Stay in Chinese Food: Orange Teriyaki Chicken and Fried Rice

Hey everyone!  I love chinese food but even if it's usually super cheap, I just can't afford it whenever I want it on a college budget.  SOO I found these recipes that are almost as good as the real thing.  On the menu:  Orange Teriyaki Chicken with Fried Rice.

 

And here's how to make it!! 

Orange Teriyaki Chicken Recipe

Ingredients

2 tablespoons olive oil

1/2 tablespoon ginger
1 tablespoon orange zest
1 garlic clove, minced
1/4 cup rice vinegar
3 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons orange marmalade
1 tablespoon freshly squeezed orange juice
1 tablespoon honey
pinch of red pepper flakes
1 1/4 lb boneless, skinless chicken thighs, cut into bite sized pieces

Sauce:  over medium heat, add the olive oil.  Next add the ginger, orange zest, and garlic.  The original recipe calls for fresh ginger, but I didn't have any on hand so I just used ground ginger from a container.  If you do this too, make sure you use less than what the original recipe says, otherwise it'll have too strong a ginger taste. 

Cook for about 1-2 minutes while stirring.  Add the rice vinegar, soy sauce, sugar, orange marmalade, orange juice, honey, and pepper flakes.  I didn't really measure out a pinch for that either. I just sprinkled until I thought it was spicy enough.  Bring to a simmer and allow to simmer for about 5 minutes to thicken the sauce.  Separate half of the sauce into another bowl to serve with cooked chicken.

Here's what the sauce looked like when done:

Unfortunately, I don't have a grill... so I settled for the good old George Foreman counter grill haha.  

 

Place the chicken on the grill and brush the sauce once the pieces have started to cook, turning over every few minutes.  I added more sauce every time I turned the pieces also, trying to get them extra yummy.  Depending on how thick the pieces are, they should take about 5 minutes.

Here they are finished:

Fried Rice Recipe 

Ingredients (mine were lacking from the original recipe because I didn't have some ingredients)

3 cups cooked white rice (translates to 1 cup uncooked rice)

3 tbs sesame oil

1 cup frozen peas and corn (defrosted)

2 tsp minced garlic

2 eggs, slightly beaten

1/4 cup soy sauce

 

On medium-high heat, heat the sesame oil in a large pan.  Add the vegetables and garlic and fry until tender.  

 

Lower the heat to about medium and add the eggs.  

 

Scramble the eggs until cooked

Add the rice and soy sauce and mix together well.  Keep this on the fire until it is thoroughly heated.

Next time I make this rice, I'll edit to include everything else I use... bean sprouts and baby corn perhaps?  Those are my favorites!

 

Orange Teriyaki Chicken Original Recipe 

Original Fried Rice Recipe 

 

Update and Sopapilla Cheesecake

Happy first day of August!! I've been a flake again, I apologize.... but not to worry! I've made lots of things so expect to see several updates coming from me this week!

First order of business, do you like my new background/banner?! I did it last night when I should have been working on my paper, but I found the background and just needed to change it right then.  It's not pink, but I still really like it.  Damask is one of my favorite patterns!

Second, has anyone been watching the Olympics? Because I have been watching them like it's my job.  I teared up twice yesterday when I watched the fab five won gold, once live in the morning and again in the evening for the rerun.  Oh and again when the Brits won their first gold by the rowing girls.  Good grief.

Now on to the dessert....

Quite possibly the easiest adaptation of cheesecake ever created: the Sopapilla Cheesecake!  yum yum just look at those, I wish I still had some!

Ingredients

2 cans of Pillsbury crescent rolls

2 8oz Neufchâtel cheese, softened

1 cup sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/4 cup butter

Cinnamon and sugar, to sprinkle

Preheat to 350 degrees F

I bought the rolls that came out in strips, so what I did was stretched the strips out both length and width wise of one can of rolls and pressed them together (as to not leave any gaps between strips) on to an ungreased pan.  I couldn't tell you what the exact measurements of this pan are but my guess is 9x13.  Then, combine the cheese, sugar, and vanilla in a separate bowl.  

I used Neufchâtel cheese because it's 1/3 less the fat of regular cream cheese, but when I was in the store the other day I noticed that the reduced fat cream cheese is 1/2 the fat. So next time I'm just going to used the low fat cream cheese, you could use either though.  Neufchâtel cheese tastes almost exactly the same as cream cheese and no one noticed when I served them this cheesecake ;)

 

 Spread the mixture over the over the dough strips

 

Unroll the second can of crescent rolls over the cream cheese mixture using the same procedure to stretch it out as before.  Melt the bit of butter and spread over top and sprinkle cinnamon and sugar.  I didn't do this part by measurement, just sprinkled what I thought was enough.  It looks like a lot of sugar in the before photo but it came out perfect.

 

Bake at 350 degree F for 20-30 minutes.  You can also tell when it looks done.  The dough looks cripsy and not squishy like before.  I must tell you that this smelled absolutely irresistible.  Even while it was in the oven, I wish my house smelled like these all day long.

Original Recipe