Now is the time to gather the recipes you need if you’re going to celebrate Chinese New Year, which falls on Feb. 1. Many Chinese dishes aren’t as difficult to prepare as you might think, including these recipes for Sweet and Sour Chicken and Crab Rangoon.
While your Sweet and Sour Chicken is cooking, you can mix together the ingredients for the Crab Rangoon, and once the chicken dish is done, you’ll be ready to put the Crab Rangoon together to deep fry.
While these recipes are good to make for Chinese New Year, they’re so tasty you’ll want to prepare them all year long.
SWEET AND SOUR CHICKEN
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breast halves, cut into 1-inch pieces
3 cups assorted cut-up fresh vegetables (bell peppers, tomatoes, carrots)
1/4 cup chopped onion
Salt and pepper (to sprinkle on chicken before cooking)
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 (8-ounce) can pineapple chunks in juices, drained
1/2 cup commercial sweet and sour sauce
Heat wok or 12-inch skillet over high heat until hot. Add oil; rotate wok (if using one) to coat sides. Lightly sprinkle salt and pepper over chicken pieces and add chicken to skillet; stir-fry about 3 minutes or until no longer pink in center.
Add vegetables, chopped onion and brown sugar. Stir-fry about 5 minutes until crisp-tender.
Stir in pineapple and sweet and sour sauce; cook and stir about 5 minutes more. Serve immediately over rice or rice noodles. Makes 4-5 servings.
CRAB RANGOON
1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, softened
1 tablespoon horsey sauce
1 teaspoon lemon juice
2 teaspoons sugar
1 green onion, sliced
1 cup chopped imitation crab meat
28 small (4-inch) wonton wraps
In a medium-size bowl, place softened cream cheese. Add horsey sauce, lemon juice and sugar and blend until smooth. Add sliced green onion and imitation crab meat. Stir until all is thoroughly combined.
Place wonton wraps one at a time on a cookie tray (You don’t want them to dry out.) Keep a small bowl of water next to the tray so you can wet the outer edges of the wontons before putting one heaping teaspoon of crab mixture in center of wonton wrap. Flip one side over crab mixture to form a triangle and seal edges with your fingertips. When all wontons have been filled and made into triangles, place several at a time in a heavy skillet or heavy saucepan filled 3/4 with hot oil and fry over medium heat for a minute or two or until golden brown and flip over to lightly brown other side. Remove and drain on paper towels.
Serve warm. Makes 28 Crab Rangoon.
Brotherton offers website readers one stellar recipe a week in the “My Leader Yummy” feature. Looking for a recipe you can’t find? Email me at kbrotherton42@gmail.com and I’ll see if I have it.
