Chop Suey like Sing High Downtown Phoenix Chop Suey

 Ever since the Sing High closed down, we've yet to find a replacement. This is the first recipe I have found that is almost exactly like theirs. Even better as leftovers over rice and fried noodle. Lots of steps to this one but worth it in the end. 

 Here we go. 

Props and nods go to Bill at thewoksoflife.com website. Finding this recipe is a treasure and they get all the credit. I've got it here for my own personal file. Head over there for pictures and better instructions for sure. 

Chicken Chop Suey

chicken marinade:

12 ounce thin sliced boneless chicken breast

3 TBS water

1 TBS oyster sauce

1 TBS Shaoxing wine or dry sherry (I use sake)

1 tsp veg oil

2 tsp cornstarch

Suey Sauce:

1/2 cup chicken stock

1/4 cup sugar

1 1/2 tsp shoyu

1 tsp dark shoyu (I use a Korean shoyu)

1 1/2 TBS oyster sauce

1/2 tsp sesame oil

1/8 tsp white pepper

For the stir fry:

3 TBS veg oil

2 chopped cloves garlic

4 sliced mushrooms

1/2 small carrot sliced

2/3 cup sliced celery

6 oz bok choy or pak choy

1 TBS wine or sake

3/4 cup bean sprouts

1 cup snow peas

1 1/2 TBS cornstarch mixed with 2 TBS water slurry

Mix chicken and marinade ingredients in one bowl.

In another mix together all the sauce ingredients. 

Heat up your wok or large frying pan,  until hot, add 2 TBS veg oil around perimeter. Spread chicken in single layer around wok. 

Sear for a few seconds then stir fry around until golden. Remove chicken.

Turn heat up to high then add another TBS veg oil along with garlic. Then add mushrooms, carrots and celery. Stir fry for 20 seconds and add the bok choy. Give everything a good stir, add wine to deglaze. Add chop suey sauce and spread around. Add bean sprouts and snow peas and then add the chicken. 

When everything is stir fried up and is boiling add the cornstarch slurry. Drizzle it in and stir constantly for 30 seconds until thick and everything coated with sauce. Enjoy with hot rice. 

Shoyu Chicken, Katsu Chicken, Pancit Bihon

Shoyu Chicken

1/4 cup sugar

1 cup shoyu

1 TBS garlic

2 tsp ginger

1 tsp sesame seeds

1 cup water

1/2 tsp sesame oil

4 lbs of chicken thighs

In bowl mix all the sauce ingredients. Pour over chicken in large oven pan. Cover with foil and bake for 55 minutes. Serve with rice. 

Katsu Chicken L & L style

2 lbs boneless breasts or thighs

1/2 cup flour

2 eggs, beaten

2 cups panko

vegetable oil

Pound breasts and thighs individually between wax paper until thinner but not scallopini thin. 

Dredge in flour, dip in eggs and then cover in panko. Fry in oil until golden brown both sides about 3-5 minutes each. Let drain. Slice and serve with dipping sauce and rice. 

Katsu sauce

1/3 cup ketchup

dash of pepper

1/3 cup shoyu

1/4 cup sugar

2 tsp Worcestershire sauce

Mix well. 

Pancit Bihon

Vegetable oil

chopped small onion

chopped green onion

bok choy sliced

1/2 green cabbage shredded

4 large chopped carrots

3 crushed garlic cloves

1 chicken breast sliced thin

Patis

Shoyu

Ginger 

1 pkg bihon pancit noodles (the clear ones, Pancit Canton are the yellow egg noodles)

Soak bihon noodles in warm water for 10 minutes. Drain and set aside. In wok fry meat first then all vegetables in vegetable oil adding 1-2 TBS patis, 3-4 TBS shoyu and 1 TBS ginger while cooking. Add noodles when vegetables are done. Stir fry another few minutes with noodles. Mix it all up and serve with rice. 

Wiki Wiki Ono Ono Chicken

Hawaiian recipe for a quick potluck dish or dinner. Got the recipe from the star bulletin but it's super easy and simple. Foodland always sold chicken thighs in these large 5 lb boxes which were great for potluck nights. Eat this with rice if there's any left for you.

5 lb box of chicken thighs

1 12 oz can of orange juice concentrate

1/2 cup sweet Thai chili sauce

1/4 cup oyster sauce

2 cloves garlic

Throw all in pot and simmer for 45 minutes. Can add a little water as the liquid cooks down. 

Italian Chicken

Italian Chicken

6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts or thighs or both

2 TBS butter or oil

1 TBS minced garlic

1 can diced or stewed tomatoes

1 can tomato sauce

1/4 cup red wine

garlic, oregano, basil, italian seasoning, salt, pepper

3 TBS butter

1/4 cup parmesan cheese

1 1/2 cup mozzarella shredded

Brown chicken and garlic in skillet.

Add can of tomatoes with juice, tomato sauce and wine. Add garlic and herbs to taste. Bring to a boil then cover pan and simmer for 20 minutes. 

While chicken is cooking, boil pasta of choice. After draining pasta, put into serving bowl and add 3 TBS butter and 1/4 cup parmesan cheese. Mix well. 

Sprinkle mozzarella over each chicken piece, cover with lid and let melt for 5 minutes. Serve over pasta. 

Lemon Broccoli Chicken

Lemon Broccoli Chicken

2 cans cream of broccoli soup

1 1/2 soup cans of milk

3-4 lemons

5-6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts or thighs

Squeeze at least 2 1/2 TBS juice from 2 lemons. Thinly slice the other two. 

Brown chicken in 2 TBS butter or oil until browned lightly in large skillet. Mix soup and milk, wisk until creamy. Add lemon juice, wisk well. Pour over chicken. cover and simmer for 15 minutes. Add lemon slice over each piece of chicken, cover and cook another 5-10 minutes. Serve over rice with steamed broccoli. 

Chinese Chicken in Orange Sauce

Chinese Chicken in Orange Sauce

sauce:

1 cup chicken broth

6 TBS shoyu

3 TBS white vinegar

1/2 TBS sugar

1/4 tsp pepper

2 TBS cornstarch

Stir fry mixture:

2 carrots, sliced

8 oz green beans trimmed

1 TBS peanut oil

1/2 tsp charades red pepper

3 cloves garlic

4 1-inch long strips of orange peel

14 oz diced boneless raw chicken

1 cup sliced mushrooms

In small bowl mix chicken broth, 4 TBS shoyu, vinegar, sugar and pepper. In another small bowl mix cornstarch and 2 TBS shoyu. Set aside.

Heat oil in pan or wok. Add pepper, garlic, orange peel and chicken. Stir frequently and cook for 5-7 minutes.  Add mushrooms and stir fry. Then add carrots and green beans. Stir fry until cooked.  Add sauce 1 and cook until boiling. Then add cornstarch mixture and cook until thick. 

Serve over rice. 

Wishes Granted: Chicken Adobo

Filipino style chicken adobo.

1 cup APPLE CIDER vinegar

1/2 cup Aloha shoyu

3-4 cloves smashed garlic

1/4 tsp salt, pepper

2 bay leaves

cup or so of water

Put pack of thighs in pan. Add adobo sauce. Cover with foil. Bake 30 minutes. Flip thighs over. Cover and bake another 30 minutes. Eat with rice. 

Can also use breasts or chicken legs. Leftover chicken is great in fried rice, if there is any leftovers. 

Chicken and Dumplings

I earlier posted the recipe for dumplings. I made chicken and dumplings the other day and it took practically no time to make. I used the bisquik recipe for the dumplings because nobody complains about them. 

(I just pulled a carcass from the freezer and boiled it in pot for a few hours with some italian seasoning and let the water cook down. Pulled the meat from carcass, then strained the broth a few times to make sure to get the bones out.)

So here we go:

1-2 cups cooked chicken 

8 cups chicken broth 

Bring to a boil. 

Add a 1/2 cup of frozen peas, 1/2 cup of frozen corn, a few chopped carrots. 

Let boil or simmer until tender. Add some seasoning and salt. Simmer for 5 minutes. Add a little more water or broth if needed and heat. 

Add dumplings. Cover and let them cook for 10 minutes or so. Eat. 

Wishes Granted: Roast Chicken or 3 day chicken

Roast chicken is the pinnacle of a good cook. To me that is. You can eat the roast chicken one day, make enchiladas, tacos, salad and whatever with it the 2nd day. Then cook the carcass and all the bits the 3rd day to make a broth and have chicken and dumplings. Or just freeze the carcass and use it later, just don't throw it away, it's still good!

Plus the best part of a roast chicken is that roast chicken skin. 

So many ways to cook a chicken, here's the one Mom always did but there are so many variations. Keep with me as I explain the simple process with notes. You don't need a fancy pan. You don't have to tie the legs together and baste the crap out of it. Just a good pan, some foil or preferred is a pan with a lid. I found that the Le Creuset style pan makes the best damn chicken but if you don't have one, any pan will do. 

Also, wash your damn hands with soap and hot water. A lot. You'll be washing your hands a lot if you aren't wearing disposable food gloves.

Preheat oven to 350. 

1 stick of butter

1 whole chicken

peeled garlic cloves or granulated

salt

Optional: italian seasoning, seasoned salt, tony cacheres seasoned salt,  1/2 an onion, more garlic, more butter,  fresh basil leaves, rosemary, thyme or tarragon, white wine

Wash your chicken, pull out giblets and schmaltz. Schmaltz is that large chunk of fat at its butt. Some people like to sauté it until it's crispy. Let the chicken dry a bit. 

Rub it generously with the butter on the skin. Get under the skin or put bits under the skin. At this point you can add fresh herbs under the skin, especially the breast and thighs if you're feeling fancy. If you don't have garlic cloves, sprinkle the chicken all over with granulated garlic, especially into the cavity. If you have cloves, put a bunch into the cavity if you want it really garlicky. You can also put 1/2 an onion into the cavity with some butter. 

Place it breast down in your pan. Unless you want it fancy looking, I like it breast down because the flavors and butter juices get absorbed into the breast meat and make it taste so much better. Salt with seasoned salt of choice or just plain salt if you want. This is for tasty crispy skin. 

Add a cup or so of water, some more butter, 1/4 cup of white wine if you want to the pan. Cover with foil or lid. Bake for 40 minutes. Uncover and bake for another 15-20 minutes until that skin is just like you want it. It will make your house smell so good and don't forget those delicious oysters on the back.

So here is the TL;DR version. 

Oven 350. One whole cleaned chicken. Rub butter, add garlic. Drop in baking pan with water and butter. Salt. Bake for an hour. Remove lid for last 15 minutes. Go nuts over that chicken skin. 

Stuffing Goes up the Butt

Of the turkey or the chicken. Here's my cornbread stuffing recipe I just kind of pulled out of my head one day when someone suggested we have stuffing in the chicken. This is a damn tasty recipe so give it a try. You don't have to put it into a bird, you can also just put it into a buttered pie plate and bake it at 350 for 45 minutes. 

3 Cups crumbled day old cornbread

1/4 cup butter

1/2 diced onion

2 ribs celery, diced

1/4 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp italian seasoning

1/2 tsp onion salt

1/4 cup chicken broth

Saute onion and celery in butter. Add to a large bowl. Mix rest of ingredients with onion, celery. Mix well with hands. Stuff into bird or bake in pie pan. 

Enchilada Casserole of the Day

There are many enchilada casseroles. All of them are just lazy enchiladas because someone named Mom was too tired to roll them all up beautifully and cover them in a delicious sauce and then the pickiest eater won't eat it anyways. After all that work. Well. Not happening most days. It's easier to just throw it all in a pan, put it on cook for a half hour and hopefully get 10 minutes of a nap somewhere in there. Remember to line your pan with foil or you'll be soaking that pan overnight trying to get the baked tortilla cheese grit off of it.

Some Enchilada Casserole recipe I pulled out of my head one day

Good brand of corn tortillas

Shredded cheese

Mix these well:

garlic, onion, salt and pepper

Can diced green chilis

can diced tomatos

can of El Pato sauce of choice (I'd rather the green one but red or yellow is okay)

can of cream of mushroom soup

 1/2 can of water

amount of 3 cooked chicken breasts, shredded or diced well (or ground beef)

Preheat oven to 350

Mix all ingredients together but the tortillas and cheese. This is your chicken mix. In a greased foiled pan, layer torn corn tortillas in a double layer. Add 1/2 the chicken mix. Sprinkle lots of cheese on it. Layer again with more tortillas. Add rest of chicken, sprinkle lots of cheese. Pour over it some Herdez green or red chili sauce. Bake at 350 for 35 minutes or so. 

So you can basically take any enchilada recipe and casserole it, is what I'm saying. It won't look pretty but it's faster and less messy to make. Casserole style is so 1970s and this is what you all grew up with. 

Sandy's Buffalo Wing Dip

I went to this party once. It was a housewarming party and I was so late I had curlers in my hair. No, not really. I was actually EARLY and helped set up. While setting up, there was this dip I couldn't stop eating. I ate it until my stomach hurt. So I'm sharing it with all of you. Eat it until your stomach hurts because it's super simple and delicious. Courtesy of one of the coolest moms out there Sandy Dougherty. Thanks for the recipe!

Sandy's Buffalo Wing Dip

8 oz cream cheese
2 cans chicken in water, drained and shred the chunks
16 oz ranch dressing
2 cups shredded jack cheese or jack and cheddar
6 oz Franks buffalo wing sauce

Mix all in a crock pot. Set on high and stir as it melts. Cook until completely melted and gooey. Eat with corn chips or crackers. Or with a big spoon.

Eat until your stomach hurts.

Pork Adobo

Pork Adobo


1 large pork roast, cut into large cubes
1 cup apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup shoyu
5 cloves garlic, crushed
1/4 tsp salt, pepper
2 bay leaves
1/2 cup water

put all into slow cooker and cook on high for 6 hours, low for 8 hours. Can also cook on stovetop until meat is cooked through and tender.

You can also do chicken and beef this way.
For chicken thighs,  cook in large square pan covered in foil in oven at 350 for an hour.