What’s cookin’ south of the border?

So, a few months ago I was at this business expo for work (also promoting this organization I’m in called Tech Marketing Association). My boss and I were just walking around meeting new people, and enjoying the sights and sounds. That is until we hit the food area. It smelled sooooo good! Pizza, pasta, baked goods, and others. I knew that something smelled good when I walked in, but I like to say I have a crazy sense of imagination. Anyway, we ran into this booth called “Go Texan”. Basically promoting buying local (oops…sorry…walmart is my friend right now) and how it effects us. At the booth there were recipe cards of all sorts, so I grabbed a few. Again, me being me, I forgot where I put the cards until now. So, I am proud to present: South of the Border Chicken Breasts by Go Texan.

Ingredients:
1/4 C vegetable oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tsp. chili powder
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

Method:
1. Heat broiler
2. Spray broiler pan with nonstick spray
3. In a small bowl, blend oil, garlic, chili powder, oregano, and cayenne
4. Place chicken on pan and spoon/brush half of the seasoning mixture over the chicken
5. Broil chicken for 6 minutes 4-6 inches from heat
6. Turn chicken and brush/spoon remaining mixture onto the chicken
7. Broil for 4-6 minutes more, or until internal juices run clear

Notes:
I really liked this. It was spicy and savory. Definitely something to make for a mass amount of people. The recipe is so easy, and you can definitely put some twists here and there. I think adding lime juice or a lime when serving would be a great addition. It says to serve with hot black beans and corn (so I did…I’ll show you later what I did). Anyway, cook it up and happy Nom Noms 😀

 

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Tasty Tofu Edit

Okay, so a few posts ago I tried to make pineapple chipotle tofu. It was good, but the taste just wasn’t there for me. I recently remade it with the advice of some of my friend on facebook (shout out to Carolyn). Anyway, it was so much better. The first time I didn’t dry the tofu out enough I guess, and I also marinated it in the sauce this time. Here is the post with the recipe:

https://thestumbleuponchef.wordpress.com/2011/04/07/is-that-food/
Things I did differently:

I cut the tofu into small pieces and let them lay on a towel to dry out for about an hour.

Marinated the tofu in the sauce for about an hour and a half.

Made a little extra sauce because it is hard to see the sauce thicken.

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Celebrating Qing Ming

This last week we celebrated Qing Ming (Clean and Bright). Qing Ming is a Chinese holiday for grave cleaning, which we celebrated by doing so. We went to the mausoleum with flowers and cleaned up around around my mom. It was nice to go since I haven’t been in a while, although I guess it should take a holiday to get me to go there. Anyway, for dinner we had a ghost feast and burnt ghost money. You can read more about the holiday here:

http://www.kidzworld.com/article/1993-ching-ming-festival-a-chinese-tradition

We had a lot on the menu, at least a lot for 2 people, but we still managed to eat it all. I have this problem where if there is food in front of me…it disappears :P. Anyways, today you get 2 posts! Sweet Chili Sauce and Chicken and Rice Pudding.

Chicken:

http://www.sidewalkshoes.com/2008/11/chicken-with-sweet-chili-sauce.html

Ingredients:
1/2 cup of sweet chili sauce
1/2 cup of soy sauce
peanut oil (or whatever you want to use for sauteing)
3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
Method:
Mix 1/4 cup chili sauce and 1/4 cup soy sauce in a shall glass dish or zip lock bag, add chicken and turn to coat. Marinate chicken in refrigerator for 30 minutes.

Add a tablespoon or two of oil to a pan and heat over medium high heat. Lift chicken from marinade and brown on one side for about 2-3 minutes (it may smoke a little from the sweet marinade). Turn the chicken over and brown for 2 minutes per this side. Cover with a lid, turn the heat to low and let it finish cooking for about 8 minutes.

Mix remaining chili sauce and soy sauce in a small pot and heat over low heat until heated through, about 5 minutes. Serve over chicken.

Notes:

I really like this sauce! LIKE REALLY LIKE IT! Haha, and for once I actually followed the recipe as written! I have some left over and I want to try to mix it in with fried rice instead of just  soy sauce. I’ll let you know how it turns out :D. The sauce can get a bit thick, so you may want to thin it out with a touch of water.

Rice Pudding:

http://wordstoeatby.blogspot.com/2009/06/rice-pudding-and-mango-parfait-modern.html

Ingredients:
3 cups whole milk [I used 2%]
2 to 4 tablespoons sweetened condensed milk (see Note)
1⁄4 cup white basmati rice, rinsed and drained
1 teaspoon cardamom seeds, crushed
1 ripe mango, peeled and diced

Method:

In a deep saucepan, bring the whole milk and condensed milk to a boil over medium heat. Stir constantly to prevent scorching.

Reduce the heat to medium-low. Add the rice and cardamom and mix well. Continue to cook for about 50 minutes, until the milk has reduced by half and you obtain a creamy consistency [mine was done in about 35 minutes]. Stir frequently while cooking.

Remove from the heat and allow to come to room temperature.

Refrigerate, covered, for at least an hour.

Notes:

I really like rice pudding with mango. I’ve had it before at a restaurant, and even though I didn’t make it as a parfait it still came out really well. I tasted it with 2 tbs of sweetened condensed milk and thought it needed a little more sweetness, so I added another table spoon. I also put in about 3-5 tsp of vanilla because I accidentally poured too much in :). It burned a little bit on the bottom, but I found I like the burnt bits a little more :D. MmmMmm..burnty… Anyway, I served it immediately after with mango because when I ate it at the restaurant it was warm, so I figured this is what they did. Oh, and mangoes are my favorite fruit… you’ll have to guess the 2nd and 3rd 😉

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Something Simple

I am a lover of chicken, and by that I mean I LOOOOVVE chicken. Any recipe that I find that deals with chicken is almost a must do, but it is even better when the recipe is SUPER easy. Today’s recipe comes from Frenchs.com

http://www.frenchs.com/recipe/frenchs-crunchy-onion-chickentrade-RE1309.html

Ingredients:

2 cups (4 oz.) FRENCH’S® Original or Cheddar French Fried Onions

2 tbsp. all-purpose flour

4 (5 oz.) boneless skinless chicken breasts

1 egg, beaten

Directions:

Place French Fried Onions and flour into plastic bag. Lightly crush with hands or with rolling pin. Transfer to pie plate or waxed paper.

Dip chicken into egg; then coat with onion crumbs, pressing firmly to adhere. Place chicken on baking sheet.

Bake at 400°F for 20 min. or until no longer pink in center.

This chicken was great and filling, but I do have a few suggestions if you are going to make this. When we were eating it seemed like the chicken needed a little salt and maybe it is because I went the cheap route and bought GV fried onion rings instead of the French’s version. So, when you are preparing the chicken to being covered in the crushed onions I would put some salt (maybe a tsp or tsp and a half) into the egg or directly onto the chicken. Also, after I crushed the onions in a baggie I added some garlic powder (about 2-3 tsp). All in all this recipe was great and would go great with some mash potatoes if you have some. Happy cooking!

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