Korean Boneless Spicy Chicken

I once made a Korean style spicy chicken wings  and really loved it.  However, I never make it again because I don't buy chicken wings (the fattest part of a chicken so I want to eat less of it), but my husband loved chicken wings so sometimes he would buy a bucket of buffalo wings to eat.

The other day, we ordered a spicy fried chicken dish in a Korean restaurant and I thought it would be wings and drumettes and was pleasantly surprised that it was actually chicken thigh.   I wonder why I never thought of using the skinless and boneless thigh to make this before!  It gave me such a great idea that I wanted to make this dish again.  Now I can enjoy this dish more often but wondering would it be as good without deep-frying the chicken first?

Adapted from Korean style spicy chicken wings.

Ingredients:

2-3 skinless and boneless chicken thigh meat, cut into pieces
Sweet potato starch/ or cornstarch
Toasted sesame seeds

Sauce:
2 Tbsp. gochujang/ Korean chili paste
1 Tbsp. raw honey
1 Tbsp. mirin
1 tsp. sesame oil
1/8 tsp. white pepper
1 1/2 Tbsp. minced garlic
1 1/2 Tbsp. minced ginger
1 1/2 Tbsp. chopped scallion

Method:

1.  In a bowl, add in all the sauce ingredients, mix until combined.  Set aside.

2.  Heat up your wok with oil.  Coat the chicken thigh with sweet potato starch.  Deep-fry until golden brown or cooked.  Drain on paper towel.  Set aside.

3.  Pour away the oil.  In the same wok, add in the sauce, stir to warm.  Add in the fried chicken thigh and mix and coat each piece with the sauce.  Dish out and serve on a plate.  Garnish with toasted sesame seeds before serving.

Slow Cooker Whole Chicken

This is one SUPER DUPER easy slow cooker whole chicken recipe.  All you need are two ingredients, one whole chicken and a packet of Emperor Chicken spice mix.  In your slow cooker, add in the washed whole chicken, pour the Emperor Chicken spice mix on top of the chicken and give it a good rub to cover all sides of the chicken.  Put it breast side up and turn it to High for 5 hours.  When the internal temperature register as 180'F, it is done.  Soft and tender that it will be easily tear off with your hand.

A tip I learned from my friend's mom, to prevent the cover from moving, stick a piece of white paper in between the cover and the crock pot as shown.  It prevents the moving and  thus the noise and the sprinkling of water on the countertop.

Slow Cooker Spiced Chicken

I have been using my slow cooker quite often these days because I found it to be such a convenience.  I mostly used it for my Asian style recipes, Chinese herbal chicken tonic soup and Chinese dessert.  Today, I wanted to try it with a western style approach so I used whatever ingredients and herbs that I have in my house.  I loved sage and rosemary as I know these combination would work well together.  I am not disappointed at all as this got two thumbs up from both of my girls.  I served this with white rice and a Chinese style romaine lettuce side dish. 

Chicken Curry with Sweet Potatoes

I don't buy potato unless it is on special occasion and organic.  To me is why eat potato when you can eat the superfood sweet potato?  In the Asian supermarket, we can buy all sort of different colors sweet potatoes, from purple, yellow to orange.  I like to buy the purple variety because not a lot of time we get to eat purple color food.  But for adding to curry, yellow and orange colors sweet potato is preferred.

I was planning to make a pot of curry chicken and just so happen that I had some sweet potatoes that were starting to sprout so of course I had to eat it quickly.  Thus, this idea was born.  I loved it a lot because it added an extra sweetness to the curry.  Next time if you have a choice, always pick the superfood!

Asian Style Slow Cooker Chicken

I always in search of an easy to cook meal for my family.  Recently fell in love with my 2 quart size slow cooker again after putting it away in a box for years.  I really love the turn it on and leave it conveniences that a slow cooker provides.  Also, the 2 quart size is just nice for a family of four.  I have been using it to cook herbal soups and sweet dessert soup and now venture into making a main dish out of it.  This is my first chicken dish and we all loved it, so don't be fooled by the look of this dish, even I have to admit it doesn't look quite appetizing but it sure tastes delicious.  Good serving it with a bowl of rice!

The benefits of slow cooker are you can use frozen poultry or meat and also you can turn it to low and go to work or do whatever and come home to a meal.  As for me, I like that I don't have to watch the stove when cooking as I will have to fetch my girls from school.  I will make more dishes via slow cooker so stay tuned!

Spicy Eggplant with Chicken

Eggplant or aubergine is from a nightshade family of vegetables such as potato, tomato and sweet peppers.  It is a good source of vitamins and minerals and has phytonutrients which have antioxidant activities.  However, it is not suitable for people with kidney and gallbladder problems.

I do like to buy eggplant occasionally because I try to eat variety of vegetables with different colors.  I can't buy it often because my hubby and my girls are not a fan of this vegetable, so whenever I cook this, they only eat the chicken.

Are you someone who tries to buy different fruits and vegetables every time you go grocery shopping?  Since we shop at the Asian supermarkets, our selections are wider and there are lots of different green vegetables, root vegetables that we can buy.  Next time, try to vary your choice of vegetables instead of sticking to the few that you like.

Baked Turkey Meatballs

Do you love the convenience of frozen meatballs that sell in the supermarkets?  I do!  But as I am becoming more aware and more educated about food such as whole food vs processed food, I couldn't bring myself to buy it.  As I flipped to the back and read the ingredients list, I had to sigh and put the frozen meatballs back in the freezer.  I told myself, if I want some meatballs, I just have to make it myself and freeze it!

I chose turkey because I bought a small turkey breast during the Christmas sales.  I removed the turkey bone and hand minced the turkey breast with a cleaver.  Then, just added the seasonings and baked.  Since my turkey breast was small, it didn't yield much meatballs, next time I would have to make more to freeze.  These turkey meatballs were delicious as it.  Or you can add it in spaghetti sauce, or make a BBQ meatballs sauce, or an Asian style sauce to coat the meatballs.  I even sandwiched it in a bun with a slice of cheese for Evy to bring in as her lunchbox to school.

Chicken Lor Bak (Chicken Bean Curd Rolls)

Most of the lor baks (meat bean curd rolls) we are familiar with are the ones made with ground pork or ground pork plus shrimps.  But there are also lor baks that were made with pork strips or chicken strips.  To me, anything that was wrapped in the bean curd sheet and deep-fried was delicious as long as the seasonings were right on.  You have to be generous with the salt and yet not to make it too salty.  If you found yourself under salt it, just serve it with a chili dipping sauce.  However, if you over salt this, the only thing you can do is to eat it with lots of rice.

* I am also submitting this post to Chinese New Year Delights 2013 hosted by Sonia aka Nasi Lemak Lover and Aspiring Bakers #28: Chicken Feast (February 2013) hosted by SSB of Small Small Baker.

Polenta with Chicken Mushroom Sauce

I have been wanting to try the organic polenta for sometimes but I needed time to think of how and what to serve it with.  The above was the result of much thought.  I loved how soft and nutty the polenta tasted and the slight crispness from the edges resulting from pan-frying it in olive oil.  It didn't look much but was actually quite filling and well served as an alternative to rice or bread.  It was delicious to pair it with the creamy mushroom sauce.  The pine nuts added a wonderful crunch to the mushroom sauce and juicy white chicken.  You can choose to grill the chicken breast or pan-frying it in extra virgin olive oil.  Overall, it was a satisfying and balance meal.

Pantry essentials are those go-to ingredients that you love to reach for when thinking up new ways to create holidays dishes that wow friends and family.  Polenta is a great meatless dish to add to your weekly cooking repertoire, their Crepes are an easy no-muss-no-fuss dessert and Pine Nuts make for a wonderful crunch to any dish whether savory or sweet.  Not only that, they have lots of unique, hard to find and specialty items such as exotic fruits and vegetables. Check out Friedas for any of your pantry essentials need and specialty items.

I love these ready-to-use French Style Crepes, it makes making a delicious dessert super quick and easy.  I just spread it with a thin layer of Jif Chocolate/ Nutella and roll it up and sprinkle some powder sugar on top.  Can I say YUMMY!!   You can also use this to make the famous Crepes Cake and cut down on hours of labor!

* I received free samples from Friedas.  Thoughts and opinions are my own.

Chicken, Zucchini and Shiitake Mushroom

My new found love, fresh Shiitake mushrooms!!   We have been enjoying the dried Shiitake mushrooms for ages but recently I spotted some fresh Shiitake mushrooms and being one that never tasted a fresh Shiitake mushroom before, I was eager to give it a try.  I was pleasantly surprised by the fragrant of this fresh mushroom as it had the same earthy, smoky flavor as the dried ones and oh so delicious!  It also more meaty in texture than the white button mushroom and has more potent antioxidant, L-ergothioneine that helps the body to fight off free radicals.  It also has a compound called lentinan that keep the immune system strong and resistant to infection and disease.  Lentinan can also protects against cancer as the studies shown that it has the anti-tumor effect by slowing or reversing the tumor growth.  Not to say it also a good source of protein, iron, vitamin C, dietary fiber and contains vitamins and minerals such as selenium and potassium just to name a few.  I am totally in love with this fresh Shiitake mushroom and hence it will be my mushroom of choice when I go shopping in the Asian market.  But since I am also one that voted for variety of food in my family diet, I would buy other variety of mushrooms too like oyster mushroom, enoki mushrooms, king oyster mushroom, crimini, portobello, beech mushrooms and etc.

I will be sharing this easy recipe with you in the next page which turned out to be surprisingly delicious!

Minced Chicken with Bottle Gourd (Lauki)

Frankly, I hardly buy any Asian gourd or melon.  But since I am trying to eat healthier, I also want to explore into unfamiliar Asian vegetable.  Asian melon and gourd are one of them.   For me, stir-frying it with eggs or make soup with it should be a very safe approach because my mom did that.  But I was out of drumsticks and we had eggs for lunch, so I needed to think of another approach.  Hence, this was created.  Later, when I did a search on this, I found out that it was actually very common in Indian cuisine.  Perhaps next time I can try cooking it with Indian spices and recipe.  Indian version is more mushy while this stir-fried version has a bite to it.

Bottle gourd has lots of benefits, one of them is low in fat and calories while high in dietary fiber.  Also said to treat urinary tract infection, balancing liver function, treatment for blood pressure and heart disease and more.  You can read more about the benefits here.

Korean Sweet Sesame Chicken

 

We quite liked this dish as it was sweet and tangy and nothing could go wrong with a sweet tangy sticky sauce on a fried chicken strips.  When I looked at this picture again, I realized that I forgot to garnish it with the toasted sesame seeds.  It involved some steps and the last step sort of slip past me.  Hehe...

I had tried a spicy version and I wanted to try the non-spicy version too hence this dish was made.  I also made it healthier by using chicken tenders instead of wings.  When the ginger and garlic were minced and mixed in this dark sauce, my girls won't know what they were eating and they loved the sweet and tangy sauce.  Just don't tell them what were in the sauce when they asked.  What a great way to trick them!  :D

Stir-Fried Chicken with Leeks (鸡胸肉炒韭菜)

I have started buying more leeks at my supermarket trip recently.  I found the flavor here is less pungent than the one in Malaysia.  Perhaps that was the reason why my hubby (he disliked eating leek in Malaysia) and girls have no problem in eating leeks that I cooked.  Leek is a part of onion family called Allium just like garlic, scallion and onion.  Leeks provide a good source of fiber, folid acid, manganese, potassium, calcium, vitamin B6 and C and iron.  It was said to improve the immune system, lower bad cholesterol levels, increase good cholesterol levels and fight certain cancer.  I eat leek purely not because of its health benefits but I happen to like leek a lot especially when it is stir-fried with a little oyster sauce.

I served the above as a one dish meal with a bowl of watercress soup.  This dish had frozen tofu, chicken breast, leek, red bell pepper, carrot and garlic.
 

Korean Chicken Vegetable Stew (Jjim Dak)

When I saw this dish in a Korean cookbook, I had to try it.  Why?  Because it has my favorite dang myun or sweet potato vermicelli in it.  Before that the only uses of dang myun for me is to make japchae (vegetable beef vermicelli) and I was so glad to find another uses for it.  Normally this dish is made with potato and since I don't really buy potato, I used Korean radish instead.  It paired so well together as the radish soaked up the flavor of the spicy gravy and won't crumble if cooked for too long.

This dish is very appetizing to me as it is spicy, sweet and savory at the same time, goes really well with a bowl of hot rice.

One thing I need to note though.  You have to eat this dish fast or once it is cooked.  If left on the stove, the dang myun will soak up all the gravy and become thicker and softer.  It is actually not too bad though as it makes the dang myun really flavorful.  But for presentation purposes or if you have guest then it will be a bad idea.

Korean Meal 2

My second set of Korean meal.  Except my potsticker is a Chinese version without any kimchi, not the Korean mandu. Banchan, clockwise from top:  candied lotus root, seasoned spinach, seasoned mung bean sprouts with chili powder, seasoned spicy chayote and lastly Chinese chicken chives potstickers.  Not very authentic as it was served without kimchi as I believe all Korean meal has to include some sort of kimchi.  I am still not a fan of kimchi yet so I don't even attempt to make that.  :P  So, I usually would just prepared the banchan that I like to eat.

Chicken Chives Potstickers/ pan-fried dumplings

I made a big bag of chicken chives dumplings and freeze it.  On the day when I don't have any leftover for my girl to bring for her school lunch, I just boil (healthier and faster) this dumplings and let her bring to school.  She loved boiled dumplings and she always finished it.  If I had some cut broccoli, I would par-boil that and added in with the dumplings for her to bring to school.  Easy for me and delicious for her.

Stir Fried Chicken Breast with Chayote (佛手瓜炒鸡胸肉)

I first read about chayote at Tigerfish's blog in 2009.  Since then, she had been cooking up a few dishes with chayote.  I saw chayote in the Asian market often but I just didn't pick it up because it was unfamiliar to me.  Also, I was afraid that my family would not like it.  Finally, almost 2 years since I last learned about it, I decided to pick it up at my last Asian market's shopping.

Chayote also known as 佛手瓜 (Buddha hand melon) or 合掌瓜 (closed palm melon) in Mandarin and can be eaten raw or cooked.  The fruit has very mild flavor and it has a crisp and crunchy bite to it.  It doesn't have to be peeled, just wash it clean with water, cut into half and scoop out the seeds.  Then, thinly sliced it for salad or just slice it however you want for the dish that you are intended to cook.  Chayote is rich in amino acids and vitamin C and have diuretic, cardiovascular and anti-inflammatory properties.  It is also very affordable.  It only cost me about 38 cent each.

Korean Style Spicy Chicken (韩国辣子鸡)

This is one fingers licking good chicken!  Spicy, sweet and sticky, it will beg you to have more.  Very suitable for any party that you are throwing or bring it to a potluck party.  I believe it would be a hit!  I took a short-cut on this as I had some leftover fried chicken wings and drumettes.  If you don't have the leftover store-bought fried chicken wings, just make your own.  Marinate the wings and drumettes with salt and pepper.  Coat it with corn starch or corn flour and deep-fry in hot oil until cook.

As for the sauce, if you like it spicier, you are welcome to add the Korean red pepper powder or substitute it with cayenne pepper powder.  That would be an extra kick for you!

Tamarind Chicken/ Assam Ayam

This is a variation of the Babi Assam that I tried many years ago.  Since I am going to cut down on buying pork these days and just stick to chicken or turkey from now on, unless that is a particular pork dish that I really wanted to cook, I will refrain from buying pork.  There is no special reason just that I want to switch to my original diet plan before I started slacking and buying more pork few years back.

The Babi Assam kept calling me as I remembered I liked the sauce and flavor a lot.  So, I attempted to recreate this dish with drumsticks and with the ingredients I have at home.  This sauce went so well with rice even my girls enjoyed this slightly spicy sourish sauce with their rice.  If you want to cook something different with chicken, give this dish a try!

Korean Spicy Chicken/ Dak-Galbi

I didn't know what gotten into me, I just felt like having a Korean meal.  When I got that planned, I didn't know what I gotten myself into.  I made three out of four banchan (side dish) before and everything seem simple on the surface.  Only when I started working on it, only did I realize that it was actually quite a lot of work when making it all in a day, like slicing the Korean radish and scallions.  Then, the different methods of cooking the anchovies and bean sprouts.  Anyway, to cut it short, I spent the whole afternoon preparing and washing and ended with a sore back, that's mean I stood for too long.  Hahaha....  I have to admit, I like to take my time in the kitchen, that's why I cannot work in a restaurant setting, I would be so slow that all the customers would walk away and I would be left stressful. 

For the banchan recipes, I provided the links below:

Korean Scallion Salad (Pa-Muchim)

Mu- Saengchae (Spicy Korean Radish)

Myulchi Bokkeum (Stirfried Anchovies)

Mungbean Sprout MuChim/ SukJu MuChim 

Chinese Scallion Ginger Chicken (葱姜油鸡)

This recipe was inspired by a Chinese cooking show that I watched, called 美女私房菜.  Her recipe called for cooking the chicken in a spice soy sauce broth and then deep-fry the chicken until crispy before adding the scallion ginger fragrant sauce on top.  I bookmarked it because it seem so interesting.  My chance came when I had some leftover oven roasted chicken wings and drumettes.   While I was thinking of what to make of this leftover wings, her recipe came to mind.  So, I pan-fried my wings and drumettes and then cooked this scallion ginger fragrant and put it on top of the chicken to serve.  I truly loved this scallion ginger fragrant sauce and it can easily be used to top with fried fish, deep-fried pork ribs, shrimps, or anything you can think of.  My attempt at recreating a leftover to another new dish.