking so that all sides get browned.  Once chicken is golden brown, remove and transfer to a paper towel lined plate.

 

Add broccoli and peppers to the hot skillet and let cook for about a minute or so.  If you like your broccoli a little softer and not so crunchy, you can boil it for a few minutes prior to adding it to the skillet.

 

Add chicken back to the pan.

 

This is the General Tsao’s sauce that I picked up at the grocery store.  It was really tasty!  I had a recipe to make the sauce from scratch, but I couldn’t find one of the ingredients, so I decided to take the easier route and use the pre-made stuff instead of chancing that the absence of this one ingredient would completely ruin the sauce.

 

Add about 1/3 – 1/2 cup of the sauce to the chicken and veggies and stir to coat completely.

 

Doesn’t that just look divine!!!?  By the way….this is not a low calorie meal.  So just keep that in mind. 😉

 

Add chicken and veggies to a bowl on top of a fluffy bed of white rice.  The crispiness of the chicken really added great texture to the dish!  It is definitely a repeater meal in our house!  Enjoy!

Spicy Dr. Pepper Pulled Pork

OH. MY. GOODNESS.  You have got to try this pulled pork recipe I found on The Pioneer Woman.  Definitely a winner!  I know it sounds kinda weird to cook a pork shoulder in Dr. Pepper, but trust me, you won’t be sorry!  You can’t really even taste a Dr. Pepper flavor.  It just brightens the whole experience and adds a little sweetness to contrast the spiciness of the chipotle peppers.  The Pioneer Woman cooked this in the oven, but I used a slow cooker and it turned out great.

Here’s what you’ll need:

  • 1 large onion
  • 1 whole pork shoulder (“pork butt”) – 5 to 7 lbs (however, I only used about 1/4 of the meat since I was only feeding 2 people)
  • salt & pepper
  • 1 can (11 oz) chipotle peppers in adobo sauce (can be found on the Mexican food aisle)
  • 2 cans Dr. Pepper
  • 2 tbsp brown sugar

Start by peeling and quartering a large onion and scatter around the bottom of the slow cooker (or pot if you’re cooking it in the oven).

Here’s what the label will most likely say.  Don’t worry.  It’s not really a pork “butt”.  It’s the shoulder. 🙂  Still figuring out why they call it a butt.

The whole shoulder would have probably fed about 10 people so I cut about a quarter of it and put the rest in the freezer to use later.  Liberally sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Place on top of the onion.

Pour the whole can of chipotle peppers onto the meat (sauce too).

Now, I know this might be going against your nature, and may seem weird, but trust me!  It’ll be worth it!

Pour both cans of Dr. Pepper over the meat, peppers, and onion.  I used room temperature Dr. Pepper even though we had cold ones in the fridge.  I figured, it was going to need to get hot anyway, so I might as well help it along.

Next add the brown sugar.  Stir it around so that everything is nice and combined.

Cook for at least 6 hours on Low if using a slow cooker, and at 300° if cooking in the oven.  You’ll want to turn the meat over 2-3 times while cooking.

When the meat is ready it will be practically falling apart, so use caution when taking it out of the pot.

Shred meat with 2 forks, separating the big chunks of fat as you go.  The fat should be pretty easy to see since it will be slimy and soft, and the meat will be more firm.

Place the shredded meat back into the slow cooker and keep warm until ready to serve.  Discard the fat.

I served the pork with a side of mashed potatoes.  The juices from the slow cooker made a wonderful gravy!  Hope you love it as much as we did!

Lasagna

I’ve never been much of a lasagna fan, but after seeing this recipe on The Pioneer Woman website, I decided to give it a try.  It’s actually fairly easy to make, and it tasted GREAT!!  So if you are a person that likes lasagna, I suggest trying this recipe on for size….or taste.

Here’s what you’ll need:  (I halved this recipe since I was only making it for 2 people.  We still ended up having over 3 servings left and we were STUFFED!)

1 1/2 lbs ground beef

1 lb hot breakfast sausage

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 cans (14.5 oz) whole tomatoes (you can use diced tomatoes if you don’t want such big chunks in your meat sauce)

2 cans (6 oz) tomato paste (I used tomato sauce since I realized I was out of tomato paste at the exact moment when I needed to add it to the skillet)

4 tbsp dried parsely

2 tbsp dried basil

2 tsp salt

3 cups lowfat cottage cheese

2 whole beaten eggs

1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

1 lb sliced mozzarella cheese

1 package (10 oz) lasagna noodles (I used whole wheat lasagna, but you can use whatever you want.  Unfortunately I didn’t have any 5 net carb Dreamfields lasagna)

Preheat oven to 350°.  Add beef and sausage to a large skillet and cook over medium-high heat.

Add garlic to the meat.  I grated my garlic over a microplane, because I think it blends more evenly, and the flavor can saturate the meat more so than if I just chopped it very finely.

Brown the meat and stir to thoroughly combine.

Drain most of that lovely fat.  Can’t you just feel it clogging your arteries just by looking at it?

Add tomatoes, tomato paste (or sauce in my case), basil, 1 tsp of salt, and 2 tbsp of the parsley.

Stir until thoroughly combined, and let simmer for about 20-30 minutes.  I chopped the tomatoes up with my wooden spoon as I stirred.

In a medium bowl add the cottage cheese….

…egg…

…Parmesan cheese…

…and the rest of the salt and parsley.

Stir until thoroughly combined and set aside.

Meanwhile, drop some lasagna noodles into a large pot of boiling water and cook to “al dente” (still has a bite to it).

Now it’s time to assemble the lasagna.  Start by laying the lasagna noodles in a baking dish.  Overlap the noodles as you go.

Spoon half of the cottage cheese mixture over the noodles.

Lay a layer of cheese on top of the cottage cheese.

Spread half of the meat sauce on top of the cheese.  Then repeat the process all over again, ending with a meat layer on the top.

Liberally sprinkle some Parmesan cheese on top of the meat.  And if you’re like me….throw a handful of cheese in your mouth.  Yum!

Pop it in the oven for 20-30 minutes, or until it’s all bubbly on the top.

After struggling to keep the square of lasagna you just cut on your spatula and not all over the counter, place it on a plate and eat!  Hope you enjoy it as much as I did!