Asian Sesame Chicken

I don't know what happened at your house in the last 18 hours, but we received almost 24 inches of fresh new powder overnight. Seriously... 2 feet!! Where is all this new snow supposed to go. The piles on the edges of our driveway and sidewalk are so high, there isn't anymore room for snow. Craziness! I spent the morning shoveling, building snow forts, shoveling, helping The Princess and Brother #2 get unstuck and shoveling again. At least I have had my exercise for today, shoveling for my arms and packing down snow (with my feet) at the top of the highest drift for a snow fort worked my legs pretty good. But, now onto the recipe for today.

When The Princess's daddy and I were first married, we moved to South Korea to teach English. While our experience teaching wasn't the best, we LOVED the food. The Princess's daddy had lived there before for 2 years as a missionary, but it was my first experience in an Asian country.  While I had always been a fan of Asian food, eating it in country made it an even bigger favorite of mine. Since having kids, we have continued the tradition of eating a lot of Korean (and Asian food in general) at our house. We gave Brother #1 kimchi at the ripe old age of 1 (which he loved until the heat hit). Despite that incident,  he still loves all Asian food (as do Brother #2 and The Princess). He prefers Asian food over pizza.

One of the hardest parts of The Princess's allergies (for us) that most people wouldn't think about is that we are unable to eat at Asian restaurants. Most obvious is the egg (which she isn't allergic to anymore so that really isn't a concern). What is least obvious but can be most scary is the use of peanuts and/or peanut oils. The best Korean (and Asian) food seems to be in small town restaurants (not chain restaurants) where the owners/cooks don't speak much English. This makes it very difficult to ask about the use of peanuts and peanut oil. The risk of cross contamination is always high at most Asian restaurants and not a chance we are willing to take.

So, that leaves to me do my best at cooking Asian food at home. We have tried many different recipes and have found some that we love. I'm not sure how "authentic" they are, but we like them and I guess that is all the matters. This recipe is probably one of The Princess's favorite recipes of all time!  It is also much healthier than the restaurant version because it isn't deep fried.

This can be paired with plain rice or stir-fry. I hate to admit it (even though you will notice by the pictures) but we mostly eat our Asian food with white rice (GULP!). For everything else, we use brown rice, but somehow, brown rice just doesn't go as well with Asian food. We also like to serve it with a big salad topped with  homemade Asian Ginger salad dressing (maybe I will post this recipe in a future post - if anyone wants it). We like to use our Korean dishes (which we brought back from Korea) and chopsticks - because everything Asian tastes better with chopsticks.

SESAME CHICKEN

1/2 cup whole grain flour

1/2 tsp black pepper

1/8 tsp fresh ground ginger*

1/4 tsp garlic salt

1/4 tsp crushed red pepper flakes (or more if you like it spicy!)

Dash of ground cloves

Dash of cinnamon

5 skinless, boneless chicken breasts, cut into chunks

2 Tbsp. olive oil

1/3 cup teriyaki sauce **

1/3 cup raw honey

1 Tbsp low-sodium soy sauce (or Bragg's Amino Liquid)

2 Tbsp. toasted sesame seeds (these can be found at Asian Markets or you can toast your own)

Heat oil in a large skillet or wok over medium-heat.

In a large resealable bag, combine flour, pepper, ginger, garlic salt, red pepper flakes, cloves and cinnamon. Place chicken into the bag and shake well to coat (make sure the chicken pieces aren't sticking together but that all the individual pieces are coated on all sides).

Place chicken in skillet and brown on both sides, about 5 minutes.

While chicken is browning, make the sauce by combining teriyaki sauce**, honey and soy sauce.

When chicken is done, reduce heat to low. Mix in the teriyaki mixture and stir until sauce thickens. Shake in sesame seeds and serve immediately.

* You can store fresh ginger in a ziploc bag in you freezer. When you want to use it,  simply grate off what you need, no need to thaw it. Fresh ginger tastes much, much better than ground ginger from a jar.

I realize there are no sesame seeds on this chicken. 

I ran out and wan't about to drive 30+ miles to the nearest Asian store to buy more just for this picture

**TERIYAKI SAUCE
I prefer to make my own teriyaki sauce. Store bought sauce has high-fructose corn syrup and is full of preservatives. It is super simple to make at home and can be stored in the fridge for up to a month.

1/4 cup low-sodium soy sauce (or Bragg's Amino Liquid)

1 cup water

1/2 tsp fresh ground ginger

1/4 tsp garlic powder (or 2 minces cloves)

1-2 Tbsp raw honey

3 Tbsp sucanat (or equal amounts of agave nectar)

2 Tbsp cornstarch

1/4 cup cold water

In a small sauce pan, combine all ingredients except cornstarch and cold water.Begin heating over medium heat.

Measure out the cornstarch into small bowl and add the cold water (you can use tap water, just make sure it runs until it is really cold). Mix the cornstarch and water well, than add to the teriyaki mixture.

Raise the heat to medium and let it come to a boil. Boil until it comes to a consistency that you like. If it becomes to think, you can simply add more water.

Store any leftover sauce in an air-tight container in the fridge. The sauce becomes very thick after it has been refrigerated. You can add water before refrigerating or after to bring it back to the consistency you like.

Recipe from my recipe book (We have been cooking it for so long, I honestly can't remember where I got the recipe)

Jana