The best chicken stir fry recipe ever.
I always want to cook Asian-inspired recipes, but I never have all the necessary ingredients. (Sesame oil and other essential flavor items like fresh ginger are generally not things I end up buying when I’m at the grocery store. Especially since the only things I usually buy when Sean’s not around are yogurt and ramen.)
This recipe has a particularly overwhelming ingredient list. However, Sean’s mom happened to have everything on hand when I was housesitting this weekend, right down to the organic Hoisin sauce we found unopened in the back of the spice cabinet.
OH MY GOD, YOU GUYS. This is probably the most delicious thing I’ve ever made, and I’ve made some ridiculously tasty shit. The recipe only calls for chicken and broccoli, but we ended up throwing in carrots and green bell peppers, then putting it all over a bed of rice noodles. (I replaced the sherry with a little bit of the sauvignon blanc I was drinking, and that turned out excellent. I also had to sub flour for the cornstarch, which changed the consistency slightly for the worse, so that’s probably the only thing I’m gonna do differently when I make this again.)
Because I’m currently eating the leftovers and weeping at how orgasmic this tastes, I’m gonna have to expand my grocery list to include some of these items — particularly that toasted sesame oil, mmmmmm —on a regular basis.
I wanted some nice, warm comfort food for my day-after-Christmas celebration with Sean, so I made chicken and dumpling soup. This officially earned my seal of approval. It’s easy and super fucking delicious.
I did, however, change the dumpling recipe — I just mixed 2 cups bisquick and 2/3 cup of milk, then dropped them in the soup by the tablespoon. Let them cook for a good 15-20 minutes and you’re good to go.
The Pioneer Woman’s Cajun Chicken Pasta
My mother commented that I have a tendency to make “restaurant dishes,” and I can see where she’s coming from. I definitely do gravitate toward one-pan sauteed pasta meals, probably because those are the kinds of things I always order when I go out to eat. This recipe in particular reminds me of TGIF’s “Cajun Chicken and Shrimp Pasta,” which I always get when I visit Britt, my best friend who serves/manages there.
In any case, the only reason I don’t make this more often is because it requires a lot of ingredients, most of which I normally don’t have on hand. However, since I live with my parents now, they’ve got everything I need to make it. I guess that’s the one (and only?) advantage to living in their basement.
Final note: Ladies, dudes LOVE this meal. I think it’s cause it’s spicy, which somehow roughly translates to “manly” on the palette. I’ve got a ton of chicken-veggie-pasta combinations in my recipe arsenal, but this is the only one Sean actually requests.
