Chicken steak with steamed red baby potatoes and salad

One of those quick and easy to do with simple flavors.  All you need is chicken breast, salt and pepper and a little oil to rub on the chicken.  The steak can be prepared ahead and cooks really quick. 

While steaming the potatoes, mix the salad and prepare the plates with portion of salad on it.  Cook the steak about 2-3 minutes each side on high heat.

To prepare the steak:

You need a meat tenderizer and cling film

Ingredients: 

Chicken breast, salt and pepper, oil.

On a flat working surface, place a kitchen cloth, then lay flat a piece of cling film, (spare enough size to cover the chicken), lay the chicken breast flat and cover it with the remaining plastic cling film, pound with the meat tenderizer with enough pressure just to spread the meat nice and thin.  When desired thinness  is achieved, season the meat with salt and pepper.   Keep in the fridge until ready to cook.

(This is really easy, i hope i can do the video on the tricks.  This is one of those hard to explain in words, a short video would be great.   I'll put this on the list.)

For the side:

Cut the baby potatoes in half, stea for 8-10 minutes, season with salt and pepper.   Serve it together with the salad, add the steak on the plate.  Serve while steak is still warm.

Crispy Chicken Strips

Crispy Chicken strips

Crispy Chicken Strips

This is so simple and easy to make.  I like the versatility you can do with this.  Can be served with any of your favorite sauce or dip, or salad, potatoes, or rice. The cornmeal is the essential ingredient for its crispiness that you don't have to worry if it sits for awhile, without getting soggy.  I guess i don't have to elaborate more on the quantity as it is self-explanatory.  The more chicken, the more flavoring and coating you need.  Rough estimates won't do harm.

Ingredients:

Chicken Breast (sliced into thin strips)

dried oregano

pepper (freshly ground)  ( i used pepper grinder all the time)

salt

oil for frying

Season the meat with salt and pepper, add a generous amount of oregano,  Give it a little rub so it will stick to the meat.

In a bowl, place the corn meal,  Add the meat and set aside. Shake each strip to get rid of extra cornmeal before frying.

Heat the pan and add oil for frying.

shake to get rid of extra cornmeal before frying.  Shallow fry for about a minute each side until golden brown.

watch the video:

Spaghetti with Chicken in Mushroom Sauce

click picture to enlarge

Spaghetti with Chicken in Mushroom sauce

My 4 year old daughter loves mushroom sauce and sometimes she prefers pasta over rice, so this is a product of her taste, trying to incorporate some vegetables in it and at the same time, the mother tries to avoid rich creamy sauce for some obvious reasons (i.e. she’s deliciously creamy enough!).  Seriously, for this recipe,  I skipped adding cream, as I used to, instead I boosted the amount of garlic and pepper to have some contrasting flavors of the earthy mushrooms, hence, it is still yummy less the extra calories.  But I found another way to make it tastier by using low fat milk loaded with garlic, will tackle that in another post with that picture.

Meantime, for reference, here it is.

Ingredients:

250 g. chicken breast, thinly sliced

300 g. button mushrooms, sliced

6 cloves garlic, finely chopped

1 bulb of white onion

1 red capsicum/bell pepper

1 green capsicum/bell pepper

1 cube of chicken broth dissolved in 1 ½ C. warm water

olive oil to stir fry

1 T. cornstarch dissolved in 1 T. water

Freshly ground pepper

Salt

250 g. spaghetti – Prepared as per packet instructions.

Brown mushrooms in a heavy sauce pan with a dash of olive oil, set aside.  Sauté onion and garlic until translucent and fragrant, add chicken, add browned mushrooms, add warm water with chicken broth, and season with freshly ground pepper.  Bring to boil. While boiling, add cornstarch mixture gradually until the sauce thickens.  Add cooked spaghetti and mix.  Now add cheese and serve while it is still warm.

Note: As this has been a family favorite, a different variations has been developed, skipping the amount of water in the recipe.

1.     Add cooking cream to thicken the sauce and add 1 clove of garlic (grated)

2.     Alternative to the cream, 1 ½ C of low fat milk and 1 clove of garlic (grated)

It is also worth noting that while cooking the sauce, prepare the pasta at the same time so when the sauce is ready, mix the pasta straight away while it is still hot. It takes a skill to do it but once you’ll get the hang of it, it’s gonna be easy. Timing is essential.

Chicken Pop Corn

Chicken Popcorn

The nostalgia…

This post brings me back to the years when my brother cez and I used to have KFC Chicken Popcorn in Abu Dhabi when ever we pass by KFC, we always get 1 large box of chicken popcorn and share over a chit-chat break; digging our fingers alternatively in that box that our hands barely fit in. We both just love it every now and then.  We were just one sweet couple in that place and everybody is buzzing that brother Cez got a girlfriend! We just exchange smiles to let them believe so and we laugh it out loud after..  Yeah, those were the moments.. Chicken Popcorn moments.

Chicken Cubes coated in
bread crumbs

Cooking this at home, makes me miss u much brother. Hope we get to catch up each other soon.

Chicken Popcorn was one of my favorite take-away finger foods of KFC-Abu Dhabi.  Other KFCs from other countries are not making chicken pop corn, so it has been a while for me that i didn't get to taste this crispy on the outside and soft inside, popcorn shaped chicken.

The Recipe

Chicken breast, cut into cubes

Bread crumbs

Salt and pepper to taste

Oil for deep frying

Cooked chicken popcorn
drained in kitchen paper towel

There’s nothing to be precise about measurement, you just have to estimate the proportion of bread crumbs according to the amount of chicken.

Season chicken breast with salt and pepper, toss it into a bowl of bread crumbs to coat the chicken and deep-fry by batches.  Fry in low fire until golden brown. Drain in Kitchen Paper Towel so that oil will will be absorbed and keeps the chicken popcorn from getting soggy.

If I am in Phil, I'll be tempted to add into the breadcrumbs some seasoning like, crispy fry or magic sarap just because there is.  Here, I don't stock them in the pantry so I wont be tempted to use ready-made seasonings with MSG.

chilli chicken with stir-fried noodles

I always see dark stir-fried noodles in food courts and fast food restaurants. It is often served in a sizzling plate with the noodles swimming in dark sticky sauce obviously loaded with cornstarch. It looks so good but I'm often disappointed with the blank taste of the sauce. the advantage of making it at home is you can modify it the way you like it. I just discovered the sauce to use, it is the dark soy sauce. With just minimal amount to add to the egg noodles, it turns magically into a very rich dark color but not too salty. I didn't make much sauce as I don't my noodles swimming in sticky sauce like in the fast food stalls. I just stir-fried it with the sauce for a few minutes.

This is a quick simple meal to make. I'm not very precise with the amount but you may adjust it accordingly. It is important to keep everything ready next to before start cooking because everything happens so quickly in this dish and they are not so pleasant when overcooked or not cooked at the same time. You may use two burners so as to cook the noodles and the chicken at the same time.

onion and garlic
Chicken fillet (cut in strips)
jelapeno chili
egg noodles
dark soy sauce

Sauté garlic and onion until translucent, add chili, chicken and stir-fry until chicken is done.

Prepare the noodles by blanching it in a boiling water for few minutes until half cooked. Drain and place it in another pan for stir-frying. Stir fry with soy sauce for a few minutes stirring constantly until noodles are well flavored with the dark soy sauce.

Serve Chicken with noodles. Best eaten while still warm.

Chicken Siew Mai

We love dimsum! I can repeat that a hundred times in this blog. Because we love it so much, I am perfecting my wrapper for these lovely dimsum recipes. Siew Mai is a frequent menu on the table for us and not as snacks as dimsum supposedly, but for us it is as good as a meal. I can eat as plenty as I can as long as there is still space in my tummy!

I’ve been buying dumpling wrapper in the supermarket but these days they run out of stock and it has been out-of-stock for awhile now. To my disappointment of not finding these dumpling wrapper, I am in a quest for perfecting my dumpling wrapper. The challenge is to find the right ingredients.

I am so intrigued with these dumplings with wrappers which look like almost transparent. I found the recipe but I can’t find the right flour. I finally found the recipe from a magazine; the ingredient that makes it green is spinach puree, now I know! The recipe calls for potato starch and Tang flour which I can’t find it in anywhere. So the next thing in mind is to substitute with what I have and see if it works. Yes it did but the wrappers are not that transparent as they should.

For the record, I have to post here what I’ve done for me not repeat the same mistake; in my quest for perfecting dumpling wrapper. It took a tedious job to it but once I got used to the hang of it, everything comes fast. First it was so thick and big, and finally I made it very thin but it took me a lot of testing 2 pieces each before wrapping all the fillings. At the end of this experiment, I’m already half full. It could have been easier if the recipe is well expound step-by-step but it was not.

Note: if you can find dumpling wrappers in the supermarket, no need to do the hassle of making your own wrapper, but if you are just as curious how to make it as I am, then go ahead, do it. Note that it will take your patience at first but once you have done it once, next time would be a lot easier!

Ingredients:

Filling:

¼ kg. Minced chicken

1 Tablespoon cornstarch

¼ Teaspoon sesame oil

Salt and pepper

Combine all the ingredients in a mixing bowl until thoroughly mixed and set aside.

Make the Wrapper:

100 g. potato starch

100 g. All purpose flour

½ cup water

50 g. spinach

Procedure:

In a blender, put spinach and water, blitz for few seconds until pureed. Transfer the mixture to a saucepan and bring to a boil. Let stand for 3 minutes to cool down a little bit but it should not be completely cooled.

In a mixing bowl, add potato starch and flour, add pureed spinach little by little while mixing the flour using a chopstick until the mixture comes altogether and forms into a dough. Knead the dough on a lightly floured board until smooth and elastic.

Divide the dough into 3. Work on one part and cover wrap the other two parts with a kitchen towel to avoid drying up. Shape the dough into a sausage-like and flatten with a rolling pin flouring the dough on both sides every time you roll the rolling pin. Using a Chef’s Ring, or cookie cutter cut the thin dough to form small thin circles.

Place 1 teaspoon of the filling in each of the wrapper and form into a siew mai.

Steam in a bamboo steamer for 10 minutes.

Serve with soy sauce with calamansi and few drops of sesame oil.

Cook’s note:

I could have used the pasta machine but I realized it too late and was lazy to assemble the machine.

Cook’s review: the wrapper has a mild background flavor compared to the ready-made frozen wrappers. They are a little bit sticky yet firm and still soft when cooked.

Grilled Skinless Chicken Breast

This is quick, easy and simple meal. I can do it with closed eyes! Simple flavors! It’s been a while I’ve been avoiding deep fried foods, healthy options are steaming, grilling, pouching, boiling, pan-frying or stir-frying. Most of the time I go for the grill.

Ingredients:

2 chicken breasts
Salt and pepper
1 Tbsp. cooking oil

Procedure:

1. Preheat the grill.

2. Remove the skin and sinew of the chicken breasts.

3. Make slits with the chicken breasts by making a diagonal pattern.

4. Season the chicken with salt and pepper

5. Sprinkle oil on the chicken

6. In a preheated pan, sear the chicken with the sliced side down for 2 – 4 minutes or until golden brown. Turn the chicken upside down and continue cooking for another 2 minutes. Literally, just brown the chicken with a very hot pan to seal its juices inside.

7. Transfer the chicken to an oven-proof dish and grill for 4 minutes each side.

8. While the chicken is in the oven grill, pan-grill some vegetables like carrots and onions on the same pan used with the chicken. This will absorb the flavor of the chicken at the same time it caramelizes the vegetables and bring out its natural flavors. Pan grill until the vegetables are charred, or when you can see some black chars on the veg.

Serve immediately.

Sweet & Spicy Chicken Wings

Sweet & Spicy Chicken wings (served with potato wedges)

I didn’t measure the ingredients, so its just a matter of preference how spicy or how sweet you like to have. The marinade shouldn’t be too runny, so avoid using so much soy sauce as it would just be wasted and the flavors are loosened as well. So, to keep the flavors intact, just keep nicely moist leaving you just enough marinate to baste on the wings when grilling.

Ingredients:

Chicken wings
Paprika
White pepper
Chili powder
Honey
Soy sauce
Salt

Procedure:
Wash and dry the chicken wings and pat-dry with kitchen paper. Season chicken wings with salt and pepper and massage the meat so that flavors will be absorbed. Add paprika, honey, pepper, chili powder and soy sauce. Marinate for at least 30 minutes so that flavors would develop nicely. Preheat oven grill at high temperature.

Grill for 15 minutes each side, brush the remaining marinade onto each side before turning, until chicken wings turn dark brown and well done, but still moist inside. Overcooking makes the chicken dry.

Meanwhile, while the chicken wings are on the grill, prepare potatoes. Cook potatoes in boiling salted water for 10 minutes or until just done, but not over-cooked. Cut the potatoes in wedges. In a hot oiled pan, pan fry the potatoes, sprinkle with salt, pepper, garlic powder and a little dash of paprika. Continue pan frying until the sides of the potatoes turn golden brown. Drain in kitchen paper.

Remove chicken wings from the grill and serve with potato wedges.

Stuffed Chicken Breast

Stuffed Chicken Breast

Ingredients :
2 Pcs. Chicken Breast (deboned)
6 Tbsp. olive oil
2 pcs. white onion
4 cloves garlic
1/4 Cup All Purpose cream
4 Tbsp. white wine
2 Tbs. onion-tomato sauce
1/4 Cup chicken stock
1 lemon
salt & pepper to taste

Procedure:

Slice a slit into chicken breast, just enough to form a pocket, do not split into two and set aside. Crush garlic and sprinkle with salt. Insert the garlic into the pocket of the chicken breast, season with salt and pepper and rub the rest around the meat. Add onion-tomato sauce into the pocket. Close the pocket with the edges of the meat and rest the sealed down. Heat olive oil in a sauce pan and add gently the stuffed chicken breast with sealed side down. Fry for 3 minutes or until golden brown and turn over until brown completely on both sides. Remove from pan and set aside. With the remaining oil in the pan, add onion and sautee until soft but not brown. Add white wine and juice of lemon. Simmer for 1 minute and add cream. Simmer for another minute and remove from heat. Add the creamy mixture to the fried stuffed chicken breast and serve immediately. This could be served with potato or rice. Enjoy!

Pan-fried Chicken breast with rice noodles

Pan-fried Chicken Breast with Vermicelli (Rice Noodle)

Remove the skin of the chicken. Slice diagonally on opposit directions forming crisscross cuts and rub with salt. Pan fry for about 2 minutes on each side to seal the meat until chicken turns golden brown. Continue cooking in the oven for 10 minutes at 250 degrees C.

While the chicken is in the oven, prepare the vermicelli noodles. Bring to boil 1 liter of water , add salt and add the vermicelli noodles. Cook until al dente (Like cooking spaghetti). Do not over cook otherwise it will be very soggy. Rince the noodles with tap water and set aside. Stirfry onions, garlic and peppers (capsicums) and toss the noodles and continue stirfrying. Season with salt and pepper to your liking. Serve with the chicken.

Chicken Sandwich with eggplant dip

Chicken Sandwich with eggplant dip

Flat bread

Eggplant dip

Grilled chicken breast (thinly sliced)

White onion (thinly sliced)

Red bell pepper (cubed)

Tomatoes (thinly sliced)

To make flat bread:

1 cup flour (sifted)

1 tsp. salt

¼ cup water

Mix salt and flour in a mixing bowl. Add 1 Tablespoon water at a time while mixing until it forms rough dough. Add water if its too dry, this depends of the strength of the flour you are using. Knead the dough in a floured flat surface for about 3 minutes or until smooth and elastic. Form dough into sausage shape and cut 1 inch thick. Form each into a small ball and flatten with a rolling pin.

To make eggplant dip:

1 large eggplant

1 cube chicken stock

1 cup water

Red pepper (diced)

Tomatoes (diced)

Onion (diced)

Garlic (finely chopped)

juice of ½ lemon

chili powder

pepper

Determine a base for the eggplant and slice the skin off thinly; so that the eggplant will lay flat. Slice the skin off of the opposite side and carefully take the meat of the eggplant using a spoon. Dice the meat into cubes. Rub the exposed eggplant meat with lemon juice, wrap with plastic and refrigerate while making the dip. Sauté garlic and onion until translucent add eggplant meat, add red pepper, water and stock. Bring to boil and simmer for about 5 minutes until almost all of the liquid has evaporated. Season with pepper and chili powder. Place the cooked mixture into the prepared eggplant case. In a hot pan, add onion and red pepper; cook until caramelized.Assemble sandwich. Arrange in each flat bread with chicken onion, pepper as desired. Serve with the dip.

Grilled Chicken Breast with Pepper Marmalade

Grilled chicken breast with pepper marmalade

Quite lazy for lunch and didn’t know what to do. Switched the TV channel to BBC Food and caught Sophie Grigson doing pepper marmalade for her dish with Trout fish, my tastebuds wondered if the marmalade would go with chicken, since I always have chicken breast in the fridge. Hmmm… yes the flavors are blending indeed! I’m quite lucky, I have all the ingredients which Sophie used except for red wine vinegar, which I don’t have, and I added yellow pepper to add color. I’m quite trained to settle with what I have huh, I used balsamic vinegar instead. I think everyone knows how to grill chicken, so I am just going to jot down for the marmalade, for the sake of the record. Well, thanks to Sophie Grigson!

Ingredients:

1 Red bell pepper (sliced in thin strips)

1 Yellow bell pepper (sliced in thin strips)

2 white onions (sliced thinly)

4 Tablespoons olive oil

2 Tablespoons balsamic vinegar

2 Teaspoons sugar

4 Tablespoons water

2 Pieces Star Anis

Preparation:

Cook onion with olive oil, in medium fire, until transparent. Add the peppers and star anis. Continue cooking until peppers are wilted stirring occasionally, add balsamic vinegar, sugar and water, simmer until all the liquid has evaporated.Grill chicken and serve with the marmalade. This time, I served the dish with bread.

Chicken soup with taglierini

Chicken soup with taglierini

Ingredients:

1 Chicken Breast (sliced in cubes)

1 round of taglierini (about a handful)

1 potatoe (diced)

1 red pepper (sliced in squares)

1 green pepper (sliced in squares)

6 stalks of green beans (sliced)

1 onion (sliced thinly)

1 clove garlic (crushed)

4 cups water (or chicken stock)

1 T. vegetable oilSalt to taste

Preparation:

Sauté onion and garlic until onion complete soften. Add Chicken and stir fry for 1 minute. Add stock or water and bring to boil. Add diced potato and simmer for 5 minutes or until potatoes are done. Add beans and red and green peppers. Lastly add taglierini and cook for 2 minutes further. Serve hot.

Good for 2 – 3 servings

This reminds me of my childhood days, but we use misua instead. I just substituted with taglierini coz I can’t find misua here. Taglierini is an Italian egg noodle.

Stuffed Chicken Rolls

Stuffed Chicken Rolls

Another Stuffed Meat! I love stuffing meats! It’s just like a surprise inside. So what’s the stuffing this time?? It is shredded potatoes seasoned with lots of pepper and dash of salt. Spicy inside coz I didn’t season the meat this time!Slice meat very thinly or flatten with meat tenderizer. Shred 1 medium sized potato and season with salt and pepper. Slice 1 medium sized potato as thinly as you can.Place the Shredded potatoes at one end of the meat and roll until you reach the other end.Tuck with toothpicks and fry. Not necessarily deep fry, just enough to seal the meat. Bake for 15 minutes at about 250 degrees C. With the same pan, add the thinly sliced potatoes. This will absorb the drippings of the meat while being fried.Serve the dish with sauce.This is good for 1 meal. 2 Potatoes are enough for one person, don’t forget the other one is inside the meat. Here, I got a spare empty passion fruit where I placed the sauce. It is just for the sake of ArT!

Roasted Chicken

Roasted Chicken

There maybe a hundred ways of roasting chicken but this one is quicker than usual roasted whole chicken! Tender and juicy!

Ingredients:

1 whole chicken

1 lemon

5 cloves garlic

salt and pepper

Fresh Mint

Gravy

Preheat oven to 250 degrees C. Butterfly the chicken (Literally cutting the chicken in half starting from the breast down to the bottom of the chicken but not cutting the back bones) like a butterfly. Crush 5 cloves of garlic, fresh mint, salt and pepper.Work the skin starting with your fingers, insert the garlim in between the skin and the flesh working from bottom part of the chicken forming a pocket. Separate the tissues by pushing further your hand into the leg part, breasts and wings. Insert Spices into the just formed pocket and rub the spices to the flesh.Add slices of lemon in it.Squeeze the rest of the lemon over the whole chicken and season the other side with salt and pepper. Pan-fry the chicken skin side down with olive oil until golden. This would take around 6 – 8 minutes each side. Transfer to oven proof dish and straight to the hot oven for 45 minutes. Done!

Serve while still hot.

To make the gravy:

With the meat drippings in the pan (where the chicken was fried) add ½ cup of water, chicken cube (stock), 1 tsp. cornstarch, and season with pepper.Note: The herbs doesn’t really matter particularly mint. I just used mint because I have it fresh from the garden. Parsley, Corriander, lemon grass would be great as well, I think. I just found out that mint and garlic are good friends! The mint refreshes the garlicky flavor and broken by the lemon.. Really works well.

Chicken Fingers

Chicken fingers

Does chicken have fingers? Glad you asked! Well, not really.. but I'm just imitating its look for a change!

Ingredients:
4 chicken breasts (boneless and skinless)
2 teaspoons light soy sauce
2 teaspoons dark soy sauce
1 tablespoon corn starch
1 teaspoon sesame oil
Vegetable oil for frying

Procedure:

Place the chicken in a mixing bowl; add light and dark soy sauce, corn starch and sesame oil. Mix the ingredients with bare hands to ensure the chicken is well coated flavors. Marinate for at least 1 hour in the fridge. Slice the each chicken breast into 3 leaving about 1 inch at the top unsliced to hold them together. Fry for about 3 minutes each side until golden. Serve with potato chips.

Lumpia shanghai

Lumpia Shanghai (spring rolls)

A Filipino dish influenced by Chinese. Lumpia is a very common finger food dish for parties as it can be easily prepared ahead of time.

Ingredients:

1 pack spring roll pastry (lumpia wrapper)
½ kilo Minced chicken
1 cup Cabbage (finely shredded)
2 onions (finely chopped)
2 carrots (grated)
1 large bell pepper (finely chopped)
1 eggwhite
½ cup bread crumbs
Salt and pepper to taste

Procedure:

Mix all ingredients vigorously in a large mixing bowl. Separate individually the wrappers and cover with clean kitchen towel (They easily get dry and hard making it quite difficult to seal). Keep the wrappers covered with clean cloth when not used yet. Place 1 teaspoon of the mixture in 1 wrapper and roll up until the meat is covered, fold the sides in making it tight and roll up again. Wet the edges with water to seal.

Chicken Siomai

Chicken Siomai (Steamed Dumplings)

Ingredients:
½ kilo ground chicken breasts
½ kilo prawns
2 teaspoons light soy sauce
2 teaspoons dark soy sauce
Siomai wrapper
4 tablespoons bread crumbs
Salt & pepper

Sauce:
2 tablespoons light soy sauce
4 tablespoons dark soy sauce
1 teaspoon sesame oil



Procedure:

Chop finely half of the prawns and set aside the other half. In a mixing bowl, mix ground chicken and finely chopped prawns, add light and dark soy sauce, bread crumbs and season with salt and pepper. Refrigerate for 20 minutes.

Separate siomai wrappers individually. Place ½ teaspoon in the center of each wrapper; pat the area surrounding the meat with water; bring the sides of the wrapper up over the meat mixture and press the sides together leaving using your fingertips leaving the meat exposed. Flatten the bottom part by tapping slowly on a plate for the siomai to stand on its own. Repeat the wrapping procedure until done and ready to cook.

Line a bamboo steamer with strips of banana leaves and grease with very minimal oil. Arrange the siomai into the steamer. Boil 2 cups of water in a pan with a rim that perfectly fits into the steamer. Simmer for 20 minutes. Serve siomai immediately with soy sauce.