Better Than Take-out!!

I love Chinese take-out. Love it. For us though, we really have to be committed to take-out to order it. For us, Chinese take-out means at least a 30 minute drive, plus the cost of the food. And since I can never make up my mind, we always order a ton of food so I can have a little bit of everything. What I don't excel at is cooking Chinese food. I know part of that is that I don't have a wok for things like a stir-fry, but I really think part of my problem is a lack of good recipes.

Well, last week I was making this week's menu plan, and I decided that I needed to make some old favorites. So I was flipping through an old Cooking Light annual when I stumbled on this recipe that I'd always wanted to try, but never got around to. So it went on the menu. Honey-Ginger Chicken Bites were billed as an appetizer, but I decided it would be okay to serve it over rice with some veggies on the side. Oh. My. God. This chicken is mouth-watering good. It is very similar to the sesame chicken that we order- only this one is actually better. The recipe called for chicken thighs, and I could not find boneless, skinless thighs anywhere, so I settled for some bone in which I had to de-bone myself, and then some chicken breasts as well. Next time I will make it with only chicken thighs. The thigh bites were tender, juicy, and perfectly caramelized with honey-ginger sauce. The breast bites kind of dried out a little, and while still tasty, the thighs were much more flavorful. Next time I will also eliminate the orange peel, it really didn't add to the dish, and it was a slightly off flavor. The only other change I would make would be to double the sauce when serving over rice.



This was an excellent dinner served with some basmati rice and some sesame oil roasted broccoli and mushrooms on the side. Zander scarfed his down, Abigail not so much, although I'm hoping she'll try again next time because this was an instant hit and will be repeated when I'm in the mood for a take-out night. Now I just need to figure out how to make awesome pot-stickers, and I'll be in Chinese hog heaven.