Saturday, March 29, 2014

Amy's Spicy Honey Orange Glazed Chicken with Soy Sauce

I have a treat for you all today that I hope you will enjoy: it's another recipe!
My Angry Orchard Beer Bread was received so well I thought that I would try another recipe with you. Today I will be sharing another one of my own recipes: Amy's Spicy Honey Orange Glazed Chicken with Soy Sauce.



I made this for my husband and I back in February and it was a huge hit! I got the idea from a frozen meal that I had eaten at work that was an orange glazed chicken and rice meal. It was actually a really good meal, but I wanted more! So I took down all of the ingredients on the back of the box and figured I could make something even better. I had to do a little bit of recipe searching to figure out proportions to get a glaze but in the end the recipe was my own creation. None of the other recipes I found had everything in it that I wanted. Sweet and Savory. Glazed. Mushrooms, Carrots, and Rice. And I even made it Spicy after my initial trial of the recipe. 

I will be including directions to make yours with or without the spice. Without the spice is how I first intended this dish to be made. The spicy version uses chipotle pepper so it has a smoky spiciness. The original way is sweeter and has stronger flavors of orange and honey. Feel free to play with the proportions of everything to get a flavor that you prefer. But be sure to try it! By the way, it's amazing both ways. :)

(And please excuse the pictures. My camera isn't that great, nor is the lighting in my kitchen.)



You will need (in no order at all): Chicken breasts, OJ, Butter, Mushrooms(I've used canned and fresh), Soy Sauce, Honey, Rice (I used instant), salt, pepper, chipotle pepper, carrots, honey (not pictured) ( and I have onion flakes pictured, but I didn't use them...)

Prepare all of your ingredients first to make your process go more smoothly.


Julienne your carrots and mince your mushrooms, you also want to have your chicken cut into 2" wide strips (so each breast is cut into 3-4 long thing pieces, like tenderloins),


you can prepare your glaze early on if you prefer, but there is time while your chicken cooks. You will have a glaze for your chicken and a very similar sauce for your rice so be sure to prepare them both.


Heat your pan and melt your butter. Add the chicken when the pan is hot. Cook chicken approximately 4 minutes on each side, until seared. At the same time begin cooking your rice.


When your rice is done cooking, add your carrots and mushrooms to steam them, and pour the sauce for the rice over the rice mixture. Keep rice on low heat to help the sauce absorb.


About the same time your rice is getting done (before adding the carrots, mushrooms, and sauce) your chicken should be ready for the glaze. Pour the glaze into your pan and continue to cook on medium-high heat for about 5 minutes, until glaze begins to thicken. Your glaze should be boiling during this process.



When your rice has absorbed most of the liquid from the sauce and the glaze for your chicken is thick, it's done! Serve chicken over rice and spoon addition glaze over the dish.


I hope you enjoy it!


Here's the recipe: 

AMY'S (Spicy) HONEY ORANGE GLAZED CHICKEN WITH SOY SAUCE

Prep:10 minutes
Cook Time:15 minutes

INGREDIENTS

FOR THE GLAZE:
1/4c honey
1/3c orange juice
1/4c soy sauce (or 2T for the not spicy version)
1T garlic powder or 1 garlic clove, minced
1tsp chipotle seasoning or your spice of choice (or 1/4tsp for not spicy version)
2tsp celery salt

FOR THE CHICKEN:
1/2tsp salt
1/2tsp pepper
4 chicken breasts, cut into 2" strips
2T butter or margarine
cooking spray

FOR THE RICE:
1c instant brown rice
1c water
1 4oz can mushrooms, minced
10 baby carrots, julienned (about 1/2c)
1/3c orange juice
2tsp celery salt
2tsp soy sauce
2tsp honey
1tsp chipotle seasoning (or leave this out for rice that isn't spicy)

DIRECTIONS

1) Begin by spraying your frying pan with cooking spray, add butter and let melt. Season chicken with salt and pepper. When your pan is hot, add chicken and cook on medium-high heat until seared, about 4 minutes per side.
2) At the same time, prepare your rice as per instructions on the box with the water.
3) While chicken is cooking combine all ingredients for the glaze and whisk. You may need to microwave the sauce for about 10 seconds to get the honey to soften enough to be stirred into the mixture.
4) At this point you can also whisk together 1/3c orange juice, 2t celery salt, 2t soy sauce, 2t honey, and 1t chipotle seasoning to make a sauce for the rice.
5) When the chicken is just cooked through, add the glaze to the pan and continue to cook on medium-high heat until it begins to  thicken, about 5 minutes.
Your rice should also be done by now. Turn the heat down to medium-low and add the carrots, mushrooms, and prepared sauce for rice to the saucepan and cover for about 5 minutes to get the vegetables softened and warm up the sauce. 
7) When everything is done, serve chicken over rice and spoon glaze from frying pan onto chicken. 
8) Enjoy! 

Wednesday, March 26, 2014

Glass Jars are Fun!

A while ago I showed you all how I changed my bag of tangled ribbon into neatly wrapped individually ribbon clothespins. I told you that I had to put them into jars yet and here ya go! 
This is what my ribbon "Collection" looks like these days:


A while ago I purchased a single jar like these with the No. 1 on  it in black. I purchased it at Tuesday Morning. After searching for similar jars almost everywhere else and failing I decided that I may as well try to find them again so I went back to the store to look. I searched all over and couldn't find them, until of course I was about to leave and they were on the shelf closest to the registers! SCORE. So of course I got three. And I love them. I wanted clasping jars because I didn't want to have to worry about my klutzy self knocking the lids off. And I knew that these jars were made of a durable, less breakable glass. So again, a plus if they get knocked over. Plus I love the numbers on them. So Adorable!

I also managed to find some miniature jars at Target for a buck! Same concept: clasping jars. I initially bought them to organize my junk drawer (my nails and screws and such), but they ended up being too big. I think I will just have to use a plastic tackle box thing. 



Anyhoo...I was having a problem with my spices. I've bought some that the store bags themselves, not in shaker containers, because it's cheaper that way and there's more of a variety but I have been quandering how to keep them fresh in their bags. I could buy shakers for them,  but at the store where I bought the spices it's at least $1.25 for shaker containers. So I figured why not use those little glass jars for my spices? Since I already had them and they technically were cheaper than the shaker bottles. They'd be cute displayed on the counter too when full. So I went to work filling them and making labels. I love the turnout!




I used Spellbinders Large Scalloped Circles and a Sharpie to make the Tags. 



Then I just used Tacky Glue to adhere them to the lids of the jars.


Make sure to wash out your jars before you put them spices into them and let dry thoroughly. 


Then fill with your spices!





Monday, March 24, 2014

Thank You Card #5


Paper: Pebbles, Family Ties, "Daughter" (Front and Back)
Spellbinders Large Standard and Large Scalloped Circles
Just Rite "Just a Note" 1 5/8" Stamp Set

Saturday, March 22, 2014

Stampede Expo

Join the gals today at the Stampede "Stampin' & Scrappin'" Expo for some make n takes and take n makes and some great sales!

 Dies Used:
Spellbinders A-2 Matting Basics A
Impression Obsession Birch Trees DIE079-U
My Favorite Things/Dienamics Fresh Cut Grass

Memory Box Dies:
Bamboo Shoots 98793
Small Alder Tree 98792
Puffy Clouds 98172
Carolina Birdhouse 928



Tuesday, March 18, 2014

Thank You Card #4


Paper: Simple Stories, Vintage Bliss, "Laugh Lots" (Front and Back)
Spellbinders Large Standard & Scalloped Circles
Just Rite "Just A Note" 1 5/8" Stamp Set

Wednesday, March 12, 2014

Thank You Card #3


Paper: Simple Stories, Vintage Bliss, "Laugh Lots"
Spellbinders Large Standard and Scalloped Circles
Just Rite "Just a Note" 1 5/8" Stamp Set

Sunday, March 9, 2014

Thank You Card #2

Paper is Authentique

Paper: Authentique, Gathering, "Bloom" (Front and Back)
Spellbinders Large Standard and Scalloped Circlces
Just Rite "Just a Note" 1 5/8" Stamp Set

Thursday, March 6, 2014

Thank You Card #1


Paper: Pebbles, Family Ties, "Daughter" (Front and Back)
Spellbinders Large Standard and Scalloped Circlces
Just Rite "Just a Note" 1 5/8" Stamp Set

Wednesday, March 5, 2014

Tuscany, Italy

Wow, I feel like I haven't posted something in forever. I'm kind of a horrible person right now. It's not even that I don't have anything to share, it's that I haven't been on my computer much lately. (Gasp!) It was my mom's birthday last week and my husband's yesterday, so I guess I've been busy with that. And last week I found out that I get to join my mother-in-law and sister-in-law in Chianti, Tuscany, Italy in May!! We'll be drinking wine in our villa that overlooks a vineyard all week long. Yay! My husband is amazing enough that he's okay that he's not going. And it's over our one year wedding anniversary/my birthday, so he is extra amazing to let me go. 

But anyway, the reason this has interfered with my blogging is because instead of sitting my butt down on the couch with my laptop, I've been doing (attempting) yoga and "running" on our treadmill. Gotta get back my summer body so I can fit into those bikinis and cute summer dresses again for the trip! ;)

You guys can all look forward to some amazing pictures when I go, but for now  you can look forward to about two weeks of cards. I am forewarning you however, they're all the same card with different paper. They're gonna be called "Thank You #...". So look forward to it. I've been making a ton of them because I realized that I was severely lacking some thank you cards when our pipes froze in early February and I wanted to send a letter to our neighbors and the wonderful city workers. Now I will be stocked up though!

Thanks for hanging in there, 
BYE!