General Tso's chicken

We've tried several Chinese food recipes at this house (Robert loooooooooooves soy sauce), but this one from Tasty Kitchen is the most successful one so far.  I assume it's the cornstarchy mixture that the chicken gets covered in, because it creates a perfect coating and texture once it's fried.  And then there's that sauce... seriously, this is so, so good.  Try it!

GENERAL TSO'S CHICKEN

Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients:

FOR THE CHICKEN:

1 ½ teaspoons Toasted Sesame Oil

1 Tablespoon soy sauce

1 egg white

¼ cups plus 2 Tablespoons cornstarch

1 pound boneless, skinless chicken (original calls for chicken thighs, I used chicken breast)

Canola or vegetable oil, for frying

FOR THE SAUCE:

1 Tablespoon canola or vegetable oil

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 Tablespoons fresh ginger root, minced

1 cup chicken broth or stock

¼ cups soy sauce

1 Tablespoon cornstarch

1 teaspoon Chinese chile-garlic sauce

3 Tablespoons raw (turbinado) sugar

4 scallions, thinly sliced

White or brown rice, for serving

Instructions:

Prep your chicken:
In a mixing bowl, stir together the sesame oil, soy sauce, egg white, and 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons of cornstarch until a thick slurry forms. It will look gummy but smooth.

Add the chicken pieces and stir until all are evenly coated. Set chicken aside, covered lightly with plastic wrap, at room temperature for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Begin the sauce:
Add the tablespoon of oil to a large, heavy-bottomed saucepan over high heat. Stir the garlic and ginger into the oil and cook, stirring constantly, until fragrant, about 1 minute.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the remaining sauce ingredients until smooth. Pour into the garlic and ginger, stirring, until the sauce becomes thick and shiny. Once the sauce thickens, lower heat and keep the saucepan over a low burner partially covered to stay warm.

To fry the chicken:
Heat 1/2-inches of oil in a heavy-bottomed, high-sided frying pan or skillet over high heat.  When the oil is shimmering, add one piece of chicken at a time, taking care not to crowd the pan. Cook chicken for 4 minutes on each side, or until deep golden brown and crisp on both sides.  Transfer the fried chicken to a paper towel lined plate and repeat the process until you’ve cooked all the chicken.

Then slide all of the fried chicken into the prepared sauce and toss to coat.  Increase the heat to medium, stir and cook just until hot all the way through.  Sprinkle with sliced scallions and serve immediately over rice.

Cake batter chocolate chip cookies

Another Monday night, another excuse to bake something sweet for our Bachelor watch party!  The kids helped me make these little gems from Sally's Baking Addiction, and little did we know, Robert would later declare them "the best cookies EVER."  Wow, guess I'll be making these again asap!

CAKE BATTER CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES

Yield: 3 dozen cookies

Ingredients:

1  1/4 cup all-purpose flour

1  1/4 cup yellow or white boxed cake mix

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

3/4 cup (1.5 sticks) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup light brown sugar

1 egg, room temperature

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
1/4 tsp salt

1 cup chocolate chips (I used a blend of white and semi-sweet chocolate chips)

1/2 cup sprinkles

Instructions:

In a large bowl, sift together flour, cake mix, and baking soda.  Set aside.  In a separate bowl, cream together the butter and sugars on medium speed.  Mix in the egg and vanilla until creamy.

Add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients and mix until just combined.  Do not OVERMIX the dough. Fold in the chocolate chips and sprinkles.

Cover and refrigerate dough for at least 1 hour, or up to 4 days.  This step is mandatory. The dough is fairly sticky, so chilling the dough is required in order to avoid the cookie from spreading too much.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Scoop rounded tablespoons of the cold dough onto an ungreased baking sheet.  (This blogger has a trick for making thick cookies- she says to shape your cookie dough to be “taller” on the sheet than they are wide, as pictured here).  Make sure to keep dough chilled when working in batches. Bake for 10-12 minutes until edges are slightly browned.  The centers will appear very soft, but the cookies will set as they cool.  Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 4 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Peanut butter blondies

As soon as I saw this recipe from Bakerella I bookmarked it for the premiere of our Bachelor watch party.  They were a HUGE hit, and I know I'll be making them again!  

PEANUT BUTTER BLONDIES

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
6 Tablespoons butter, softened
1/2 cup peanut butter
2/3 cup sugar
2/3 cup packed brown sugar
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup chips (I used 1/2 cup semi-sweet and 1/2 cup peanut butter chips; lots of combinations would be great in these!)

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease 9 x 9 pan

In a medium bowl, stir the flour, baking powder and salt together with a wire whisk and set aside.

In a mixer, cream the butter and peanut butter until smooth. Add the sugars and mix until combined.

Add the eggs and vanilla and mix until combined.  Add the dry ingredients and mix on low until combined.  Stir in the chips.

Spread in the pan and bake for 30-35 minutes* or until done.

* I baked mine for 32 minutes in a convection oven.  They were quickly browning on the top, so I covered them with foil for the last 10 minutes.  Adjust your time according to size of pan you use, and whether you're using convection or conventional oven.  These blondies are thick, so a 9x13 pan should work as well if you decrease the baking time accordingly.

Chicken BLT salad

Dinner last night was this simple, delicious, chicken BLT salad from Cooking Light.  I'll emphasize the word simple because I took a few shortcuts that greatly reduced the number of ingredients AND time/effort required for this recipe.  The original recipe is here if you want to make your own dressing and use a buttermilk coating for the chicken.  OR, you can drive down Easy Street and use ranch dressing for both, which is what we did. The original recipe also does the salad wedge-style with iceberg, but we're romaine fans so we did a chopped version.  Robert and I both loved this one, and I know it will be on the menu again soon! 

CHICKEN BLT SALAD

Yield: 6 salads

Ingredients:

Ranch dressing, for coating chicken and dressing the salad (we used Naturally Fresh jalapeno ranch, which I highly recommend.  Found in the refrigerated section in produce)

3/4 cup panko (Japanese breadcrumbs)

4 boneless skinless chicken breasts

3/4 tsp black pepper

1/4 tsp kosher salt

3 Tbsp canola oil

Iceberg or romaine lettuce

2 cups chopped plum tomatoes

3 slices cooked bacon, crumbled

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 425°.

Prepare 2 shallow dishes with ranch dressing and panko. Dip chicken in dressing, then dredge in the panko. Sprinkle with 1/4 teaspoon pepper and 1/8 teaspoon salt.

Heat an ovenproof skillet over medium heat. Add oil; swirl to coat. Add chicken. Cook 4 minutes; turn over. Bake at 425° for 14 minutes or until done. Let chicken stand 10 minutes; slice crosswise.

Divide lettuce between 6 plates. Top each serving with chicken, tomato, and tablespoons dressing. Sprinkle with crumbled bacon.