Happy New Year (of the Ox!)

Yesterday, the kids had no school, so we celebrated the Chinese New Year! In the morning we made paper lanterns.


For dinner, we made peanut butter chicken and crab rangoon. Tim brought home chopsticks and SUSHI! (Philly rolls and eel rolls) We had a great time!



Now that I was going to post the peanut butter chicken recipe, I can't find it. I'll keep looking and post it when I find it. The crab rangoon is already posted, just follow the link over there on the right-->

**EDIT: I found it! WooHoo! Here you go! I wasn't overly impressed with it, but it wasn't terrible. I think that some extra peanut butter would be good, but we are PB freaks here....

Peanut Butter Chicken

Marinade:
1/3 cup soy sauce
3 tbsp spicy sesame oil (I used regular sesame oil.)
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup pineapple juice (don't let that freak you out, you can't taste it in the end!)
S&P to taste
4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves, cut into julienne strips about 3 inches long (I used 1.25 pounds of boneless breast tenderloins)


Mix together and add chicken. Allow to marinate 2-3 hours in refrigerator. Drain and discard marinade. Dredge chicken in flour.

Sauce:
1 tbsp butter
1 tbsp flour
1/2 cup chicken stock
1/2 cup whipping cream (I used half and half)
1/4 cup creamy peanut butter (I used JIF brand. It could have used more, in our opinion.)
Roasted peanuts and/or chopped green onion to garnish

In a medium saucepan, heat some sesame oil, just enough to coat the bottom of the skillet. Saute chicken, turning occasionally until golden brown and cooked through.

In a small saucepan over low heat, combine butter and flour and mix until smooth. Cook slowly until bubbly. Add stock and increase heat to high. When stock begins to thicken, add whipping cream and peanut butter, stirring until peanut butter is melted and sauce is the consistency of gravy.

To serve, place fried chicken on a plate, top with sauce and garnish. Enjoy!

*******My notes: The kids didn't like the heavy flavor of the sesame oil. Next time, I think I would deep fry the dredged and marinated chicken. Also, there didn't seem to be enough sauce to our liking. Simply remedied by making double the sauce for that amount of chicken. We really enjoyed this served with rice. I made white rice, but a fried rice would be fabulous here.