Chicken Satay & Curry Fried Rice

Yesterday was a cooking/baking day for me! I prepared the Chicken Satay early so that it could marinate for several hours (I highly recommend doing this, or allowing it to marinate over night). I also made my own fried rice...it wasn't your traditional fried rice from a restaurant, but it turned out very tasty. I also made Grasshopper Pie and Reeses Peanut Butter Brownies. :) I think tonight, I will take the night off from cooking, although, I did make some cornbread this morning for breakfast.

Chicken satay is a Thai dish. If you have a peanut allergy, this is not a recipe for you as it contains peanut butter. The original recipe came from Quick and Easy Chicken Dishes, a cookbook I have had for some time. I will post a bibliography for it at the bottom of this post. I did make some changes to the recipe...so this is not their original recipe.

Ingredients:

• 1 package chicken tenderloins (or you can use a package of 4 breast fillets, cut into cubes)
• 1/2 cup water
• 2 tablespoons peanut butter (I only had crunchy peanut butter and it worked fine)
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1 teaspoons chili paste (I could only find garlic chili sauce at my store, so I used 2 teaspoons of that) HINT: look in the Asian food section of the store for this the cookbook calls it sambal oelek
• 1 teaspoon grated ginger (I found it in a jar in the Asian section of the store)
• 1 onion finely chopped

Make the marinade first and allow chicken to marinate for at least 2 hours, but the longer the better. Over night works as well. To make the marinade, combine everything but the chicken and stir it all together. I suggest mixing it all first then adding the onions. Then add chicken, cover and marinate in the refrigerator. 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place chicken in a baking dish, and put some of the onions from the sauce on top. Do not add the sauce to the baking dish. Bake chicken for about 30 minutes ensuring it is cooked thoroughly. Place sauce in a pan and cook on medium heat, allowing it to boil and thicken a little. Make sure to stir it frequently. Serve sauce on the side for dipping.

Fried Rice

There are many recipes online for fried rice. I looked at a few and also took what I have seen the cooks do at Asian restaurants...the ones where they cook in front of you at the table. :) I decided since the chicken satay is a Thai dish, to add some curry powder to the recipe. To prepare...you need to precook some white rice and refrigerate it for several hours until it is cold. TIP: I just got a rice cooker and I LOVE it! The rice comes out perfect! For the veggies, I was being lazy and just used a bag of frozen steam in the bag veggies. I used the mix with green beans, water chestnuts, broccoli, and carrots. If you want to use fresh veggies, just be sure to dice and cook them ahead of time.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups cooked, cold white rice
• 1 bag frozen veggies (steam in the bag as directed on the package)
• 3 tablespoons butter
• 1/8 cup soy sauce (add more or less to taste)
• black pepper
• garlic powder
• curry powder
• 2 eggs
• splash of lemon juice

Steam and dice up the veggies. In a small pan, scramble the eggs. In a large skillet or wok, turn heat on to medium and melt butter. Add soy sauce, garlic, pepper, curry powder (just a few dashes), and lemon juice. Mix it up, then add rice and egg and stir well. Cook until rice is hot, stirring frequently. Mix in veggies. I like to do a taste test to see if I need to add more of any of the spices or soy sauce before I serve it up.

Cheers!
CC


Bibliography
Quick and Easy Chicken Dishes, Trident Press International, Second Edition, 2003, Page 10