Fried Rice

Fried Rice
To be served alone or with baked sweet & sour chicken! Recipe adapted from a couple sources.

 

 Ingredients:

3 cups of rice (I used the precooked boil-in-a-bag for convenience)

6-8 oz frozen veggies (I used peas & carrots)

3 eggs

Soy sauce to taste (Around 3 Tbsp)

Garlic Salt to taste (If not using the minced garlic)

3 Tbsp vegetable oil
1 small chopped onion (optional)
2 tsp minced garlic (optional)

Directions:
1. Cook rice according to directions.
2.  Heat the oil in a skillet. I use medium heat.
3. Add vegetables (can be frozen) to the skillet. Also add onion and garlic, if using. Stir fry until tender.
4.  Lower heat slightly. Push vegetable mix to the side, add eggs to clear area in pan and scramble.
5. Once eggs are scrambled, use your spatula to break up the eggs into smaller bits and mix with the vegetables.
6. Add the rice and soy sauce (and garlic salt, if using). Mix thoroughly and stir fry some more to heat up the rice, if needed.
7. Enjoy!

Right after adding the eggs to the skillet

All the ingredients combined!

Happy Cooking!

Baked Sweet & Sour Chicken

Baked Sweet & Sour Chicken
To be served with fried rice, I adapted these recipes from a few sources!

Ingredients for the Sauce:
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup distilled white vinegar
 4 Tbsp Ketchup
1 Tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp garlic salt

Ingredients for the Chicken:
3 boneless chicken breasts
3/4 cup cornstarch
2-3 eggs, beaten
1/4 cup vegetable oil
Salt & Pepper

Directions:
1. Make the sauce by whisking together the sauce ingredients. Set aside.
2. Preheat your oven to 325º.
3. Rinse the chicken breasts, then cut them into bite-sized cubes.
4. Season the chicken with salt & pepper.
5. Coat the chicken pieces by dipping them first into the cornstarch and then into the eggs.
6. Heat the oil in a skillet, then begin pan-frying the chicken pieces until they just begin to firm and change color.
7. Place pan-fried chicken into a (deep) greased baking dish.
8. Pour the sauce over the chicken. (I recommend using a deeper dish so that more of the chicken is covered).
9. Bake the chicken for one hour, uncovered. You will need to turn the chicken every 15-30 minutes, depending on how much chicken is "exposed," or not covered by the sauce.
10. Enjoy!

Picture of the sauce, after mixing. Deep red color.

Dipping Station

Chicken, post-coating. Slight yellow color from the egg.

This is the color of the chicken when I removed it from the pan - starting to firm, yellowed in color from the cooked egg, most of the "pink" color gone. (When in doubt, overcook rather than under!)

Finally, the sweet & sour goodness after cooking!

Enjoy, and Happy Cooking!

Homemade Chicken Salad

Homemade Chicken Salad
After seeing this image, I decided to make a few adjustments and make some chicken salad!

Ingredients:

3 stalks chopped celery

3 chopped green onions

1 1/2 cups halved purple grapes

1 rotisserie shredded chicken (I got the lemon pepper - it was delicious!)

1 1/2 tbsp lemon juice

1 1/2 tbsp brown sugar

3/4 cup mayonnaise

3/4 cup plain yogurt

salt & pepper to taste

Directions:
1. Chop up celery, green onions, and grapes. Put into bowl.
2. Shred chicken (I did it by hand) into small pieces.
3. Add mayo, yogurt, lemon juice, brown sugar, salt & pepper.
4. Mix all ingredients together until rather uniform in texture. Add more of step 3 until desired consistency is reached.
5. Enjoy!

When I was making this recipe, originally I started with 1/2 cup each of mayo and yogurt, and ended up with this:

I felt that it needed more dressing, so I doubled the amounts and ended up with this:

The next time that I make this dish, I'm going to use the ingredient amounts listed above because the perfect consistency is somewhere in between the two photographs.

Happy Cooking!