One of my many weaknesses is Chinese Food. I quite simply adore Chinese flavours. I have never been to China or eaten "real" Chinese food
So I guess when I say I love Chinese flavours, I mean "westernised" Chinese food. In reality I don't think I would like "real" Chinese food at all. I have watched the travel shows.
One of my favourite memories of when my children were growing up was when the power went out one time during a blizzard. We had been in the middle of making a stir fry on the stove and fried rice.
I often made a stir fry or fried rice for my family. They were great ways to stretch a little bit of meat and some vegetables.
On this particular occasion, not being ones to let bad weather get us down or deter us from our goals we finished it off outside in the shed on the gas BBQ.
What a great adventure that was! BBQ-ing Chinese food amidst snow drifts, and it was delicious!
Another favourite Chinese food memory is of this place down the Valley from where I grew up in Granville Ferry. They had a restaurant called The Continental Kitchen.
It really wasn't a restaurant per se, but a big old Victorian Farm house that been converted into a Buffet place.
It was not a professionally run establishment, but rather a group of women who put on these buffet meals several times a week. They did Seafood Buffets and they did Chinese Buffets.
These buffet nights were incredibly popular! Their food was fabulous. You would never have known they weren't professionals!
My ex BIL and his wife used to do excellent Chinese Dinners at home, with sweet and sour chicken, chowmein, fried rice and a few other bits. Lots of work chopping things up, but oh were they ever delicious.
It would take him hours in preparation time, not to mention cooking the meal. We always really enjoyed the fruits of his labors and appreciated his efforts.
And of course I do enjoy throwing together stir fries and fried rice from time to time as well. My fried rice recipe comes from my MIL who got it from a friend of hers out in Winnipeg back in the 1950's.
The original recipe used Minute Rice, but I adapted it through the years to use long grain regular rice. Its really good too. We just love it!
Teriyaki is one of my favourite tastes and I know . . . Teriyaki is Japanese not Chinese. I don't want all you Purists e-mailing me and trying to set me straight. I do know the difference between Chinese and Japanese.
You can call this fusion cooking. It is a combination of two of my loves. Fried rice and Teriyaki!
To me, Oriental/Asian flavours are Oriental flavours. I love and enjoy them all. Even Korean which is a bit spicy but lovely all the same.
Aside from the wierd stuff, there are some amazingly beautiful flavours tha come from that side of the world.
This is a tasty casserole makes good use of leftover cooked chicken and cooked rice. You begin by making a thick Teriyaki flavoured sauce.
Mmmm . . . Teriyaki. Have you ever gotten the Teriyaki sauce/glaze from Costco? Delicious!
t
Once the sauce is done for this, you stir in cooked chicken (cubed or shredded), cooked rice, and cooked stir fried vegetables . . . .
I like to use peppers, onions, carrots, sometimes pineapple, broccoli, etc.
Pour all of this into a casserole dish, cover and bake. It doesn't get much easier or simpler.
You could of course use leftover chopped cooked beef if you would rather, or pork. Pork would lend itself beautifully to these flavours.
To be honest I think you could even fry up a quantity of good ground beef to use in this quite successfully. It would taste wonderful.
I think you could even use some prawns in this if you really wanted to. It is really quite versatile!
And really quite tasty. I like lots of vegetables in my Chinese dishes.
They provide lots of colour, variety, texture and flavour!
I probably have more vegetables in it than rice! But that's okay because I love them, and it bulks the dish out and they are good for you!
This was something my children never minded eating either. It was a great way to get them to eat their vegetables and get in some of their five a day!
Oftimes getting children to eat their vegetables can be a bit of a struggle. Its never a struggle with this tasty casserole!
I hope you will give this a try and that you enjoy it. You can also easily double it to serve more! And if you really want to be healthy, try using brown rice instead of white.
Yield: 4
Teriyaki Chicken & Rice Casserole
Deliciously simple using a fabulous homemade teriyaki sauce, leftover cooked chicken, precooked rice and frozen stir fry vegetables. A store cupboard favourite!
ingredients:
For the Sauce:
- 80ml low sodium soy sauce (1/3 cup)
- 75g sugar (1/3 cup)
- 60ml apple cider vinegar (1/4 cup)
- 1 clove garlic, peeled and minced
- 1/4 tsp ground ginger
- pinch black pepper
- 1/2 TBS cornflour
- 1/2 TBS water
For the casserole:
- 2 chicken breast fillets, cooked and shredded
- 325g cooked rice (2 cups)
- 225g cooked or steamed stir fry vegetables (1 1/2 cups)
instructions:
How to cook Teriyaki Chicken & Rice Casserole
- Preheat the oven to 180*C/350*F/gas mark 4. Butter a medium sized casserole dish.
- Measure the soy sauce, sugar, vinegar, garlic, ginger and pepper into a saucepan. Heat stirring until the sugar has melted completely. Make a slurry of the corn flour and water. Stir this into the soy sauce mixture. Bring to a boil, whisking constantly, cooking until the mixture thickens and bubbles. Cook for one minute further. Stir in the cooked chicken, rice and vegetables. Pour this mixture into the baking dish. Cover tightly with foil.
- Bake in the heated oven for 20 to 25 minutes until well heated through. Serve hot.
Its turned really cold here today. Brrr . . . we have the heat on and its only the middle of the afternoon. I think Winter is in a hurry to get here this year!
This content (written and photography) is the sole property of The English Kitchen. Any reposting or misuse is not permitted. If you are reading this elsewhere, please know that it is stolen content and you may report it to me at: mariealicejoan at aol dot com Thanks so much for visiting. Do come again!
Delicious Marie ! I,m in the mood for stir fry . I will leave out the meat, add beans and let it become vegan ! Looking forward to this :)
ReplyDeleteThanks very much Debs. You could add quorn or tofu cubes as well! Hope you enjoy it! xoxo
DeleteOoh this looks lovely - that will be in on meal plan next week :-) thank you for sharing x
ReplyDeleteI really hope that you enjoy it Ali! You're welcome! xoxo
DeleteMarie, your teriyaki chicken and rice casserole looks delicious and I will plan to make it. They don't seem to make real Chinese moo goo gai pan here any longer, so I found a recipe on-line and I plan to make that too. I will serve these for a meal one of these days. Thank you for sharing and have a wonderful day!
ReplyDeleteThanks very much Sandi! I love making my own Chinese meals. I hope you enjoy this! xoxo
DeleteI made this for dinner today and it is very easy to do and really tasty. We don't get bags of cooked rice here, but it was easy enough to cook up some rice earlier in the day for this. I added more vegetables because we love extra veggies and it was perfect.
ReplyDeleteThat makes me happy Marie! Yay! xoxo
DeleteTeriyaki is Japanese just so you know
ReplyDeleteI know that. My sister in law is Japanese and my brother used to live in Japan. I call all oriental fare, Chinese food. Its just what I do.
DeletePS - as per your other comment which I didn't publish, Ignorance is coming onto someone else's blog and leaving ignorant nasty comments.
DeletePPS - and doing it under the cloak of anonymity
Delete