Oven Baked Honey Sriracha Chicken Wings

Wow, I have not updated my blog for over a month. Why such a long silence? Well, laziness I guess. I still cook at least 3-4 times a week but mostly some repeat dishes and sometimes I am just too lazy to take photos but I still update it on my Instagram though. You can follow me there if you want to.

 

Anyway, I baked these wings some time ago. I am a huge fan of wings but I try not to eat it as often. Maybe once every 2-3 months. I have shared quite a few recipes here and this is one recipe that I have yet to post it here which uses one of my favorite chili sauce: Sriracha. I like baking it as it is less messy than frying and probably a bit healthier. These spicy, sweet and slightly charred wings are pretty addictive. I don’t think you can stop eating it with just 1 or 2 so I hope you try it out.

Baked Buffalo Wings with Blue Cheese Dipping Sauce

These easy to make hot wings are crispy without being fried. With the sports season around now they are great for snacking while watching the game. All it takes is just 10 minutes to prepare, an hour to marinate and then stick it in the oven for an hour and it is done. I like it spicier so I added a bit more hot sauce to it but you can adjust the amount to your liking.

Ingredients:

10 chicken wings
Some celery sticks

Cranberry Chicken Salad Sandwich

I attended a high tea party at a good friend house last week. It was a pot luck party and I prepared some scones, cheesecake bars and mini chicken pot pie (recipe coming up soon). The host prepared a huge Sandwich Platter and it has a few types of sandwiches in it and one of them was chicken salad sandwich. There were really good and I have been craving for it since.

Well, since I have some leftover roast chicken I decided to make some for our lunch. I won’t consider this as the best chicken salad but this is how we like it. I usually make a huge batch and will have as salad or make sandwiches out of it. The great thing about this salad is you can add toasted nuts, grapes, apple, raisins or some crumble cheese to it but for this one I decided to add some dry cranberries. It gives the salad a nice sweetness.

Chicken Satay with Peanut Sauce

I made this the first week I arrived back to the USA. This is one particular dish that reminds me a lot of home. I grew up in Kajang. Kajang is a small town in the state of Selangor that is famous of its Satay. You just have to mentioned Satay and many people will tell you that Kajang serve the best satay. There are quite a few of Satay restaurant in Kajang but I still like the satay from Restoran Malaysia.

What sets their satay apart from the rest? It is because they don’t use chicken skin or fatty bits in their satay. I hate biting into them when I have my satay. They also serve the traditional ketupat (rice cakes in coconut leaf casings) instead of nasi impit (compactly pressed rice cut into cubes) to accompany the satay. Anyway, I am sure the ingredients used to marinate their satay are well guarded secret but you can find many recipes online now. I adapted this recipe from MamaFami with minor changes.

Kerala Style Fried Chicken

There are many Indian Restaurant around where we live so I hardly cook any Indian food at home. If we want Indian food we just go to the restaurant. I was looking through my cookbooks the other day and came across a Best Ever Indian Cookbook that I bought a long time ago and totally forgotten about it. While flipping through the pages many of the recipes attract my attention. The first is this particular dish. Since I plan to cook nasi lemak for dinner so I thought this dish will goes well with it. The recipe said to deep fry it but I just shallow fried them. The chicken is crispy on the outside and juicy on the inside and with great spices flavor. No regret trying it out.

Salted Fish and Chicken Fried Rice

A friend of mine gave me a piece of salted fish and it has been sitting in the freezer since last year. I thought of using it to make Laksa Johor but change my mind and used it for fried rice. It has been the longest time since I have salted fish. I cook this fried rice for lunch on weekdays as I don’t think my husband can stand the stinky smell of the salted fish. I am sure he will ‘pengsan’ (faint) ha ha.. gosh they taste so good in fried rice. I still have half of it and maybe used it for claypot chicken rice.

Chicken Teriyaki

The pictures of this dish have been sitting in my file for a long time and it is time to post it out. I made this chicken dish for the AFF – Japan event but I just can’t find the time to post it during that time because of work commitment. This is a simple recipe yet very satisfying. I cooked this in a skillet instead of grilling it but you can always do so.

Crispy Oven Baked Chicken Wings

Happy New Year everyone. I hope all of you are looking forward to year 2014. I know I am :) Let's start the new year with something healthy. I am sure most of us love fried chicken wings. I know I do but I am trying to lessen our consumption of fried foods so I’ve done a few trial runs on creating crispy oven bake wings. I am trying to get it as crispy as the fried ones but minus all the oil. Well, I came up with this. It has crispy coating, juicy and tender meat and yes way less calories than the deep fried ones. I have to warn you. This is highly addictive so don’t overeat.

 

Chicken and Green Onion Yakitori

Yakitori in Japan can be refer to skewered food in general, traditionally serve at small restaurant or stands that grill them to order over charcoal and to be consumed alongside alcoholic beverages in the evening. These skewers will be grill to perfections and then basting it with homemade yakitori sauce. I made my own basting sauce as I find them tastier than the store bought stuff. You can use this sauce for basting any meat or vegetable.

Spicy Honey Glazed Baked Chicken Wings

I think I’ve mentioned before in my previous posting that I love chicken wings. You can stew it, fried it, grill it or baked it, I love them all. One of my favorite ways of preparing it is just marinate it and stick it into the oven. I don’t really have a favorite marinate recipe, I just put a bit of this a bit of that or whatever I can find in my pantry that day. It always turns out tender and tasty. This time I brush it with honey to make it sweet and savory at the same time. Do try this out; it is much healthier and best of all no greasy frying mess to clean up.

 

 

Wuxi Chicken Wings/Ginger Wine Soy Sauce Chicken Wings

It has been awhile since I cook with chicken wings. I bookmarked this recipe from Sonia’s right after she posted it at her blog. I just love how her dish/wings look, dark and glistening with soy sauce glaze. This is such a nice simple dish and goes really well with rice.

Ingredients:
Source: Nasi Lemak Lover

18 pcs Chicken Wings (mid section)
1 tbsp light soy sauce
½ tbsp Shao Hsing cooking wine
1 spring onion - cut into 1"
5 slices ginger
1/3 cup water

Roast Chicken with Orange Mustard Glaze

This is our all time favorite roast chicken. It is easy and a complete meal on its own as I usually added some vegetables to the roast. I will usually roast a bird once every 2 weeks and it can last us for a few meals. With the leftovers I make it into sandwiches, pie and the bones for stock. The mix of orange juice, honey, chili powder and mustard to the glaze added a wonderful flavor to the chicken.

Ingredients:

1 roasting chicken, around 3.5 – 4 pounds
2 cloves garlic – finely chopped
2 tsp paprika
3 tbsp butter – room temperature
3 sprigs thyme 1 small orange – cut into quarters
Salt and pepper to taste
Some vegetables of your choice – peppers, potatoes, carrots and onions

Chicken Yakisoba

Yakisoba, literally fried noodles, is considered a Japanese dish but originally derived from the Chinese chow mein. While chow mein uses soy sauce, the Japanese season this noodle with a sweeten Worcestershire like sauce. Although soba means buckwheat, typically suggesting noodles made from that flour in mainland Japan, yakisoba noodles are made from wheat flour similar to ramen. Yakisoba is very easy to make and you can add almost any ingredients to make it your own. Popular yakisoba varieties include vegetarian, seafood, chicken, beef or classic with pork belly.

Malaysian Food Fest Kelantan Month Round-Up

When the hosting date of the Malaysian Food Fest for the state of Kelantan drew near I was very worried as I knew that it would be a very busy and crazy month for me. A new chapter in my life is starting as I am back into working world again. I know I will be crazy trying to juggle everything at once, my new daily routine and having to blog as well. As I had already said 'Yes' to hosting the Kelantan month, I would just do it and I intended to do it well.

Throughout my blogging years, I have come across some not so nice characters but for each of that, I have encountered the good ones that come tenfold. For that, I am very blessed indeed, as these good people come to my rescue when I needed them the most. I was very worried that I would not have enough time to do research, the write ups and not forgetting the cooking itself which is the very essence of this whole scheme. The cooking is relatively easy but finding an authentic recipe and the ingredients is a bit of a challenge as living far away from home means I have to do without so many ingredients that are essential in many of the Kelantanese recipes.

Throughout the MFF events I’ve learned many things and dishes from other states. One thing that stands out for me is authenticity of a dish. It cannot be determined per se as who is to say the dish originally came from one states. It is not uncommon in Malaysia for dishes to be begged or borrowed from other states, modified to suit local tastes and then claimed as their own. So let’s not be too critical or harsh if any of the dishes featured during this Kelantan MFF are not truly authentic. The whole idea of this feature is to introduce a specific region's food and encourage readers to try new and different foods outside their normal comfort zone.

I am glad that so many of you accepted the challenge and joined in the fun. A special thank you to Nor of Secubit Garam for spreading the word amongst the blogger community and to get so many of you to participate, and also going the extra mile of providing me many of the pictures that appeared in the introduction posting. Also a special thank you to Cik Manggis of Jom Masak Jom Makan Makan for being my number one supporter... cooking a Kelantan based dish almost on a daily basis and also my good friend Shereen for being there for me. Also thank you to those of you who have let me use your photos and recipes, and who answered my many questions. Once again, a big, big thank you from the bottom of my heart to all of you who participate and made Kelantan MFF a huge success with 99 entries and if I left out any of your dish in the round up please let me know and I will put them up. So without further ado here are all the dishes that I received.

Appetizer/Salad

Kerabu Sotong Kering by Gertrude of My Kitchen Snippets

Somtam/Papaya Salad by Vivian of Vivian Pang Kitchen

Somtam by Peng of Peng's Kitchen

Chicken Kerabu by Lena of Frozen Wings

Kerabu Taugeh Bersantan by Sheila of Nshafearee

Honey Yogurt Chicken Kebab

Let’s take a break from MFF Event today and feature this chicken kebab. This is one dish that you can prepare the night before and grill it the very next day. It will become handy if you want to entertain a large number of guests. Marinating the chicken overnight allows the yogurt to tenderize the chicken and also it won’t dries out when you grill it. I just marinate it with whatever spices I can find in my pantry and served them with some tomato salad but you can have it with bread or even rice.

Ayam Percik Kelantan - Dish 4

This is my 4th dish for the MFF – state of Kelantan event. I’ve made ayam percik before but it is a bit different from Kelantan. That ayam percik had chili and more spieces in it but not this one, that is why the sauce on top is white in color. The taste of this percik is rather mild as I like certain food of mine to be spicy. Going through quite a few recipes when preparing for this event I notice some of Kelantan food is not as spicy as other states. Anyway, this dish will be great if you have kids who don’t take spicy food. I am sure they are going to enjoy it.

Ayam Masak Keremek - Kelantan Dish 2

I was pretty excited to try out this recipe from Betty Saw's The Complete Malaysian Cook Book as the name is really intriguing. According to Kamus Minerva, 'keremak' means various plants whereas Wikipedia describe it as the name of a plant. That to me is of no help whatsoever to clarify the meaning or help explained as to why this recipe is called as such. There were no plant or plants harmed in the making of this dish. If you take a look at the various ingredients used in this recipe, none fit the bill. It was only once halfway through cooking the dish, it finally dawned on me why the name is 'keremak'. Read on, all will be revealed.

One of my favourite spice mixes, and the 'in' spice amongst all the trendy restaurants at the moment is Dukkah. I love it so much but have never taken the trouble to research what goes into the Dukkah (so unlike me, I know) when I can just go and buy some from the gourmet delicatessen and be spoilt for choice of all the different blends. Imagine my surprise when I opened my coffee and nut grinder, the smell of the ground seeds and nuts hit me.... it's DUKKAH ! How about that?... 2 recipes in 1.. I now know I can make my own dukkah at home. Darn! No more trips to the deli :(

 

After that accidental discovery, I was even more stoked to hurry up and cook the dish. I made sure I read the recipe carefully and all was dandy. The bubbling dish looked kind of familiar and it even smelled familiar. Then I tasted it and it finally dawned on me why the dish is called 'keremak'. It is the Ayam Masak Korma! Get it?..'keremak' and 'korma', one and the same, what an anti- climax! For those of you who are not familiar with Malaysia, each and every state in Malaysia has their own lingo / dialect. So, perhaps, what is 'korma' to the rest of Malaysia, is 'keremak' to the Kelantanese. Saying this, this 'Ayam Masak Keremak' is no less delicious than the usual 'korma' that you and I are familiar with. The only difference is this kelantanese version has a thicker and more aromatic gravy than our somewhat anemic and boring looking 'korma'.

Szechuan Style Eggplant

I made this dish when I was under the weather not too long ago. With the medicine, coughing and stuffy nose and all, my taste bud went haywire. No mood to cook or appetite to eat anything except for rice porridge and soup. There were 2 eggplants in the vegetable compartment and it is going soft and wrinkles on me. I always have this habit of buying egg plant but never cook them so it always end up in the garbage bin but I am not going to let that happen this time.

Since I like eggplant a lot I convinced myself to cook it and 20 minutes later a plate of aromatic, spicy and sweet dish to have it with my porridge. This is exactly what I needed to clear up my nose and head. I made this dish with hot bean paste which is commonly used in Szechuan cooking. You can get it any Asian store and some supermarket even carries it.

Kanji Kedah/Kedah Rice Porridge

I was talking on the phone with my good friend Shereen last week and we were discussing MFF theme for this month and I told her I don’t really know much about food from Kedah or Perlis. She gave me a few suggestions including this rice porridge. Well, since I have all the ingredients in hand I decided to do just that.

Every state in Malaysia will have its version of Rice Porridge also known as Bubur Lambuk. What make this heartwarming dish so popular? It is available during the Ramadan month and it is prepared and distributed to the public for free throughout the whole month of Ramadan in the spirit goodwill. Usually this rice porridge would be cooked at the mosque compound for easy distribution. Cooking this involves a lot of effort and many volunteers will help stirring many big pots of this rice porridge. This rice porridge is very similar to Chinese version except for the addition of coconut milk, lemongrass and fenugreek in it. I actually like it a lot and will definitely cook this again.

Ayam Masak Hitam Sarawak/Chicken in Black Sauce

I actually cooked this dish back in April but didn’t publish it until now. Well, I am actually waiting to publish it this month in conjunction with Malaysian Food Fest Month for the state of Sarawak hosted by Sharon of Feats of Feasts . My friend Shereen gave me some Masak Hitam paste all the way from Sarawak. This dish is very famous is Sarawak. It can be cook with beef or chicken. I used chicken since I have it in my freezer. I know this dish might not look too appetizing but let me tell you it is delicious. The chicken turns out really flavorful with great aroma of spices like lemongrass, galangal, cinnamon and etc in it. If you can’t find the Masak Hitam paste and like to cook this dish from scratch you can refer to the recipe here or just Google it and you will find many recipes out there in the web world.