Asian Style Pulled Chicken 手撕鸡

Ingredients:

·         2 pieces skinless chicken leg quarters (or breasts for healthier cooking)

·         1 small piece ginger (size of egg yolk), sliced

·         1 green onion, cut into 1-inch pieces

·         2 Tbsp. cooking wine

·         Water, enough to over the chicken in the pot

In a medium stock pot, add water, ginger, green onion and cooking wine, bring to boil. Add chicken; broil until chicken is fully cooked. Insert a chopstick in the thickest part of chicken and pull it out. If there is no blood come out, chicken is cooked.

Meanwhile, prepare a large bowl with cold water and ice cubes. After chicken is fully cooked, pull the hot chicken out of the stock pot and put into the icy cold water right away. After chicken is cooled completely, shred the meat by hand. Mix in the sauce as following:

Ingredients for the sauce:

·         1 Tbsp. of each: cooking oil, soy sauce, oyster sauce, and sesame oil

·         1 Tbsp. grinded ginger

·         3 green onion, chopped to small pieces

·         4 cloves grinded garlic

·         1 tsp. of each: chilly red pepper, sugar, and salt

In a small saucepan, heat 1 Tbsp. cooking oil on medium heat, add garlic, ginger, onion and chilly pepper, stir and cook few minutes until turn soft. Add soy sauce, oyster sauce, sesame oil, sugar and salt, stir and simmer until boil and sugar melted. Pour over the prepared chicken.

Note: this pulled chicken is also taste yummy with salad, sandwich, noodles, rice, even tacos. You may sprinkle some sesame seeds for decoration.

Yummy Banana Cupcakes

Dry ingredients:

·         1 1/2 cups flour

·         1 cup sugar

·         1 tsp. baking powder

·         1 tsp. baking soda

Wet Ingredients:

·         3 rip bananas

·         3 eggs

·         1/2 cup butter, melted

·         1/2 cup oil

·         Optional: 1/2 cup chopped nuts

Directions:

1.     Preheat over at 350 degree F. Prep 24 cupcakes liner in muffin pans.

2.    Sift and combine all dry ingredients in a medium mixing bowl.

3.    Mix all wet ingredients in a blender until becomes liquid.

4.    Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients. Use a hand mixer, mix until all ingredients combined.

5.    Evenly divide the mixture into 24 cupcake liners. Bake for 18-20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out of the center of cupcake clean. Cool before put on cream cheese frosting.

Cream cheese frosting:

·         2 (8 oz.) packages cream cheese

·         1/2 cup butter, soften

·         2 cups powdered sugar

·         1 tsp. vanilla extract

·         1 tsp. lemon juice

Beat cream cheese and butter until creamy. Add sugar, vanilla and lemon juice. Beat until all ingredients well combined.

 
 

Cupcake wrappers are very easy to make and make your cupcakes looking really cute! I found the cupcake wrapper pattern from snowandgraham.com. Any kinds of paper will work...gift wrap paper, scrapbooking paper, even magzine paper. It's fun!

 

















This recipe can be also used for baking Banana Bread. Just pour the batter into one or two loaf pans, bake for 1 hour at 325 degrees F or until a chopstick comes out clean from the center of the loaf. Place a pan of water on the bottom shelve below the loaf pan while baking, it will keep the bread moist.

Mochi Cheesecake Minis

It is a cheesecake with a little Asian twist. It is gluten free cheesecake. You can use any toppings as desire, such as strawberry, blueberry, etc. You also can change mochi to different colors to match with your topping or events.

Ingredients for mochi (makes 24 mini cheesecakes):

·         1 ½ cup Mochiko (glutinous rice flour)

·         1 cup sugar

·         ½ tsp. baking powder

·         1 cup milk

·         2 eggs

·         4 Tbsp. butter, melted

·         1 tsp. vanilla extract and 2 drop of red food color (turn light pink)

Line 24 foil cupcake liners in muffin pans. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. put a bowl of water on the bottom rack in the oven to keep moist.

Mix mochiko, sugar and baking powder in a medium bowl. Add milk and eggs, mix well. Then add melted butter, red food color and vanilla, mix well.

Evenly divide mixture and pour into 24 lined muffin cups. Bake for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, make cheesecake mixture as following:

·         2 (8 oz.) packages cream cheese

·         ½ cup sugar

·         2 eggs

·         1 tsp. vanilla

·         1 tsp. lemon juice

With a hand mixer, beat cream cheese and sugar, then add one egg at a time. Add vanilla and lemon juice. Blend well. Then, evenly divide into 24 muffin cups with cooked mochi on the bottoms.

Bake 20 minutes. Cool in the refrigerator for a couple of hours or overnight until set. Then top with your favorite topping before serving.