Teriyaki Bowls

Chad and I both love Chinese- and honestly if you are in Draper or near Draper, or not even close, you should hit up Fong's for some AWESOME food. It is worth the drive!!

Anyway, we decided to try out some more Asian type foods. And one thing we always come back to is tempura. Now I love myself some Vegas Roll at Happy Sumo which is tempura dipped and fried, and it is divine! But Chad is squeamish about the raw fish, so we just recreated the also very yummy, teriyaki bowls.

I marinate my chicken overnight (or even a few hours) in either:

Veri Veri Teriyaki
Teriyaki Tukami Collection

I like either of these because they have great flavor and I personally love how the sauce is packed with sesame seeds. I have tried lots of other brands that are good too, but some are REALLY salty, almost like putting straight soy sauce on the chicken.

You can brown the chicken in a skillet, or obviously as the weather is getting warmer, grilling is a great option. Just make sure to baste the chicken with the marinade every couple minutes for the first half of the cooking time. (I also like to cook the left over marinade in a saucepan on the stove, until it gets thick and hot. I reserve it for serving)

Tempura Veggies- recipe adapted from FoodNetwork- Wolfgang Puck

You can use any veggies you like. We usually pick a variety with things like, broccoli, carrots, potatoes, sweet potatoes, green beans, onions, eggplant, mushrooms, squash, asparagus. Whatever sounds good to you with Asian flavors, is going to be yummy. Just make sure that all the veggies are cut relatively thin or bite size so they cook evenly. This recipe will batter up quite a lot of veggies. It will probably serve enough veggies for 6-8 people. I have even doubled it with great results.

1/4 cup rice flour
3 cups soda water, divided
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 cup cornstarch
1 tablespoon salt
1 1/4 teaspoon cayenne
Optional- dash of sesame oil (I like the toasted kind but it is pretty strong so just use a little)

Mix the rice flour and 1/2 cup soda water in a small bowl. Set aside. Sift the flour, baking powder and cornstarch into a medium bowl. Stir in the remaining 2 1/2 cups soda water, salt, cayenne and dash of sesame oil, if using. Add the rice flour mixture to flour mixture. Allow to sit, covered with plastic wrap, in the refrigerator for 1 hour or so.

When ready to make- dredge in batter and fry in oil at 375 degrees. I like to do one type of vegetable at a time so I can keep them in separate piles after cooking. Chad dislikes squash and gets a little bugged if he accidently eats one, so this way people just take the veggies they like.

I make up a bunch of rice, serve it in bowls. Pile some veggies on, add some sliced Teriyaki Chicken, and drizzled with the hot thickened sauce. You can obviously use the stuff right out of the bottle if you don't have any of your marinade left over or if you just didn't feel like cooking it down.

Chicken Piccata

This is Chad's favorite dish lately. He asks for it almost every week. Lots of people have asked for this recipe, so here it is. Some people don't use bread crumbs (they just dredge in seasoned flour-and go right to the pan) but I just love extra crispy chicken.

I have doubled and tripled this recipe and it always works out great.

1 boneless, skinless chicken breast- Split into 2
(I have split this two diferent ways- I butterflied the breast so there is less pounding needed, I have also halved [length-wise] and then pounded, I thought both worked great- You can also buy chicken cutlets which are already cut thin so you can skip splitting and pounding all together)

Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 extra-large egg
1/2 tablespoon water
3/4 cup seasoned dry bread crumbs
(I have even used some crushed up boxed stuffing mix- I didn't worry about making it uniform- some of the crumbs were much larger than others and I thought the texture was great)
Good olive oil
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature, divided
1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice (1-2 lemons)- (I have used the bottled lemon juice- It obviously isn't as good but it's fine in a pinch)
1/2 cup low sodium chicken broth
Sliced lemon, for serving- Optional
Chopped fresh parsley leaves, for serving- Optional


Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Line a sheet pan with parchment paper.

Place each chicken breast between 2 sheets of parchment paper or in a plastic bag and pound out to 1/4-inch thick. Sprinkle both sides with salt and pepper.

Mix the flour, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon of pepper in a shallow plate. In a second plate, beat the egg and 1/2 tablespoon of water together. Place the bread crumbs on a third plate. Dip each chicken breast first in the flour, shake off the excess, dip in the egg- again shaking off excess, and then dip in bread crumbs, lightly pressing to make sure the bread crumbs really stick.

Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil and 1 tablespoon butter in a large saute pan over medium heat. Add the chicken breasts and cook for 2-3 minutes on each side, until browned.(If you are making more than 2 pieces of chicken make sure to only put a few in the pan at a time so they can brown well) Place them on the sheet pan-(they can sit while you cook more chicken if needed) Bake for about 10 minutes- until cooked through.

For the sauce, wipe out the pan with a paper towel. Over medium heat, melt 1 tablespoon of the butter and then add the lemon juice, broth, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper (Some people add capers here- about 1/4 cup- I don't). Boil over high heat until reduced in half, about 2-5 minutes. Off the heat, add 2 tablespoons of butter and lightly stir to combine. Salt and pepper more if needed.

Serve chicken with a sliced lemon and sprinkle with fresh parsley. I like to serve the sauce on the side, mainly because some people like more or less sauce than me.