What do you do when you have leftovers in the frig and you want to use them up? I wish I could say just use them, but I must admit I cheated here... I went out to buy the boneless chicken breast.
AND my mom thought she was doing me a favor and picked up an ingredient I needed for the coleslaw recipe (you don't see it here), but I made a mistake (and corrected it) and she got the wrong ingredient.
Okay, here's the story.
I wanted to include with our dinner, a great Oriental salad that I always see at our church potluck dinners. I finally got the recipe at the last dinner we had there, and I had 'almost' all the ingredients (was missing the salted sunflower seeds). My mom called to say she wanted to stop by for some tea and a visit and, "oh btw, do you need anything at the store??" ...GREAT, "yes, I need
sunflower seeds. Stop at Ocean State Job Lot and picked some up please."
Well, when she got to OSJL, she called to ask again what I needed and I told her "
sesame seeds". She showed up with sesame seeds and I said... "Uh oh, you got the wrong thing"..."No, I didn't, you said sesame seeds". Oh crap! She offered to go back out (it's only up the road a mile or so)..no, that's okay, we'll manage (that's the Yankee talking in me). So I decided since I had so much sesame seeds in the house (already had a jar in the cupboard), I'd make sesame chicken. I didn't have a recipe but I'm known to fly by the seat of my pants pretty darn well, so ... let's go.
Recipe: (amounts can vary, as I do no measuring, as you can see below. Sorry)
* 5 boneless chicken breasts, sliced into 1/4" strips (they look like medallions, not really strips)
* 1 med-larg onion, sliced thin
* one or two green peppers, julienned
* a handful or so of grape tomatoes, sliced in half (mine were starting to look shribbly, so I needed to use them up soon)
* baby spinach leaves (these I also had leftover in the bag and I picked through to pull out all those that didn't look bruised or slimy -- lol, doesn't that sould appetizing! No, really, I only used the good ones and I washed them off under the faucet. Really, they were good!)
*sesame seeds (whatever it took to roll them in or sprinkle on them)
*olive oil, (I think I used truffle oil)
* salt free seasoning, then add salt if you want, and a grind or three of black pepper, some maple garlic seasoning (whatever seasonings you really want)
I sauteed the onion and pepper in the olive oil (large fry pan) until 'barely' softened. Remove from pan.
I threw the spinach leaves and sliced tomatoes on top of this warm mixture in a side bowl
I took the chicken and dipped it in milk (oh, yeah, I forgot to mention this as an ingredient-- I actually thought of dipping them in a beaten egg. Maybe next time), then layed on sesame seeds that I'd laid in a plate, I sprinkled some on top then tossed in a hot pan to cook. I did this in batches, removing the cooked ones and kept them in a bowl covered in tin foil to keep warm.When I got the last batch of chicken cooked, I threw the rest of the cooked chicken in the pan, but since I realized that the seasonings I decided to use (I'd put them in a ziplock baggie) were still in the bag and I'd forgotten to use them, I threw the chicken in the baggie, quickly, and smushed the baggie, so the seasonings spread over the hot cooked chicken-now covered in sesame seeds too). I dumped them back into the pan and quickly added the veggie mixture (onions, peppers, spinach and tomatoes) on top of the chicken. I heated it through, barely, folding the veggies into the middle of the pan so it wouldn't overflow (I did this pretty gently). Once it looked folded in enough so the spinach 'just' started to wilt, I took it off the heat.
I served this with baked potatoes, but I thought I'd make brown rice the next time. The Oriental salad came out fine without the sesame seeds, but I went out later to the convenience store at the gas station (which is where I SHOULD have sent my mom) and we had it in the next batch of coleslaw. It really was a great meal!!
If you want the Oriental salad recipe, let me know...I'll post it.
