Mongolian Chicken

Steve, the Executive Chef in our home, created yet another super delicious dish, Mongolian Chicken! Ladies, I know you are all wondering if this amazing man has a single brother and I’m sorry to inform you there are none. Alas, he only has a sister. And well, she’s taken too, lol. There is only one Steve and he’s mine all mine! LOL But I will be kind and share his fantastic culinary creations with you!

Ingredients:

• 2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken breast (omitted from photo above)

• 2 teaspoons vegetable oil

• 1/4 teaspoon of ginger

• 1 tablespoon of minced garlic *

• 1/2 cup Marca Pina soy sauce **

• 1/2 cup water

• 3/4 cup brown sugar (light or dark)

• 1 cup vegetable oil

• 2/3 cup cornstarch

• 2 tablespoons finely diced onions (omitted from photo above)

*Tip #1: We use Spice World Minced Garlic anytime fresh garlic is needed for a recipe! (see photo above)

**Tip #2: We store our soy sauce in a spray bottle (purple bottle in pic above). Use a spray bottle filled with soy sauce to spray it on steaks while they are grilling!

Directions:

Heat 2 teaspoons of vegetable oil in a medium saucepan over medium-to-low heat. Add ginger, garlic, onions, soy sauce and water to the pan (if you are following my blog, you can add the onions you previously diced up from the freezer). Dissolve the brown sugar in the sauce, then increase the heat to medium and boil the sauce for 2-3 minutes or until the sauce thickens. Remove it from the heat.

Slice chicken breast into slivers about 2-3 inches long. Place cornstarch in a large Ziplock. Add the sliced chicken breasts to the Ziploc and shake bag well to coat the chicken slices. Leave chicken slices in Ziploc for approximately 10 minutes.

While waiting, heat up oil in pan over medium heat. Add the chicken to the oil and sauté until brown and fully cooked. Remove chicken from oil onto a plate covered in a paper towel (to soak up some of the oil). Add the drained chicken to the sauce. Put meat and sauce back onto the burner at medium-to-low heat.  Let chicken sauce simmer until warm. Serve over rice.

I thought I would share my secret and every Chinese restaurants secret to the perfect steamed rice…it is all about the rice cooker!

As you can see, our rice cooker has it’s share of dings through the years. It’s also quite ugly, lol. It stays hidden in the cupboard above the sink when not in use. A good rice cooker is well worth the investment (not those cheap ones with a glass lid). You fill up the enclosed pan halfway with rice. Then you run cold water over your rice, sticking your clean hand in there swirling the dry rice around. You are essentially loosening up the dust that settles on dry rice. Dump the water out (without dumping any rice down the sink) and repeat until water is clearer. Then add cold water that will be used to cook the rice. How much? My mother taught me to add water up to the first bend of your index finger (see pic below). It works every time giving us the perfect rice…not soggy, not hard and not too sticky!

Then return the pan to the rice cooker and push the button down to “Cook”. When it is done, it will pop up and remain on “Warm” until you unplug your rice cooker. Tadah! It’s that easy to make perfect steamed rice! Now go spoon some Mongolian Chicken over your rice and enjoy one yummy meal!