CEiMB: Chicken Chop Suey

It’s Thursday again, so here is the latest CEiMB offering! This week we made Chicken Chop Suey, and this recipe was hosted by Ali of The Healthy Hostess. I think one of my favorite parts of participating in this group is exploring the other members’ blogs as they host. Check out Ali’s blog – she has a lot of great recipes and tips for entertaining and green cleaning!

As for the Chicken Chop Suey, I have to admit that I didn’t think chop suey was a real dish. I had heard the term before, but had never had it. Maybe I didn’t think it was real because I had only heard of it on TV? Who knows.

This recipe included another of Ellie’s extremely long ingredient lists, but that didn’t bother me as I had most of the ingredients on hand…or so I thought. As I was making the dish, I almost felt like it was a comedy of errors – so many things went wrong!

As you can see in the picture, my chop suey included broccoli instead of cabbage. When I cut open the cabbage to prep it for the recipe, I discovered it had succumbed to dry rot. It was mottled all throughout the cabbage, not just on a few leaves, so into the trash can it went.

You may also notice white rice on my platter instead of brown. I was SO sure I had a big bag of brown rice in my pantry, but when I went to get it I couldn’t find it anywhere! I was thinking “Where is my brown rice? I KNOW I have some!” Oh wait, I used it a few weeks ago to try to soak water out of my cell phone after it took a trip through the washing machine. Silly me.

Finally, my wonton skins almost burned while I was distracted with the above problems and my desperate search to find a substitute for cooking sherry (guess what – water works just fine).

Even with all of the problems, this recipe was a winner. I did not use the amount of oil called for in the recipe because it seemed excessive, so I used cooking spray on the wontons, only two teaspoons of vegetable oil and only one tablespoon of sesame oil instead of two. I did really enjoy the combination of chicken broth, soy sauce, sesame oil and cornstarch to make a stir fry sauce, though, and I’ll probably use it again in the future and just mix and match the other ingredients according to what I have in the refrigerator and pantry. The sesame seeds and wonton skins added a nice crunch, and I also sliced a few extra green onions to garnish as well.

Thanks Ali, it was fun cooking with you this week!

Jambalaya

Hi everyone! I hope you are having a great Sunday.

This was my guest post that ran last week on RhodeyGirl Tests, but I decided to post it again on my blog so I can archive it. This is one of my favorite recipes and I hope you enjoy it!

A few years ago, I took a short cooking course with a personal chef who specialized in Mediterranean and Cajun cuisine, and one of my favorite recipes from the course was Jambalaya. This is definitely a favorite in my house and is requested often!

Over the years, I have made a few healthful substitutes that lighten the dish but, in my opinion, retain most of its integrity. For example, I have omitted the ham and substituted turkey smoked sausage for regular, halved the total amount of mean, upped the amount of veggies, and used low sodium beef broth instead of double strength.

I would also like to say that this recipe is obviously not for vegetarians, but I think it could be turned into one! Just substitute vegetable broth for the liquid and omit the meat, and possibly add cubed tofu as a substitute. I would definitely let it get nice and brown before adding any other ingredients.

Enjoy!

Jambalaya

serves 5-6

• 1 T. olive oil
• ½ lb. turkey smoked sausage, cut into small chunks
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1 large bell pepper, chopped
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 1 c. uncooked Jasmine rice
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 t. dried thyme leaves
• 1 14 oz. can low sodium beef broth
• ¼ c. water
• 1 14. oz. can diced tomatoes
• ½ lb. cooked chicken OR raw, peeled and deveined shrimp

Heat the oil in a Dutch oven or deep skillet over medium high heat, and then cook sausage until browned, about 5-6 minutes.

Stir in onion, bell pepper, and garlic and cook for two minutes to soften.

Add rice, salt, pepper, and thyme and stir until rice is golden.

Add the broth and water, stir to combine, and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to low and simmer for 20 minutes.

Add the tomatoes and chicken/shrimp. Stir to combine, and cook until tomatoes and chicken are heated through or the shrimp are cooked.

Notes:

- Add two celery stalks for a true trinity (celery, onion, bell pepper). I personally hate it!

- Chop the vegetables into large pieces so they do not overcook during the long simmer.

- Although I love whole grain brown rice, I always use Jasmine for this recipe because it is more flavorful and I prefer the texture. You can substitute brown with great results.

- I think the best tomatoes to use are diced with green chilies.

- This is delicious with a little (or a lot) of hot sauce!

- For a slightly different but still delicious taste, garnish with chopped fresh mint leaves.

Dinner

Last week, my boyfriend and I went to a new Hibachi Express restaurant. I was satisfied with the food, but the BF was disappointed in the amount of food/quality of the food for the price. I decided to try making it at home tonight, except with A LOT more veggies. I started with 1/2 onion, baby bella mushrooms, 1 zucchini, and a small broccoli crown, which I stir-fried on high heat with 1 T. oil and salt and pepper:





I also made some fried rice with some diced carrot, diced onion, leftover brown rice, and low sodium soy sauce. For the chicken, I tried to find some kind of sauce that was low calorie and low sodium (since we already had a little soy sauce in the rice). I found the perfect sauce:




Per tablespoon, this garlic sauce has 15 calories and less than half the sodium of light soy sauce. Also, the flavor is really strong, so I only used 2 T. for a little over half a pound of chicken. It got really thick and stuck to the chicken nicely as it heated. I highly recommend it (I found it at Lowe's Foods). Plus, it's organic!

The BF also requested the sweet carrots that they serve at the hibachi restaurant. I was a little short on time, so I used the Green Giant microwaveable honey carrots. They tasted good but had too much butter in the sauce. If anyone has a good recipe for sweet/glazed/honeyed carrots, please send it my way! I plan to make this meal again and would like to make my own carrots next time.

My plate (on a small salad plate):





I ate approximately 1/2 c. rice, 1/4 c. each chicken and carrots, and LOTS of veggies.

By the way, before we ate, the BF said "If this is good, we're never going back to the restaurant." His final verdict: "Better than the restaurant!"

I'll take that.