Recipe: Chicken, Broccoli, and Rice in an Apricot Brandy Cream Sauce

Yes, yes, I know...I owe you all some more posts about my month in Scotland (because, well, it's a nice change from a slew of recipe posts, and I really do have some fun stories and pictures from my trip), but after battling jet lag, spending hours labeling and organizing over a thousand photos, and telling everyone I know and meet about it, I need a few days off before I fill up the blog with Edinburgh posts. So, for tonight, I'm just gonna post a lovely, light chicken recipe that's perfect any time of year. This chicken dish is served with a brandy cream sauce, and though I used a very old, very delicious apricot brandy for my dish, any ol' brandy will do.

Serves: 4
Prep. time: 10-15 minutes
Cooking time: 20 minutes
Difficulty: Easy

Ingredients

• Approx. 2-3 cups broccoli florets
• 1 pat butter
• Olive oil, enough to lightly coat the bottom of a large pan
• 1&1/2 to 2 cups rice
• 2 chicken breasts, sliced into 1/2 to 1 inch thick slices
• 1 small bunch (about 4 stalks) green onions, thinly sliced
• 1 small clove garlic, minced
• 1/4 cup (apricot) brandy
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• Corn starch, as needed
• Salt and pepper, to taste

Directions

Bring a medium pot of water to a boil and cook the broccoli for 4 minutes, until still a little crispy. Drain and return to the pot with cold water and ice, then set aside. Cook the rice according to package instructions (the brand I use calls for water, salt, and butter and takes 20 minutes to cook). While the rice is cooking, heat a little butter and olive oil in a large pan over medium heat. Drain the broccoli and return to the pot it was in. Add the chicken, seasoned with salt and pepper, and cook until mostly cooked through, then add the garlic, broccoli, and green onions. After about a minute, add the brandy. Cook until the brandy has reduced by at least half, then add the heavy cream and continue to cook for a few minutes. Add a little cornstarch-and-water, as needed, to thicken the sauce (I added just a little bit, just enough to slightly thicken the sauce). Season with a little salt and pepper and serve atop the rice.

This dish has very soft flavors and a light creaminess that's lovely. Tender chicken, crisp broccoli, and fluffy rice are the perfect base for this slightly sweet, creamy sauce. I highly recommend making a double batch of the sauce (1/2 cup brandy, 1 cup heavy cream), because, as is, the amount of sauce is a little on the "not quite enough" side, but either way, it's delicious and such a nice change from thicker, richer cream sauces.

Recipe: Hoisin Burgers with Chili Garlic Mayo and Grilled Scallions

My brother dropped by the other night to have dinner and help me finally get my Wii connected to our wireless Internet (I had to move my Wii from my bedroom to the basement and there's a crazy button combo I have to press to turn it and the TV on, but I've got better seating now and access to Netflix, so it's all good). Anywho, we decided burgers (adapted from a recipe in a recent Food Network magazine) and onion rings would be a good choice. The onion rings were a bit of a failure, due to my inability to multitask (can't talk, watch TV, and pay attention to the deep fryer at the same time), but the burgers were tasty (especially the chili garlic sauce-mayo!) and I'm sharing the recipe for them in this post.

Serves: 4-6 (depending on how large you make your burger patties)
Prep. time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 10 minutes
Difficulty: Easy

Ingredients

• 1 - 1&1/2 lb. 90-93% lean ground beef
• Salt and pepper
• 1 bunch scallions/green onions, roots and green part removed
• 1 tbsp. sesame oil
• Hoisin sauce (see my recipe here)
• Approx. 1/2 cup mayonnaise
• 1 tbsp. chili garlic sauce (this can be found in the Asian section at your grocery store; use more if you want it spicier, less if you want it less spicy)
• Hamburger buns
• 1 cucumber, thinly sliced (use a vegetable peeler or mandolin to cut thin slices

Directions

Preheat the grill. Season the beef with salt and pepper, along with a splash of soy sauce or a few tablespoons of the hoisin sauce, and form into 4-6 patties (remember to press your thumb into the middle of each burger to create an indentation to help them cook properly). Toss the pieces of scallion in sesame oil and then seal them up in a foil packet. Place the scallion packet and burgers on the grill over medium to medium-high heat. Brush the burgers with the hoisin sauce repeatedly as they cook, being sure both sides get evenly coated. Cook until the scallions are tender (5-10 minutes) and the burgers are cooked to the desired doneness (about 3-5 minutes per side for medium doneness). While the burgers and scallions are cooking, whisk together the mayo and chili garlic sauce in a small bowl until thoroughly blended. Spread the chili garlic mayo on the inside of the buns, then place cucumber slices on the bottom, beef patty on top, and top the patties with the grilled scallions.

These burgers are tasty, with Asian-inspired flavor and delicious toppings. The chili garlic sauce-mayo has the kind of heat that sneaks up on you and offers a kick to the rest of the dish, while crunchy slices of cucumber help cool it down. Onion-y scallions go perfectly with the salty, meaty, peanut-y taste of the burgers.

Recipe: Crab Rangoon

My mom's been craving Chinese food lately, so deciding on tonight's dinner of beef with broccoli and snow peas was very easy. I'd yet to try out my deep fryer, so I decided this meal would pair up perfectly with fried crab rangoon, those deliciously golden-brown wonton pockets filled with cream cheese, flaky crab meat, and green onion. They're easy to make, and any excess filling can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for a few days. Now, it's important to understand that I used a deep fryer to make these. You can fry foods without a fryer, typically by heating oil in a pot on the stove while carefully monitoring the temperature (I've done it before—it's a little terrifying and you have to be incredibly careful), and you can also do no-fry methods by utilizing some sort of fat (butter, cooking spray, etc.) and an oven. But for this recipe, I'm using a deep fryer, so keep that in mind (maybe one of my Technique Tuesday posts in the future will explain how to fry foods without a fryer...).

Serves: Many
Prep. time: 10-15 minutes
Cooking time: Approx. 5 minutes (or until golden brown)
Difficulty: Easy
Special equipment: Deep fryer

Ingredients

• 1 package wonton wrappers
• 1, 8 oz. package Philadelphia cream cheese (I used the version with 1/3 less fat)
• 1-2 cups canned crab meat, drained and flaked/small pieces (I found this chilled at the fresh seafood counter at my local grocery store)
• Approx. 1/4 cup green onions, finely diced/chopped
• Approx. 1/4 tsp. grated ginger root
• A pinch of sugar
• Salt and pepper, to taste
• Small bowl of water (for sealing the wontons)
• Vegetable oil or other frying-safe oil (canola, safflower, peanut)

Be sure to taste the mixture to see if you have the right balance of ingredients. If you like a crabby wonton, add more crab meat, and if you like to taste more of the cream cheese, then add less crab meat. Add more or less ginger as desired.


Directions
In a medium bowl, combine the cream cheese, crab meat, green onions, ginger, sugar, and salt and pepper, then stir vigorously to combine. Lay out the desired amount (meaning, however many you plan to eat) of wonton wrappers on an ungreased baking sheet. Put a small spoonful of the cream cheese and crab mixture in the middle of each wonton wrapper. Dip your fingers in the water and run them along the edges of the wonton wrappers. Fold over each wrapper from one corner to the other, forming a triangle, and press the edges together to seal. Fry in hot oil until golden brown (I used a Breville deep fryer with vegetable oil, and I fried them at about 330*F). Once done, remove and place on a plate covered in a few layers of paper towels to soak up any excess oil. Plate and serve.

These little Chinese restaurant appetizers fry up golden-brown and bubbly and they're perfect as a party snack or an appetizer. If you want to make them a little fancier, replace the crab meat with lobster, or change how you fold the wontons to create a different presentation.

Recipe: Honey Sesame Chicken with Steamed Vegetables and Rice

Finally!—A night that I don't have work and my parents are both home, and thus a chance to make dinner! I looked through my "Recipes to Try" pinboard on Pinterest earlier today to find a recipe for tonight's dinner and this quick and simple honey sesame chicken recipe was the winner. It was easy to change to suit my needs and it gave me a chance to use up some carrots and snow peas that have been slowly aging in our fridge. Most of the ingredients are things you probably have in your pantry or fridge already—sesame seeds, soy sauce, honey, cornstarch—so you shouldn't have to do too much shopping to make this meal.

Please ignore the Christmas-themed plate. :D Working on getting some plain white plates soon.

Serves: 4
Prep. time: 10-15 minutes
Cooking time: 20 minutes
Difficulty: Easy

Ingredients

• 2 chicken breasts, cut into 1-2 inch pieces
• 1 egg
• 1/4 cup corn starch
• 3 tbsp. honey
• 2 tbsp. soy sauce (I use low-sodium)
• 2 tbsp. sesame seeds
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1-2 tsp. sesame oil, plus a little to add to the pan 
• 1-2 tbsp. vegetable/canola oil (or enough to lightly coat the bottom of a pan)
• 3-4 green onions/scallions, thinly sliced
• Approx. 1/2 - 1 cup carrots, peeled and cut into rounds or cut into 1/2 inch-thick slices (if you use baby carrots, cut them in half lengthwise)
• Approx. 1/2 - 1 cup snow peas, cleaned (there's a little stringy bit on the straight side of the pea that should be peeled off)
• Approx. 1 - 1&1/2 cups dry white rice (or enough to make 3-4 cups cooked)

Directions
In a deep, medium-sized pot, bring lightly salted water to a boil for the rice, and cook the rice according to package instructions (the rice I used was just a basic white rice that cooks in 20 minutes). In a medium bowl, whisk together the egg and corn starch until well-blended, then place the pieces of chicken in the bowl and stir to coat. In a separate bowl, whisk together the honey, soy sauce, sesame seeds, sesame oil, and garlic until well-blended—this will be the sauce for the dish. In a large pan, heat the vegetable oil and a splash of sesame oil over medium-high heat, then add the chicken, being careful not to get too much of the egg-and-corn starch mixture in the pan. As the chicken cooks, any excess mixture will thicken and add a sort of coating to the chicken—this is okay. Cook the chicken until just about cooked through (about 7-10 minutes) and golden brown all over, then add in the green onions and pour the sauce over the mixture. In the meantime, place the carrots and just a few drops of water in a microwaveable dish with a lid and steam in the microwave for 3 minutes. Add the snow peas in and cook for another minute. DO NOT overcook the veggies—steaming them for too long WILL make them mushy. When the veggies are cooked, add them into the chicken mixture. Add a little cornstarch-and-water mixture to the pan if you want to thicken up the sauce a bit, and feel free to add in a little more honey and/or soy sauce to create more sauce. Serve the chicken and vegetables over the white rice.

This dish, like many I've shared on my blog, is quick and easy to pull together and it's so delicious. The sauce is sweet, but savory and the cornstarch-and-egg coating adds a little texture to the chicken. The vegetables add great color to the mix and the white rice is the perfect neutral background for the dish.

Recipe: Puff Pastry-Wrapped Chicken with Broccoli

I came across this recipe while browsing pins on Pinterest and immediately knew I HAD to make it—it just sounded too good to pass up. The ingredients are all things we love: crispy bacon, tender chicken, flaky buttery puff pastry, and smooth cream cheese, combined in the perfect way. The chicken is stuffed with a flavor-packed cream cheese filling and wrapped up in puff pastry, then baked until golden brown and delicious. The best part about this meal?—It looks kind of fancy and, though it looks like it could take forever to make, it's one of the simplest dishes I've shared here. You simply mix the filling, stuff a little into pockets cut into chicken breasts, wrap the chicken up in puff pastry like a gift, bake, and serve. Easy enough for a weeknight, but pretty enough for a fancy dinner (though flaky puff pastry can be a bit messy when being eaten).

Serves: 4
Prep. time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 30-35 minutes, plus 5-7 minutes for the broccoli
Difficulty: Easy

Ingredients

• 2 chicken breasts
• 2 frozen puff pastry sheets, rolled out slightly with a rolling pin (make sure to thaw the sheets a few hours ahead of time)
• 2-4 green onions, finely chopped
• 5-6 oz. cream cheese (I bought an 8 oz. block of 1/3 Less Fat Philadelphia Cream Cheese and used a little over half of it)
• 4-6 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled
• A few tsp. flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped
• Salt and pepper
• 1 egg, beaten
• Broccoli, fresh or frozen (if you buy frozen, just cook the whole bag; if you buy fresh, cook enough so that each person gets about a cup to eat)

Directions
Preheat the oven to 400*F.
In a small bowl, combine the cream cheese, bacon, parsley, green onion, and a little salt and pepper. Use a flat utensil (a rubber spatula or a wooden spoon would work well) to blend well.

The filling

Cut small pockets into the chicken—cut right down the middle, being sure not to cut all the way from end to end (leave about 1/2 inch on either end, so that it's a true pocket and the filling won't spill out either end), and make sure you don't cut all the way through the chicken, otherwise you'll just have two pieces of chicken, which is not what we're aiming for. Stuff a spoonful or two (or three) into the pockets (it's okay if the filling pokes out over the edge of the pocket...more filling just means more flavor).
Place one chicken breast per single puff pastry sheet, and be sure to place the chicken breasts in the middle of the sheets. Brush a little of the beaten egg along the inside edges of the pastry. Fold over the short ends first, on either end of the breast, then fold one long side then the other, forming a package. Be sure to brush egg onto any place where pastry will touch pastry—the egg helps it stick together. Brush the completed package all over with the egg mixture—this will create that beautiful golden brown color that makes pastries look so appealing.

Beautiful little golden brown packages

Place the puff pastry-wrapped chicken breasts on a lightly greased baking sheet and bake for 30-35 minutes, until the pastry is golden brown and the chicken is cooked through (I used a meat thermometer to make sure the chicken was done enough—it should be 165*F inside).

Perfectly cooked chicken

When the chicken is done cooking, turn the oven off and leave the chicken in the oven to keep it warm. Bring a medium pot of salted water to a boil and add the broccoli, cooking for 5-7 minutes, until bright green and tender (but not soft or mushy). Drain and return to the pot, keeping the lid on when not serving so as to hold in heat (broccoli is notorious for not holding heat well). Remove the chicken from the oven.
Cut the puff pastry packages in half and serve each person half, with a side of broccoli.

This was such a fun dish to make and it turned out so well! The puff pastry is flaky, buttery, and light, and the creamy filling in the chicken oozes out when you cut into the package, which I absolutely love. The broccoli helps lighten up the dish a bit, and I highly recommend a nice crisp white wine on the side. While normally, people might be used to eating a whole chicken breast for dinner, you really only need a half with this dish because the filling and pastry make it so filling.

Recipe: Mexican Mole-Rubbed Chicken with Grilled Vegetables

My mother handed me this Cuisine Favorites Chicken magazine a few weeks ago and I tagged a few pages as I flipped through it, being drawn in by the beautiful photography. This chicken dish caught my eye because my dad's favorite dish to order at our local Mexican restaurant is the Chicken Mole, a chicken dish served with the complex chile-and-chocolate sauce called mole (MOH-lay)—this dish turns that sauce into an easy-to-mix rub. The rub is sweet and spicy and creates a subtle heat that stays on your tongue while you eat. The vegetables, tossed with olive oil, salt, and pepper, then grilled and drizzled with lime juice, are so fresh and juicy (as is evident in my picture).

Tried to present a clean plate, but the lime juice-drizzled vegetables were just too fresh and juicy!

Serves: 4
Prep. time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: About 15 minutes
Difficulty: Easy
Special equipment needed: Grill (or the equivalent indoor equipment)

Ingredients
For the chicken:

• 1/2 cup orange marmalade
• 1 tbsp. white wine vinegar (I used apple cider vinegar and it worked well)
• 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• 1/4 cup chili powder
• 1 tbsp. crushed red pepper flakes
• 1 tbsp. salt
• 1 tbsp. black pepper
• 2 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 2 tsp. cocoa powder

For the vegetables:

• 1 onion, halved (a red onion could be a great substitution here)
• 1 zucchini, halved lengthwise
• 1 yellow squash, halved lengthwise
• 1 red bell pepper, quartered
• 2 fresh tomatoes, halved
• 2 limes, halved
• 8 green onions, whole (trim off the roots and cut off an inch or two above the white—the green part has very little flavor)
• Olive oil
• Salt and pepper, to taste

Directions
Preheat the grill to medium-high. If you want to cook directly on the grill, coat the grill grate with oil, otherwise, tear off a piece of aluminum foil to put on the grill grate and plan to cook the food on it.
Combine the chili powder, red pepper flakes, salt, pepper, cocoa powder, and cinnamon in a small bowl. Stir the marmalade and vinegar for the chicken together in a large bowl, then coat the chicken breasts in the mixture. Rub the chili powder and cocoa powder mixture into the chicken breast so they're evenly coated on all sides. Set aside. Toss the vegetables and limes in a little olive oil, salt, and pepper. Put all of the vegetables and the chicken on the grill—grill the chicken until cooked through, and grill the vegetables (turning them once) until they are slightly soft, but still a little crisp, and have golden brown grill marks. Remove the limes from the mixture, then chop all of the vegetables into bite-size pieces and squeeze the limes over the mixture. Serve the chicken alongside the mixed vegetables. If you're looking for a starch, serve with white or red rice, or lightly-grilled tortillas to help soak up the heat.

This dish is perfect for a warm summer night! Fresh vegetables, seasoned lightly with lime, salt, and pepper are crisp and warm—the perfect compliment to the sweet and spicy chicken. All you need to add is a margarita, mojito, or sangria and it's a mini fiesta!

Recipe: Sesame Seared Tuna with Udon Noodles

My social calendar kind of exploded last week, leaving little time to cook. I spent Wednesday evening out with friends for gourmet burgers, french fries with truffle oil cheese sauce (amazing!), and spiked milkshakes at BRGR in Pittsburgh, followed by some low-key bar-hopping in the South Side. On Friday, I spent most of my day in the car, driving down to Knoxville, TN, and enjoyed a long weekend there with my boyfriend and two close friends—we kayaked, went tubing, watched movies, and enjoyed some great food along the way (including delicious dishes and beer from a British pub called The Crowne and Goose). I got home from my trip down south yesterday and was back on duty for dinner tonight, being given the task to make something for my dad that he and I would like, but that my mom wouldn't feel bad about missing (she had to go to an event tonight and she hates to miss out on my cooking). My dad and I are big fans of seared tuna—beautiful golden brown on the outside, perfectly pink on the inside, served warm—and I love to make this sesame-seared tuna and udon noodle dish for the two of us (adapted from here and here) when my mom can't make it to dinner (she's more of a "tuna cooked all the way" kind of person).

Serves: 4
Prep. time: 20-30 minutes
Cooking time: 10 minutes
Difficulty: Easy

Ingredients

For the tuna:

• 1/4 cup soy sauce
• 1 tbsp. mirin (Japanese sweet wine; cooking sherry works as well)
• 1 tbsp. honey
• 2 tbsp. sesame oil
• 1 tbsp. rice vinegar
• Wasabi paste
• 4, 6 oz. tuna steaks (the high the quality, the better)
• 1/2 cup sesame seeds (I use toasted seeds)
• 1 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil

For the udon noodles:

• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 tbsp. fresh ginger root, minced or grated (I actually use a zester to finely grate it)
• 1/4 cup soy sauce
• 3 tbsp. rice vinegar
• 1/4 cup peanut oil
• 3 tbsp. sesame oil
• 1 dash hot pepper sauce
• 1 green bell pepper, julienned (thinly sliced)
• 1 orange bell pepper, julienned (thinly sliced)
• 4 green onions, minced (grocery stores sell them in small bunches, so I just use a whole bunch. Be sure to use the whites and only a little of the green above it—that's where all the flavor is)
• 2 tbsp. toasted sesame seeds
• 1, 7 oz. package udon noodles (I use dry noodles, not fresh)

Directions 
For the tuna: In a small bowl, combine the soy sauce, mirin (or cooking sherry), honey, and sesame oil and whisk together with a fork. Divide into two equal parts, then stir the rice vinegar into one part and set it aside as a dipping sauce (divide into four small bowls so each person gets their own). Put the tuna steaks in the bowl with the remaining mixture let them marinate while you prepare the other ingredients (be sure to turn them over so the sauce gets all over them). Spread the sesame seeds out on a paper plate and press the tuna steaks into the sesame seeds to coat both sides and the edges. Heat olive oil in a large skillet over high heat until very hot. Place steaks in the skillet and sear for about 30 seconds to 2 minutes on each side. Serve with the dipping sauce and wasabi paste. The tuna should be cooked through just slightly, and remain pink on the inside—sear it for a short amount of time if you want it mostly raw on the inside.

For the udon noodles: In a jar with a tight-fitting lid, combine the ginger, garlic, soy sauce, rice vinegar, peanut oil, sesame oil, and hot pepper sauce. Close the lid and shake vigorously to mix the sauce. Set aside to let the flavors blend, shaking occasionally to mix it (the oils will separate if they sit too long). Bring a large pot of water to a boil, then add the udon noodles, cooking until tender, about 7 minutes (follow the package instructions for best results). Drain and return to pot. In the meantime, in a microwave-safe bowl, combine the pepper slices and minced green onion. Heat in the microwave until warm, but still crisp, about 1&1/2 to 2 minutes. Add to the noodles and pour the sauce over everything, tossing to coat it all. Serve sprinkled with sesame seeds.


The marinade for the udon noodles is packed with great Asian flavors, like soy sauce and ginger, which makes it incredibly flavorful. The crunchy peppers and green onion add texture and a bright pop of color to the soft noodles too. If you get good quality tuna, it will slice like butter and melt in your mouth when properly cooked, and it's absolutely delicious. Feel free to mix up what color bell peppers you use and consider grilling the tuna for a deeper flavor.