Orange Chicken with Fried Rice

I can't believe I'm going to say this, but we no longer need to order out for orange chicken. Now, I have a very good crockpot orange chicken recipe (my mom absolutely loves it--she says it's even better the second day) but for real orange chicken, you need it breaded and fried (this coming from a girl who generally prefers her chicken baked or grilled). I've made more than a few variations of it since orange chicken is something Eric and I both love; we almost always order it when we get Chinese. Eric has already perfected fried rice--honestly, I'd rather have his fried rice than a restaurant's fried rice--and I figured out the perfect breading a while ago. So I've been working on the sauce. Soon as Eric tasted it, he told me I nailed it. He also ate leftovers for his lunch and dinner the next day (which is a big deal because he isn't big into leftovers).

Ingredients:
Chicken
3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite-size pieces
3/4 cup cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 cup panko breadcrumbs
2 eggs, beaten
Oil for frying

Orange Sauce
1 1/2 cups water
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
2 1/2 tablespoons soy sauce
3/4 cup orange marmalade 
1/2 teaspoon garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
3 tablespoons cornstarch
2 tablespoons water

Eric's Fried Rice

Toasted Sesame Seeds (optional)

Directions:
Prepare Fried Rice and Toasted Sesame Seeds first.

Chicken
Place the cornstarch, salt, and pepper in a shallow dish and combine. In a second shallow dish, beat the eggs. In a third shallow dish, pour panko breadcrumbs. Dredge the chicken pieces in the cornstarch, dip in egg, then coat in panko.

Heat oil over medium-high heat. In batches, cook chicken until the breading is a golden brown and the meat is cooked all the way through. Place chicken on a paper towel-lined plate.

Orange Sauce
In a large saucepan, combine 1 1/2 cup water, vinegar, soy sauce, marmalade, garlic, and red pepper flakes. Over medium heat, bring to a boil.

In a small bowl or glass, dissolve 3 tablespoons of cornstarch into 2 tablespoons of water. Slowly pour into sauce. Stir until sauce reaches the desired thickness.

Pour sauce over chicken and sprinkle with toasted sesame seeds (you don't have to do the sesame seeds, but Eric and I have discovered that they make everything better). Serve with fried rice.

Arya sulking because she was exiled from the kitchen while we cooked.

Enjoy!

~Krissy

More Chicken Recipes:
Baked Garlic Chicken
Chicken Enchiladas with Fire-Roasted Tomatoes
Chicken Patties
Jalapeno Popper Chicken
Corn and Black Bean Skillet Chicken 
Parmesan Chicken Casserole 
Pizza Inspired Chicken  

Orange Chicken in a Slow Cooker

Slow cooker or crockpot recipes make cooking so easy and food so incredibly flavorful. When I came across an orange chicken slow cooker recipe, I knew I had to try it. Eric and I are both HUGE orange chicken fans. When we order Chinese, it's usually orange chicken and fried rice. Fortunately, Eric makes a mean fried rice (I actually prefer his rice over that of any restaurant). So I made the chicken, he made the rice, and we had one yummy dinner.

Recipe adapted from here.

Ingredients:
4 or 5 boneless skinless chicken breasts (frozen or thawed, I used frozen)
3/4 cup orange marmalade
3/4 cup barbecue sauce (we used Sweet Baby Ray, our all time favorite BBQ sauce)
2 tablespoons soy sauce

Directions:
Place the chicken breasts in the bottom of the slow cooker. Pour the marmalade, barbecue sauce, and soy sauce over the chicken. Cover and set slow cooker to low. Cook for 4 hours. Partially uncover the slow cooker so some of the liquid will escape; this will thicken your sauce. Cook for another 3 to 4 hours. You can serve breasts whole, cut them into pieces, or shred them. Serve over fried rice.

Eric's amazing fried rice!

Enjoy!

~Krissy

More Slow Cooker Recipes
Alfredo Green Bean Casserole
Creamy Butternut Squash Soup
Hot Spinach and Artichoke Dip
Pumpkin Butter 
Tomato and Artichoke Chicken 

Eric's Fried Rice

Eric and I both love food. While I do most of the actually cooking, he does participate in the recipe development, offering more than "I like it," "I hate it," or "it needs more salt." He takes his time and gives real thought to what would make a dish better. A few weeks ago we had homemade pasties (if you don't know what a pastie is, click here) bought from a local church event. His was beef, mine turkey, both with rutabaga and onion inside. While the pastry dough was to die for, the inside was a bit dry and flavorless--though I did discover that I like rutabaga. Eric immediately wanted me to try to make my own, but with my diced rosemary potatoes and some type of sauce inside. Cooking is a collaborative effort for us. But Eric does have a couple recipes of his own that he always cooks--seared parmesan chicken and fried rice.

After extensive research and a number of hit or miss attempts, Eric finally got it just right. He now does fried rice better than any restaurant out there. It basically comes down to two key tricks: cold rice and sesame oil.

Since Eric doesn't measure anything out other than the rice, this is more of a guideline than a precise recipe.

We were up north at my parents' cabin so we didn't have our wok and things got a little messy.

 Ingredients: 
3 cups instant white rice, prepared and refrigerated for at least 24 hours or frozen for at least 4 hours
soy sauce, to taste (Eric prefers Kikkoman. I prefer low-sodium)
about 1 1/2 cups frozen peas and carrots, prepared
2 to 3 eggs, depending on how much you like eggs
sesame oil
2 cups prepared chicken, shredded, optional

Directions:
Prepare your rice according to package directions. If you want rice for tomorrow's dinner, place in the refrigerator. If you're not good at planning your meals ahead of time--we're not--place the rice in the freezer for at least four hours. Refrigerating or freezing the rice prevents it from soaking up the oil and turning into mush.

Scramble and cook your eggs then set aside.

Cook the peas and carrots according to package directions. Set aside.

Heat the sesame oil in a wok or large, deep skillet over medium-high heat. Add the rice. Continuously toss or stir so all the rice becomes coated in the oil and fried. Add eggs, vegetables, and chicken. Toss. Add soy sauce to taste. Cook until the food is thoroughly warmed.

Fried rice, shrimp in an herb butter sauce, parmesan tomatoes, and zucchini bites.

Eric has made this for both our families and they've both raved about. In fact, Eric's mom made his rice herself not too long ago and it turned out stupendous. And while we were up north with my parent a few weeks ago, Eric taught my mom how to make it.

Enjoy!

~Krissy

Shrimp in an Herb Butter Sauce

Oh how I love shrimp. As a kid it was the only type of seafood I'd eat. Since then I have expanded my palate to include different types of white fish meat, crab, and lobster. Shrimp may still be my favorite. Luckily Eric and my parents like it too. While shrimp can be a healthy dish, I made it not so healthy with this butter sauce, but sometimes you just have to indulge. And this sauce is worth the indulgence. (My mom thought it was so delicious that she couldn't bring herself to throw out the little extra sauce that was left over).

Shrimp, fried rice, grilled zucchini, and grilled parmesan tomatoes

Ingredients:
1 pound frozen pre-cooked shrimp, de-veined, shelled, and thawed
2 sticks of unsalted butter
1 tablespoon dried parsley
1 tablespoon dried dill
1 tablespoon dried basil
2 tablespoon, fresh chives, minced
2 tablespoon garlic, minced
1/4 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon Worchestershire sauce
1/2 tablespoon hot sauce

Directions:
Heat shrimp. You can do this on the stove top, in the oven, or on the grill. Since it was in the 90s over Fourth of July weekend, we grilled it. You could probably also heat it right in the sauce since it's precooked. Set aside.

My mom insists on grilling on foil. Less mess.

In a large skillet, melt the butter over medium heat. Once it is melted, stir in the rest of the ingredients. Bring to a boil then reduce to a simmer. Simmer for about fifteen minutes. Toss in shrimp and serve.

My mom wanted to learn how to make fried rice and since Eric is an expert at it, he taught her and we had fried rice with our shrimp.

Normally he makes it in a wok, not a skillet, hence the rice everywhere.

I would love to share his fried rice recipe with you, but it's not really a recipe. He refuses to take the time to measure out how much soy sauce, sesame oil, or vegetables he uses. However, I will share the basics of making fried rice in the future.

We also made my zucchini chips and baked parmesan tomatoes  to go with dinner, except we grilled them instead of baked them. While they turned out delicious, I think I still prefer them baked.

It was such a delicious meal for our last night up north.

Enjoy!

~Krissy