Pan- Fried Chicken Breast Fillet with Mango Salsa

This week has got me wondering into Mexicanville. The love affair first started with a simple meal, quesadilla then it kinda cooled down for a while and the heat came back with me craving for guacamole and now salsa! At first it was just salsa and i thought i should make it into a meal instead of a side dish therefore i came up with this meal for dinner.

Ingredients

Mango Salsa

* 1 mango

* 4 medium tomatoes

* 1 medium yellow onion

* 3 cloves garlic

* 3 small jalapeno pepper

* 3 tbsp chopped cilantro

* 1/4 tsp salt or to taste

* Juice of one lemon

Method:

1) Dice the mango and tomatoes and chopped the onion and fresh cilantro. Then mince the garlic and jalapeno, set aside.

2) In a large bowl, mix everything together and stir until its thoroughly combined. Refrigerate it while you prepare the chicken.

Note:

For those that don't fancy a sour salsa, pick a sweet mango and add the lemon juice to taste.

Some even added olive oil to this salsa but i chose to omit it since i like it to be light and tangy. Those that love the heat of jalapeno , feel free to add one or two more, make sure you minced it real good so that it will blend together nicely with the rest of the ingredients.

This bowl of salsa can served up to 5-7 people depending on how much they love salsa.

Pan-Fried Chicken Breast Fillet

* 1/2 of whole chicken breast meat

* 1/8 tsp salt or to taste

* Coarse black pepper to taste

* 1 tbsp olive oil

Method:

1) Lightly salt the breast meat on both sides and season with coarse black pepper after that.

2) Heat a non-stick with the olive oil and pan fry the fillet.

3) Remove and set it on a kitchen towel before serving it together with the salsa.

Note:

For those that love more flavour on their meat, feel free to season with paprika or even cayenne pepper.

Serve this with the mango salsa on top and some chopped romaine lettuce on the side, if you like you can also add mashed potatoes.

San Bei Ji ( 3 Cups Chicken )

Despite the name 3 cups chicken, literally translated from San Bei Ji, instead of using a full cup of each ingredients, i've modified the portion. I was first introduced to this dish when i was having dinner with a friend at a Kocha Taiwanese restaurant. That was my first time having it, i like the combination and the aromatic thai basil in this dish , therefore i was looking around and i even asked a Taiwanese friend for the recipe. Too bad she didnt have it but lucky me i found a few versions of the recipe over the net. I like this particular recipe the best.

INGREDIENTS

* 1 whole chicken

* 2 cups basil leaves

* 1/3 cup sesame oil

* Half a bulb garlic

* 10 slices ginger

* 2 chillies

* 3 tbsp brown sugar

* 1/3 cup light soy sauce

* 1/3 cup rice wine (Shao Hsing Hua Tiau)

Method:

1) Crush/roughly pound half bulb of the garlic, cut the chillies diagonally into a thick strip and set aside.

2) Heat the wok/non stick pan and pour 1/3 cup of sesame oil into the wok and add the chopped chicken pieces and stir fry until its bout 1/2 or 3/4 cook. Drain and set aside.

3) With the sesame oil in the wok, add in the crushed garlic and sliced ginger and stir fry till fragrant.

4) Add the cut chillies and give it a quick stir and add in the chicken and stir for a while.

5) Add in the rice wine and the light soy sauce and let it simmer.

6) Lastly add in the basil and sugar and let it simmer.

Note:

Its important to use thai basil for the sweet basil available will not give this dish that particular taste and aroma.

Oven Baked Chicken and Tofu Satay with Fruity Peanut Sauce

Personally i like satay but due to the traditional way of preparing it (grilled or barbequed over charcoal fire) i frequently stay away from it. i often find it rather oily for my liking for they often baste the satay with oil using a lemon grass or brush , also i'm pretty picky on how they serve it, where most of the satay sellers included a piece of "fat" together with the lean meat on the skewer.

So due to all that , i've decided to make my own version of satay with just lean meat and also oven bake it to reduce the amount of oil used. Since i'm sharing this new adventure of mine with a friend and her family, i prepared both the chicken and tofu satay for my friend's a vegan.

Ingredients

CHICKEN SATAY

* 3 pcs breast meat

* 6 tsp cumin powder

* 6 tsp coriander powder

* 3 tsp turmeric powder

* 3 stalks lemon grass (pound)

* 3 tbsp+ olive oil

* 6 tbsp brown sugar

Method:

1) Remove the skin from the chicken breast meat if any and cut it into strips or cube.

2) Mix all the ingredients together in a large bowl thoroughly and then add the chicken strips to marinate. Its best to marinate it overnight.

3) Skewer the strips when you're ready to bake it at a preheated oven of 210 degree C for bout 15-20mins on each side.

4) Serve with some fresh onions and cucumber.

Note:

Using fresh turmeric to marinate the chicken strips will give it a more fragrant aroma as compared to the powder form.

The longer you bake , the less juicy is your chicken strips, therefore dont overbake it for you'll end up with a dry chicken strips.

FRUITY PEANUT SAUCE

* 300gm roasted peanuts

* 200ml coconut milk

* 1 cup tamarind juice

* sugar and salt to taste

* water

Spice Paste

* 3 tbsp chilli paste

* 10 shallots

* 8 cloves garlic

* 2 stalks lemongrass

* 5cm fresh turmeric (optional)

* 6cms ginger

* 4cm galangal

* 3 tsp cumin

* 2 tsp shrimp paste powder (optional)

* 6 candelnuts

* 1/2 Small pineapple (roughly blend)

Method:

1) Blend or pound the spice paste ingredients.

2) Heat some oil in the non-stick and add in the spice paste and stir fry until its aromatic.

3) Add the tamarind juice and stir it for a little while before adding ground nuts.

4) Keep stirring until its thoroughly mixed and add in the coconut milk.

5) Let it simmer and add in the roughly blended pineapple.

6) Add in more water if you like the sauce to be more watery.
7) Season with salt and sugar to taste.

Note:

I bought the readily available coarsely chopped roasted peanuts to save time. For those who can't find that , you'll need to dry fry the ground nuts until its aromatic, cool, remove the skin and pound it.

I also added blended pineapple juice, a few pieces of pineapple with some water. I used pineapple for the peanut sauce to give it a different touch as compared to the normal peanut sauce the satay sellers served. This is a remake of the peanut sauce i've tasted when i was down south.

I waited until the gravy has cooled down and poured 3/4 of the thick peanut sauce into the blender and blend it until its of a smooth and creamy consistency. I poured it back to the non-stick and stir under low heat and add more pineapple juice or tamarind juice until i achieve the consistency i like.

TOFU SATAY

* 3 pcs beancurd

Spice Paste

* 1 tsp cumin powder

* 1/2 tsp cinnamon powder

* 8 shallots

* 1 tsp coriander powder

* 1 inch fresh turmeric

* 1 tsp sugar

* 1 stalk lemongrass

* 2 tbsp roasted peanuts

* 1 tbsp olive oil

* Salt to taste

Method:

1) Cubed the tofu to bite size or any size you fancy. Blend or pound all the spice paste ingredients.

2) Baste/coat the cubed beancurd with the spice paste and let it marinate overnight.

3) Skewer the beancurd when you're ready to bake.

4) Bake in a preheated oven of 210 degree C for bout 10mins on each side.

5) Serve with the fruity peanut sauce and some onions and cucumber.

Note:

If you like it to be spicy, add some chilli paste to the spice paste.

Handle the beancurd as gentle as possible when you coat it with the spice paste for you dont want to destroy it before you're able to eat it :). The spice paste will be of a rather thick consistency.

Ayam Masak Rendang ( Chicken in Coconut Milk)

Rendang is an Indonesian dish originated from the Minangkabau, one of the etnic group in Indonesia and one of the characteristics food of this culture, it is served at ceremonial occassions and to honour guests. This particular dish is also popular in Singapore and Malaysia and its traditionally prepared by the Malay community during festive occasions. Usually rendang is made from beef but this dish can be prepared with chicken or mutton or even vegie.

Ingredients

* 1.3kg chicken

* 3 lemongrass (bruised)

Spice A ( Pound/blend)

* 15 shallots

* 15 cloves garlic

* 3 inch galangal

* 3 inch ginger

* 9 stalks lemongrass

* 30 dried chillies

Spice B

* 9 cloves

* 9 star anise

* 9 cardamon seeds

Spice C

* 3 cups thick coconut milk

* 3 cups water

* 3 tsp tamarind puree

Spice D

* 18 kaffir lime leaves

* 18 tbsp grated coconut

* 3 tbsp palm sugar

* Salt to taste

Method:

1) Dry fry the grated coconut until it turns golden brown and set aside.

2) Add some oil and stir fry Spice A and Spice B together until fragrant

3) Then add chopped chicken pieces and bruised lemongrass and saute

4) Next, add Spice C and let it simmer , stir occassionally.

5) Add spice D and reduce the heat to low and simmer. Preferably cover your pot/wok. Cooking will take approximately 2hrs for the gravy to dry up.

Note:

You can also add in some turmeric leaves, bay leaves and fresh turmeric. I omitted all of it. Its all up to your preferences. You can also include candlenuts as well.

Do chop your kaffir lime leaves finely when you add in to the wok together with your grated coconut.

The dry fried grated coconut produces oil as well , so its best to sieve the oil from time to time, like how i did it to reduce the amount of oil in the rendang.

This dish is best served with white steamed rice, ketupat or even lemang.

Adobo Chicken with Ginger

I recently came across the word, Adobo and i thought to myself , what's this adobo? I did some reading and i was really pleased with what i found out! For those that understands Spanish , adobo means marinade or season. As for the Filipino, this word represents a type of cuisine and often refer to as a common and popular cooking process.

According to some of my friends who have tasted this dish , they claimed it to be really really good, so i thought why not give it a try and see if i like it as much as the 3 cups chicken i tried previously.

INGREDIENTS

* 1.3kg chicken (bite size)

* 1/2 cup light soy sauce

* 3/4 cup vinegar

* 1 bulb garlic

* 2 tbsp thinly sliced ginger

* 2 bay leaves

* 1/2 tbsp crushed black peppercorns

Method:

1) Marinate the chicken with some salt and pepper. Pan fry the chicken pieces, remove and place it on a kitchen towel.

2) Peel and pound the garlic slightly. Stir fry garlic and sliced ginger until fragrant.

3) Add in soy sauce, vinegar, bay leaves and peppercorns and let it simmer before adding in the pan-fried chicken.

4) Let it simmer further on a low heat until the sauce has thicken and reduced to half.

5) Dish it out and its ready to be served.

Note:

The method written has been modified. The original cooking style is to dump everythin in the Dutch oven and let it stew under low fire. Since i dont have the required kitchen tool, i decided to do it my way

It tasted good for me , but for those that would want a less tartness, you can adjust the ratio of soy sauce and vinegar to suit your liking. You can add a lil sugar to it as well.

Old Fashion Oven Chicken

You must be wondering what's this old fashion oven huh? Well, its actually my mom's or perhaps my granny's. My family members dont bake or have the interest in any oven-related stuff so there's not a need to have an oven at home.

Being somewhat curious on whether that old-fashion oven i have at home,stored somewhere in the house might be of use, i took it out and tested it by hittin the switch and wait too see if it warms up. To my surprise it warmed up and im more than glad to start making full use of it. 

Previously i bought a dozen of drumsticks and i've had half of it turned into Lemony Chicken so i thought i might as well marinate the rest overnight and cook it today. Well i'm totally clueless on wht i should be cookin with that old-fashioned oven. Why? It has no temperature control knobs on it and i have no idea how high is the celcius scale when u hit the switch and leave it on. 

 

So wht i did was i heated the oven for bout 10mins or so and then i lined the rack of the oven with the marinated chicken drumsticks.

Since i marinated the drumsticks im sure there will be sauce dripping from it so i placed a round flat metal place below for the drippings to be collected.

After about 15mins or so, i went to check on the drumsticks and it looks good to me, not exactly the roasted kinda look i was hoping for but it was good enough, at least the drumsticks are on its way to perfection. So i brushed a lil of the left over sauce from the marination of each of the drumsticks and closed the oven.

The next time when i went to check on it, i brushed more of the sauce on it and 10mins after that, i turned the drumsticks around and left it for another 10mins or so then went back to brushed the remainin sauce on it. 

After 10 mins, i went back to check on it and this time it looks like its done. So i dish it up and brushed it with the remainin sauce on the flat metal plate i had below the rack.

As for the marination, i had quite a bit of seasoning in it. I've had sesame oil, maggie seasoning, sweet sauce soy, light soy sauce, oyster sauce and pepper in it. These combination might be a lil salty so be careful with the measurement used.

Before i marinated the drumsticks, i used a fork to make holes on the drumsticks so that when you marinate it , it will get a fuller flavour. Its best to keep it marinated over night.

Lemony Chicken Drumsticks

I was browsing through and i saw this recipe with Lemon Chicken as the name. It sure does sound interesting to me. Besides this, I've this friend who's  a Canadian told me that there's this chinese restaurant that he patronises served Orange Chicken and i thought to myself, why not experiement on lemon first and next i'll move on to orange? 

So today i did the lemon version. Well i wanted it to be spicy lemon chicken but it didnt quite turn out that way. Perhaps the coating powder i used wasnt as spicy as i expect, perhaps i should add in more chilli powder in it.

I marinated the chicken with rice wine, light soy sauce and egg yolk for a few hours n just before fryin, i coated the drumsticks with the spicy fryin powder i bought and set it aside for bout 5-10 mins to avoid the oil from lookin cloudy. 

As for the sauce, i used freshly squeezed lemon juice, some grated rind of lemon, chicken broth, soft brown sugar ( i used both the soft brown sugar and honey) and some cornflour to thicken the sauce. It has jst the right amount of tartness for me but it was a lil too lemony for mom n granny's like. For those who like it on the sweet side, feel free to experiment on the sugar or honey added in, also a more concentrate chicken broth is also good. My chicken broth was kinda deconcentrated so perhaps due to that the sauce is more tangy than it should be.

Next time around, am definitely gonna try a different cookin method in preparing this dish. Pan- fryin and replacing the drumsticks with strips of breast meat minus the rice wine and more chilli powder might jst give this dish more kick to it. Mayb i can try it out on my next project - Orange Chicken, for i've 6 more drumsticks left in the fridge. 

Spicy Honey Chicken

I remembered when i was in high school, we had this Kemahiran Hidup (Living Skills) lesson; it had 5 units to it - Cooking, Gardening, Sewing, Woodwork and Electronics. During the cooking week, the students were required to look for a recipe to try out during class on that particular week.

Some actually thought it was a bane to look for a recipe and to get the raw ingriendents to school and place it in the fridge in the morning when we reach school. As for me i find it really fun but i was more concern bout the cleanliness of the utensils available in the school. So usually before the cooking session starts, we were required to choose the utensils from the " utensils store room". After we got what we wanted, i'd wash the utensils squeaky clean before using it for god knows what was running around when it was stored in the store room or if the previous person who used it even cleaned it properly, didnt wanna risk gettin stomache at the end of the day.

We were expected to work in a pair so i was working with this punjabi girl. I couldnt remember exactly the exact ingredients we used but i knew that we split the ingredients on who to bring what and so on. So for that cooking week, we prepared 2 dishes. One was some masala cauliflower and the other honey chicken or so some masala spicy honey chicken or something.

On one particular morning, mom was lazy to think of what to cook so she got me to cook up a dish of chicken for her. And i was thinking, what else can i do with chicken, definitely not the usual curry or fried stuff, so i thought of the stuff i used to cook when i was in high school. I remembered that masala spicy honey chicken thingy me and my cooking partner used to cook, and i pretty much like how it tasted like but i forgot the ingredients used and since i dont have masala at home, so i did my version of the chicken and i called it the spicy honey chicken.

The pieces of chicken were marinated with a lil salt, egg yolk, sesame oil & a lil cornflour. I left the marination in the fridge for an hour or so and deep-fried it first before preparing the gravy/sauce. For the gravy i used grinded dried chillies + shallots+ garlic+ brown sugar+ salt and top it up with honey before i dish it out.

I personally hate the smell of dried chillies, so instead of having it seeded and pound or grind it, i bought the ready made available in a packet. I've tried both, the home made n the ready made avail, they both have a different effect on the food, perhaps the other ingredients also contributed to the taste of it but since i discovered that the ready made ones didnt' have that dried chillies smell, i've been using it since. Also stir-frying the chilli paste longer till the oil breaks also help in gettin rid of that greenish chillish smell to it.

A meal in the out door

Black pepper sauce fusilli

well , the pic on my left , i dont have a name for this dish yet though. perhaps i'll just name it Black pepper sauce fusilli.

its my first time tryin out this combination. i'll always go for tomato based sauce but i thought i might as well come up with somethin new. besides i was preparing this for a friend.

well basically for the fusilli , i chose the green and red varieties, just to add colour to the food. what do i have in it? basically its a very simple dish, chicken cubes ( preferably breast meat , marinade and diced in cubes), lotsa garlic (minced) , margarine (to replace the oil) , black pepper sauce ( sauce & coarse black pepper added) and lotsa chinese parsley (coriander).

STEPS :

1) add fusilli to boiling water & cook until al dente ( dont forget to add salt to the boilin water).

2) heat up margarine ( for those who like butter , u may do so) & add in the minced garlic n stir till its golden brown & add coarse black pepper to taste.

3)add in the black pepper sauce & stir & add it hot water to the level of dilution u prefer ( not too thin for it might not coat the fusilli well, dont want your fusilli to be swimming do you?) sugar & salt may be added to taste.

4)in a large bowl , pour in the fusilli and pour in the black pepper sauce n chop some (in my case , lotsa ) chinese parsley and drop it in the bowl & mix well
5) ta-da! there u have it , ur simple Black pepper sauce fusilli.

Garlic mashed potatoes

from the name of it , i'm pretty sure you can figure out what's in it. anyway here are the list of ingredients in it.

INGREDIENTS :

1) russet potatoes
2) low- fat milk
3) coarse black pepper (preferably white pepper for display purpose & a more pungent taste)
4) salt
5) grated parmesan cheese
6) garlic

STEPS:

1) peel & add russet potatoes and garlic (dont forget to peel) into boiling water.

2) pour the potatoes and garlic in a colander & transfer it to a big bowl.

3) add in salt (to taste) , grated parmesan cheese and coarse black pepper (for black pepper lover) & start mashing.

4) next add low-fat milk to the mashed potatoes. the more milk u add the creamier your mashed potatoes will turn out.

5) you may add more parmesan cheese & coarse black pepper if you like.

And there you have it, your very own garlic mashed potatoes! oh yea , before i forgot , for those who are a garlic lover , you can add more garlic clove to it or black pepper if you like that spiceness! i'm a sucker for both but again moderation is good otherwise it wouldnt be garlic mashed potatoes :P

Mini Pita

You can have this for breakfast too , or as a snack. If the mini pita is unavailable you may go for the normal size pita . This is the simplest recipe of all.

All you need are mini pita breads , chicken ham ( u can replace this for your personal fav.) , slices of cheddar cheese (or any kinda cheese) and again , my fav, chinese parsley.

To make one wholesome mini pita , you need two slices of mini pita.

STEPS :

1) pan toast both slices of pita and remove it once its hot.

2)on a slice of the pita , add chicken ham , chinese parsley & cheddar cheese , u can a dash or two of black pepper if you fancy & lastly cover it up with another slice of pita.

3) pan toast the pita again (to melt the cheese & get it all yummy sticky!) n u may use a kitchen towel to press of the surface of the pita so that the filling stay intact. constantly flippin the both sides to get the even crunchiness on the crust.

4)you may cut it into half like what i did or you can have it just like that.

So there you go , 3 easy simple recipes! :) happy tryin for those who are interested to get it hands on!