Easy Orange Chicken

Easy Orange Chicken with Chicken Fried Rice and Homemade Egg Rolls

    Sure it's extremely quick and easy to open a bag of frozen orange chicken or order it for takeout, but there is something rewarding about making it at home.  Because we are a big family, I usually buy the large family size packages of chicken breasts from Aldi.  Each package typically contains 4 large or 5 medium size chicken breasts.  When making a meal like Orange Chicken with Chicken Fried Rice, I will use the entire package of chicken, but the good thing is that I get two meals or dishes out of it!  

    I will warn you that this recipe can get time consuming, but make it in stages.  This will definitely help.  I will cut the chicken into 1 inch chunks the night before.  Put them in a large freezer bag or air tight container and store in the fridge.  In the morning or early afternoon, I will make the coating for the chicken.  Combine the chicken and allow it to sit in the coating in the fridge.  Then about an hour or so before dinner, I will start to fry the chicken.  I have the oven on a lower temperature to keep the chicken warm after frying it.  

  

    Yes, you can definitely make the orange sauce from scratch, but after making the chicken, I get a little lazy and open two jars of orange sauce and heat it.  😃  We serve the chicken and sauce separately.  Everyone can add the amount of sauce they would like and this makes it easier to store leftovers so the chicken doesn't get soggy in the sauce.  Serve with plain white rice, brown rice, or fried rice.  Our preference...fried rice.

This recipe will serve 6 to 8 with leftovers.

Ingredients:

• 2 to 3 large boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1 inch chunks
• 3/4 c. corn starch
• 1/4 c. flour
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• salt and pepper
• 2/3 c. water
• oil for frying
• 2 bottles of Orange Chicken Sauce

Directions:

1. Cut chicken into 1 inch or bite size pieces.  Feel free to do this ahead of time.
2. Whisk together corn starch, flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and pepper.  Add water slowly to combine.
3. Add chicken to the flour mixture.  Coat chicken on all sides.  You can prepare in advance, and can place in the fridge for up to 4 hours.
4. When ready to fry, heat 1/2 inch of oil in a large skillet.  Preheat the oven to 300 degrees.  Prepare a pan to put chicken after it's fried.  Cover a baking sheet with foil.  Place a cooling rack on the foil covered baking sheet.  This will allow excess oil to drain after frying.  After each batch of chicken is fried, place it on the cooling rack and put in the oven to keep warm.  
5. To test the oil if it's ready, dip the end of a wooden spoon into the oil.  If bubbles form around the spoon, the oil is ready.
6. Add chicken pieces one at a time to the hot oil.  Be sure not to crowd the skillet.  This will reduce the oil temperature and cause the chicken to stick together.  The chicken will cook quickly in the hot oil.  Flip once to brown both sides of the chicken.  Remove to cooling rack and season with salt.  Place the chicken in the oven and start to fry the next batch.  Continue this process until you are finished.
7. While the chicken is staying warm in the oven, heat the Orange Chicken sauce in a separate pot.
8. Serve with white or brown rice or fried rice.  You may choose to combine both the chicken and the sauce, but we prefer to serve them separately.  ENJOY!!

NOTE: If you keep the chicken and sauce separate when serving, keep them separate for leftovers.  The chicken will not get soggy.

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Chicken Fried Rice

Chicken Fried Rice with Orange Chicken and Turkey Egg Rolls

    It's nice to know that my kids prefer my Orange Chicken, Chicken Fried Rice and Egg Rolls to Chinese takeout.  It's a rewarding experience for me to make this for my family because I know they really enjoy it.  This Chicken Fried Rice is extremely quick and easy to make, and what I like best about making it at home, I get to control the salt.  Also, not everyone in our family likes eggs, so I scramble up the eggs separately.  Those who like eggs may add it to his or her individual plate.

    I often use fried rice as a way to incorporate veggies that we have on-hand, something I can use up from the freezer or fridge.  I've used carrots, onions, corn, broccoli, and peas.  The recipe pictured above includes carrots, onions, corn, and broccoli.  Cauliflower or mixed veggies would also be good in this dish.

This recipe serves 6 - 8.

Ingredients:

• 2 tbsp sesame oil, you may also use olive oil
• 1 clove of garlic, grated
• 1 small onion, diced
• 3/4 c. baby carrots, diced
• 2 chicken breasts, diced into small pieces
• 3 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 c. frozen corn or peas, for this recipe I used leftover corn from the cob
• 1 pkg. chopped frozen broccoli
• 2 eggs, scrambled
• 2 green onions, diced for garnish
• salt and pepper

Directions:

1. Heat sesame oil in a large skillet or wok.  Add grated garlic, onions and carrots.  Saute for 5 minutes.  Veggies will brown a little.  Season lightly with salt and pepper.
2. Add chicken.  Saute for 10 minutes on medium high heat.  Stir frequently.  Add soy sauce.  Stir to combine.
3. Add broccoli, corn or peas.  Combine.  Adjust seasonings, adding more soy sauce if needed.  Turn down the heat to low.  Allow to cook for another 5 minutes to finished cooking the broccoli.
4. Scramble eggs in a separate skillet. If your family likes eggs, feel free to add eggs to your fried rice.  We serve ours separately.
5. Before serving, sprinkle green onions on top of the fried rice.  Serve and ENJOY!

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Teriyaki Pasta Salad

Hawaiian Chicken Kabobs with Teriyaki Pasta Salad

    Have you ever searched for a recipe and couldn't find what you are looking for?  Thinking all the while that your idea for a recipe is definitely feasible and you're wondering why no one has thought of this before?  That's what happened to me for this recipe.  I found a couple of recipes that were similar to what I was thinking, but not exactly what I wanted.  When making my recipes, I always look to see if there is something out there that has been done before similar to what I was thinking, but I will always change the recipe up to make it my own.  When developing recipes, I focus on the tastes of my family and think of their likes and dislikes to make sure they will enjoy what we are having for dinner, lunch, breakfast, etc.  It's important for me to make what they like, but still challenge their pallets to often try new things.  Since we like teriyaki flavors, why not create a pasta salad to go along with our dinner?

Teriyaki Pasta Salad

Ingredients:

• 1 lb angel hair or thin spaghetti pasta
• 1 pkg. coleslaw mix
• 1 c. green beans, cut into 1 in. pieces, fresh or frozen
• 1/4 seedless cucumber, diced
• 1/2 red onion, diced
• 1 c. olive oil
• 1/2 c. soy sauce
• 2 tbsp rice wine vinegar
• 3 tbsp honey
• 1 clove of garlic, grated
• 1 tbsp. sweet chili sauce, use 1 tsp of red pepper flakes if you don't have the sweet chili sauce
• 1 tsp. ginger, ground
• salt and pepper

Directions:

1. Cook pasta according to package directions.  If you are using frozen green beans, add to pasta close to the end of it's cooking time, with 2 to 3 minutes remaining.  Drain and run under cool water.  This will help to remove excess starch on the pasta and avoid stickiness of the pasta.  
2. Add olive oil through salt and pepper in a large bowl.  Whisk to combine.  Add remaining ingredients to bowl including pasta and green beans.  Toss all to combine.  Serve immediately.  You can store in the fridge for up to two hours.  Enjoy!!

Teriyaki Pasta Salad

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Easy Egg Rolls/Deconstructed Egg Rolls Two for One Recipe!

Easy Egg Rolls with Orange Chicken and Asian Slaw

Making egg rolls always seemed like a very daunting task.  It was so much easier to buy frozen egg rolls, pop them in the air fryer and call it a day, or so I thought.  David said we should make our own eggs rolls.  They are extremely easy, just time consuming.  The daunting part for me was rolling the wonton wrappers.  Sure, I've seen chefs rolls them on TV all of the time, but that's TV.  When I really got into cooking more and enjoying it so much, I decided to give it a shot!  I can tackle these little egg rolls.

I knew putting the filling together was going to be simple.  The kids already love it when I make Deconstructed Egg Rolls, that recipe will be a separate post, so putting the filling together would be to follow that recipe.  For us, ground turkey is cheaper than ground pork, so I generally use ground turkey in my deconstructed egg rolls, a.k.a. filling.  When I see ground turkey on sale, I stock up.  It doesn't go on sale all too often, but I take advantage when it does.

Have you begun to relax a little and think, hey!  I can make these!  Make them to have alongside your Chinese food dinner, as an appetizer for a party or fun appetizer dinner, or even lunch.  A little secret...I prepared and rolled them in the morning, put them in the freezer, pulled them out as I preheated my air fryer oven, and put them in the air fryer when it was ready.  You can definitely shallow fry these, but I try to use our air fryer as often as possible.

Seasonings and spices for egg roll filling

Getting ready to roll!

Follow the pictures below to roll the egg rolls

From this point, depending on when I make the rolls, I will either start the air fryer or place in my freezer on a flat surface (so they don't roll).  Remove from the freezer about 10 minutes before cooking, while your oil is heating your the air fryer is preheating.  

I was so intimidated when thinking about making my own egg rolls, I never figured I would be able to accomplish it so easily.  We LOVE egg rolls, and we also LOVE Deconstructed Egg Rolls which is the egg roll filling in this recipe over rice.  This is why I'm calling this a two for one recipe for you!

Ingredients:

• 1 tbsp sesame oil
• 1 lb ground turkey or pork
• 1 bag coleslaw mix
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp onion powder
• 2 green onions, diced
• 1 tbsp honey
• 2 tbsp rice wine vinegar
• 1/4c. soy sauce
• salt and pepper
• 1 pkg wonton wrappers
• Sweet Chili Sauce, optional

Note: If making this as the Deconstructed Egg Rolls, double to recipe and make two cups of rice to serve with your mixture.

Directions:

1. Add sesame oil to a skillet.  Sprinkle the ginger into the skillet with the oil.  Brown turkey in the sesame oil over medium high heat.  Season with salt and pepper.  
2. Once the meat is browned, added the garlic powder and onion powder.  Stir to combine.  Add in the coleslaw mix.  The cabbage will cook down a lot.  Stir to combine with the meat and cook for 2 to 3 minutes.  
3. Add the green onions, honey, rice wine vinegar and soy sauce.  If you have it and want a little kick of spice, add the sweet chili sauce.
4. Stir well to combine.  Cook for another 2 to 3 minutes.  Adjust any seasonings with salt and pepper.  Remove from heat.  (If you are not making egg rolls, this is ready to serve with rice.)
5. Fill a small bowl of water to help seal the edges of the wonton wrappers.
6. Prepare a baking sheet with parchment paper and spray with cooking oil so the egg rolls don't stick.  
7. **See pictures above!!!! Taking one wonton wrapper at a time, place it as a diamond on a clean surface.  Place 1 tbsp filling into the center of the wrapper.  Dip your finger into the bowl of water and line the edges of the wrapper.  Fold the bottom corner up over the filling.  Press edges down.  Fold a side corner, then the other side corner over.  Your egg roll should resemble an envelope.  Fold the last corner over sealing the egg roll.  Gently press to make sure no filling will leak out.  Place onto baking sheet.  Repeat the steps.
8. You now have two options, fry/air fry the egg rolls or put into the freezer to cook later in the day.  Do not freeze longer than one day if not cooked.
9. If frying, heat vegetable oil into a deep skillet.  The oil needs to be at at least 350 degrees to fry.  When frying, do not overcrowd the skillet.  Fry no more than 4 egg rolls at a time.  You will need to flip the egg rolls once during the frying process.
10. If air frying, set air fryer temp to 400 and cook for 15 minutes, flipping once to brown on both sides.
11. They are now ready to enjoy!!!

Note: If frying, place a cooling rack on the baking sheet you used to prepare the egg rolls.  This will help drain the oil after coming out of the skillet.

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