Double Style Sesame Chicken Nuggets

This is a fast and easy dish that is crunchlicious and suitable for any occasion, be it family dinner, friends gathering or even picnic. The white sesame coating over the nuggets adds a subtle aroma and adds to the crunchiness. 

Why double style? I made a non spicy version (sesame) and a spicy version (sesame + paprika), everyone can just pick their favorites, or have both. ;)

Served the Sesame Chicken Nuggets with 3 different sauces, so there's at least a flavor that suits everyone :- hot Sambal, Sesame sauce and mayonnaise.

I had it served as part of our family's CNY luncheon. The whole big plate was emptied before the lunch was over.

Preparation Time: 10 minutes

Cooking Time: 30 minutes

Serving for: approximate 40-50 nuggets

Ingredients:

• 800gm chicken fillets, cut into cubes

For Seasoning:

• salt and pepper  

• few drops of sesame oil

• 1 tablespoon of Shao Xin wine (skip if serving for young kids)

For Coating:

• 4 tablespoon of flour + 1 tablespoon of cornflour

• 2 egg whites

• 1/2 cup of white sesame seeds

For Hot version:

• few dash of paprika powder 

 

The Making:

1. Marinate the chicken nuggets with the salt, sesame oil and Shao Xin wine. Set aside for about 30minutes.

2. Coat the chicken nuggets with the following in sequence: 1) mixed flour 2) egg white 3) white sesame seeds. 

For the hot version, add few dash of Paprika powder into the flour and mix well.

3. Heat up few spoonful of cooking oil in a frying pan. Once the oil in heated, using a pair of long chopsticks or thong, slowly place the chicken nuggets into the pan; you may cook few nuggets at the same time, just make sure they do not overlap.

4. Cook each nuggets for about 1 minute on each side or until golden brown. Dish out and put over a piece of kitchen towel to absorb the excess oil.

Serve alongside your favorite sauce (tomato ketchup, chili sauce, Sambal chili, mayonnaise, peanut sauce, sesame sauce). Enjoy!

Super Easy Grilled Chicken & Veggie Platter

I bought a new grill pan during our recent visit to Langkawi, it was so much cheaper than the price in town and I could not help but ask myself... why did I not bought this earlier?? It is light, nice to hold, non stick and the food cooks evenly. I should have gotten this loooong ago.

Anyway, I made this Full Platter Grilled Chickens and Veggie for our dinner in just 30 minutes, everyone loved it and the kiddos enjoyed assembling their own burgers - I just served them the buns, grilled chicken fillet and veggie. With the ease of preparing and cleaning, this will definitely be one of our usual meals. ;)

My portion, with a glass of chilled Chardonay.... Heavenly.

The next morning, I made a big breakfast with the leftover ingredients.  

Preparation Time: 15 minutes

Cooking Time: 20 minutes

Serving for: 4 persons

Ingredients:

Ingredient A

• 600gm chicken fillet, washed

• 8-10 brown mushrooms, thinly sliced

• 2 clove garlic, roughly sliced

• 1 bell pepper, thinly sliced

• 1 carrot, cut cubes

• some broccoli, cut into bite size 

• some asparagus, use only the spears (stems are too fibrous)

• 4-6 dinner rolls, cut half 

• butter 

• Salt & black pepper 

• olive oil

Ingredient B (Chicken Marinate)

• 1 teaspoon salt

• 2 table spoon teriyaki sauce*

• 1 tablespoon Shao Xin wine

• dash of black pepper 

• 2 pricks of fresh rosemary or dried rosemary leaves (and extra for garnishing)

Note: *you may replace teriyaki sauce with equal amount of soya sauce and a tablespoon of honey.

The Making:

 

1. Rub the chicken fillets with salt and marinate with ingredients B evenly. Set aside in fridge for about 30 minutes before cooking. 

2. Heat up the grill pan, drizzle with some olive oil. Toss in the garlic and follow by the chicken fillet and mushrooms, grill each side for about 2-3 minutes or until it turns golden brown. Drizzle some teriyaki sauce if the fillets are getting too dry. Scoop aside.

3. Toss the broccoli and carrots into the grill pan, let cook for about 2 minutes on each side then add the asparagus and bell peppers, cook for another 1-2 minutes (check to make sure carrots and broccoli are soft enough to your liking). Sprinkle with olive oil, salt and black pepper onto the veggies, shake the grill pan to mix well. Once done, scope the veggies aside.

4. Cut dinner rolls into half, melt a small lump of butter on the grill pan and lightly grill the dinner rolls for about 45 seconds to get the golden crunch.  

Arrange all grilled goodies in a plate, garnish with some Rosemary and serve hot, best to go with a glass of wine or cold juice. 

Enjoy!

Xoxo,

PH

Devil's Chicken Wings

During my little girl's recent birthday party, I made this roast chicken wings which was a big hit. All 24 pieces were grabbed up while the box of KFC was still more than half full. Many of the friends asked for the recipe after the party, so I thought just to make it available to all.

Be warn, you may not be able to stop eating... There's a reason why I named it the Devil's Chicken Wings. ;-)

Preparation Time: 15 minutes 

Marination Time: at least 2 hours

Roasting Time: 45 minutes

Serving: 1 dozen chicken wings

Ingredients:

• 12 pieces chicken wings, chop half

• 2 teaspoon salt

• a dash of pepper 

• 2 tablespoon soya sauce

• 2 teaspoon brown sugar  

• 1 tablespoon Shao Xin wine

• a dash of paprika powder (optional if you prefer non spicy)

• 1 teaspoon Italian spice** 

• 1 tablespoon dark soya sauce

• few drops of sesame oil

* all measurement above are in estimate (agak-agak), as I was adding them by instinct without using a measurement spoon.  

** if you do not have the Italian spices, just add mixture of basil, rosemary and oregano leaves.

The Making:

1. Wash the chicken wings and rub them all over with salt. Season the wings with all the ingredient except the dark soya sauce, sesame oil & brown sugar. Keep refrigerated for at least 2 hours.

2. Preheat oven to 180°c, cover the roasting tray with a piece of aluminum foil and spray / brush some cooking oil over it to avoid sticking.

3. Remove chicken wings from fridge, add the brown sugar, sesame oil and dark soya sauce, mix well.

4. Place all chicken pieces on the tray and avoid overlapping. Roast in middle tray for 30 minutes, remove from oven and turn the wings to the other side; roast for another 15 minutes or until golden brown.

Voila! Your mouth watering chicken wings are ready.. Just let cold and serve them right away. 

I reserved the drummets for the little ones so they can enjoy more meat instead of skin. My kiddos absolutely loved it! *smile*

Enjoy...

Xoxo,

PH

A Note to Parents with Young Toddlers..

As I used more spices for this recipe, I would not recommend serving this to kids under 4yo. I tried to avoid using salt, sugar and processed food / sauces when preparing food for my kiddos when they were under 2yo.

Kids-Friendly Curry Chicken

My little boy had been asking me for curry chicken recently, somehow he needed to prove that he is one brave kid (he relates eating hot & spicy food to being brave, LOL, bad influence from the mommy who loves all thing spicy). Since I'm back from work early today, I decided to stop by the supermarket and get some fresh ingredients to make him a not-so-spicy, kids friendly curry chicken. 

Surprisingly, both him and the little sister loved their curry, they even requested for more rice and insisted to top their rice with curry! *happy*

The potatoes tasted exceptionally good, scroll down and I will share with you the secret..  

Preparation Time: 15 minutes

Cooking Time: 30 minutes 

Serving for: approximate 4 pax

Ingredients:

• 8 shallots, 4 clove garlic, 1 small thumb ginger; finely chopped (you may use a food processor)

• 25gm curry powder for meat

• 1 stalk fresh curry leaves

• 300gm fresh coconut milk / evaporated milk

• 1 cup water (or more if you find the curry too thick)

• 4 medium potatoes, peel and cut into wedges

• 500gm/4 whole chicken legs, chopped and rub evenly  with salt

• 1 medium tomato, cut 8 

• 12 stalks long beans, cut strips 

• Few fried bean curds (tou pok), cut halves

• Salt to taste

If you like your curry hot, add 1-2 table spoon of chili paste.. But since I'm making this for the kids I have skipped the chili paste altogether, added extra potatoes instead.

The Making:

1. Heat up 2 large spoon of cooking oil in a large wok, deep fry the potatoes for about 3 minutes until golden, scope aside to drip off the excess oil.

2. Using the remaining oil in the wok, sauté shallots, garlic & ginger until fragrance (about 2 minutes). Add the curry powder and water; stir well to mix.

3. Toss in the chicken follow by potatoes. Cover the wok and let it simmer for 3 minutes.

4. Add the curry leaves, tomatoes and milk, mix well and add salt to taste. Let the curry simmer for another 8 minutes.

6. Add the long beans and bean curds, cook for another 2 minutes and your curry is ready.

Serve hot with white rice & enjoy!

Useful Tips...

• My late mom had taugh me a trick to making extra-yummy potatoes -- deep fry the potatoes before adding them into the curry, this gives them a crunchy crust while maintaining the softness inside. This also prevents the potatoes from falling apart when cooking in the curry. My kiddos could not resist the potatoes and had 3-5 pieces each...

• This is a very mild curry,  but do prepare some drinks for the little ones. :)

Enjoy!

Chicken Enoki Mushroom (copy cat recipe!)

One of my favorites when visiting Japanese restaurant is the beef enoki mushroom roll, I have been wanting to try it at home but always forgot (but not this time..). Since my mother in law does not eat beef and so does my old pa, I though to replace the beef with chicken fillet instead. Besides, as my duo are not fancy of mushrooms, I made some with cucumbers instead of the enoki... Both versions turned out great & we had a really enjoyable lunch.

Preparation time: 10 minutes

Cooking time: 10 minutes

Serving for: approximately 10 wraps

Ingredients:

• 300gm chicken fillets

• a packet of enoki mushrooms (remove roots portion)

• 1/2 cucumber, cut into long strips

• 1 tablespoon white sesame seeds

For marinate:

• 1 teaspoon salt

• 2 tablespoons teriyaki sauce 

• 1 tablespoon Japanese rice wine (or replace with shaoxin wine)

• a dash of pepper

• 2 garlic, smashed

For Sauce:

• 1 tablespoon teriyaki sauce

• Few drops of sesame sauce

• 1/2 tablespoon of Japanese / Shaoxin rice wine
• 1 teaspoon of brown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon dark soy sauce

The Making:

1. Marinate the chicken fillets at least an hour before cooking (I bought chicken cubes, so I used a meat tenderizer to flatten them). Wrap about 6 enoki mushrooms or cucumbers with each chicken fillet. 

2. Heat up 1 tablespoon of olive oil in the non stick pan, once the oil is hot enough, gently place the chicken wraps into the pan, keep some space between each piece. Cook each side for about 3 minutes. 

3. Dish out the cooked wraps, continue cooking the remaining wraps (no need to add oil). When all is done, add the sauce mixture into the pan and toss in all chicken mushroom wraps, mix well. Close the lid and let it simmers for about a minute.

To serve, arrange the chicken enoki mushroom wraps nicely then pour the sauce all over, and sprinkled with some white sesame seeds.

This dish is best eaten with some steaming white rice, but since the duo requested for stir fried noodles, so perhaps next round and I will use beef fillets instead...

Itadakimashu!

Tips!

• The enoki mushrooms will release some water when cooking, so really no need to add any water into the sauce.

• Cucumber is quite an ideal veggie for this dish as it absorbs all the sauce and became really tasty. 

• Whether you are using enoki or cucumber, make sure you cut them at least 2" longer than the chicken strips for better presentation. 

Roasted Veggie & Chicken on Sticks

It's Mother's Day! 

Since we had celebrated last night with a big lobster feast, I thought we may stay home for a simple lunch today. I found some organic purple carrots and sweet potatoes given by my sister in law few days back, so I thought they will be perfect for making roasted veggie with balsamic vinegars. Added with some herbs grilled chicken, we could make some really yummy satay sticks.

So I did, and the entire family loved it!

I love mine with lots of lime and firely chili sauce from oz.

Preparation time: 20 minutes

Cooking time: 30 minutes

Ingredients:

• 600gm chicken fillet, cut into cubes

• 2 fresh limes

• 1 purple carrots, cut into big chunks

• 1 carrots, cut into big chunks

• 2 sweet potatoes, cut into big chunks

• 1 Japanese cucumber, cut into big chunks

• 1 yellow onion, cut into wedges

• 1 orange bell pepper, cut into long strips

• 12-18 cherry tomatoes (i used half for roasting and the remaining served fresh)

• some fresh basil leaves

* you may replace the purple carrots with potatoes.

Marinate for the Chicken:

• a dash of pepper

• 1.5 teaspoon of salt 

• 1 table spoon of shaoxin wine

• a dash of paprika powder

• a dash of garlic powder

• a dash of dried basil & fresh basil leaves (chopped)

• 1 tablespoon of olive oil

Seasoning for Vegetables:

• 1 tablespoon of balsamic vinegar

• 1 tablespoon of olive oil

• a dash of pepper

• a dash of salt

• a dash of black pepper

• a dash of garlic powder

• a dash of dried basil & fresh basil leaves (chopped)

* adjust all seasoning according to your preference, I did not really measure them, just drop about 4-6 dabs per seasoning.

The Making:

1. Wash and marinate the chicken cutlets at least 1 hour before cooking. Make sure you rub the salt and pepper evenly.

2. Preheat the oven at 220°c, then start preparing yor vegetables.

3. Cover the baking tray with a layer of alumnion foil (this is for easier washing later so you don't have a sticky tray!), toss the veggie into the tray and add all the seasoning. Mix them with your hands to make sure all seasoning are evenly coated.

Love the beautiful color combination...

4. Cover a layer of alumnion foil over the grill bars, poke some holes using fork and place the chicken cutlets on top (refer to pic below). 

5. Put the tray in middle section of the oven and roast for 20 minutes. On the 20th minutes, remove them from oven and turn the veggies & chicken over to the other side. You may brush some honey over the chicken for a sweet and richer taste now or just leave them as-is. Continue roasting for another 10 minutes. 

6. Once done, let the roasties cold down before arranging them onto the sticks.

7. To serve, squeez some lime juice over the sticks and serve with your favorite hot or sweet sauce... Enjoy!

Lastly, happy Mother's Day to all the great moms out there.. ❤️

"Kung Pow" Chicken Junior 小宝鸡丁

One of the common dishes you can find in any Chinese restaurant is Kung Pao Chicken, 宫保鸡丁, the chicken cutlets are deep fried then stir fry with dark soy sauce and dried chillies, making it a sweet and spicy dish that is often a favorite to many. Unfortunately my duo won't take spicy food, so I tried to make a replica of this dish but minus the dried chili and over rich sauces.

I choose not to deep fried the chicken cutlets, so they remain juicy and succulent and not too hard to chew for kiddos or old folks.

    

Preparation time: 10 minutes

Cooking time: 10 minutes

Serving for: approximate 4 pax

Ingredients:

• 300gm chicken cutlets (I used chickenbreast)

• 2 glove garlic, finely chopped

• 1/2 green bell pepper, cut into cubes

• 1/2 yellow bell pepper, cut into cubes

• 1/2 red bell pepper, cut into cubes

• 2 tablespoon roasted cashe nuts (I replaced with pan fried white sesame)

Marinate:

• 1 teaspoon salt

• 1 tablespoon soy sauce

• 1 tablespoon dark soy sauce

• 1 teaspoon sesame oil 

•  a dash of pepper

• 1 teaspoon of brown sugar 

• 1 tablespoon of corn flour 

The Making:

1. Rub the chicken cutlets with salt and marinate them for at least half an hour.

2. Heat up 4 table spoon of cooking oil in the wok, toss in the chicken cutlets and let them cook for about 3 minutes. Dish out and set aside but leave the oil in the wok.

3. Toss the chopped garlic into the wok, once it turns golden brown, add the bell peppers, cook for about 2-3 minutes until they are all cook, toss in the chicken cutlets and mix well.

4. Sprinkled with some roasted cashew nuts or white sesame on top then serve hot. 

Absolutely no dipping sauce is required as this dish is so tasty to eat just as-is!

Enjoy. ;)

PH's Crispy Popcorn Chicken

My duo absolutely love chicken fingers, chicken nuggets, fish nuggets, basically anything crispy and crunchy. But never once I brought them to McDonald's nor KFC, fast food is a big no no to us. I always believe real food is the healthiest choice.

Once in a while I will cook them fried food  and when we read about the crispy chicken recipe on the newspaper recently, little E were so excited and repeatedly requested me to make for them. So I did, with a little adjustment to the recipe.

Want to know the secret to extra crispy fried chicken? It is unbelievably easy, just double coat! Double dip in the egg and corn flour, and the result? Extra crispy fries chicken that you can't stop wanting more. That's what I called this the Popcorn Chicken.. :)

Without breadcrumbs coating.

Daddy & mommy had chicken steak instead. With lots of green salad.

Ingredients:

• 300gm chicken cutlets

• 1 teaspoon salt

• 1 tablespoon soy sauce

• 1 teaspoon sesame oil

• 1/2 teaspoon sugar 

• 1 tablespoon Shao Xin rice wine

• a dash of pepper

For Coating:

• 1 egg, beaten

• 2 tablespoon corn flour

• love it extra crunchy? Add 2 tablespoon of breadcrumbs for coating!

The Making:

1. Marinate the chicken cutlets at least an hour before cooking. Coat the chicken cutlet with a layer of egg liquid, following by a thins her of corn flour; repeat same step, then follow by a coat of breadcrumb last. 

2. Heat up sufficient amount of cooking oil in the wok (enough to cover the cutlets), once the oil is hot enough, gently toss in the chicken cutlets, keep some space between each piece.

3. Let the chicken fry for about 5 minutes before removing them from the wok. Drip the excess oil on kitchen napkin.

Let the chicken popcorns cold down before you start popping them into your mouth. My duo were so happy when they saw what we were having for lunch, they quickly helped me setup the table and sat down quietly to wait for their meals to be served. LOL. They had at least 7 popcorns each and it's such a blessing to watch them enjoy their food with such satisfying smile.

Hope you like this recipe!

Sweet & Sour Honey Lemon Nuggets 酸甜蜜糖柠檬鸡块

I made the honey sesame chicken cutlets for my family some time back and my little ones really liked them, since I have bought some fresh chicken fillets today I though to make them their favorite dish again, but this time in 2 different flavors -  aromatic honey sesame and sweet & sour honey lemon. Both of them were so indulged with the special treats today that they actually ate 10 pieces of it Andy my little captain asked for more to bring to school tomorrow. :)

The making is really simple. You may refer to the original recipe below, just separate the chicken nuggets into half, each to be coated with different sauce and you can enjoy right away.

Original recipe for Honey Sesame Chicken Cutlets:  

http://food4littleones.blogspot.com/2014/05/honey-sesame-chicken-cutlets.html

Sweet & Sour Honey Lemon Sauce / 香柠酱

For sauce / 酱汁

2 tablespoons raw honey (adjust accordingly) 两大匙野生蜜糖 （自己加调)

1/2 Lemon, juiced 柠檬半粒，榨汁

1 teaspoon brown sugar 一茶匙黄糖

5 tablespoon water 五汤匙清水

 
The Making / 做法：

Mix the ingredient above in a bowl then heat up on the pan. When the sauce is starting to boil, add the cooked chicken nuggets and stir fry for about a minute until completely coated with the lemon sauce. 

用小碗把酱料调均，倒入热锅中烧滚，加入鸡肉块，快炒1分钟左右至酱汁完全被吸收，即可熄火。

Enjoy! 

开餐咯！

Baked Chicken Kiev

It's been a while since the last publish of recipe, the water rationing had been going on for weeks in the city we live so I had been keeping to simple cooking that requires minimal washing, or just dine out. Despite the fact it's been raining almost every alternate days but the water level in the dam is still critically low?! Something is really really wrong here..

Anyway, I have been sticking to mostly one-pot or one-pan cooking but for this weekend, I though it's time to try out something different. So I made this, child friendly Oven Baked Chicken Kiev, served with some baked beans and toasted round buns. Simple but hearty family meal. After a busy morning attending a blogger event with the little ones (I will share that on a separate posting, it will be something useful for parents with picky eater!), it's a bliss to have a quiet dinner at comfort of home.

For my little ones. They shared one whole chicken breast. The elder ate with his hand while I helped my little girl cut the Kiev into smaller chunks so she can easily eat with a fork. They dipped the Kiev into the baked beans, just like how we usually eat our roti canai with some dhal curry. How I love watching their satisfied look as they gobled the food that mommy made. 

Kiev is actually a traditional Ukrainian dish, where it is named after their capital city, Kiev. It's a cutlet dish made with boneless chicken breast pounded and covered with bread crumb, either fried or baked. The one I made is a cross-mixed with Chicken cordon blue, where I used cheese instead of butter, however I skipped the ham. It would be a lot tastier to have that extra ham layer, but I though it's good to control intake of processed meat. But seriously, feel free to add the ham if you wanted richer taste. 

Anyway, ready to make some Kiev? Just make sure you have 30 minutes to spare and you are good to go..

Preparation time: 10 Minutes

Cooking time: 30 Minutes

Serving for: 3-4 person

Ingredients:

3 boneless chicken breast

A teaspoon of salt 

A dash of pepper

2 clove garlic, crushed and chopped (I totally forgot to put this!)

A handful of rosemary and basil leaves, wash and chopped

3 slices of cheddar cheese (you may replace with 1/2 stick of butter instead, but I opted for the less fatty version) 

2 table spoons of bread crumb

2 table spoons of corn flour

2 medium size eggs, beaten

The Making:

1. Prepare a tray with a layer of aluminum foil (this is important to save you from the washing nightmare!). Preheat oven to 200°c.

2. Using a meat tenderizer, lightly pound  both sides of the chicken breast till tender. Rub with salt, pepper and set aside.

3. Prepare the bread crumb, egg liquid and corn flour in separate plate each. You'll need this later.

4. Sprinkles the fresh herbs and garlic onto the chicken fillet, add few drops of olive oil. Rub to coat the meat evenly and put the sliced cheese on top.

5. Roll up the chicken breast and secure it in place using a toothpick.

6. Coat the rolled chicken breast with a layer of corn flour, follow by egg liquid and bread crumb. 

7. Heat up 2 table spoon of olive oil in a skillet, lightly grill the roll till it turns golden brown (about few minutes), then place it onto the prepared tray. 

8. Bake the rolls for 20 minutes at 200°c, check to make sure it doesn't over burn. I added some pumpkin cubes into the tray, it tastes so sweet after baked that no additional flavoring required.

9. To serve, cut the Kiev into thick slices and serve with your favorite sauce - ketchup, Tabasco, Mustard, BBQ sauce.. Or like me, made some baked beans in 

tomato sauce.  Oh, and don't forget to remove that toothpick. ;)

Now, go enjoy the food of your labour, you deserve it!

Happy cooking.

Tips!

• You can mix some dried herbs into the fresh leaves for stronger aroma.

• You may use cheese blocks instead of sliced cheese, it will work (better) as well. I just want to avoid washing another utensil for this round.