Honeyed Chicken Teriyaki

Oh my gosh, I'm not really sure why I haven't put these nuggets of goodness up here before. This is a recipe my dad used to make for Sunday dinners and it ranked in my top two favorite meals growing up. I compare just about every chicken piece recipe to this and nothing ever compares, but what really can compare with something so ingrained in my memory as delicious? You'll notice the pictures have less ingredients than what I call for-- I just cut it down to be made for two. See below for the full recipe. Here's what you'll need:

 Cut your chicken into about two inch squares. 

Before you get frying, you'll want to mix the ginger, garlic, honey and soy sauce together in a saucepan and keep that going on low-medium heat.

For the batter I use your basic egg and flour combination. I like to use shallow dishes (pie or cake tins) to easily transfer pieces from one to another. In one dish, stir eggs with a fork and in the other combine the flour, salt and pepper. Coat the chicken in the eggs, letting the excess egg drip off before transferring to the flour and coating there. While you're doing this you'll want to be heating a skillet with oil about a half inch high on medium heat. To see if it's ready I usually sprinkle a little flour in and see if it sizzles.

Transfer the floured  chicken to the oil when it is ready, turning until golden. The chicken just needs to be golden and not cooked through, as we bake it later. Depending on how much chicken you're using, you will need to do this in batches.

When the chicken is golden, use tongs to pick it up and let the oil drip off before transferring to the heated sauce mixture. Usually I'll put a couple in at a time and then replace some flour chicken in the oil to keep the process going.

Once they are coated, place them on a greased cookie sheet to bake. Now, my dad always used a broiling pan for this recipe but I've never owned one. Truly, it would be easier but I make do just fine without one. I'll usually put down a sheet of aluminum foil first. You'll bake at 250 degrees for 20 minutes. Brush with glaze half way through the cooking time.

I pretty much make a spinach salad every day out of sheer laziness but I usually serve this with rice and a vegetable. I'm weird and like to eat the rice and chicken apart but Bryan mixes them together and pours more sauce on it. I would possibly double the sauce because it's so good.

Ingredients:

2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken breast
oil for frying
1 C. all-purpose flour
1 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
2 eggs, beaten
1/3 C. soy sauce
1/3 C. honey
1 clove garlic, minced or pressed
1 tsp. grated fresh ginger

1. Cut your chicken into 2" squares.
2. Beat eggs in a shallow dish. In another shallow dish combine flour, salt and pepper.
3. Dip chicken in eggs and then coat with seasoned flour.
4. Pour 1/2" oil in a wide frying pan; place over medium-high heat.
5. When hot, add chicken, half at a time. Cook until golden brown, 4-5 minutes for small pieces and 6-8 for larger.
6. Meanwhile, heat soy sauce, honey, garlic and ginger in a saucepan over medium heat.
7. Lift chicken from oil and dip in honey mixture then place on broiling pan. 
8. Bake at 250 degrees for 20 minutes and brush with the glaze after 10 minutes.

Enjoy!

REVIEW: Brownie Pudding

I'm obsessed with Pinterest. Is that a surprise to anyone, though? I have a lot of meals I like and will make fairly regularly but I try to throw in new recipes more frequently and where do I get them? None other than Pinterest. Now, a lot of the time what happens is that I see a picture of a new recipe and start drooling on the spot. I get all excited and make it and then... it's not that good. Or it's fine but not nearly as flavorful and mouth watering as I'd originally thought. Sometimes, I get kind of discouraged and assume that I'll be disappointed before I even make it. Sometimes when I do that I get the rug pulled out from beneath me in surprise of how delectable it is. This is one of those times. Brownie Pudding is so rich and smooth and the perfect flavor-- everything I hoped it would be. I will be making this many, many times throughout our future life-- of that I'm sure! Now one thing, it calls for seeds from a vanilla bean. I couldn't find one at my local grocery store so I used 1/2 tsp. of vanilla extract and it worked out great. I also thought it would be more temperamental and difficult because you put it in a water bath but it could not have been easier to make! If you make this you'll become obsessed with it, too.

Brownie Pudding

REVIEW: Baked Potato Soup

Have I really not reviewed this yet? This is seriously one of our very favorite recipes and, when the weather cools down, I jump at the chance to make it. I'm pretty sure half of the reviews on my blog come from Our Best Bites but what can I say? They make delicious food! Now, this recipe can take a while to make. They recommend grating your own cheese so that It melts better in the soup so none of that pre-shredded stuff. They also give you the long option of baking your potatoes or the fast one (microwave) so it can take longer depending on what you decide to do. You also will need to cook bacon beforehand. I had all of my stuff cooked, cut, shredded and mashed and ready to go right in the soup yesterday. I felt very efficient. Anyway, please make this. You won't regret it.

Baked Potato Soup

Review: The Best Ever Waffles

Today I woke up with a hankering for waffles. As far as breakfast foods go, I was never much of a pancake or waffle girl. I always preferred eggs in any form-- fried, scrambled, hard boiled, etc. I love eggs. In fact the only waffle I ate on a somewhat regular basis growing up were Eggos! Not that my dad didn't make us pancakes a lot-- he used to make them nearly every Sunday morning. I just liked what I liked, and that was eggs! Well, I've had to learn to be more flexible in what I eat since I've gotten married. Bryan is all about trying new foods and not just sticking with what you know you like. "How will you ever know if you like something if you don't try it?" he always says. So, early in our marriage one Saturday morning he asked me to make him waffles. Having no idea what makes a good waffle recipe, I searched 'best ever waffles.' Hint: Whenever I have no idea what constitutes a good recipe I search 'best ever ______' in bewilderment.

Best Ever Waffles

Well, this recipe has lived up to its name. I love that it has you beat the egg whites until they're stiff and fold that in. It brings a certain lightness to it. The recipe is really good on its own but sometimes I add this or that to it, usually vanilla and/or cinnamon. This morning I added both and some pumpkin pie spice, too! I even made them orange with food coloring. This is a recipe I never want to lose. I know my husband loves me.

Stuffed Peppers

I hope everyone had a happy Halloween! I can't believe it's almost time for Thanksgiving and then Christmas! Holidays seem to have a way of speeding time up, it seems. I found this recipe for Stuffed Peppers in a cookbook my mom had made me of her favorites. I made it last year on Halloween and then this year too and I'm thinking it might become our Halloween classic. I'm sure you'll see why.

Anyway, here's what you'll need. I forgot to include the tomato juice so I just popped it into the corner there.

First, slice your peppers. Then hollow out the seeds and membranes. I chose orange peppers but the recipe calls for green. Can you see where I'm going with this?

Voila! This isn't not an essential part of the recipe but if you're looking to make your meal a little festive, here you are. I got this idea from Pinterest.

This recipe makes six stuffed peppers but, as there's just us two, I make two at a time. You'll need to bring water to a boil (enough to cover how ever many peppers you're making) and then boil them for five minutes. In the mean time, brown your meat (and cook your rice if you haven't yet!).

When the meat is finished, drain it to get rid of the fat. Then return it to the skillet and add garlic powder, salt, tomato juice, and rice.

Mix it all up and bring it to a boil.

When your five minutes are up you're going to want to transfer the peppers to a baking dish. Once there, put a half a cup of the mixture in the peppers and cover with aluminum foil. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes.

Once that's done, put a slice of tomato on each and sprinkle with salt. Return to the oven uncovered for 15 minutes.

Generally, you can throw out the tops when you first cut them off but I like them for that Jack-O-Lantern effect!

Ingredients:

6 lg. green peppers
5 C. boiling water
1 1/2 lb. lean ground beef
2 Tbsp. chopped onion
1 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. garlic powder
1 C. cooked rice
1 C. tomato juice
6 thick tomato slices
Salt

1. Cut thin slice from stem end of each pepper, remove all seeds and membranes.
2. Cook peppers in boiling water 5 minutes; drain.
3. Heat oven to 350 degrees.
4. Cook and stir meat and onion in large skillet until meat is brown and onion is tender. Drain off fat.
5. Stir in 1 tsp salt, the garlic powder, rice and tomato juice; heat to boiling.
6. Lightly stuff each pepper with 1/2 C. meat mixture.
7. Stand peppers upright in an ungreased baking dish. Cover with aluminum foil and bake 45 minutes.
8.  Top each pepper with a tomato slice and sprinkle with salt. Bake uncovered 15 minutes.

The recipe includes that there are 225 calories so it's pretty healthy, which is something I am currently trying to be. As I typed the last word in that sentence I seriously heard the ice cream truck drive by. Must. Resist... :) Anyway, enjoy!

REVIEW: Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins

Even the name of this recipe has my mouth watering. Oh my goodness, I made these last night and they were so delicious and so autumn appropriate! Really, you can eat them any time of year but I especially enjoy getting into autumn by making seasonal food. Anything with cloves and/or nutmeg in it is generally going to be heavenly, in my opinion.

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins

Time Out

Here at the Whitney Whisk, I'm all about cooking. I love, love, love to cook! For today, though, our post has almost nothing to do with cooking. Almost-- I have a love for cooking in aprons (I have fifteen of my own).

This summer I have been trying to get in to crafting. I've made independence day decorations and a multitude of baby toys and accessories for the three babies to come into our family! A while ago I got the idea to make aprons for two little nieces turning three who got little kitchens for their birthdays last year. Well, I've slowly been working away at them over the past two weeks and I was so excited about the final product that I wanted to share. I tried to make each apron epitomize the style and personality of the little girl it was going to-- trust me, at three they already have acutely distinct personalities.

I went to Hancock Fabrics beforehand to scope out fabric options before buying, then went home and put some ideas together from pictures I'd taken on my phone. I made a rough sketch of each apron and then made my own patterns for each. I used measurements and suggestions for both from this blog post-- the second apron follows it more closely but is still different.

Ava's Apron

Ava is a very sweet, very fun and often silly girl who loves lambies and asking questions. While definitely very feminine, she doesn't seem to care about pink or princesses. In fact, she told me just last week that her favorite color is white! Well she's lucky because I'd finished her apron by then and it definitely has a lot of white in it.

I used this apron for a base of inspiration and then put my ideas to work from there. 

Both aprons are made with velcro for the neck and waist ties, as per the suggestion of the blog tutorial linked above. This makes for easier removal by the kids themselves.

I knew I wanted a peter pan collar but the bow and stitching came last as I was finishing the apron. It just needed a little something up there and I think I definitely found that something. In the process, I learned how to tie the perfect bow so that's a plus.

What can I say, I love a good ruffle. I'm very much in to pleats and gathers and anything feminine when it comes to clothes.

When I told my sister that I was going to make Ava an apron she said she'd been thinking about making her a little chef's hat. I thought that would be the perfect accessory. I used this tutorial but I made the rim shorter and opted to go with the classic white fabric. When cutting the circle I just measured 18", found the 9" mark and the measured 9" out from that center mark around in a circle.

Ella's Apron

Ella is a sweet and quite spunky girl who loves princesses and dressing up. She asks her mom for "lips" (lip gloss) often and has her own set of 'high heels.' She is all girl and in honor of this I thought something very frilly and very pink would do the trick.

I went with a sweetheart neckline, which is not so easy to see in this photograph. It was inspired by this apron. The top felt a little empty so i adorned it with a set of pearls and a sweet little bow off to the side. I am a serious pearl girl, myself.

When I saw these frills I knew they were exactly what I was looking for.

I was trying to come up with an accessory for Ella, like the chef hat above, but I wanted something different. I made her a little headband with a big bow that I will give her but I just wasn't in love with it and then the idea of a matching oven mitt struck me and I whipped up a little pattern for it. The inside layer has minky fabric with a layer of batting in between.

Happy Birthday Ava and Ella!