Thick Soy Sauce Chicken

This absolutely delicious chicken dish goes down easy - packed with flavor, creating extremely tender and flavorful chicken due to the longer cook time.

Thick Soy Sauce Chicken

from Home Cooking with Somjit

Ingredients:

3 whole chicken legs (9 pieces broken up) - or equivalent pieces of chicken

3 shiitake mushrooms, soaked in water then halved

3 medium potatoes, peeled & halved

4 dates

2 large onions, roughly chopped

3" ginger, peeled & sliced into thin circles

1 full head of garlic, peeled

3 Tbs. oil (for frying)

3/4 cup water, as needed

marinade/sauce:

6 Tbs thick soy sauce

1 Tbs oyster sauce

1 Tbs Chinese cooking wine

1 tsp soy sauce

1/2 tsp sesame oil

1/2 tsp pepper

Instructions:

1. In a large bowl, combine all marinade ingredients and toss well with the chicken pieces. Set aside while you prepare the other ingredients, stirring the chicken every 5 minutes to ensure good coverage. 

2. In a large pan with a lid, heat the 3 Tbs. cooking oil over medium-high heat. Once at temperature, cook onions until softened.

3. Add remaining ingredients to the pot and stir well to combine. Lower heat to medium-low, cover pan, and cook for another 45 minutes - stirring every 15 minutes or so. 

Note: If the chicken does not release enough juices, add water as needed so the ingredients don't stick to the bottom of the pan.

4. Serve over rice, and enjoy!

The Best Mashed Potatoes

 

The Best Mashed Potatoes 

slightly adapted from Gimme Some Oven

Ingredients:

5 lbs potatoes (I used yellow but you can use virtually any type or mix of types)

1 Tbs. salt (for boiling water)

2 cloves garlic, minced

6 Tbs. butter

1 cup whole milk

1 tsp. salt

4 oz. cream cheese

Optional garnishes:

chives or green onion, chopped fine

cracked black pepper

Instructions:

1. Scrub and dice potatoes. Place potatoes in a large pot and cover with 1 inch of water. Add 1 Tbs. salt.

2. Bring potatoes to a boil on high-heat. Once boiling, reduced to medium-high heat and cook until fork tender. Drain into colander in sink and set aside.

3. In a microwave safe bowl, combine garlic, butter, milk, and 1 tsp. salt. Microwave until butter is just melted. 

4. Pour strained potatoes back into the boiling pot. Add half of the butter mixture into the potatoes and mash until combined. Add last half of butter then mash again until combined. Add the cream cheese and mash again until well incorporated.

5. Serve immediately with optional garnishes.

Corned Beef and Cabbage with Potatoes and Carrots

This recipe is very flexible and forgiving. If you want to have more of a soup, then dice the carrots, onions, and potatoes small and server with the boiling broth.

There's also a horseradish sauce recipe in the Taste of Home link that uses the boiling broth as a component. I did not have success with it, and thus did not include here.

Corned Beef and Cabbage with Potatoes and Carrots
blend of Taste of Home and Alton Brown

Ingredients:
2-4 lbs corned beef brisket, with all-spice packet
2 Tbs. brown sugar
1 Tbs. black pepper, coarsely ground
2 bay leaves
2 tsp. kosher salt
1-2 lb carrots, scrubbed and cut into 2-3" lengths
1 lb onion, diced large (1 med. onion)
2-4 lbs. small potatoes, scrubbed
1 head cabbage, chopped as desired

Mustard Sauce (optional):
1 cup sour cream
2 Tbs. Dijon mustard
1/4 tsp. sugar

Instructions:
1. In a 6 qt. stock pot or dutch oven, place your brisket, spice packet, brown sugar, pepper, bay leaves, and salt. Add enough water to cover the brisket by 1 inch.
2. Bring pot to a boil on high heat, then reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer for 2-2.5 hours.
3. Add carrots, onions, and potatoes. Cook for 30-40 minutes or until carrots and potatoes are fork-tender.
4. Add cabbage to pot, and cook until cabbage is soft, around 15 minutes. If pot is full, remove carrots and potatoes before adding cabbage.
5. In the meantime, make the mustard sauce if desired.
6. Drain liquid from pot. Let brisket rest 5-10 minutes before slicing across the grain. Enjoy!

EveryPlate Gravy Lover's Meatballs

Review
     This was by far my least favorite meal of the 3 recipes. I'll even go as far to say I didn't really like it. The gravy was good, the meatballs were fine if very plain, but the mashed potatoes were way too much better and cream and unbalanced richness. I was satisfied with the amount of food, particularly the broccoli but it's way too unbalanced and rich because of the mashed potatoes. I would make this dish again but use a different recipe for everything, and cook the broccoli with another technique.
     The direction, like I found with the previous two meals, are very confusing to follow and very particularly inefficient on this recipe. I have completely rewritten them here to have a logical flow. The recipe was the most off on estimated cook time of any of the recipes. It took me about two times the estimated cook time which is unreasonably inaccurate. I'm sure you can get the cook time down if the instructions were in a more logical order but not down to 35. The left overs kept fairly well on this one too but overall this recipe was two thumbs down.

Estimated cook time: 35 minutes
Actual cook time: 61 minutes

EveryPlate Gravy Lover's Meatballs

Ingredients:
- 5 small Yukon gold potatoes
- 1 small yellow onion
- 3 cloves garlic
- 1 head broccoli
- 8 oz. ground beef
- 1/4 cup Panko bread crumbs
- 1 small cube beef stock
- 1 oz. sour cream
- 3 Tbs. butter
- 1 Tbs. flour
- drizzle of olive oil
- salt and pepper

Instructions:
1. Pre-heat oven to 450F.
2. Dice potatoes into 1/2" cubes. Place in medium pot, cover with 2 inches of water and add a hearty dash of salt. Bring to a boil and cook until tender, about 10 minutes. Save 1 cup of boiling water before draining. Drain and return potatoes to pot.
3. Finely chop onion. Mince 1 clove of garlic, and wrap the other two in aluminum foil. Cut broccoli into florets.
4. In a medium bowl, combine beef, breadcrumbs, minced garlic, 3 Tbs. onion, 1/2 tsp. salt, and lots of cracked black pepper. Mix until just combined.
5. Roll beef mixture into 1" balls. place on one side of baking pan. Put broccoli florets and garlic foil pouch on other side. Drizzle olive oil on broccoli, and sprinkle some salt and pepper. Bake until meatballs are fully cooked, broccoli is starting to brown, and garlic is soft; about 15-20 minutes.
6. Melt 1 Tbs. butter in skillet over medium-high heat.
7. Mash baked garlic cloves. Add to potatoes along with 2 Tbs. butter and sour cream. Mash together to desired consistency, adding some reserved potato for extra silkiness.