Chinese Sesame Chicken

There are two types of Chinese food: American Chinese food and actual Chinese food from China. Both have their pluses and minuses. American Chinese food can be delicious (in the realm of guilty pleasure) as you are eating it, but give yourself 5 minutes and you start feeling that stomach-aching regret. Chinese-Chinese food is typically not so super-greasy (non-street food, that is...) and the flavors are much more tasty and resemble the original ingredients (aka not covered in fried dough). The down-side, though, is the quality of the meat. While on a recent trip to China, I was repeatedly disappointed with the slimy chicken, the slimy beef, and the, well, slimy shrimp. It's as if you are eating the meat that was rejected in the United States and barely survived the plane ride to China.

So now that I have whetted your appetite, let's get cookin'! Actually, this dish combines the best of both cuisines: the deliciousness of authentic Chinese ingredients and flavors and chicken from your American grocery store (although I can't promise you that your local American-Chinese restaurant uses meat of the same quality)! What a perfect combination.

Sesame Chicken (Food for Four):

- 3-pack of chicken breasts (yay for American meat!)

- 2 tbs. of water

- 2 tbs. rice vinegar (seasoned or unseasoned)

- 2 tbs. soy sauce

- 2 tsp. sugar

- 1/2 tsp. hot red pepper flakes

- 3 tbs. vegetable oil

- 1 large onion

- 3/4 lb. mushrooms (we bought the gourmet pack--shiitake are best)

- 1 1/2 cups sugar snap peas

- 2 tbs. sesame seeds

- Salt and Pepper

This dish is perfect over rice. I cooked up some instant brown rice to serve with this dish--I highly recommend Success brown rice--about 2-3 packets would do for this dish.

Grab your onion, cut it in half from top to bottom and then cut into thin slices.

Start heating up your wok over medium-high heat until a drop of water immediately sizzles and evaporates on the surface of the wok. While the wok is heating up, pull out the chicken and cut across the breast, creating 1/4-inch thick slices of chicken. Season with plenty of salt and a bit of black pepper.

Add 1 tbs. of oil and coat the wok evenly. Allow the oil to heat up a bit and then add the onion slices with some salt and black pepper. Cook the onions until they start to brown, stirring frequently.

While the onions are cooking, stir together the water, vinegar, soy sauce, sugar and red pepper flakes in a bowl until the sugar has dissolved.

When the onions are done, transfer them into a large bowl. Add another tbs. of oil to the wok, let it heat up, and then add the chicken.

The chicken should take a couple of minutes to cook--remove once it has been cooked through and add to the bowl with the onions.

While the chicken is cooking, pull out a small frying pan and toast the sesame seeds over medium-low heat. Just keep an eye on the seeds as you finish up the rest of the meal. Remove them from the heat when they have turned a slightly darker shade of brown.

Back to the wok! Add the last tbs. of oil and let it heat up. Then add the mushrooms and sugar snap peas. Season with salt and black pepper.

Cook for about 5 minutes until the mushrooms and peas are tender. Then transfer them to that same big bowl.

Add the soy-vinegar mixture and the toasted sesame seeds to the wok and bring to a boil.

Immediately add the contents of the big bowl (mushrooms, sugar snap peas, chicken and onion). Cook for about 1-2 minutes until heated through.

Serve over brown rice (or whatever rice you choose) and add some more salt and pepper if necessary! 慢慢吃! (Mandarin translation for Bon appétit...aka "eat slowly." Really?)

Credits: My Chinese Sesame Chicken recipe is adapted from a Gourmet recipe that I found online. The photos are of our cooking process.