Food in the Time of ‘Rona: Takeout Inspired Sesame Chicken

Welcome to the 7th ring of Hell aka week 10 (?) of quarantine. I’m over it. More over it than I was last week when I went on a strike and didn’t wash dishes for two days. BUT… we back!

This weekend was really good for me—I bought less snacks at the grocery store and feel confident that while I will leave quarantine jumping to put on my jeans (I might be a closeted Beyhive member, sorry), I am back on track with how I want to eat. Namely, fun meals that incorporate fresh veggies to make up for the fact that I’m eating outside of my (general) pescatarian diet.

For Sunday dinner, I was again inspired by takeout favorites, this time Chinese food. I had some leftover rice In the fridge and decided to build a meal around that. I landed on sesame chicken, veggie fried rice and broccoli. I ended up eating the broccoli before everything else was finished and the fried rice was a salty dub. But the sesame chicken?! Baby. Honey. I outdid myself.

I ended up modifying recipes I found online (i.e. this does not have cornstarch, sesame oil or rice vinegar because I did not have that shit on-hand at 8pm on a Sunday) and landed on a technique for super crisp chicken that wasn’t overwhelmed by the sauce. If you’re a vegetarian, cauliflower is a great substitute for the chicken, as it’ll hold up well to the frying.

Enjoy!

2-4 Servings

Ingredients:

1 lb boneless, skinless chicken tenders cut into 1 inch pieces (OR 1 head of cauliflower broken up into crowns) , seasoned with salt and pepper

Coating

• 2 eggs, beaten

• salt, pepper and garlic powder to taste

• 1/2 cup all purpose flour + 1/2 cup panko crumbs mixed

Sauce

• 3 tbsp oil (I used olive oil but vegetable oil is fine)

• 1 tbsp minced garlic (jarred works well but fresh if you’re going for a quarantine gold medal)

• 1/4 cup honey

• 1/3 cup soy sauce

• 1/2 cup ketchup

• 4 tbsp brown sugar

• 1 tbsp white vinegar

• 1 tsp ground ginger (if you don’t have it, no worries. I literally added it because I saw it in my cabinet)

• 2 tbsp sesame seeds

MISC

oil for frying

green onions or sesame seeds for garnish

1. Heat frying oil. In a medium bowl whisk eggs, salt, pepper and garlic powder. Add the chicken or cauliflower pieces and coat evenly.

2. In a separate bowl toss the coated chicken (or cauliflower) in the flour/panko mix.

3. Fry chicken pieces until golden brown. Drain on paper towels when finished.

4. While chicken is frying, mix all of your sauce ingredients. Note, the sauce will be the texture of the average cooking sauce that comes in bottle. It WILL cook down when heated. Be sure to taste the sauce to ensure you’re getting the flavors you want.

5. In a skillet over medium heat, add your prepared sauce mix. When the sauce begins to bubble (i.e. the sugar is caramelizing) add the chicken pieces and coat.

6. Serve warm topped with sesame seeds or sliced green onions.