Baked Teriyaki Chicken

This recipe is yummillious!!!!! After reading the reviews, I wanted to give it a shot by using this home-made teriyaki sauce, eventhough I have a bottle of teriyaki sauce(from the store) sitting in my refrigerator.... It is indeed delicious. It said it is healthier to remove the chicken skins but I preferred to have, more crispy.. hehe. Here, I used the bone-in thighs but you can use any part of the chicken meat to make this recipe. I also whipped up Summer Noodle Salad as a side dish to go with this main course. Next time, I will double the sauce. A few reviews said its fabulous on salmon. So gonna try that next time... This home-made teriyaki sauce is a keeper!!! 

Baked Teriyaki Chicken (Allrecipes)

Servings: 6 (For 2, see the quantity in bold)

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon cornstarch (1 tsp)

1 tablespoon cold water (1 tsp)

1/2 cup white sugar (2 tbsp + 2 tsp)

1/2 cup soy sauce (2 tbsp + 2 tsp)

1/4 cup cider vinegar (1 tbsp + 1 tsp)

1 clove garlic, minced (1/3 tsp)

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger (1/8 tsp)

1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper (1/8 tsp)

12 skinless chicken thighs (4) 

In a small saucepan over low heat, combine the cornstarch, cold water, sugar, soy sauce, vinegar, garlic, ginger and ground black pepper. Let simmer, stirring frequently, until sauce thickens and bubbles.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C).

Place chicken pieces in a lightly greased 9x13 inch baking dish. Brush chicken with the sauce. Turn pieces over, and brush again.

Bake in the preheated oven for 30 minutes. Turn pieces over, and bake for another 30 minutes, until no longer pink and juices run clear. Brush with sauce every 10 minutes during cooking. 

Notes:

• The recipe did not mention this.. Use a heavy duty foil on the baking dish otherwise you ended up with sticky black mess.
  
• Cover with foil for the first 30 minutes, remove foil, pour remainder of sauce over and bake another 20-30 minutes to keep the meat tender.
  

Enchiladas made easy

I talked to papa via skype today. I told him about my food blog and he checked it out. He suggested that I should  use pastel colors for my blog (before was chocolate color; I like because I like chocolate.. Lol!!). Now, I changed it to pinky but I still think there's too much pink right now.. Lol... if only I knew how to edit using the html thingy... to me its just so confusing.. so I had to depend on the experts and use their free templates... hehe... I've made some curry puffs (epok-epok kentang) for my friend in Seattle today. She was not able to get any of it there, so I volunteered to make some for her. I hope by the time she gets them, they are in a good condition and still good to eat... and most importantly is yummy! I hope I get a good verdict from her soon.. :) Today's lunch menu was enchiladas. It was easy and quick. My style of enchiladas is a little bit different. Instead of using the oven, I just used the microwave.. hehe...

Ingredients:

1 lb lean ground beef

2 cups salsa (when I'm out of salsa, I use taco sauce)

1 tsp chilli powder

1 can (11 oz) Mexican-style corn, drained

1 can (10oz) diced tomato with green chilies, drained

sour cream

shredded cheddar cheese

10 flour tortilla (8 inch)

In 12-inch skillet, cook beef over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until brown; drain. Stir in salsa,  chilli powder, corn and tomato. Heat to boiling; reduce heat to low.

Put the flour tortilla in a microwave-safe container, covered and microwave for a few seconds, just to soften (not too long or the tortilla will become hard). Take out and spread some shredded cheese, 1/4 cup of the meat mixture and sour cream down center of each tortilla; roll up. Place them in the container (seam-sides down, on salsa), topped with some shredded cheese and microwave for another 1-2 minutes.

If you using the oven, here are the steps:

Preheat oven at 350°F. Spread 1 cup of the remaining salsa onto bottom of 13x9-inch baking dish. Spoon 1/4 cup of the meat mixture down center of each tortilla; roll up. Place, seam-sides down, on salsa. Top with the remaining 1/2 cup salsa and additional 1 cup shredded cheese. Bake 20 minute or until heated through. Serve with sour cream.

Serve this main dish with any green salad for a quick and tasty weekday meal.. :)

Notes:

Cook ground beef thoroughly and evenly. The color of the raw ground meat can vary from bright red to light pink. Do not rely on the color of the meat to check for doneness but use an instant read thermometer instead. Ground beef should be cooked to an internal temperature of 160°F.

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Whipped Sweet Potato Bake.

I love sweet potatoes, don't you? Be it fried, boiled or baked.. I love it all. Besides simple starches, sweet potatoes are rich in complex carbohydrates, dietary fiber, beta carotene, vitamin C and vitamin B. Usually this is served as a side dish but we normally have it as a dessert. We had it last Saturday but I just had to have it again for lunch today.. hehe... and it is very easy to make... *wink*

Serving for 1 person.

Ingredients:
1 can (15oz) sweet potatoes, drained
2 tbsp butter, melted
1 tsp brown sugar
pinch of ground cinnamon
pinch of salt
pinch of ground nutmeg
some miniature marshmallows

Preheat oven 350F. Beat all ingredients except marshmallows in amedium bowl with electric beater on medium speed until well blended.Spoon into a lightly greased baking dish, topped with marshmallows. (I melted 1 tbsp butter and mix with 1 tsp brown sugar and pour on top of the whipped potato before topped with marshmallows)
Bake for 15 minutes or until sweet potato mixture is heated through and marshmallows are lightly browned.

Steak with Sauteed Mushrooms and onion

Tonight's dinner was simple steak with sauteed mushrooms and onion. I also whipped up mashed potatoes with turkey bacon and mixed broccoli and carrots as a side dish. I did not make any gravy or sauce because there will be some juice from the steak.. *wink*.. Dinner was sooo yummylicious! We both enjoyed it very much. :)

It has been raining a lot these days here. Last Thursday, was the worst of all. Lotsa rain with loud thunderstorms... and I was all by myself while hubby at work.. :( I was a little scared, afraid if we would be get any tornado or something. That is very scary... Also for the first time, in my life, I saw hail. It was interesting to see small pellets of ice falling from the sky (pic at my front door)..

Hope everyone have a nice weekend. :)

Ingredients:
2 tbsp + 1 tbsp butter
1 tbsp Olive oil
1 large sweet onion, sliced
1 box fresh mushrooms, clean and sliced
Salt and pepper to taste
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
2 beef tenderloin steaks (1 1/2-inch thick)
meat tenderizer

Season steaks on both sides with meat tenderizer. Chill for 30 minutes in the refrigerator.
In large skillet, heat butter until bubbly. Saute onion, mushrooms, salt, and pepper for 2 minutes. Add balsamic vinegar and continue to saute until mushrooms are tender. Set aside; cover. (There would be plenty, serve it as a side-dish, that's what I did)
Wipe out skillet. Heat butter and olive oil on the skillet over medium high heat. Add steaks to skillet. Sear the steaks, moving them with tongs a little so they don't stick to the bottom, for 5-6 minutes per side. Use a meat thermometer to test for doneness. When the steaks are done to your liking, remove from the pan, cover loosely with aluminum foil and let rest 5 to 10 minutes before serving.

On a serving plate, place the steak and topped with sauteed mushrooms and onions. Enjoy!
Notes:

Always let your steaks come to room temperature (70°F) before cooking or grilling. If your room's temperature differs from 70°F, adjust your time accordingly. A cold steak will contract when it hits the heat and this wall cause it to toughen.

A guide for the done-ness of your steak :-

• Very Rare : 130°F, red almost translucent center and cool
• Rare: 140°F (60°C), center of the steak is very red and cool
• Medium Rare: 150°F (65°C), center of the steak is red and warm
• Medium: 160°F (71°C), center of the steak is pink and hot
• Medium Well: 165°F (74°C), center of the steak is pinkish and hot
• Well done: 170+°F (77+°C), steak is thoroughly cooked

Spicy Skillet Chicken

My heart goes out to Haiti. Almost a week after the earthquake, let's pray and hope the rescuers are able to find more survivors...

Tonight, I was able to make a quick delicious dinner within 45mins. I saw this recipe in my email. It looked so delicious so I decided to give it a try. I  had to make a few changes to the ingredients since some of the items are not available in my kitchen. I was super hungry after cooking, and totally forgot to cut the chicken breast into slices like I intended to do before taking a photo... so here is how my spicy skillet chicken on a bed of rice look like...  :)

Spicy Skillet Chicken (adapted from Betty Crocker recipes)

(Serves 4)

Ingredients:

1 to 2 tsp chili powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp black pepper

4 boneless skinless chicken breasts

1 tsp vegetable oil

1 tomato, chopped

1/2 green pepper, chopped

1 can (11oz) whole kernel corn, drained

1/3 cup taco sauce

2 cups cooked white rice

1. Mix chili powder, salt and pepper in a small bowl; sprinkle evenly over both sides of chicken breasts. In a nonstick skillet, heat oil over medium heat. Place the chicken on the skillet; cook 8-10 minutes, turning once, until juice of chicken is clear when center of thickest part is cut (170°F).
2. Stir in corn, tomato, green peppers and taco sauce. Heat to boiling. Reduce heat. Cover and simmer 3 to 5 minutes or until vegetables are hot. Serve over a bed of rice. 

My shredded chicken porridge

We had shredded chicken porridge (congee) for breakfast this morning.  Yay!! It was delicious!! The only part that is missing the "soto" soup!

Porridge is eaten in many Asian countries, usually for breakfast or late suppers. Back in the day, Dad often brought us to Johor, Malaysia to have late supper. The food was good and the price was definitely cheap. I cant remember the  name of the street but I remember the food vendors would close the parking lot in the evening to open for business. :( There were  a lot of food vendors selling the same type of food and mostly were seafood. My parents knew one of the owners. They are our family friends. They had really good porridge. The accompaniments were roasted peanuts, fried anchovies, fried salted fish, salted hard-boiled egg and spicy kangkong. I always gave my mom the salted hard-boiled egg and ate the rest.. I am not too sure if the food vendors still there now.

My style of shredded chicken porridge is very easy ...and I am glad hubby likes it too.. 

Ingredients:

1 cup of washed long grain rice (rinsed well and soaked in water for 15 minutes)

10 cups of chicken stock.

2 chicken legs (may use any part of chicken)

chopped spring onions

fried shallots

Seasoning:

salt to taste

white pepper to taste

Habhal's sweet soya bean sauce or light soy sauce.

a few drops of sesame oil

Bring chicken and chicken stock to a boil in a heavy pot. Allow to cook until just done. Remove and set aside to cool. Shred the meat with finger tips.

Pour stock through a large sieve into a large bowl and discard solids. Return stock to a cleaned pot and add rice. Bring to a boil. When the rice is boiling, turn the heat down to medium low. Place the lid on the pot, tilting it to allow steam to escape. Cook on medium low to low heat, stirring occasionally, until the rice has the thick, creamy texture of porridge (1 - 1 1/4 hours). Add the salt, to taste. Remove from heat. Pour into serving bowls, top up some shredded chicken, spring onions, fried shallots, some sesame seed oil and white pepper. Serve hot.

My accompaniments were scrambled eggs, spicy chai poh and Habhal's sweet soya bean sauce.

NOTES:

• There are basically 3 consistency and it corresponds to the rice-water ratio. This ratio is for cooking over the stove top where more evaporation takes place.

1 cup rice to 8 cups water : THICK
1 cup rice to 10 cups water : MEDIUM
1 cup rice to 13 cups water : THIN

• Well-washed rice is important as you want to wash away any excess rice flour which may affect the texture of the porridge.
• You can also use left over rice to make porridge. 
• The chicken meat will become tough if you over-cooked.