I haven't had Chinese for a while, and lately I've been craving the spicy-sweet flavor profile of that good old standby, General Tso's chicken.
Normally I order takeout at least once a week, but this month I'm on a tighter budget, so I'll take a different route and try to make a home-cooked rendition of this choice restaurant dish.
Not only am I saving money by using up the rest of yesterday's chicken, but I'm also going to lighten it up by eliminating the need for a deep-fryer — and I'll have dinner on the table in well under an hour. Make the recipe tonight.
Once you learn about a new ingredient, like five-spice powder, the best way to get to know it is to cook with it. To experiment with China's most popular spice blend, consider this recipe. The five-spice powder gives the fish a sweet, spicy, and pungent flavor.
A quick and simple slaw consisting of napa cabbage, scallions, and soy sauce is an ideal crunchy companion to the dish. If you can't find snapper, substitute another firm-fleshed fish. To get the recipe keep reading.
A crucial component of Chinese cooking, five-spice powder (also known as Chinese five spice) is a mixture of ground spices that combine the five primary flavors of Chinese cuisine: sweet, salty, sour, bitter, and pungent.
The five spices — cinnamon, cloves, star anise, Szechuan peppercorns, and either fennel seed or ginger — are employed based on the Chinese philosophy of balancing the yin and yang in food. The powder is used to flavor dishes from Cantonese roasted duck to beef stew.
Earlier this week, a new study found that different generations have distinct ideas of foods they consider to be comforting. The same goes for various cultures. In Taiwan, this fried-bread-on-fried-bread sandwich, known as sao bing you tiao, isn't just a popular breakfast item — it's also considered the ultimate in comfort food. You tiao (literally, "oil sticks" which resemble long, savory doughnuts) are sandwiched between sao bing, a flaky, sesame seed flatbread. Together, the two make a craveworthy, if greasy sandwich with a carb content that rivals Domino's Bread Bowl Pastas. In Taiwan, they're favored with a great, big warm bowl of Chinese soymilk. Would you try one?
Even after tearing through tandoori-style chicken burgers yesterday, I've still got a hankering for foreign flavors. I don't have too much time to dedicate to dinner tonight, but I've discovered a recipe that satisfies my spice quotient — and makes use of my leftover chicken thighs.
There are few entrées that engage the senses quite like Peking duck, with its shimmery, crackling skin, which gets rolled up with sweet hoisin sauce and fragrant scallions in a steaming-hot pancake. This imperial duck dish takes a long time to make, but I've found a variation with chicken, plums, and tortillas that's a fraction of the prep time. Get the super simple recipe now.
Instead of ordering out tonight, consider whipping up this homemade rendition of the classic takeout dish. Chunks of chicken are tossed with crisp vegetables and an uncomplicated sauce made of apricot preserves and soy sauce.
Served on brown rice, this dish is healthier than the restaurant counterpart because there's no deep-frying involved. If you're a vegetarian, substitute tofu for the chicken. Look at the recipe when you read more
Start off the week on the right foot with a wholesome meal that's both healthy and hearty. Chinese-inspired lettuce wraps — made with leftover ground turkey — are sweet, thanks to hoisin sauce, and spicy, courtesy of five-spice powder, which contains cinnamon, cloves, fennel seed, anise, and Szechuan peppercorns.
If you want to get a head start on your meal plans, you can make the filling a day ahead, or make extra to reserve for lunch the next day. To enjoy this well-balanced meal that's full on flavor, read more
Last time I went out to dim sum with my grandmother, she ordered chicken feet and urged me to take one. While I appreciate the slippery, gelatinous texture of chicken feet every now and then, my sweetheart absolutely refused. "Chickens run around in filth," he said. "I eat with my eyes first, and the sight of a pair wrinkly chicken feet just grosses me out." How do you feel about it?
