Poultry

The Best Homemade Sweet ‘n Sour Chicken in the Whole Wide World

June 15, 2012 by jen 3 Comments

I’ve learned that Sweet ‘n Sour Chicken is one of those dishes from a Chinese restaurant that is hit or miss. There is this Chinese restaurant near where my old office building was that had THE BEST Sweet ‘n Sour Chicken. They set the bar quite high, because I have yet to find another place that makes it like they do. They deep fry the chicken (heart attack on a plate, anyone?) and then they give you a container full of sweet ‘n sour sauce that has onions, green peppers and pineapple in it. It’s seriously to die for. I’ve had dreams about it. No really. I have.

In the past when I’ve ordered Sweet ‘n Sour Chicken from other restaurants, they only gave me the deep fried Chicken and a little container of sweet ‘n sour sauce. What? That’s it. Where are the onions, green peppers and pineapple? So I’ve just stopped ordering it from any other place but the original restaurant I got it at. And if it doesn’t have those items in it, it’s not Sweet ‘n Sour Chicken to me. I got tired of being disappointed and you can bet that I go back to that restaurant just for that dish. So good. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Poultry, Recipes · Tagged With: Chicken, Chinese Restaurant, Day Old Rice, Fried Rice, Green Pepper, Homemade, Jasmine Rice, Onions, Pineapple, Sesame Oil, Soy Sauce, Sweet 'n Sour Chicken, Sweet and Sour Sauce

Easy Chicken Enchiladas

May 17, 2012 by jen 1 Comment

I’m sure this won’t come as a surprise, but we’re not big fans of Mexican food in the OCF house. The Mister can’t eat anything spicy, and I just don’t really like it much. Too many weird ingredients that I don’t like. I’ll eat a soft taco or a taco salad, but you can keep the salsas, refried beans, black beans, pinto beans, cilantro and guac to yourselves. But sometimes you just want to make something different and just do it your own way so that you do like it. So that’s what I did with Enchiladas. I’d see recipes for them but I didn’t like anything in it. That green sauce? Ewww, what’s up with that? So I decided to make up my own. Do it the way we’d like it. And I’m pretty happy with how it turned out!

Baked Pretzel Coated Chicken Strips with Honey Dijon Sauce

March 23, 2012 by jen Leave a Comment

I came across a recipe on Pinterest for Fried Pretzel Coated Chicken with Honey Dijon Sauce. Now I’m from Philly and we have an unhealthy love for soft pretzels in this city. But we also have a love Hard Pretzels as well. And I love Chicken. So it just seemed like a no-brainer for me to try this. However, I opted to bake the chicken instead of fry it. Trust me, I wanted to fry the chicken. But I’m trying to cut down on calories and make some healthier choices (a girl has to save her calories for cupcakes!) so I decided to bake them and see how they turned out.

I made these Baked Pretzel Coated Chicken Strips before going to Orlando, FL for Food Blog Forum Orlando. There were so many other fabulous food bloggers there and I had the opportunity to meet Angie of Eclectic Recipes! It was a pleasant surprise since I didn’t even realize she’d be in attendance. It was so nice to meet her and I look forward to trying out many more of her recipes in the future!

So back to the Pretzel Chicken…let’s do it!

(I used this recipe and made a few changes to it)

INGREDIENTS

Chicken

2 lbs boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into strips
2 eggs, whisked
1/2 teaspoon dry mustard powder
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
salt and pepper

Breading

2 cups pretzels, ground in the food processor (until they are the consistency of bread crumbs)

Sauce

1/3 cup honey
1/4 cup Dijon mustard

INSTRUCTIONS

Combine mustard and honey for sauce. Mix well and set aside.

Preheat the oven to about 400 degrees. Combine eggs with spices in a large bowl. Whisk together until everything is incorporated and it looks like scrambled eggs (before you would cook it!).

Using a food processor or Vitamix, turn the Pretzels into crumbs. I think next time I’d probably make them a bit finer, but it still worked well the way mine turned out,.

Dip the chicken into the egg mixture, and then place them into the pretzel crumbs. Make sure that you coat all sides of the chicken in the pretzel crumbs. I like the press down on all sides to make sure it sticks.

Place the pretzel breaded chicken on a greased baking sheet leaving a little room between each strip. I like to cover my baking sheet with foil to make for an easier clean-up!

Bake in a preheated oven for about 25 minutes or until the internal temperature is at 165 degrees.

Remove from the oven and enjoy!

I thought these were pretty good! I would also like to try them fried (how Eleclectic Recipes made them) to see how the baked strips compare, but I thought they were quite tasty for being a lower fat option. I think they’d be a little crunchier if they were fried, but we still enjoyed them. The Honey Dijon Sauce was a lovely addition! I want to try some of these in a wrap with some cheddar cheese, lettuce and ranch!

Filed Under: Poultry, Recipes · Tagged With: Appetizer, Baked, Chicken, Fried, Main Dish, Poultry, Pretzel Coated Chicken Strips, Pretzels, Snack, vitamix

Country Club Chicken

February 29, 2012 by jen 1 Comment

Whenever I see a recipe that involves bacon, I immediately know that I need to make it. Bacon is one of my favorite foods. I don’t think I’ve ever come across something with bacon in it (aside from a Bacon Martini) that I didn’t like. So when I came across Country Club Chicken I immediately put it on our menu. It has chicken, bacon, cheese, and it’s creamy. What’s not to like?

[adapted from the original recipe located here]