Ambitious Deliciousness – Dont Eat Lazy.

Hope everyone had a delicious and fun Thanksgiving! We have so much to be thankful for. This year, I’m thankful for my awesome family, friend, delicious food and you!

After attending the Hellman’s Mayo event, I was sent home with some ingredients so that I could try these dishes at home. I happened to have some light Hellman’s mayo, so I used that. I didn’t see much of a difference in taste, which is a win!

On the left is a raw kale salad with sauteed orange bell peppers, along with two kinds of chicken: one with corn flakes, and one with panko flakes. One of them tasted better than the other. Can you guess which one?

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As a member of the Foodbuzz community, I got a chance to be a participate in the Foodbuzz Tastemakers program, which allows bloggers to taste and review new products. I’ve signed up for products before, but I always got to the “party” too late. But this time, I managed to get in there just in time, and as a result, received this in the mail:

If you recall, my last attempt at making wings was a disaster. But I was determined to make buffalo wings again, since I had a better reason now. Once I opened the bottle, the spicy sauce smell invaded my nostrils, which immediately made my mouth water. As you can see, it only takes me two seconds for me to go from “I’m not hungry” to “I’m starving and want to eat wings right now” mode.

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As I’ve mentioned before, Chicken Marsala was the main entree for Mother’s Day dinner this year. This dish is usually made with breaded chicken breasts, then finished with a sauce made from shallots, mushrooms, and Marsala wine. This Italian wine is easy to come by, and I was ecstatic to find a bottle for $4.

My favorite part of this recipe was sandwiching the chicken fillets between sheets of saran wrap and then pounding it with a heavy pot. This made the chicken more tender. The next time you feel like hitting something, try making this dish. (I promise I don’t have anger management issues. )

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I would hardly call myself a football fan, but enjoy spending Superbowl Sunday with friends and having an excuse to eat wings. I loove buffalo wings! Yet I only have a soft spot for the ones with crispy skin, immersed in sauce. And that usually means they’re deep fried. Sometimes, twice!

Fortunately, I came across a recipe that said I could make wings with a crispy skin WITHOUT frying! So I followed that recipe, then made my own Korean sauce, along with some pickled radish. Look at this photo below. Doesn’t it look awesome?

It’s too bad. Cuz I ended up throwing out the entire thing.

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Three cup chicken is one of my favorite Taiwanese dishes to eat! It’s a savory soy sauce based dish with basil. Some say that the dish got the name because the recipe calls for equal parts of soy sauce, sesame oil, and rice wine.

I thought I would try to prepare all the ingredients into separate bowls prior to cooking. It was a drastic change from my usual routine of throwing seasonings into the pot as I go. It took a while to do! Do you like it? Enjoy it then… I may not do it again for a long, long time.

Note that this dish requires Taiwanese basil, which looks like this:

Basil adds such an interesting flavor to this dish. Whoever created this recipe deserves a medal! I was able to use the sauces I bought earlier to make Pad See Ew, which is an added bonus.

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Poaching is a great way to cook chicken, especially if you are sick of tough, dry, chicken. Brining is another good way to prevent dryness, but I’m really happy to have discovered this method! Here are a couple of the dishes I made with poached chicken.

I made cold sesame noodles, using Bittman’s recipe.

And here is chicken salad with fresh herbs.

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I bought four pieces of chicken thighs the other day and wanted to experiment with a new recipe. Then I found a lemon in my fridge. But I was scratching my head because don’t even remember what I bought it for!

Do you ever forget about what items are in your fridge? I try to write down what I bought on a notepad attached to the fridge door but it still happens! I’ve found slimy cucumber along with some forgotten fresh basil leaves that had turned black… what a waste!

For this dish, I would recommend using chicken thighs with skin for more flavor. I added a little bit of water to balance out the acidity.

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I’m not sure if that’s a good loose translation for this dish. If you have a better one, by all means, please let me know.

Over the weekend, my friend J came over and we made this dish together. It was my first time making it and her first time eating Dak Doritang. =)

My mom and I share our dislike for meat with a gamey aftertaste, commonly found in dark meat. She suggested blanching the chicken with some ginger and garlic, then draining all of the liquid from it before cooking.

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I’ve never had to make a turkey before, so I thought I’d act like a real grown up and roast a turkey for the very first time.

My brilliant plan – to roast a turkey for a potluck I was hosting last weekend.

Reality:

1. Look up every possible turkey recipe. Figure out what to do, what to avoid, what I need to purchase.
2. Talk about it to anyone and everyone who would listen. Listen closely for tips.
3. Thursday rolls around and upon realizing that I didn’t have time/room/bucket big enough to brine/(insert excuse here), I chickened out.

So that’s why this post is about chicken, and not turkey. Sorry about that, folks.

If you want a really yummy chicken, it’s important to buy a good, quality chicken. Free range or organic would be a great investment. I ended up with a freshly killed chicken, which tasted amazing, but with a couple of unexpected, well, surprises. Read below to find out.

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