Mandarin orange chicken stir-fry

Jump to recipe

It's not tangerine chicken, but it's pretty close. We'll save all of the remaining peels from that box to dry and use in future dishes.

You may notice that it's been quite a while since I've posted any new recipes here. Life has been pretty busy, and I've mostly used this recipe blog as a quick resource for myself instead of adding new dishes. If I have a ton of time one of these days, I'll get a few new winners up, though truth be told many of them are very minor tweaks to existing recipes, so they're just a standard repost like most of the internet has these days.

However, I just made a dish that was NOT a repost of any particular recipe, instead being a mix of a few different versions of a popular dish, and wanted to get it posted here, both for myself in the future and for others. Plus, it's a "Costco hack" that uses their frozen chicken bites, which is a great time-saver and somewhat of a compromise between a heavy, deep fried coating (fast-food style) and not being breaded at all (authentic Hunan-style preparation).

The reason I'm making this at all is that we went to Trader Joe's today to try to find a pack of their Mandarin Chicken, which is surprisingly good, but they were out. This ended up being an opportunity instead of a burden, because they had decent fresh mandarin oranges, so we gave ourselves a challenge and tried to make something better. I had recently been researching to try to figure out what this dish originally would have been inspired by, since most Chinese-American food is not authentic - orange chicken in particular, as it was invented by the founder of Panda Express some 30-ish years ago. I love the backstory on this, as I do for other fun facts on "Chinese food" after watching The Search for General Tso (which is really good and very short, highly recommend). With a bit of digging, I found that the actual dish that Mandarin chicken comes from is tangerine peel chicken (which I believe is chen pi ji if an internet search is accurate), and it isn't terribly hard to reproduce with the right ingredients. The dish doesn't use breaded chicken, and it includes prickly ash (sichuan peppercorn), which we like enough to grow in our yard and harvest for use in Sichuan dishes. So we made a kind of mash-up of different cultures and produced a dish that was somewhere in between the American and the Chinese dish from Hunan province. And, naturally, we used lightly breaded chicken, because we had it and it's delicious, and spared us the trouble of firing up the wok this time. I can't rightfully call this tangerine chicken because we couldn't find tangerines, but we did use real California mandarin oranges, both peel and juice, and those seem to be a close second on many websites. Also, mandarins are genetically one of the parent citrus fruits, so I'm going to just claim that this substitution isn't as blasphemous as, say, using pasteurized orange juice.

One point of note, as referenced above - we used Costco's Just Bare lightly breaded chicken, which is routinely cited as a knock-off of Chick-fil-A nuggets, but it also makes a fantastic base for coating in a glaze, be it teriyaki, pineapple, or this mandarin orange sauce. I highly recommend this substitution, which we cooked in our air fryer before tossing in the sauce.

I ended up using a whole bunch of kitchen electrics, as shown in this photo of my kitchen chaos, but you could probably get by with the basics if you have an oven and a clean coffee grinder.

Lots of gadgets involved that helped - air fryer (left), spice grinder (left of oranges), and rice cooker (right)

We'll probably adjust this dish quite a bit, since I plan to make it regularly in both breaded and unbreaded forms. I'll update to the best version we come up with, which may end up including black vinegar and Shaoxing wine in some form, which would be a bit more faithful to the real recipe. And we will try dehydrating mandarin peels instead of using them fresh, to see if this concentrates the flavor further (which I suspect it will).

Mandarin Orange Chicken (with Broccoli)

Created after modifying highly from Woks of Life version and reviewing historical recipes on chen pi ji

• 1 lb lightly breaded chicken bites (we used Just Bare brand, but you could do a cornstarch-battered and fried breast chunk, or just use unbreaded chicken thighs stir fried with a bit of ginger and garlic, which would also be excellent)
• 1 tsp sichuan peppercorns
• 6 dried red chili peppers, whole
• 4 mandarin oranges
• 1 tbsp canola or peanut oil
• 1/4 cup chicken broth
• 2 tbsp rice wine vinegar
• 2 tbsp sugar
• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 tbsp cornstarch, dissolved in a small bowl with 1 tbsp water
• 1 scallion
• 1/2 lb broccoli florets

First, get all of the pieces ready. Steam the broccoli until par-cooked. Wash and peel the mandarins, reserving the peel of at least 2 (you only need 2 for the peels, possibly 4 to get enough juice). Try to get the peel off in large pieces. Scrape the white pith off of the inside of the peel with a serrated knife to reduce bitterness, and cut the two peels into long strips. Juice enough of the peeled mandarins to gather 1/4 cup of juice. In a large measuring cup, assemble the sauce liquids - the mandarin orange juice, chicken broth, vinegar, sugar, and soy sauce.

Cook the chicken using an appropriate method (for us, this was air-frying the breaded chunks) until done. Once the chicken has about 5 minutes remaining, heat a large frying pan (NOT nonstick, you need it ripping hot) and toast the sichuan peppercorns over high heat for 30 seconds or less, until it begins to release fragrance, and place in a spice grinder to cool for a minute before grinding to a powder. Slice the scallions on an angle, separating the pale white part from the green part.

Back in the empty and hot pan, add the chili peppers and mandarin peel strips for about 15 seconds. Then add the canola oil and the white part of the scallions, and toss all to coat for another 15 seconds. Now carefully add the juice mixture from the measuring cup - this will splatter, so be careful. Cook until this darkens and thickens, at least a minute, possibly more. You want to caramelize the flavor a bit, but not reduce this until it's a syrup.

Now, all within about 10 seconds of each other, add just enough of the cornstarch/water mix to thicken the sauce to a glaze (less is better here, and don't use all of this unless you really need to or else you'll make a paste), then add the cooked chicken and the par-cooked broccoli and toss all to coat. Throw in the green onion tops, toss again, and serve over rice.

Americanized Kung Pao Chicken

One of my new favorite websites is Serious Eats. Their head chef has some great recipes informed by testing out different ways of making each dish, and they also have other authors (read into that as you will). We tried both versions of Kenji Lopez's kung pao chicken, and were pleasantly surprised by both of them. Naturally, being filthy Americans, we were fans of the Americanized or "take out" version, which uses vinegar, bell peppers, and celery to create a delicious replica of the usual restaurant order. It was instantly obvious that white vinegar was the missing ingredient in some take-out recipes, so I'll be on the lookout for ways to shove this into other stir-fries. The authentic version uses a Chinese black vinegar known as Chinkiang vinegar along with leeks and Sichuan peppercorns, which is definitely worth checking out as well. Stay tuned for my repost of that recipe, or just go here for the original one.

Chicken Cacciatore

Nothing says winter cooking better than a good stew. Chicken cacciatore is an Italian chicken fricassee, with some added tomatoes, red wine, and olives bringing the Italian flavor on top of the usual mushrooms, onions, and garlic that are probably shared with almost all of the chicken stews out there. It translates as "hunter's style chicken", defined as having onions, garlic, and tomatoes. It actually has some commonality with Jägerschnitzel if you have tried it, given the addition of mushrooms and herbs in the sauce. And while I can't capture the smells in this post, I assure you that the combination of rosemary, onions, garlic, and sage make for some memorable comfort food.

I pulled my recipe from The Joy of Cooking, which is a great reference book for those getting started. The well-worn page of this recipe also contains Brunswick stew and coq au vin, making it easily the most used page in the whole book for me. But I'll repost the recipe here, with my notes on the process added. The recipe does state that the oil-cured olives are optional, but I highly recommend adding them, as it gives a briny, salty punch reminiscent of a good puttanesca sauce.

Oven-Roasted Mojito Chicken

This is an easy chicken dish that's full of vibrant but mild flavors.  I found it in the Dinosaur BBQ cookbook, and even though I had never seen had it at their restaurant in many dozens of visits there, I could tell that it had potential.  Some combination of the garlic, the slowly sauteed onions bathed in drippings, and the citrus-tenderized chicken made this dish hard to beat, and able to stand on its own as a centerpiece or complement a latin feast, as I did last night.

The name of the dish refers to the sauce that is used as a marinade for the dish.  There are a couple of kinds of mojo sauce, much like the words "curry" or "salsa" can be confusing, but we're focused on the Cuban variant here.  Searching for some backstory has led me to others that will be featured in future recipes.  Traditionally served over pork and/or yuca when referring to the Cuban mojo sauce, this is most commonly defined by a mixture of bitter orange juice, garlic, olive oil, and oregano.  Omit the oregano and you get mojito marinade, not to be confused with the minty rum drink.  This recipe does contain oregano, it's not enough to dominate the flavor, so I won't change the title to indicate the parent sauce.  Also, since I have never seen bitter oranges for sale, I stick to a ratio of 8 parts regular OJ to 1 part lime juice, and freshly squeezed for both whenever possible.

Crusty Chicken Thighs in Mushroom Sauce

They say never to apologize for your cooking, and unless someone dies from hysterical tastebud euphoria or E. coli, I never will.  In fact, the first time I tried this, I ruined the sauce so badly that I had to improvise into a cream sauce, which became delightfully unapologetic.  And okay, this recipe is staggeringly similar to that accidental recipe, crispy chicken thighs in a mushroom cream sauce, which I won't usually repost.  But since it took me three tries to get this right, I'd like to post the recipe and process that inspired this whole adventure, given that it is actually delicious when done correctly.  Plus, this original recipe has no added fat or carbs, making it relatively healthy.  I'm still amazed by this style of cooking chicken - dry, with the lid on, yet yielding a crispy delicious skin that rivals the best hand-battered southern fried chicken.  Unreal.

Having made this now enough times to get the method sorted out, I will modify the original recipe slightly with double the chicken, so that you can serve twice the number of meals.  But you can't crowd the pots, so shoot for 4 thighs per cooking vessel unless you have the world's largest dutch oven.

Pad Khing Gai (Thai Ginger Chicken Stir-Fry)

This recipe is a definite staple in Thai restaurants, and very easy to make.  Sometimes called ginger chicken, or chicken with baby ginger, this Chinese-influenced recipe is very mild (if you omit the chile peppers, which recommend) and gives you tons of sweetness and rich flavor with just a whisper of Thai flavors.  This dish is not too different from cashew chicken in terms of the end result, but it's a heck of a lot easier to get there.  If you can find it, look for jars of preserved sliced baby ginger in brine, which has a much more subtle ginger flavor that won't take your breath away quite as much.

So now, to help you understand how to order this in a restaurant if you find yourself in one of the few parts of Thailand where someone nearby doesn't speak English, let's revisit:

Culturally Insensitive Language Training

In my post for pad prik khing gai, I gave a few Thai translations of interest, which are still valid.  Here they are again.

"Pad" - stir-fried.  Not an especially helpful word.

"Gai" - chicken.  Pretty straightforward.

"Khing" - ginger.  Wait, galangal.  Actually, I believe it means "rhizome", which covers both.  But in this context, unlike in pad prik khing, it means ginger.

So, this dish has a name eerily similar to pad prik khing, with the distinction being the inclusion of the word "chile".  And man, what a huge difference you get in the dish when you add that one little word.

Moroccan Chicken Tagine with Preserved Lemons and Olives

The only time in my life that I tried preserved lemons was in an iced fermented lemon drink at a Vietnamese restaurant, and it was one of the worst experiences of my life.  So when I saw this, I thought: let's spend a month making these and eat them again!  Well, when you go to the culture that invented the stuff, it turns out they are used in much more pleasant ways, such as this delicious chicken tagine.

Tagines, known by their namesake ceramic or cast iron conic cooking devices famous in Moroccan culture, are nothing more than a stew of protein and vegetables or fruit, often featuring goat, lamb, or kid, but in some cases using chicken, or even chickpeas.  This one features preserved lemon, which is an interesting way of keeping lemons for long periods that involves packing them in salt.  The flavor is extra tart, slightly sour from the fermentation, and only good in small doses.  But man, do they add an interesting flavor to complex sauces like what is created in this dish.

We modified the recipe ordering slightly to be more practical, and I may go back and revise this to use chicken quarters instead of a whole chicken, which we think would be faster and better.  Regardless, this dish was well worth the effort, and had so much going on that we were completely floored by how unique it was.  Highly recommended if you have some time to make preserved lemons on your own, which are actually very easy.

Preserved lemons are incredible in sauces, and not to be eaten out of the jar as a condiment

Moroccan Chicken Tagine with Preserved Lemons and Olives

Modified from Morocco, by Jeff Koehler

• 3-4 cups cooked white long-grain rice
• 1 cup plain greek yogurt
• 3 tbsp milk
• Salt
• 1 tbsp finely chopped fresh mint or 1 tsp dried
• 4.25 lb chicken
• 1 preserved lemon
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 3 tbsp finely chopped flat-leaf parsley
• 3 tbsp finely chopped cilantro
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• ½ tsp turmeric
• Generous pinch saffron threads, dry-toasted and ground
• Salt and freshly ground white pepper
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
• 2 medium red onions, finely chopped
• 1 tbsp butter or smen
• 1 cup green olives, pitted

Scrape the pulp out and preserve the peel for making garnishelater

Quarter the preserved lemon lengthwise, rinse, and remove the seeds.  Without breaking the ppel, scrape away the pulp with a spoon, reserving the peel.  Finely chop the pulp.  In a small mixing bowl, add the lemon pulp and any juices, garlic, parsley, cilantro, ginger, turmeric, saffron, salt and white pepper, olive oil, lemon juice, and 2 tbsp water.  Blend well.

Clip off the chicken wing tips and the tail, and trim any excess fat.  Rinse the chicken and pat dry with paper towels.  In a large pot that will comfortably hold the chicken, create a bed of the red onions.  Set the chicken breast-side up on top of the onions and rub with the saffron mixture, pushing some of the mix under the skin without tearing it.  Add butter to the onions and pour 1 cup of water down the sides of the pot, avoiding the chicken.  Cover and cook over medium heat for 20 minutes.

Turn the chicken breast-side down, cover, and reduce heat to low, and cook for another 20 minutes.  Then add 1 more cup water, loosely cover, and simmer until chicken is very tender, about 50 minutes.  Stir in water as necessary to keep sauce from drying.

While chicken cooks, preheat oven to 350 F.  Prepare the yogurt sauce by whisking together yogurt, milk, a pinch of salt, and the mint in a small bowl.  Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.  Trim preserved lemon peel segments into cool shapes.

After chicken is tender, remove to a plate for a few minutes, pouring juices back into pot / tagine.  Rub chicken with remaining ½ tbsp. butter, place on a baking sheet, and bake in oven for 10 minutes, until crispy.  At same time, heat pot to high, add olives, and cook sauce uncovered until thickened slightly.

Transfer chicken to serving dish and lay cut lemon peel pieces on breast.  Spoon sauce and olives around chicken.  Serve with rice in one bowl and yogurt sauce in another on the side.

Pad Prik Khing Gai (Thai Stir-Fry with Roasted Chile Paste)

Okay everyone, time for a crash course in ordering from Thai menus.  You may think you understand it, but I have concluded that none of us westerners really know.  Well allow me to clear at least a couple of things up, in a section I like to call:

Culturally Insensitive Language Training

In Thai, there are a number of words which are used strangely, and a small number which you can always hang your hat on.  I think I've finally got a small piece of this figured out.  So let me lay some words on you, and you can try to remember them so you don't make the same restaurant ordering mistakes that I did:

"Pad" - stir-fried.  Not an especially helpful word.

"Gai" - chicken.  Pretty straightforward.

"Prik" / "Phrik" - chile peppers.  Got it.

"Khing" - ginger.  Wait, galangal.  Wait, all of the above.  Ah, here's the problem - people who try to translate this don't know what they're talking about!  What they mean to say is that "khing" most likely means rhizome, which in turn encompasses both ginger and galangal.  In this context, it means galangal.

So, when you see the phrase "prik khing", you may think you're getting chile and ginger sauce, when in fact you are not.  This is even more confusing when you consider that there is a dish called "pad khing", which IS a dish of stir-fried ginger and other vegetables (recipe coming soon).  But no, prik khing refers to a paste made of roasted chiles and assorted aromatics, to include galangal and lemongrass.  If you just pick up a can of the stuff, you will see an almost identical list of ingredients compared to red curry paste, but this paste is prepared in a completely different way, which I know nothing about, but which I gather involves roasting the chiles first, much like you would do to create chipotles from jalapenos or anchos from poblanos.

Moving on.  This is a very common Thai dish, and strongly resembles a curry but without the use of coconut milk.  And since the name gives away very little, it is almost always a stir-fry of green beans (or long beans), often with meat, and usually with some kind of fresh pepper in there.  I absolutely love this dish, and until recently had been making it with red curry paste.  It was probably about 80% as good as if you use prik khing curry paste, but if you can find it I say go for the real thing because it has a certain complexity that red curry paste doesn't have.  And definitely don't hold back on the use of the paste, either.  I used a whole can, and didn't feel like it was overpowering at all.

This dish comes together really quickly, and despite having a relatively short list of ingredients it packs a wealth of complex flavors.  I guess that's because the work was already done preparing the curry paste; be thankful I'm not asking you to make your own... yet.

Pad Prik Khing Gai
By numerous sources

• 1 4 ounce can prik khing curry paste (Maesri brand is fairly common)
• 1/2 cup chicken, sliced thinly
• 2 cups green beans (or Chinese long beans), cut into 1-2" pieces
• 1/2 cup water
• 3-4 kaffir lime leaves, sliced thinly
• 1/2 red bell pepper, sliced
• 1 tbsp fish sauce
• 1/2 tbsp white or palm sugar
• 2 Thai chiles, sliced thinly (optional)
• 1 tbsp canola oil

Gather up the fairly short list of ingredients.  Feel free to switch out the meat or the peppers for others, but definitely include green beans or long beans

Heat oil over medium high heat.  Add the prik king chili paste and fry for 1-2 minutes.  Now add the chicken (or whatever protein), coat with the chili paste, and let them cook until they are done.  If the pan gets too dry while the meat is cooking, add some water, a few tablespoons at a time.

Stir-fry the curry paste to bring out the flavors, and attempt to gas your friends out of the house.

Add the meat and stir-fry in the paste

Add the green beans, Thai chiles, and bell pepper slices and some more water, again a little at a time, until they are almost cooked.  Add the kaffir lime leaves, sugar, and fish sauce.  Taste and adjust the seasonings as needed.  Once the beans are fully cooked, serve over jasmine rice.

Stir-fry the remaining ingredients for a few minutes, adding water as necessary, then add the sauce components and serve immediately

Athenian (Greek) Chicken and Potatoes

For some reason, in my home town we don't have diners - we have a lot of Greek delis.  I don't know how this happened, somehow the American restaurant icon got disenfranchised by a local demographic and the customers discover that they would rather have a gyros omelette over scrapple and chipped beef.  One of the staple dishes I grew up with was called Greek chicken, also called Athenian chicken in places that charged you a dollar or two more for the fancier wording.  Regardless, it's good, ol' fashioned comfort food - healthy, fairly mild, hearty - that I have tweaked a number of times until getting something vaguely reminiscent of what I used to eat as a child.  Enjoy!


Athenian Chicken and Potatoes
modified from Bon Appétit, April 1992

• 1 4-5 pound chicken, quartered
• 3-4 russet potatoes (about 2.5 pounds), peeled, quartered, lengthwise
• 4 large garlic cloves, halved
• 1 cup canned low-salt chicken broth
• 1/3 cup olive oil
• 2/3 cup fresh lemon juice
• 1/2 tablespoon fresh rosemary, finely chopped
• 2 teaspoons dried oregano, crumbled – perhaps slightly more
• Lemon wedges, for serving

Preheat oven to 375°F. Arrange chicken (skin side up), potatoes, and garlic in large roasting pan. Place at least one half of a garlic clove under chicken pieces, if possible.  Season with salt and pepper.  Pour broth over.  Whisk olive oil, lemon juice and oregano to combine.  Pour evenly over chicken and potatoes.

Bake until chicken is cooked through and golden brown and potatoes are tender, basting every 20 minutes with pan juices, about 1 hour 5 minutes.  Tent with aluminum foil, bake for another 10 minutes.  Serve with lemon wedges.  If potatoes are not browned, remove chicken and roast at 425 until cooked, up to 20 minutes more.

Serve with something green and make yourself a nice homecooked meal

Chicken Riggies

Update 12/24/2018: after making this dish again from my own recipe, I have realized that I am now a bit smarter about the process. So I updated to remove a couple of unnecessary ingredients and fix the method to be better all around.

Since the dawn of homo sapiens, when we first stood tall, emerged from our caves, and embarked on the great human experiment, we have begun to seek the answers to the great questions in life.  "Why are we here?  Do we have a purpose in life?  And what, really, is a riggie?"

Well, at long last one of these questions can be answered.  A riggie, coming from the Italian word "rigatoni", which in turn translates as "tube of extreme deliciousness" in a language I have not yet heard of, is a dish coming from the Utica / Rome area of upstate New York.  Only there would you take a tomato cream sauce, not unlike a vodka tomato sauce, but instead add both sweet and hot peppers, as if you were about to slather this stuff onto a cheesesteak or a hotdog, before going ahead and throwing in a few select proteins to toss with your pasta as originally planned.  The first time I encountered this dish was in Lansing, NY at Rogue's Harbor brewing company, who serves this under a section of NY state specialties.  I wish I could personally extend my thanks to the great man or woman who, on what must have been a very cold, somewhat alcohol-fueled night, decided to turn an otherwise classy, rich dish into a slightly less classy yet unbelievably satisfying assault on the senses.  Sweet, tart, velvety, warm, and hearty - a perfect meal for pulling the kids out of the snow, sloshing into wooden bowls, and mowing through by a roaring fire while you warm your bones.

I tried this dish from a recipe I dug up online few years ago with limited success - things just didn't come together, and the flavors weren't right.  The sauce broke, it wasn't the right mouthfeel, and it just lacked that well-rounded flavor that I was expecting.  But now, after a few more years of cooking and recognizing some flaws in the original recipe, I believe I have tweaked it into something altogether better, maybe suitable for entering into "Riggiefest", which I swear I am not making up.

Chicken Riggies
from various sources, fused together by me

• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tbsp butter
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 8 tablespoons minced shallot (3 medium) or 1 small onion, minced
• 1.5 pounds skinless, boneless chicken breast meat
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 (4 ounce) jar sweet red peppers or cherry peppers, drained and julienned
• 3-4 ounce jar hot banana peppers or cherry peppers, drained
• 1/2 cup fresh tomato sauce
• 2 tbsp dry sherry
• 10 pepperoni
• 4 ounces heavy cream
• 8 ounces uncooked rigatoni pasta
• Grated parmesan (optional), for plating
• Minced parsley (optional), for plating

Prep your setup.  Get the shallots and garlic minced and together in a small bowl.  Go for shallots instead of onions - live the dream.  It does make a lot of difference.  Cube the chicken into bite-sized pieces, about 1" to a side.  Not so small that they won't hold up in what is essentially a stew, and not so large that you have huge hunks of flesh floating around in there.  Chop up your peppers, which should be equal parts sweet and hot (hence the bold to differentiate above).  You could use roasted red peppers, but I prefer sweet cherry peppers.  For the hot, what I originally had and still prefer most is hot banana pepper rings, although you could use hot cherry here and roasted red for the sweet.  Whatever suits your taste, but keep the ratios the same.

In a large cast iron saucepan, heat oil and melt butter over medium heat.  At same time, start boiling water for your rigatoni. Add the garlic and shallots to the pan and saute until soft, then add the chicken, season with salt and pepper to taste, and saute for 8 to 10 minutes, or until halfway cooked. Don't brown the meat, just keep stirring until it's no longer pink.

Add peppers and stir in tomato sauce, reduce heat to low and simmer about 10 minutes. Now start cooking your rigatoni.  Back in the main pan, add the sherry and simmer for another 10 minutes.

Add the pepperoni and the heavy cream, and cook for 5 minutes. Do not use anything lighter than 'light' whipping cream - no half-and-half, no whole milk mixed with cream, nothing like that.  If you try to add anything but actual cream, this sauce will break, forming little fat bubbles separated from a watery mess.  So don't think that you can come up with a low-fat substitute for this - I've already tried, plus I cut the fat down in the first step, which originally called for double the amount of oil and butter.

When the pasta is just barely al dente, if not slightly before, set aside about a cup of the cooking water, drain the pasta, and immediately toss it into the sauce. Toss this together to finish cooking the pasta for 1-2 minutes in the sauce, adding in a few tablespoons of the reserved rigatoni cooking water to thicken and help the sauce cling to the pasta. Feel free to add more of the water if the sauce is still too thick, but not so much that it will become loose again.

After adding the cornstarch, observe how thick this is.  This picture from an earlier attempt.

To serve, plate into bowls, possibly with shredded parmesan, and top with finely minced parsley.  I took mine plain.  Try to find something healthy as a side, like a salad or something green.

Peruvian Chicken (Pollo a la Brasa)

If you haven't had it, Peruvian chicken is one of those hidden gems in the fast food world.  For some reason, we have a ton of different Peruvian chicken restaurants in my town; I'm told it's because we had a lot of Peruvian people come over here from a ministry exchange, and they set up shop all over town.  The history of the dish actually originates with two Swiss-Peruvians who decided to reinvent the rotisserie machine in the 1940s, and this dish took off to the point where it is now one of Peru's national culinary specialties.  The chicken is slow-roasted after being coated with a marinade, usually containing garlic, cumin, and vinegar, but with other ingredients differing somewhat based on where you look.  It is also traditionally served with flavorful spicy sauces such as aji verde, a green chile sauce.

I found this recipe in an old Food Network cookbook, and adapted it with two things in mind - I didn't have a large chicken, and I definitely didn't have a rotisserie.  Instead, I used the same exact recipe with two Cornish game hens, which ended up working out great.  I was amazed that the flavors were so close to those of the restaurant, especially since the cooking method is so different.  Granted, the skin lacked a little of the char flavor and crispy texture that you can't achieve without spinning it over an open flame for a while, but for a homemade version, I'd say this was pretty close for using no special equipment.

A more excellent mix of herbs and seasonings there never was.  Neglect the lime, that's not supposed to be in there.

Kimchi Fried Rice (Bokkeumbap)

What happens when it's dinnertime, and you find the following random things in your fridge:

• Awesome mild kimchi you've been meaning to use
• Roasted chicken (or some spare pork)
• Old, dried up white rice in a takeout container

Answer: you make kimchi fried rice, one of my favorites.  An amazing addition to rice which I was skeptical about until a Korean friend made it for me, this is a pungent twist on the Chinese fried rice, and brings a bit of heat to the party as well.  It's pretty easy - you stir-fry some aromatics with the chopped kimchi, throw in some meat, toss the rice with some soy sauce, and serve with a fried egg.  I gather that this is very traditional, although Wikipedia says it more commonly uses spam than chicken, which just isn't happening in my house.  So this took care of all kinds of foods waiting in my fridge to be made into something awesome, and I didn't even have to get creative to do it.  Here's a simple diagram to explain the bulk of this dish:

Kimchi Fried Rice

• 1 cup kimchi, drained, chopped
• 1/2 cup cooked or uncooked animal protein - chicken, beef, ham, spam (if this counts), even tuna is used in Korea
• 2 cups stale, cooked white rice
• 1 tbsp canola oil
• 1 spring / green onion
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp butter

Chop and separate the spring onion into the white and green parts.  Now, as with my pineapple fried rice recipe, do my favorite trick of putting the old rice in a bowl, squishing it apart, and tossing with 1/2 tbsp of the oil to coat all of the grains.  This prevents a mushy nightmare once you add it to the wok.

Heat the remaining 1/2 tbsp oil in a wok over its highest heat setting and add the white parts of the green onion, and stir-fry for 30 seconds.  After this, you have to figure out what protein you're using.  If it's already cooked, add it with the rice.  If it's not, throw it in first, and cook until done, then continue.

Now add the kimchi and garlic, and stir-fry for another 30-60 seconds.  If you haven't added the meat, do so now, and add the rice, tossing everything to mix evenly.  Sprinkle on the soy sauce, toss again, and allow to crisp up a little bit (2-3 minutes) to get a nice crunchy crust, if desired.

Meanwhile, fry up a single egg in the butter in another pan.  To serve, kill the heat on the rice, add the tops of the green onions, toss, and plate with the fried egg on top.  Serve with gochujang, if desired, or eat on its own.

Chipotle Chicken Soup with Lime Crema

You may have heard of tortilla soup, which is a strange name for what is often either a cheese-based cream of chicken soup or a brothy minestrone with chicken.  What makes it 'tortilla' soup is the presence of some tortillas shoved in there against their will, either fried or dissolved right in.  While this can be quite delicious, if you focus just on the soup itself, and not on the tortilla part, you can go one step further.

My family this recipe in some magazine years ago, but I have since tweaked it to enhance the flavor some.  It relies on chipotle chiles, which have become amazingly popular recently.  Chipotles are nothing more than jalapeno peppers that have been smoked, and they are either found dried, or canned in a spicy sauce seasoned with adobo, a latin seasoning.  But since adobo just means 'seasoning', I can't quite tell you what's in it, other than that it's good.

Save yourself some time on this one and buy a store-bought chicken.  But if you happen to have roasted your own, and you happen to have made a stock from the bones of that chicken afterwards, I'm not going to stop you from using them to make quite possibly the best combination of those things that you could get in your mouth without committing some kind of crime.

I got a bit experimental and made a lime crema this time, figuring it would balance out the soup.  As peppers are alkaline, meaning that they basic in terms of their pH level, they can be neutralized by acidic things, as well as fatty things.  This is because the capsaicin found in peppers is fat-soluble.  So, if your head didn't just explode there, the moral is that if you mix dairy and an acid, you have a powerful chile-fighting condiment that might not taste half bad either.

Chipotle Chicken Soup with Lime Crema

• 1 chipotle from can of chipotles in adobo
• 1 tsp olive oil
• 1 chopped red bell pepper
• 3 chopped green onions, greens and whites separated
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tsp freshly ground cumin
• 1 tsp powdered chiles
• 2 cooked chicken breasts or meat from a cooked chicken, about 3 cups, cut or shredded into small pieces
• 28 oz low-sodium chicken broth, or homemade
• 14-16 oz can chopped tomatoes with green chiles, such as Del Monte or Rotel
• 12 ounces frozen or fresh corn kernels
• 2 tbsp cilantro leaves
• 1/2 avocado, slices

Nothing too crazy in this, but a bit of chopping before you can start

Try to cut things up as evenly as possible to assist in even cooking.  Go for corn kernel-sized bits of pepper.

Finely mince the chipotle pepper, as well as the other vegetables.  In a large saucepan, heat oil over medium-high heat.  Add bell pepper, the white parts of the green onions, the garlic, the cumin, and the powdered chiles.  Saute for 4 minutes until soft but not browning, stirring frequently.

Next, deglaze with the chicken broth.  Stir in the chipotle chile, chicken, tomatoes, and corn.  Bring to a boil, reduce the heat, and simmer until ready to serve.

To plate, heat bowls and then ladle in soup.  Garnish with lime crema (recipe follows), cilantro leaves, and the tops of the green onions.  Arrange avocado slices on top and serve.

Lime Crema

• 2 tbsp sour cream
• 1 lime
• 1/2 tbsp cilantro leaves
• 1/4 tsp salt

In a small bowl, mix sour cream, zest from the lime, and the juice of half the lime.  If desired, finely mince the cilantro and add to the crema.  Allow flavors to combine in the fridge for 30 minutes if time permits.

Pretty simple, and pairs up well with the spicy soup.

Pad See Ew (Soy Sauce Noodles) and Homemade Sriracha

Pad See Ew is one of those ubiquitous Thai dishes you always see hidden on a Thai restaurant menu.  You've got your red and green curries, your Pad Thai, maybe some Pad Prik King or Gai Himmaparn, and this.  It's easy to translate - "pad" means stir-fried, and "see ew" means soy sauce.  Not much left to the imagination.  And the ingredient list essentially doesn't disappoint - noodles, meat, a few other things, and soy sauce.  Ah, but not just any soy sauce, as we will get to shortly.  It's been influenced by the Chinese, which explains why they're using the phrase "see ew", a Southern Chinese term for soy sauce, and also why Chinese broccoli is used here but in basically no other Thai staple dish I've yet come across.  I tried making this a number of times a few years ago with mixed success, then I went off into a cave and thought about what I did wrong, then looked up a ton of different recipes, and finally I took a nap.  When I woke up I assembled this new one.

Restaurant-quality.  Not something I throw out lightly.  And it's not often that people tell me to quit my day job and open a restaurant after dinner.  But that happened when I made these soy sauce noodles, after my adjustments to the recipe, my ingredients, and my process in order to best capture the flavors and textures of this dish.  Every bit of this is a spot-on copy of the best soy sauce noodles I have ever eaten which, if you haven't done so, I highly recommend you try.  I will make it a point to comment on where I have made tweaks, and what is a critical detail in making this dish.  Don't cut corners, look for the right ingredients, and you'll pull through.


Pad See Ew (Soy Sauce Noodles)
Adapted heavily from RealThaiRecipes.com

• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 tablespoon chopped garlic
• 1 tablespoon thinly sliced shallot
• 1/2 cup pork (or chicken), thinly sliced and cut into bite-sized pieces
• 1 cup wide rice noodles, FRESH (dried is just not going to cut it if you want the real deal)
• 1 generous cup chinese broccoli
• 1 large egg
• 1 tbsp black soy sauce
• 2 tbsp white soy sauce
• 1 tbsp white sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon white pepper powder

First, gather your ingredients.  This may take some time - you need to find shallots, Chinese broccoli, and things called 'white' and 'black' soy sauce.  I know what you're thinking: you've got some 'black' soy sauce already, so what the heck is white soy sauce?  Well, you are wrong.  If you have soy sauce, you have 'white' soy sauce.  Or 'light' soy sauce, which has nothing to do with 'low sodium' soy sauce.  'Black' aka 'dark' aka 'sweet' soy sauce is made by adding sugar or molasses to the soy beans before fermentation, and lends a strong sweetness and a thick consistency to the finished product.  It is aged longer than the light soy sauce, and is less salty.  It is the primary ingredient in Pad See Ew, so if you can't find it locally, order it before you make this dish.  I recommend Healthy Boy brand if you can find it.  Let's take a look at these products:

Various soy sauces.  From left to right: a) low/less sodium, sometimes called "lite", not to be confused with b) "light" or "white" soy sauce (basically just regular soy sauce), c) Thai "black" soy sauce (siew dam in Thai) aka "sweet" soy sauce, which is essentially the same as d) Chinese "dark" soy sauce

Since you're using fresh noodles, which you can purchase at the Asian grocery store, separate them from each other, and place them on a plate.  Now, if yours were like mine, you got them refrigerated, and they're a big stuck together wad that doesn't look like people food - it looks like a bunch of squid.  I tried warming in the microwave and ended up getting as far as separating the rolls from each other, then giving up and cutting them into what would later become small rice pillows.  But next time I will soak them in cold water (cold to prevent further cooking), then coax them apart gently and dry them separately from each other.

They may look like squids, but they are in fact rice noodles, all bunched together.  Soak in cold water to unravel them.

If you absolutely can't find these and end up using dried, boil them for 6 minutes, drain in cold water, and rinse 2-3 times until fully chilled.  RIGHT BEFORE cooking, remove them to colander to drain for about 1 minute.  Don’t let them sit out to dry.

Cut the Chinese Broccoli stems at an angle so they cook easier, into about 2″ (5cm) long pieces towards the top, and smaller at the stems.  Cut on a bias for nice looking pieces. Make sure to clean well.

Heat a large nonstick saute pan on the highest heat you've got.  When sufficiently hot, add the oil and swirl to coat.  Add the garlic and shallots, and fry until lightly browned and fragrant, about 15-20 seconds.

Add the pork (or chicken) and fry until cooked through. Keep stirring so the garlic doesn’t burn.

Now add the noodles.  Don't worry about the other ingredients, we'll get there.  Keep stirring so they don’t stick.  Add the soy sauces, sugar and white pepper. Mix well.  Your goal here is to infuse the soy sauce flavor into the noodle but not into the veggies or egg.  So stir this around, let it absorb into the noodles, and continue.

Let the soy sauce get into those noodles

Crack the egg into the pan on top of the oil. Scramble in the pan and let sit until solid.  Break up with a spatula.

Add the Chinese Broccoli, and mix well. You may need to add a little bit of water so everything cooks and doesn’t stick.  Don’t add so much that the noodles get clumpy though - maybe around 1 teaspoon at a time.  As soon as broccoli is cooked, turn off heat and plate immediately.

Dish out and serve with soy sauce, sugar, vinegar, chili powder and white pepper so you can flavor to your taste preference at the table.

Note: If cooking more than one serving, cook them one at a time. If you cook too many noodles in the pan, you'll get a big sticky glob.

Homemade Chili-Garlic Sauce (Sriracha)

If you have a blender and 2 minutes, you can make this.  Put 8 red jalapenos, 2 cloves of garlic, and 1 tsp salt into the blender.  You may want to do obvious things like take the stems off your peppers and maybe peel the skin from the garlic, but only if you want this to be, you know, edible.  Once blended, pour this mix into a jar and top with 1/2 cup rice wine vinegar - enough to cover the pepper mix.  Let sit for a few minutes, and you're good to go!  Should keep basically indefinitely.