3 Cups Chicken

QFC had a whole organic chicken on sale so I got one and wanted to try de-boning a chicken! I saw a couple of YouTube videos to how to de-bone a chicken, and it looked a lot harder than I thought it would be. But still, it only took me about 10 mins to get all of the bones out and I used the leftover bones to make chicken broth.

I use the meat of the chicken on this recipe. If you’ve had Taiwanese food, then you would have heard of 3 Cups Chicken. It’s probably one of the most popular dishes from Taiwan. The ‘3 cups’ means 1 cup of soy sauce, 1cup of rice wine and 1 cup of sesame oil. In this recipe, I used less soy sauce because I didn’t want the food to be too salty. I also reduced oil and added water for a more contemporary taste.



Ingredients
*2 cups water
*1 cup Chinese rice wine or dry sherry
*1/3 cup regular soy sauce
*1/3 cup dark soy sauce
*2 tablespoons Warcestershire sauce
* 4 oz rock sugar or ½ cup granulated sugar
*3 green onion, cut in half
*1 whole star anise
*½ teaspoon Chinese five spice
*1 tablespoon cooking oil
*1 whole chicken, de-boned, cubed
*6 slices ginger
*4 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
*3 small dried red chilies

Directions
1)Combine first 9 ingredients from water to five spice in a bowl to make the braising sauce.
2)Place a deep frying pan over medium heat until hot. Add oil, swirling to coat side. Place chicken in pan and brown lightly on all sides, 4 to 5 mins total. Remove chicken from pan.
3)Increase heat to high. Add ginger, garlic, and chilis; cook, stirring, until fragrant, about 20 seconds. Return chicken to pan and add braising sauce. Bring to a boil; reduce heat, cover and simmer until meat near bone is not longer pint when cut, 25 to 30mins.
4)Lift chicken from sauce and arrange on a serving platter. Strain sauce. Pass a bowl of sauce at the table. Reserve remaining sauce from other uses.

Honey Balsamic Green Beans

I was never a big fan of green beans but I got a bag of organic green beans from a friend so I had to come up with some way to make them tasty. I opened up my pantry and found honey and balsamic that I could use to make a sauce to cook the green beans in. The green beans ended up tasting very good and I would recommend you to try this recipe if you’re a green bean first timer, or just don't like green beans.


Ingredients
* 16 ounces green beans
* 1 tablespoon olive oil
* 1 clove garlic, minced
* 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
* 1 teaspoon honey
* 1 teaspoon onion powder
* Salt and freshly cracked black pepper

Directions

1) Bring a large pot of water to a boil over medium heat. Add the beans and blanch them for 2 minutes. Immediately remove the beans from the water and add them to an ice bath to stop the cooking process. Drain.

2) In a large saucepan, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the garlic and green beans. Cover, and cook for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Uncover, then stir in the vinegar, honey, onion powder, and salt and pepper, to taste. Cook to desired degree of doneness, about 4 to 6 minutes.

Potato Croquettes

A couple days ago, I went to a Japanese restaurant and saw potato croquettes on their menu. I thought that I could easily make these at home so I got some organic potatoes and some curry powder for this recipe.




Ingredients
*2 tablespoons milk
*Salt
*1/2 teaspoon pepper
*1/2 teaspoon chopped green onion
*2 egg yolks, beaten
*3 tablespoons organic whole wheat flour
*4 cups mashed potatoes
*1 egg, beaten
*Panko bread crumbs

Directions
1) Pre-heat oven at 375F

2) Add milk, salt, pepper, chopped onion, beaten egg yolks and flour to mashed potatoes. Chill and then shape using an ice cream scoop. Dip in the beaten egg, then roll through bread crumbs.

3) Spray oil on baking sheet. Put potato patties on baking sheet and bake for 15mins or until brown.

Chicken Breast Stuffed with Sun-Dried Tomatoes, Spinach, and Pine nuts

A couple of days ago, Mr. S and I went out for dinner and I saw this entree on the menu that sounded like it would be fun to make at home. I had a lot of fun pounding the chicken! My 2 cents on pounding chicken breast is to put plastic wrap under and on top of the chicken before pounding. It will be easier to flip and roll the flattened chicken breast and the meat will not get to everywhere in your kitchen.



Ingredients
*4 (10 ounce) Chicken Breast with skin
*1/4 cup Sun-dried Tomatoes
*2 tablespoons Pine nuts
*1 cup Frozen Chopped Spinach
*1/2 cup Shredded Fontina cheese
*2 cups Bread Crumbs
*1 tablespoon Melted Butter
*1 tablespoon Chopped Italian Parsley
*1 teaspoon Salt
*1/4 teaspoon Black Ground Pepper

Directions
1) Mix stuffing ingredients together in a bowl.
2) Place chicken breast on a cutting board remove the tenderloins and cover with plastic wrap. With a mallet slightly flatten the breast out.
3) Form the stuffing into a ball and place in center of the chicken. Wrap the breast around the stuffing starting with one side roll the breast tucking the opposite side underneath. Season the top of the chicken (skin side) with salt and pepper. Roast in a 400° oven for 30-40 minutes or until chicken reaches 165° internal temperature.

Crab Stuffed Devil Potatoes

Today is Superbowl day and on top of being a football fan, I also wanted to create some creative snacks for the Superbowl party. Instead of using high fat or sodium ingredients, such as bacon, BBQ sauce, cream cheese, etc. I went fancy this year to use crab to make twice baked potatoes. 1 cup of crab meat only has 160kcal.


Ingredients
* 6 large baking potatoes
* 2 medium shallots, thin slice
* 3 cloves garlic, minced
* 2 tablespoons fresh thyme leaves
* 2 cups cooked crabmeat, preferably Alaska king crab
* 1 to 2 cups grated provolone cheese
* 1/2 cup organic light sour cream
* 1 tablespoon freshly chopped Italian parsley leaves
* Salt
* Freshly ground black pepper

Directions
1) Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

2) Prick holes in the potatoes with a fork and place directly on the oven rack. Roast until cooked through, about 45 minutes, depending on the size of the potato.

3) While the potatoes are cooking prepare the crab. Heat a frying pan to medium high, add the shallots and cook until translucent. Next add the minced garlic and saute in the frying pan to gently brown the shallots and garlic. Add the thyme and crab and cook until heated through. Then set aside.

4) Once the potatoes are cooked and cool enough to handle cut, off a small portion of the top making an opening in the potato. Lower the oven to 350 degrees F.

5) Take a spoon and scoop the pulp into a bowl. Place the potato skins on a cookie sheet and put in a 350 degree F oven for about 5 minutes to dry them out and ensure they will be crispy when done.

6) To the potato pulp, add the shallot/crab mixture, cheese and sour cream and mix. Then add parsley, salt and pepper, to taste. Fill the potato shells with the potato/crab mixture. Bake until cheese has melted around 35 to 45 minutes.

French Onion Soup

I love French Onion Soup and people always say how easy it is to make on your own. I saw the grocery store had sale on onions and decided to try this recipe I found on the Food Network. I changed the recipe a little bit to make it lower in fat and I cooked it a little longer to bring out the flavor of the onion.

The end product tasted very good. It was really easy to make. The only hard part was cutting all the onions with tears coming out from my eyes. Also, I was a little surprised how many onion were needed in this recipe.


Ingredients
* 8 onions, sliced
* 2 cloves garlic, minced
* 2 tablespoons olive oil
* 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
* 8 cups beef stock
* 1/4 cup dry white wine
* 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
* 1 bay leaf
* Salt and pepper
* 1 loaf French bread
* 2 cups grated Gruyere

Directions

1) Saute onions and garlic in oil over low heat until tender and golden yellow. Sprinkle flour over onions, cook a few minutes more, browning the flour well. Add stock and wine and bring to a boil, add thyme and bay leaf. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer gently for 60 minutes or so. Add salt and pepper, to taste.

2) Meanwhile, slice French bread into 3/4-inch slices and butter both sides. Toast slices on griddle until golden brown. Ladle soup into an ovenproof bowl, add toasted bread and cover with cheese. Place ovenproof bowl on a baking sheet lined with tin foil. Bake at 350 degrees F or 5 minutes under a hot broiler.

Original recipe from food network.