Chinese Sesame Chicken

I

Ingredients:

2-3 lb Chicken,cleaned and cubed

1/2 Cup All-purpose flour

1/2 Cup Corn starch 

1 tsp. Baking powder

1 tsp. Baking Soda

1/4 tsp. Salt 

4 Tbsp. Soy Sauce

2 Tbsp. Dry Sherry 

1 Tbsp. Sesame Oil

1/3 Cup+1 Tbsp. Water

Combine all the ingredients except for the chicken. 

Mixture resembles a thick pancake consistency. 

Add cubed chicken. Mix and coat chicken cubes with the mixture, cover with plastic wrap and store in the refrigerator for 30 minutes. 

In the meantime start the sauce. FYI, you can use any sauce you please for this chicken. I make a sweet and sour or soy sauce, but for now we will use the sesame sauce. 

Sesame Sauce 

2 Cups water 

1/2 Cup White Vinager 

1/2 Cup Sugar

1/4 Soy Sauce

1/4 Sesame Sauce

1-2 tsp. Sriracha

4 Cloves Garlic, minced

Slurry

1/4 Cup Corn Starch

1/4 Cup Water 

Combine all ingredients in a small pot. Bring to a simmer over medium low heat. As the sauce comes to a simmer make your slurry. 

Add the slurry to the sauce and whisk as it starts to thicken and comes to a slight boil. Remove from heat. 

Heat approximately 1/5-2 quarts oil to 350 degrees in large pot. 

Slowly drop chicken in oil. 

Don't over crowd, you don't want the temperature to decrease and you want your chicken crispy. Not soggy. 

Cook until it floats and a dark golden brown. 2-4 minutes. Make sure to give the chicken a stir  as it cooks, so it can evenly cook in the fryer. 

As the pieces cook remove and set on rack to drain. 

Put the cubed chicken in a large bowl and coat with the sauce and toss. It's ready to serve. Enjoy with a smile!

Fruit Bars

These are absolutely delicious! I usually make two batches, cut into wedges, wrap individually and freeze. They are wonderful to have on hand. Pull one out...pop it in the microwave...Yum! 

These fruit bars are versital.  Make it your own, and this is certainly one of those recipes. Use whatever fruits you like. And not only is it delicious, but they are very good for you. It is truly a power bar!

The Oats are packed with minerals and vitamins. 

This Fiber packed grain helps lower blood cholesterol, blood pressure and great with aiding the digestive system. 

Like i mentioned Pack it with all the you like.There are no limits here, use whatever combination you like, as many as you like. You have up to 3 cups of fruit per/recipe or 5cups if you want to save some for later use. 

Because I use different fruits it makes such a big batch. I personally like to freeze fruits because i always have use for them, or i simply double the dough amount and make a bigger batch. Feel free to use as much for the filling, but you still want to be able to pick the bar up, unless ofcourse you plan on eating it with a fork or spoon with a scoop of Greek yogurt...or ice cream :) No one is judging.

Store whatever fruit filling left over in the fridge up to 5 days or in the freezer for later use.  

There is three parts/steps to this recipe. 

Fruit filling, dough and the wet ingredients that are added to the dough. As I always say..."Get all your ingredients together before you begin!"

In this bar I used apples, oranges, mangos, cranberries and raspberries. 

Fruit Filling

1 Cup orange segments

Zest of an orange 

1 Cup mangoes chopped 

2 cans whole cranberry sauce 14 oz 

1 apple chopped

1/2 raspberries 

1/2 cup orange juice (use any fresh juice)

1/3-2/3 Cup Sugar

1/3 cup cornstarch 

Combine all the top ingredients in a pot and cook until they thicken. Set aside to cool, and start on the crust.

For the crust:

In the food processor I added...

1 cup nuts of ANY type (or you can replace with oats)

1 cup old fashioned rolled oats

1 1/2 cups cake flour

1 1/2 cups wheat pastry flour (you can get this at Whole Foods)

1 cup sugar

1 tsp. salt

Pulse until the all ingredients are finely ground and combined. 

Pulse the butter until combined with all the ingredients.

Wet Ingredients

1 stick+2Tbs. Butter, Cold and cubed

2 eggs 

4 Tbls. canola oil

2 tsp. vanilla

Add the cold butter and pulse until combined. 

Whisk the eggs,canola,and vanilla and add into mixture.

 Line a 9 by 13 dish with parchment paper. Portion out 2/3 of the dough for bottom of the dish and press down. It would make about 1/2" thick. Save the rest of the dough for the top. I like a thick dough, plus the fruit topping is heavy so it needs the support. 

 Pour the fruit filling.

Then spread rest of the dough and cover the top layer. Do not press down. 

Bake 15 minutes at 400F. Adjust oven temperature to 350F bake for 20-30 minutes until golden brown. 

The fruits can burn you tongue, so let cool for 20 minutes. 

Enjoy & be you!!!