Chicken Wings Poached in Orange Juice and Honey

Hubby brought home a 5-lb bag of oranges and I really wanted to cook them with my chicken wings. Instantly I was already picturing roasted chicken wings coated with a sticky honey and citric sauce. Marinating the wings in orange juice and honey then roasting them would be tasty, but I wanted to fully cook the wings for the weeknight dinners so that my weeknight will be less hectic. Plus reheating roasted meat is really not to my liking. So I adopted the same cooking technique as the fish sauce chicken wings. The outcome was lighter and less greasy. The citric and honey aroma filled the house and put me in a good mood. Most of all, no one at the dining table was able to tell that these wings were made days in advance!

Here are the Chicken Wings Poached in Orange Juice and Honey from my kitchen:

Ingredients

3 lb of chicken wings, split

2 cloves of garlic, crushed

1/4 cup of white wine

1 cup of fish sauce (use the Three Crab Brand only)

1 cup of water

1 cup of honey

2 oranges

I like to order split chicken wings online from local farms. They are a lot fresher, tastier and bigger in size.

How

1. Zest and julienne the skin of one orange. In a small pot, boil the orange zest in water for 30 seconds. Drain and rinse the zest under cold water. Then boil the zest in water and drain again. Do this three times in total then drain off the water and set aside. This is to remove the bitterness from the zest.
   
   
2. Juice the two oranges and drain the pulp from the juice.
3. In a pot, add a little bit of oil and fry the garlic on low heat until fragrant.
4. In goes white wine, bring it to a boil and simmer for 3 minutes.
5. Add water, fish sauce, honey and Orange juice. Stir well and bring it to a boil.
6. Add chicken wings and turn up the heat. As soon as it boils, immediately turn the heat down to low. Simmer with lid on for 10 minutes. If the liquid does not cover all the wings, add 5 more minutes and stir occasionally.
   
7. Remove from heat, leave the lid on and let the wings infuse in the liquid for 20 - 60 minutes. Stir occasionally. If the wings are bigger in size, let them infuse in the liquid longer for better flavor, but do not infuse for more that 1 hour or they will be too salty.
8. Drain and discard the liquid. Serve warm immediately or keep in the fridge and serve cold later. 

Bacon Wrapped Scallops

Hmmm...I feel like I am cheating here, as this dish requires zero preparation. Perhaps I should have bought some scallops and wrapped them with bacon myself to fill up the preparation time. Since there is zero preparation, I am throwing in the spicy mayo.

Poached Chicken Breast + Special Dipping Sauce

Remember the six chicken breasts? Here is how I prepared them. The kids are not a big fan of chicken breasts, but when I poach them and serve with sauces, that's another story. The sauce for today's dish may seem a bit complicated, but once you have all the ingredients ready, you can play around with the portions to your taste.

Here is the Poached Chicken Breasts with Special Sauce from my kitchen:

Ingredients 

3 boneless chicken breasts

Sauce (suggested portions)

1 part of peanut butter
5 parts of hot water

1 part of soy sauce

1 part of vinegar

1 part of sugar

a handful of Sichuan Pepper

1 part of vegetable oil

A splash of sesame oil, optional

5 cloves of garlic, minced
2 green onions, thinly sliced

3 red chilies, seeded and thinly sliced

A handful of peanuts, toasted

a handful of toasted sesame seeds

Sichuan Pepper

How to poach the chicken breasts

1. Bring a pot of water or broth to a boil then add in all the chicken breasts. I was making stock with the bones so I used the stock to poach my chicken.
   
   All the chicken breasts should be fully submerged. If not, add more broth or water. Bring it to a boil and immediately turn the heat down to low. Simmer with lid on for 18 minutes. Remove from heat and leave the lid on. Let it steam for another 5 minutes.
2. Remove the chicken breasts and immediately submerge them into icy cold water. I added ice pack to bring down the temperature quicker. Soak until all the chicken breasts are completely cooled down. Drain and pad dry.
   
3. Thinly sliced the chicken breasts diagonally. Serve with sauce immediately or keep in the fridge for serving later. Can be served warm or cold with the sauce (see below).
   

How to make the sauce

1. Heat the Sichuan pepper and vegetable oil in a small pot on low to medium heat until fragrant. Drain the oil and discard the Sichuan pepper. Pour the drained oil back into the same pot.
   
   
2. On low to medium heat, add garlic and red chili into the pot of oil. Stir and cook until fragrant, about 2 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside.
   
3. Put the peanut butter in a bowl and add 1/2 of the hot water. Mix until it is completely smooth. Repeat with the same to add the remaining hot water. 
   
4. Add the galic, red chili and oil, and all the remaining ingredients into the peanut butter mixture, except the peanuts and sesame seeds. Mix well and adjust seasonings to your taste.
5. To serve, warm up the chicken or serve at room temperature. Right before serving, pour the sauce over the chicken then sprinkle peanuts and sesame seeds on top. Or serve the peanuts, sesame seeds and sauce on the side. Do not mix the peanuts and sesame seeds into the sauce and sprinkle them on top right before serving to keep the crunchiness.

   

   Skipped the red chili for my younger son, but he actually preferred the sauce with chili.

Mussels and Angel Hair in White Wine Broth

This is my typical way to serve the baby mussels from Costco. I prefer to make a broth rather than a think sauce to highlight the fresh taste of the baby mussels. I also prefer to use Angel Hair as opposed to the other types of pasta as it feels lighter in the broth. If you do not have Angel Hair handy, try other stringy pastas such as spaghetti or Linguine. 

Bacon Wrapped Pork Tenterloin

This petite roast may look fancy, but it is super easy to make. The cooking time varies for every oven so I always cook my roasts based on a set temperature rather than roasting time.

Fish Sauce Chicken Wings

I first learned this dish from an old cook book given to me by my aunt, but later that cook book was lost and I tried to redevelop the recipe based on my memory.

Green Egg and Ham Pasta

The yolk was a bit too runny as I only poached the egg for 2 minutes.

I haven't made this Dr. Seuss' pasta for a long time. Last weekend when I was wondering what vegetables to pick up from the supermarket, that big bag of baby spinach reminded me of the dish again.

Carving Three Whole Raw Chickens

A pot of meat and a pot of bones.

Have you ever been to Costco just for milk and eggs, but end up leaving with a full cart?

That happens to us at least week!

Butter Chicken Mussels

The baby two-pack mussels at Costco are our favorite. They are very tiny but very tender. They also don't have the "strings" attached which means less preparation time. I decided to try something different with the mussels last night instead of the regular pasta with white wine sauce. It was delicious and paired perfectly with naan bread.