Pineapple Chicken and Rice

I'm not sure if I ever actually wrote down why I started posting recipes.


Last summer, I cooked the same thing every week.  Scott was bored.  I was bored.

School started and I found myself still cooking the same thing every week and relying more and more on Wan Chai Ferry.  (You know.  The frozen dinners in a bag?  The Spicy Garlic Chicken is my very favorite.  I could/would eat it every day.)  I knew something had to be done.

I started reading food blogs.  I knew I had to start cooking with more variety.  Since I already loved to bake, this was just the next step.

These days, I have a running list of recipes I want to try and dinners that we have the ingredients for.  I shop based on ingredients now, instead of just what looks good.  Slow-cooker recipes are for the weekends, as well as new recipes.  The stand-bys are for during the week.  If I know how something is going to turn out, I'm more likely to make it on a weeknight.  The blogging of recipes gives me something to do, something to post about, and keeps me accountable for trying new things.  

BUT, I still love Wan Chai Ferry, and we still eat it once a month or so.  I truly love the taste, and I have not yet been able to replicate it.  Actually, this is the first time I tried something that could pass for Wan Chai Ferry.


It. is. a. WINNER.  Please make it.

I found the bones for this recipe here.  But I have trouble following recipes.  I took it up a notch with garlic and ginger.  And because I'm the person who refuses to look in the pantry before going shopping, I ended up using a bit of crushed pineapple instead of pineapple chunks. 

Pineapple Chicken and Rice
4-5 chicken breast tenders, cut into bit-size pieces
1/2 cup flour
1 t. salt
1 T. lemon pepper seasoning
Olive oil

1 bell pepper
3/4 cup sugar snap peas
1 medium onion
4-5 green onions
1 can of pineapple chunk, in juice (use about half the pineapple in the stir-fry)

Sauce:
2 t. soy sauce
1 tsp. grated garlic
1 tsp. grated ginger
2/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
Pineapple juice and water to make 1 cup of total liquid
2 T. cornstarch
2 t. chicken bouillon


Rice:
5 cups water
1 1/2 cups jasmine rice  (please, please, please use jasmine rice.  you'll thank me later.)

Mix all of the sauce ingredients together in a small saucepan and boil for 2-3 minutes.  Then let simmer until you're ready for it.

Preheat over to 375 degrees.  Mix together the flour, salt, and lemon pepper.  Dredge the chicken in it.  Heat about 8 T. of olive oil in a frying pan and brown the chicken.  Don't cook it the whole way.  Just give it a crispy coating.

Put the now-crispy chicken into a glass baking dish and cover it with about 2/3 of the sauce.  Bake at 375 for about 20 minutes.

In the same frying pan (pour out excess oil), stir fry the vegetables and pineapple.  Then toss them with the rest of the sauce.  After the chicken has cooked for 20 minutes, add the vegetables and bake for another 15 minutes. 

Make the rice and serve the stir fry over it.  Jasmine rice only needs to cook for about 15 minutes.

Beef Lo Mein

This stuff is SO good.  In fact, I came home from work last Friday exhausted and starving, and I didn't mind making this because it wasn't that much work.  Friday is usually that day when I pull out the last of that week's food reserves.  The very last choice of what I had on a potential menu plan for the week is created on this day. This week, the last of the food reserves was used up on Thursday.  Yesterday we ordered pizza.  However, last Friday I cooked. 

I didn't really start eating Chinese food until about 2 years ago.  My least favorite thing about going out for Chinese is that your clothes (and coat) will smell like a Chinese restaurant until you wash them.  We don't go out for it often, but I do make Chinese at home a lot these days.  Then I notice that my entire house (including my coat) will smell like oil and soy sauce for a day or two.

(Easy) Beef Lo Mein
(Serves 2)
6 oz. of dry spaghetti (almost half the box)
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1T. vegetable oil
1 1/2 cups of chopped fresh broccoli
3/4 cup of thinly sliced onion
1/2 T. of grated fresh ginger 
2-3 garlic cloves, grated
1/2 pound of thinly sliced flank steak
3 T. of beef broth
3 T. of soy sauce
1 1/2 T. of brown sugar


*This is the recipe just about cut in half.  I also customized it a bit.  The original recipe can be found here.  I also forgot to take a picture of it.  I guess we were pretty hungry.  

Cook the spaghetti according to package directions.  After draining, put the noodles back into the hot pot and toss with the sesame oil.
Add the vegetable oil to a large frying pan with high sides.  When hot, cook the broccoli and onion for about 3 minutes.  Add the ginger and garlic, stirring constantly, and cook for another minute.  Add the sirloin and cook for about 5 minutes until it is no longer pink.  The thinner the slices, the quicker it cooks.
In a small bowl, combine soy sauce, brown sugar, and beef broth.
Add the sauce and pasta to the mixture in the skillet.  Cook for a minute or two until it is all heated through.


**Scott thinks it's the ginger that makes this recipe great.  I think it's the sesame oil.  The ginger is a couple of dollars, but you can keep the whole hunk of it in the freezer for a long time, just grating off a bit when you need it.  The sesame oil was less than $2 and I use it ALL the time.  

*UPDATED 4/10/11*

A picture of the finished product!