Tickle My Tummy - again!

Yes, it's Tuesday so I'm joining in again with the 'TMTT'. Last week I was surfing a few blogs from their link and boy was there some yummy recipes out there! I loved the idea of these pizza rolls from Savin It Up. I've got to try them soon. Another one I bookmarked was this Chocolate Lover's Trifle from Holly at A Mommy's Blessings, it looks super yummy, and pretty easy to put together by the sounds of it. But anyway. . . . on to what I'm tempting you with this week -

Schezuan Chicken. I made this last night for dinner (it's a recipe from my 'Weight Watchers Take-Out Tonight' book. This is the first time I've tried it but it turned out really well so I thought I'd share it here.

Here's what you need:
1lb chicken breasts cut in to strips
3 tblsp hoisin sauce
2 tblsp cornstarch
1/2 cup chicken broth
2 tblsp rice vinegar
2 tblsp sugar
2 tsp chili-garlic sauce
1 tblsp canola oil
1 tblsp minced fresh ginger
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 green bell pepper
2 medium carrots thinly sliced
1/4 cup unsalted dry-roasted peanuts

1. Combine the chicken, 1 tblsp of the hoisin sauce, and 1 tblsp of the cornstarch in a medium bowl; toss well to coat and set aside. Combine the remaining 2 tblsp hoisin sauce, 1 tblsp cornstarch, the broth, vinegar, sugar and chili-garlic sauce in a small bowl; set aside.

2. Add the oil to a skillet (or wok)  and when hot add chicken and stir-fry until almost cooked through (2-3 minutes). Add the ginger and garlic; stir-fry until fragrant, about 15 seconds. Add the bell pepper, carrots and peanuts; stir-fry until crisp-tender, about 2 minutes). Add the hoisin sauce mixture  and cook stirring constantly until the mixture boils and thickens, and the chicken is cooked through, about 1 minute.


I often find that I cook my veggies a lot longer than the recipe calls for as I like them a little more tender than crisp. And as you can see from the picture the bell pepper didn't make it in there. That's because they were home grown peppers and when I cut in to one....... there was a caterpillar inside (and a load of yucky mushy stuff!), urghhhh, it totally put me off using the other two!  Instead of rice we just had sauted home grown zucchini, (with thankfully no caterpillar inside) and some frozen veggies. I added a little sesame oil and soy sauce to the skillet while cooking them.

The chicken had a lovely 'kick' to it because of the chili-garlic sauce. I'd definitely make this again, it was pretty easy once you'd assembled all the ingredients and cooks up in no time.

Tomorrow, I'll have pictures of my finished game room :-)