Chinese Chicken Recipes for Busy People

I’ve been stressed for the last few weeks on my job search and the health of my cat. I’m glad that at least the job search is over.  My cat is doing much better, but still I got a lot to follow up with the blood sucking vets.  Anyway, I really need something to make me feel better. I need comfort food.  Something like mom’’s Chinese Chicken, fried chicken, or meatloaf would do.  I know that would kill my diet.  But today is Saturday, I’m gonna cheat a little bit.  I promise I’ll do more Cardio X after this.  I never had meatloaf until I was in college.  My mom never made meatloaf as we couldn’t afford an oven back then. I told you, I grew up poor.  One day, I was at my classmate’s place, and she was making meatloaf for dinner.  I told her I never had meatloaf in my life.  She laughed.  She must have thought what planet I came from. LOL.  She said it was easy to make.  She put the ground beef in a container.  Put a bunch of ketchup and breadcrumbs and an egg in it.  And put more ketchup on the top and that was it.  Not too shabby.  I could not believe how easy it was.  I started to search for people’s meatloaf recipes, and modified them.  Finally, I come down to my own combination.

Meatloaf Mixture

Super Easy Homemade Meatloaf

Note: You will need spray oil and two baking loaf pans.  One for the meatloaf.  Another one fills with water. I will explain later.

Ingredients (Serves 4-5):

• Ground meat, 1-1.5 pound. I usually use 85% lean beef, but today I use 93% to cut down the fat.  Ya, trying to be healthier.  You can use half beef half turkey, that would be even healthier.
• Onion, 1/2
• Whole wheat English Muffin or regular Whole wheat bread, 1
• Seasoned Breadcrumb, 1.5 cup
• Large eggs, 2
• Parsley (dried of fresh), chopped, 2 Tbsp
• Italian seasoning, 1 tsp
• Wostercher sauce, 1 Tbsp
• Cooking wine, 1 Tbsp
• Parmesan/Romano cheese, 2 Tbsp
• Ketchup, 3 Tbsp
• Mustard, 2 Tbsp
• Garlic, 1 clove

Steps:

1. In a large mixing bowl, put the ground meat, mustard, wostercher sauce, cooking wine and ketchup.   Mix well.  Put it aside.
2. Cut onion into small pieces.  Add to the bowl.
3. Chop garlic. Add to the bowl.
4. Cut bread into very fine cubes.  Add to the bowl.
5. Add parsley, Italian seasoning, bread crumbs, cheese, and eggs to the bowl.  Mix well.
6. If it is too dry, add a couple tablespoon of water or milk.  Mix well.
7. Pre-heat the oven to 375F.
8. Prepare two loaf pans.  Spray one of them with non-stick cooking oil inside the edges of the pan.  Fill the other loaf pan with water about couple inches high. 
9. Put the meat into the loaf pan that is sprayed with non-stick cooking oil.   Press the meat down. Then add a tablespoon of ketchup on top of the meat.  Use the back of the spoon to evenly spread it on top.  This will create a nice crisp surface after it is baked.
10. When the oven is pre-heated, put the meat loaf and the other pan with water into the oven.  The water will create moisture in the oven and prevent the meatloaf from getting too dry.

Bake it for 50 mins.  Set your timer.

It’s all my coworker’s fault, he got me thinking about comfort food for two days now.  I really miss my mom’s cooking.  Besides Steamed Chinese Chicken, she also makes super expensive stuff like Shark Fin Soup, Fish Maw and Bird Nest Soup.  My mom has her funny philosophy. She could be feeding us cheap meals most of the time while we were kids, and yet once in a while (a very long while) we would have an expensive meal.  If you have ever been invited to a Chinese banquet, you probably have tried Shark Fin soup there.   If you order the soup at some fancy Chinese restaurant, it is very expensive.  I may have tried it less than a handful of times in some Chinese banquets when I was a kid.  I have never ordered it in a restaurant myself.  I know it would never be anything as good as or even close to mom’s.  Besides, I’m cheap, I’m not going to pay US$300 or so for a bowl of soup.  It’s expensive because it is rare, and the process of making the soup is complicated.  In mom’s version, she put Shark Fin, shredded Chicken and sometimes fish maw in it. It is high protein, and high collagen.  Last time I visited her, she fed me Shark Fin soup and Bird Nest Soup for breakfast. I couldn’t even tell you how expensive this two would be if you order them at a restaurant.  That was the most expensive breakfast I ever had in my whole life.  It was like a one time experience. 

Shark Fin Soup

Bird Nest Soup