Stir Fry Honey Garlic Chicken

The first time I made this, I didn’t really get a strong flavor of honey but the garlic was clearly there. I adjusted the ingredients to include 1/4 cup of honey rather than the 2 tablespoons I used so hopefully the flavor will be more prominent, but I’ve yet to test it again.

Stir Fry Honey Garlic Chicken

Chicken

• 2 pounds chicken breasts, cut into bite-sized pieces
• 1 egg
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 1/2 cup cornstarch
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• oil for frying, enough to fill a pot or wok with 1 inch of oil (I used peanut)

Sauce

Adapted from Food Gal

• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon white pepper
• 1/4 cup honey
• 2 teaspoons soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon oyster sauce
• 1/4 cup water plus 1 tablespoon corn starch

1. Rub salt and pepper into chicken pieces
2. Toss your cut-up chicken with the egg, then with the flour and cornstarch. It will be sticky. Set aside
3. Heat 1-inch of oil in your frying vessel and allow to heat up, never allowing the temperature to rise above 375° F or to start simmering or boiling. The oil should look like it is heating up (it will move around slightly), but you never want to see any bubbles forming until you have added in the chicken
4. Fry the chicken in batches, 8-10 minutes for each batch, until golden and crispy. Check a piece or two to be sure that it’s cooked through, but also to be sure that it’s crispy enough
5. With a slotted spoon, remove the chicken to a cutting board or a plate lined with paper towels and drain. Do this until all of the chicken has been fried; don’t overcrowd the pot, either. It doesn’t matter how many batches you have to do, as the chicken will be warmed again when it is added to the sauce. Be careful when disposing of the oil (allow it to cool completely first)
6. Saute your garlic with about a tablespoon of oil for five minutes or so, until softened
7. Add in the rest of the combined sauce ingredients and stir over medium heat until slightly thickened, then add in the water and cornstarch mixture
8. Stir until thickened, and be careful not to burn it! This shouldn’t take more than 8 minutes or so
9. Add in the fried chicken pieces and stir until well coated

Here is the chicken tossed with the cornstarch

Frying the chicken!

I made sure my chicken got really crispy

Here’s the chicken mixed in with the sauce

And the final product, of course made with garlic noodles on the side for Kamil

Mongolian Beef

Ah, I’ve been so incredibly busy since I’ve come back home! So I apologize that I haven’t updated in a while, but work has been taking up all my time lately. Recently, my boyfriend has become obsessed with P.F Changs Mongolian Beef so the other night after deliberating about what to get us for dinner, I decided to make him some (the only P.F Changs we have is at the mall and well, you know how crazy the mall is at Christmas!). Rather than making classic white rice to go along with it, I made the Garlic Noodles Kamil went gaga over last time as well.

Mongolian Beef

Adapted from Rasa Malaysia and BlogChef.Net

Marinade

• 8 ounces beef tenderloin (I know nothing about meat so I grabbed what was labeled as “good for stir fry” at the grocery store)
• 1 teaspoon corn starch
• 1 teaspoon soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon water
• 1 teaspoon rice wine

Sauce

• ½ teaspoon ginger (my grocery store didn’t have ginger! So I used a pinch of ground ginger…I know, I know they taste different…)
• 1 tablespoon garlic (2 cloves)
• ½ cup soy sauce
• 1/2 cup water
• ½ cup brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons rice wine
• ½ teaspoon white pepper
• 2 green onions (sliced)
• Oil (for frying)

1. Marinate the beef slices with the marinade for 30 minutes (I let them marinate for probably 2 hours)
2. To make the sauce- in a sauce pan heat 2 teaspoons of oil. Add garlic and minced ginger, stir fry 10 seconds. Add soy sauce, wine and water. Add brown sugar and dissolve into the sauce. Add white pepper. Bring the sauce to a boil and boil for 2-3 minutes. Remove from heat
3. Heat up about a cup of oil in your wok to about medium heat. Add the beef slices to the wok and cook for 3 minutes
4. Remove the meat from the wok with a slotted spoon and drain on paper towels. Drain all of the oil from the wok expect about a tablespoon. Add onions to the wok and stir fry for 2 minutes. Add the steak back to the wok and pour in the sauce. Cook while stirring until the sauce began to bubble

Here are the garlic noodles (I actually used lo-mein noodles this time because that’s all my store had)

Close-up of the sauce for the garlic noodles

And here they are all mixed together!

I was a little nervous about walking away from the skillet to take pictures of the beef so this was the only one I managed to take. Still looks tasty though, doesn’t it?

Crispy Honey Chicken

To go along with the garlic noodles, I decided to also try Crepes of Wrath’s recipe for honey chicken (http://crepesofwrath.net/2010/03/08/crispy-honey-chicken/).

Chicken Ingredients

• 2 pounds chicken breasts, cut into bite-sized pieces
• 1 egg
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 1/2 cup cornstarch
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• oil for frying, enough to fill a pot or wok with 1 inch of oil (I used peanut)

Sauce Ingredients

• 3-4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 onion, diced
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1-2 teaspoons sriracha (I completely omitted this because Kamil hates spicy things)
• 1/4 cup honey
• 3 tablespoons low-sodium soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
• 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon sesame oil (optional- I also didn’t use)
• 1/4 cup water + 1 tablespoon cornstarch

Directions

1. Rub salt and pepper into chicken pieces
2. Toss your cut-up chicken with the egg, then with the flour and cornstarch. It will be sticky. Set aside
3. Heat 1-inch of oil in your frying vessel and allow to heat up, never allowing the temperature to rise above 375° F or to start simmering or boiling. The oil should look like it is heating up (it will move around slightly), but you never want to see any bubbles forming until you have added in the chicken
4. Fry the chicken in batches, 8-10 minutes for each batch, until golden and crispy. Check a piece or two to be sure that it’s cooked through, but also to be sure that it’s crispy enough
5. With a slotted spoon, remove the chicken to a cutting board or a plate lined with paper towels and drain. Do this until all of the chicken has been fried; don’t overcrowd the pot, either. It doesn’t matter how many batches you have to do, as the chicken will be warmed again when it is added to the sauce. Be careful when disposing of the oil (allow it to cool completely first)
6. Saute your onion and garlic with about a tablespoon of oil for five minutes or so, until softened
7. Add in the rest of the combined sauce ingredients and stir over medium heat until slightly thickened, then add in the water and cornstarch mixture
8. Stir until thickened, and be careful not to burn it! This shouldn’t take more than 8 minutes or so
9. Add in the fried chicken pieces and stir until well coated

They’re dipped and ready to fry!

First batch, lookin’ good

It definitely didn’t thicken up as much as it was supposed to. I tried adding more honey but I was afraid it was going to burn so I had to take it off

But anyway this is what I came out with, the “sauce” acting as more of a marinade. I tried :/

Garlic Noodles

I used to cook more often than I do now but I’m not terribly good at it so I kind of stopped for a while. However, I saw a recipe for garlic noodles on Crepes of Wrath (http://crepesofwrath.net/2008/10/03/garlic-noodles/) and figured I had to give it a shot since Kamil likes asian cuisine  and all.

Ingredients

• 7 ounces dry Chinese noodles or spaghetti (I could only manage to find 14 oz. of Chinese noodles, so I just doubled the recipe for the sauce)
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1/2 cup chopped green onions
• 2 tablespoons finely minced garlic (about 2 cloves)
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon oyster sauce

Directions

1. Boil a large pot of water and cook the noodles according to package instructions
2. Drain the noodles and wipe the pot clean. Place the noodles back in the pot and set aside. Get another pot or pan and switch the stove to medium-high heat and add the butter
3. When the butter is sizzling and bubbling, add in the green onions and the garlic. Fry for 1 minute until very fragrant, but be careful not to let the garlic burn
4. Add the brown sugar, soy sauce, and oyster sauce and stir well to mix. Add the noodles and toss well to get the sauce evenly distributed throughout the noodles

They were sooo soft when they were done! If “soft” is the right word to use…

Oh man did they smell good!