Spicy Hibachi Chicken & Chicken Fried Rice

Honestly, I'm not a big fan of Japanese or Chinese cuisine. Mostly because it's a lot of fish...and I don't like fish! The chicken dishes I can usually handle, although I usually find them too bland. Oscar, on the other hand, LOVES Japanese and Chinese. From Sushi to shrimp to Orange chicken...he'll eat it all! We don't go to those types of restaurants very often though because there are more things that we both enjoy, but on Oscar's birthday, every year, we all go to Benihana.

Here are some pictures of us there on his last birthday in March: 

Oscar in Chloe's hat ;)

Oscar and Chloe

Our chef. He was a lot of fun and really took to Chloe and tried to get her interested.

The whole family. My mom and dad, Me, Chloe and Oscar.

When we were at Benihana in March I tried something new, the spicy hibachi chicken, and I really enjoyed it! And the chicken fried rice, of course, is ALWAYS good. So now I won't dread out trip to Benihana next year! ;) lol! 

Starting in the fall, Chloe will be going to a Christian school. We are so excited for her because we know this is the best decision for her at this time, but the extra expense is something we weren't planning on as this was sort of a last minute decision. Oscar has been putting in so many extra hours lately trying to make ends meet since I can't start back to work until school starts later this month. He's been so good about it, willingly giving his days off to put in extra hours at another store. I wanted to do something little to thank him. So, I took to pinterest and found some "copy-cat" Benihana recipes! And, oh my goodness, did they turn out good! I will definitely be making again soon! We ate every last bit of it! 

So without further ado...the recipes!

Spicy Hibachi Chicken

(This is not my image, unfortunately in all the excitement to eat I forgot about pictures) :(
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Ingredients:

1 lb boneless skinless chicken breasts (I used fillets)

1 tbsp vegetable oil

1/2 tbsp Sesame Seed Oil

3 tbsp Soy Sauce

4 tbsp butter

2 tsp lemon juice

1-2 tsp cayenne pepper (I used 2)

salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1) Wash chicken and dry. Cut into bite-size pieces. 

2) Heat vegetable oil and sesame seed oil in a large frying pan over medium-high heat

3)Add chicken, soy sauce, butter, lemon juice, salt and pepper, and cayenne pepper to skillet

4) Saute for about 6-10 minutes (until no longer pink); Stir well to mix all ingredients.

Chicken Fried Rice

(Again, not my picture. I actually didn't use the peas and carrots.)

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Ingredients: 

1 lb boneless skinless chicken breast (again, I used fillets)

4 cups cooked white rice

4 tbsp butter, softened 

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 tsp sesame seed oil

3 eggs, beaten

2 tbsp sesame seed oil

1 cup onion, diced

1/4 cup green onion, finely chopped

2 tbsp soy sauce

salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1) Cook rice according to package instructions. Put in freezer or refrigerator to cool to room temperature. 

2) Mince garlic. In a bowl, soften butter. Mix garlic and butter. 

3) Wash and dry chicken. Cut into bite-size pieces.

4) Scramble eggs in frying pan with 1 tsp sesame seed oil, cut into small pieces and put aside.

5) In a large frying pan add 2 tbsp sesame seed oil and cook the onion on medium-high heat for about 5 minutes. 

6) Add chicken, and add salt and pepper to taste. Chicken should take about 5-10 minutes to cook. 

7) Add 1 tbsp of your garlic butter mixture.

8) Start adding a couple of handfuls of rice into the chicken and onions, pour rest of butter garlic mixture in as you add the rice. Stir well so everything gets well mixed. If desired, add more salt and pepper now. 

9) Add soy sauce. Mix well so everything is evenly distributed. 

And your done! The rice definitely took longer. I made it first and put it on another burner on low heat while I made the hibachi chicken so that it wouldn't get cold. But it was all SO good! Next time, I think I'll make a bigger portion of the hibachi chicken because it was gone in a snap!

Arigato Gozaimasu!

 Enjoy!

Recipes - Nights 1-5

I will normally just post an update every time I try a new recipe, but since I've only just recently started so I figured I could back up and do the first 5!

First, let me tell you how this all got started. If you read the about me section, I give a little more history. But basically what happened is I was looking at pinterest one night and started pinning recipes...which is kind of funny because...I don't cook. My husband looked at my computer and laughed and asked why I pinned so many recipes when I never cook. He wasn't being rude, but I took some offense to this! I took it as a challenge and said from now on I'm going to make a pinterest recipe every night. I don't think he really thought I'd do it. He just said okay. But I've taken this challenge very seriously for the last week! What I've found is...I really ENJOY cooking! Granted I still have a lot to learn (I had to look up how to mince a clove of garlic!), but it's a fun learning experience and Chloe is having fun "helping" as much as a 6-year-old can help!

Since this challenge has started I have become even MORE obsessed with Pinterest than I already was! Yup, I'll admit it, I'm a pin-a-holic! But that's the beauty of technology! 10 years ago you'd have to take classes, buy cook books, go to the library to learn to cook. Now I can pin recipes from my phone, print them, watch youtube videos when I don't understand something and I'm good to go!

So here we go. I will post the recipe name, picture, and credit to where I originally found it. Then I will post the ingredients and directions based on how I made it, and reviews from my family. Currently, my little family lives with my parents until we are both done with school. I am in school to be an elementary school teacher and Oscar is in school to be a Pharmacist, so we have 4 people tasting and giving opinions (IF Chloe actually tastes something, it MUST be good!)

Night One: Chicken Enchilada Casserole 

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Ingredients:

1 14 oz jar Enchilada sauce (or green verde sauce)*
2-3 cups shredded Monterrey Jack cheese (eye-ball this to taste. We used a lot more cheese, but I didn't measure it exactly)
6 large whole wheat tortillas
1 pckg boneless, skinless chicken breast fillet (4 in pckg)

Optional:
-Rotel 1-2 cans
-Refried beans

Directions

- Preheat oven to 375 degrees -

1) Cut each fillet into smaller pieces so that it cooks faster and put into a small pot. Pour enchilada sauce (or verde sauce*) over it and cook covered on low to medium heat until chicken is cooked through, about 20 minutes. No water is needed! The chicken will cook in the sauce. Make sure you stir occasionally so that it doesn't stick to the bottom.

2) Remove Chicken from the pot and shred with two forks.

3) Start layering the casserole. Start with about 1/4 cup of leftover sauce, cover the bottom of the baking dish (9x13 casserole dish). Then place 2 tortillas on the bottom, top with about 1/3 of the chicken and 1/3 of the remaining sauce. Sprinkle with 1/3 of the cheese (or to taste) and repeat starting again with 2 tortillas, then chicken, sauce, cheese. (add rotel and refried beans to these layers if desired)

4) Bake for 20-30 minutes, uncovered, until bubbly and cheese has melted and started to brown on top.

This dish, made the way the original recipe said, was only so-so. However, when we reheated left overs we topped it with salsa verde and it was really good! We all agreed that the enchilada sauce on it's own didn't add much flavor and it wasn't spicy enough for a mexican dish. If I make it again, I will skip the enchilada sauce and use the salsa verde instead. I will also add refried beans and rotel to my layers to give it some more flavor.

Night Two: Baked Spaghetti 

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Ingredients

1 1/2 - 2 jars spaghetti sauce

1 package whole wheat spaghetti

Mozzarella and Cheddar cheeses, to taste. (The recipe says 2-3 cups...I'm not sure how much we used exactly)

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees 

1) Cook spaghetti per package instructions with just a splash of olive oil

2) Drain water and mix spaghetti with sauce and (1 cup of) cheese in a 9x13 baking dish.

3) Top with cheese 

4) Bake for 20 minutes or until cheese is golden and bubbly. 

This was a really good dish! We used 1 1/2 jars of sauce and all agreed it could have used just a bit more so next time I'll use 2! But other than that, it was a winner! There were no left overs :)

Night Three - Taco Skillet 

I'm not going to spend much time on this one because we didn't enjoy it. We all agreed we would have rather just had normal tacos. I will say, the concept of adding pasta to the taco meat I thought was strange, but actually tasted okay! It was just mixing everything else in all in one skillet that we didn't end up liking. 

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Night Four - Garden Bruschetta and Pizza Casserole

This has been, hands down, the best one yet! 

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Pizza Casserole Ingredients:

1 lb ground turkey

1/2 large onion, chopped (I used red)

1 clove garlic, minced

1 tbsp olive oil

1/2 tsp Italian seasoning

1 1/2 (24 oz jars) marinara sauce

1 1/2 cups Rotini pasta

Mozzarella cheese (recipe says 2 1/4 cups, again, to taste)
About 4 oz Pepperoni 

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

1) Brown ground turkey, onion, garlic and Italian seasoning in olive oil

2) Drain, put in 9x13 baking dish

3) Stir in cooked pasta, marinara sauce and cheese. 

4) Rip up about 10 pepperonis and stir them in as well.

5) Top with cheese and pepperonis

6) Bake uncovered for 25-30 minutes

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Garden Bruschetta Ingredients:

4-5 tomatoes diced small

1 clove garlic, minced

1/4 cup fresh basil, chopped fine

3 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp red wine vinegar

1/2 tsp each of salt and pepper (or to taste)

1 baguette

Directions:

1) Mix all ingredients and let stand at room temperature for 2 hours (Honestly, I only let mine sit for 30 minutes and it was delicious)

2) Slice the baguette, brush with olive oil and lightly toast. Rub each side of toasted slice of baguette with a clove of garlic

3) Top with Bruschetta and enjoy!

BOTH of these recipes were extremely good. We devoured all of the bruschetta very quickly and agreed that next time we will make double (as we still had baguette left over, but no mixture!) Will definitely be making these again soon! 

Night Five - Baked Honey Mustard Chicken & Spicy Potato Wedges

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Ingredients:

1/4 cup ground mustard seed

1/4 cup dijon mustard

1/2 cup honey

3 tsp olive oil

1/2 small yellow onion, diced

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 1/2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken tenderlions

salt and pepper

3-4 small sprigs of fresh rosemary

Directions:

1) Mix ground mustard seed, dijon mustard, honey, and olive oil into a small bown until smooth.

2) Put 1 tsp oil into a skillet and saute the sliced onions over medium heat until they become tender and translucent. Add the garlic and cook for another 2 minutes. 

3) Put onion/garlic mixture into a 9x13 baking dish with a pinch of salt and pepper.

4) Spread some of the honey mustard mixture onto the chicken and place in the pan. Place rosemary sprigs in the pan between the chicken tenderloins.

5) Cover the pan and bake for 20 minutes. 

6) Remove pan, smear chicken with remaining honey mustard sauce. 

7) Place pan back in oven, uncovered, for 20-30 more minutes until a brown scorch appears on chicken top. 

This recipe was pretty good. Oscar and I would have preferred not to have the rosemary at all. I don't think it really added anything and it ended up getting stuck to the chicken and we just took it off lol! But my parents didn't mind it. We all agreed the spread was pretty good...I thought it was a bit too sweet and would have added less honey, but everyone else enjoyed it! 

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I made this one "to the book" so click the link for ingredients and directions.

We all enjoyed these! I served with a bit of lite ranch. They were spicy, but my dad and I loved them! Oscar and my mom thought they were a bit too spicy. Nevertheless, enjoyed by all :)

Whew! That's all for now! I'm not cooking tonight....Oscar is taking me out :) But Saturday nights recipe is Taco Dogs and Queso! Stay tuned :)

God Bless!