Oriental Stir Fry

Oriental stir fry is one of the easiest dishes to make for dinner or is a perfect one to be enjoyed by guests. The sauce is made in advance and can be stored in refrigerator for few weeks.This Oriental sauce is the best stir fry sauce you've ever tasted, which is very enticing with chicken, veggies or any other meat. A secret weapon for a fast midweek meals. Just make it in a mason jar and store it. A super delicious  sauce that is well combined with veggies, noodles, meat or rice. I have paired this dish with quinoa, which was perfect. I served the kids rice and this stir fry veggies.

Heat the wok with little oil, add proteins or veggies and some noodles and at last add this stir fry sauce, which will do it''s magic on the dish. I read about this stir fry from one of my friend's Instagram post and so here it is today in my blog. We all liked it a lot and the kids were asking for a second serving.

Here in my sauce I have used freshly squeezed orange juice, you can replace it with store bought and also use as required. We like the orange flavor and so I added almost 1/4 cup. This recipe is so healthy and nutritious as a whole lot of veggies are added to this dish. Please try this recipe and let me know how it turned.

Ingredients:
For sauce:

1. Orange Juice- 1/4 Cup
2. Soy Sauce- 3 tbsp
3. Garlic (chopped)- 1 tbsp
4. Ginger(grated)- 1 tbsp
5. Sesame Oil- 2 tsp
6. Honey- 2 tsp

Method:

• Combine all the ingredients together in a bowl using a whisk. Keep this aside, till the veggies are done.

For veggies:

1. Capsicum( cubed)- 1 no
2. Onions(cubed)- 1 no
3. Baby Corn- 5 nos
4. Bok Choy(chopped)- 1 no
5. Boneless Chicken(cubed)- 1 cup
6. Broccoli- 1/2 cup
7. Mushrooms(sliced)- 1/2 cup
8. Garlic( sliced)- 3 cloves
9. Oil- 1 tbsp
10. Salt- as required

Method:

1. Heat oil in a pan, add garlic, saute the chicken with little salt for a minute on medium heat. Stir and add all the veggies one by one and stir, adjust the salt.
2. Let this cook on low flame for about 3- 4 minutes, stirring in between. Once the raw smell of veggies disappear and when they turn crisp add the above made sauce and stir for 2 minutes on a medium flame.
3. When the veggies get coated well with the sauce, remove from heat and serve along with steaming hot brown rice/ quinoa/ noodles.

Oven Baked Chili Chicken

Baked chilli chicken is the most delicious and a healthy version of the normal chilli chicken which is usually deep fried. This is super easy and a simple dish to prepare, when thinking about something tasty and yummy to cook.

Mixing all the ingredients to marinate, baked till perfection and mixed with all the sauces till everything gets well blended with each other. This is a delightful combination of chicken and spices along with sauces. We can have this with fried rice, but I serve this along with white rice, which my kids love a lot.

I like to make this often as the flavors are clean and simple and the cooking process is easy. This dish tastes like an authentic Chinese chili chicken one that you might enjoy in a Chinese restaurant.

In almost all the fast food restaurants in India, this chilli chicken and fried rice is the popular combination. after coming to the US, I started making the chilli chicken at home, but this time I thought of the healthier version of baking instead of frying which is almost equal in taste and flavor. I guarantee you, that this will be loved by all. Try this out and let me know how it turns.

Ingredients:

For Marination:

1. Boneless Chicken- 2 Cups
2. Corn Flakes- 2 tbsp
3. Soy sauce- 1 tbsp
4. Salt- as required
5. Pepper powder- 1/2 tbsp
6. Red Chilli Powder- 1/2 tbsp
7. All-Purpose Flour- 2 tbsp

For sauce:

1. Onions(cubed)- 2 nos
2. Red Bell Peppers- 1 no
3. Soy sauce- 2 tbsp
4. Tomato sauce- 1 tbsp
5. Salt- as required
6. Oil- 1 tbsp
7. Garlic(chopped)- 2 tbsp
8. Spring onions- 1 sprig
9. Vinegar- 1 tbsp
10. Corn Flour- 1 tbsp

Method:

For the baking:

1. In a mixing bowl, mix all the ingredients for marination along with the chicken. Keep this aside for some time.
2. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Bake the marinated chicken for about 20- 25 minutes. Flipping in between. Keep this aside.

For the sauce:

1. Heat oil in a pan, add the cubed onions, chopped garlic, and red bell pepper. Stir well till the raw smell disappears.
2. Add the soy sauce, tomato sauce, stir well. Add the spring onions and vinegar. Mix well. Add the baked chicken pieces.
3. Mix the cornflour along with 1/4 cup water, stir well. Add this to the above-made gravy to thicken the gravy.
4. Saute on high flame for 2- 3 minutes and switch off the flame. Enjoy.

Burnt Garlic Fried Rice and Hot Garlic Chicken

“Let food be thy medicine, and medicine be thy food.”

                                                       Ancient Greek physician Hippocrates

Garlic is called the world’s healthiest food. Garlic is widely used around the world for its pungent flavor. This has many medicinal values. It is highly nutritious and has very less calories. Garlic supplementation improves your immune system. This reduces blood pressure, improves bone health and cholesterol level, which may lower the risk of heart disease. So what are you waiting for??? Include garlic in your daily life and see the magic.

In my house garlic is used in almost all the dishes. We simply love the flavor of garlic. I made this burnt garlic fried rice and hot garlic chicken on a Sunday, as I was lazy to prepare an elaborate lunch. Usually it would be a one pot meal on holidays, but to go along with this fried rice, some side dish would taste wonderful and so here I made two awesome dishes out of garlic which I am sure that you all will cherish.

I had this burnt garlic rice in a Chinese restaurant back in India and as we are big fans of garlic, instantly fell in love with this rice and tried it at home which came out pretty well.  From then on this is made regularly and some of the side dishes for this rice are Chilli mushroom gravy, chilly chicken, orange chicken and so on.. This time I thought of making something that had garlic and this hot garlic chicken was perfect.

This hot garlic chicken is little bit spicy because of the chilli paste, but we can balance it by using kashmiri chillies. I have given the preparation of red chilli paste in the note on the bottom of this post. Let's see how it is prepared...

Ingredients:

For the Burnt garlic Rice:

1. Cooked Rice- 2 Cups
2. Garlic (chopped) 3 tbsp
3. Olive Oil- 2 tbsp
4. Vegetables( Carrot, Cabbage, Beans)- ¾ Cup
5. Soya sauce- 1 tbsp
6. Vinegar- 1 tbsp
7. Salt- as required
8. Pepper- 1 tbsp

Method:

1. Chop all the veggies using hand blender so that the vegetables are finely chopped.
2. Heat oil in a pan, add the chopped garlic. Saute for some time so that the oil gets infused with the flavors of garlic. Make sure that the garlic doesn’t burn.
3. Add the chopped vegetables along with required amount of salt. Add the soy sauce, vinegar and pepper powder.
4. In the above mix the cooked rice till all the flavors are well blended. Serve hot.

Ingredients :

For Hot Garlic Chicken:

1. Boneless Chicken- 250 gms
2. Garlic (chopped)- 2 tbsp
3. Ginger (chopped)- 1 tbsp
4. Red Chilli Paste- 2 tbsp (see note)
5. Oil- 1 tbsp
6. Corn Flour- 2 tbsp + 1 tbsp
7. Soy Sauce- 1 tbsp
8. Salt- as required
9. Pepper Powder- 1 tsp
10. Red Chilli Flakes- ½ tbsp
11. Capsicum (cubed)- 1 cup
12. Vinegar- 1 tsp
13. Onion- 1 no
14. Tomato sauce- 1 tbsp

Method:

1. Coat the cubed chicken pieces in a bowl of corn flour, pepper powder, salt and soy sauce. Keep this aside for some time.
2. Meanwhile heat a pan with 1 tbsp of oil, add the chopped garlic and ginger. Saute well.
3. In this add the red chilli flakes, red chilli paste, soy sauce, vinegar, tomato sauce and required amount of salt. Stir well.
4. Add the cubed capsicum and onions. Saute for a minute. Add pepper powder and add half a cup of water and let it boil for about 2 minutes.
5. Heat oil for deep frying. When it becomes hot, fry the above batter covered chicken till golden brown in colour. Keep this aside on kitchen towel.
6. Mix one tbsp of corn flour along with ¼ cup of water without forming any lumps. Add this to the above made gravy.
7. Add the fried chicken pieces in this and stir till it thickens. Switch off the flame and serve hot along with fried rice.

Note:

For Red Chilli Paste:

• Soak 6- 7 red chillies in hot water for about 30 minutes. Drain these and grind to a coarse paste.
• Heat 1 tbsp of  olive oil. Saute the ground red chilli paste for about 3- 4 minutes.
• When it is cooled down, store in an airtight container and use whenever required.

Orange Chicken

After seeing the advertisements of orange chicken everywhere my husband started asking me to make this at home. As I was little hesitant about how it would taste and if it is sweet then nobody will eat it, so I never made it. But my daughter also started insisting me to try making it and at last gave a try and googled a lot and finalized on this one, which was an eye catcher. This dish was not like what I thought. It was really yummm…

The flour covered, lightly fried chicken pieces are well coated in a sweet orange flavored chilli sauce is a very delicious recipe which will be loved by all and will be finished within minutes.

A lovely Chinese dish which can be made within minutes and is perfect for any occasion. Just try this out and let me know.

Ingredients:

1. Boneless Chicken pieces- 100gms
2. Egg- 1 no
3. Corn Starch- 2 tbsp
4. Salt- as required
5. Oil- for deep frying

For the sauce:

1. Orange Juice- 1 Cup
2. Garlic (Crushed)- 1 tbsp
3. Ginger (Crushed)- 1 tbsp
4. Soy Sauce- 1 tbsp
5. Orange Zest- 2 tbsp
6. Sesame Oil- ¼ tsp
7. Vinegar- 1 tbsp
8. Salt- as required
9. Water- ¼ Cup
10. Corn Starch- 1 tbsp
11. Spring Onions- 1 tbsp (for decoration)

Method:

1. Whisk together the chicken pieces, corn starch, egg and little salt. Keep this aside.
2. Heat oil for deep frying. When it becomes hot, fry the chicken pieces in batches (do not overlap them) and drain on a kitchen towel.

Meanwhile for the sauce

1. Take orange juice, crushed or chopped garlic, ginger, soy sauce, orange zest, vinegar and at last salt in a wok.
2. Mix everything well and bring them to boil.
3. Whisk cornstarch with water and add 1 or 2 tbsp to the above made sauce to thicken. Switch off the flame after 1 min.
4. Toss the above fried chicken in to the orange sauce. Mix well, sprinkle some spring onions on top and serve hot.

Homemade Schezwan Sauce

Schezwan sauce is a spicy, red, tasty and light tangy flavored, which can be used in almost all the dishes that we love to have a twist in taste. This sauce has become a part of our daily menu. I like to call this a magical sauce, as this can be used while making dosa, noodles, as a spread on sandwich and so in. In near future you can see many dishes with this magical sauce in my blog.

We can make this sauce and refrigerate for many days. If we prepare this sauce using Kashmiri chillies, we will get the perfect red color and it won't be spicy. Kids will love this. In the last add little bit of sugar to cut the pungent flavor of chillies. Just try this out and you will love it…

Ingredients:

1. Kashmiri Red Chillies- 10- 15 nos
2. Chopped Garlic- 3 tbsp
3. Chopped Ginger- 1 tbsp
4. Pepper Powder- 1 tsp
5. Soy sauce- ½ tbsp
6. Vinegar- 1 tbsp
7. Salt- as required
8. Water- ¼ cup
9. Sugar- ½ tbsp
10. Oil- 2 tbsps

Method:

1. Soak the red chillies in water for about an hour and grind this to a nice paste.
2. Heat a wok, add oil. When it is hot add the chopped ginger and garlic.
3. Sauté for about a minute, now add the ground chilli paste. Sauté well.
4. In this add the  pepper powder, soy sauce and salt. Add vinegar and required amount of water. At this point add sugar, mix and switch off the flame.

Chilli Mushroom Gravy

Chilli mushroom is a classic Chinese dish which will be loved by those who like mushrooms. This is a simple and easy dish which can be prepared very quick. Chilli mushroom tastes awesome along with fried rice, rotis, naan, bread or even with plain rice.

This is a spicy dish as we are adding red chilli paste and also green chillies. We can also make this dish dry, by not adding corn flour dissolved water.

In this recipe, the mushrooms are stir fried till dry and then sauteed along with onions, capsicum and green chillies. Whenever I have mushrooms, I like to try making different varieties of dishes and so this is one of them and I am sure this dish would get your taste buds craving for more…:-)

Ingredients:

1. Mushrooms- 250 gms
2. Capsicum (cubed)- 1 no
3. Onions (Cubed)- 2 nos
4. Ginger and Garlic paste- 1 tbsp
5. Green Chillies (Slit)- 3 nos
6. Soya Sauce- 1 tbsp
7. Red Chilli powder- ½ tbsp
8. Crushed pepper powder- ½ tbsp
9. Corn Flour- 1 tbsp
10. Oil- 1 tbsp
11. Salt- as required

Method:

1. Chop the mushrooms and clean them in turmeric and salt dissolved water. Keep it for some time.
2. Heat oil, add the cubed onions and stir fry on medium flame till they turn transparent.
3. Add the ginger and garlic paste, green chillies, cubed capsicum and stir for few minutes.
4. Add the cleaned mushrooms, stir till the water is absorbed and it should look dry.
5. In this add the soya sauce, red chilli powder and crushed pepper powder.
6. For the gravy, dissolve the corn flour in 2 tbsps of water. Now slowly pour this corn flour mixture in the above dry mushroom. Stir well so that it won’t form any lumps.
7. When the sauce is thick enough, remove from heat and serve hot along with fried rice, bread or even plain rice.