Kitchen Kravings!!
So the last few days I've had some time to try new recipes I've found on my beloved Pinterest. :) Check them out and give them a try too!!
The first one is a sesame orange chicken. This is the link from the original recipe I took it from. It was pretty easy and I loved the "wet batter" to coat the chicken in. I've always fried chicken in the flour, egg, breadcrumbs way... but this was much easier.
Ingredients:
2 boneless skinless chicken breasts (cut into 1 inch cubes)
½ cup all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 egg (beaten)
½ cup water (or as much as needed to make batter smooth)
3 tablespoons cornstarch
salt (to taste)
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
Sauce-
¼ cup ketchup
¼ cup honey
2 teaspoons sugar
2 tablespoons white vinegar
½ cup water
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1 teaspoon sesame oil
the juice of ½ orange
1 teaspoon orange zest
sprinkle of garlic powder
sesame seeds
Step 1: Heat oil in a deep fryer to 325 degrees. In large bowl combine all of the batter ingredients and mix thoroughly. The batter should be thick enough to coat the chicken but thin enough to flow around the pieces. Set aside.
Step 2: Dip chicken pieces into the batter to coat evenly (one by one). Deep fry the chicken in batches in your deep fryer for about 10 minutes or until golden brown. Drain on paper towels. (or you can fry in hot oil at about 325 degrees in your wok for about 3-4 minutes or until golden brown).
Step 3: In a bowl whisk together ketchup, honey, sugar, water, vinegar, cornstarch, sesame oil, orange juice, orange zest, and sesame seeds. Pour into a wok and cook until the sauce is thickened and bubbly. Mix in a bowl with the fried chicken pieces.
And...ta da! Although its no General Tso's chicken...it was still pretty good :)
The second recipe is from this link in Pinterest and its a Crockpot Honey Sauced Chicken. We had this for dinner tonight over rice and I really enjoyed it. The flavor was good, meat was tender, and it made extra juice/sauce for the rice. I'm definitely an extra saucy person so I get excited when there is more to dump on my plate!
3/4 pound chicken (of your choice)
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. black pepper
1/2 cup honey
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/8 cup chopped onion (or 1/16 cup onion flakes)
1/8 cup ketchup
1 Tbs. vegetable oil
1 clove garlic, minced
1/4 tsp. red pepper flakes
Season both sides of chicken with salt and pepper, put into crock pot.
In a
small bowl, combine honey, soy sauce, onion, ketchup, oil, garlic and pepper
flakes.
Pour over chicken. Cook on low for 3 hours or on high 1 1/2 hours.
Cut chicken into bite size pieces, then return to pot and toss with sauce. Serve
over rice or noodles.
The third recipe I tried was the Reese's Peanut Butter Banana Bread. And let me tell you it is sooooo good!!! This is a must for my recipe box. Here is the link and here is the recipe:
3 bananas smashed
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup oil
1 egg
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 cups of all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
8 oz bag of Reese’s Mini cups
Preheat oven to 350
In a medium bowl whisk together your flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt, set aside.
In a large bowl stir together your bananas, peanut butter, oil, egg and sugars.
Pour your dry ingredients into your wet ingredients and stir until just combined. Batter will be lumpy.
Fold in your Reese’s Mini cups and spread batter into prepared pan.
(I think next time I'll cut the reese cups in half to just break it up a little more)
Bake for approx 1 hour or until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean.
This really is amazing. The peanut butter doesnt overtake the bread, but adds a perfect amount of taste! Here is the picture from Pinterest because I forgot to take a picture when I cut mine.
Have a great day!! XOXO