Lazy Man's General Tso's Chicken

I was feeling adventurous today, but at the same time I'm all for shortcuts in the kitchen...when they work...so...

I picked up some Sky Valley General Tso's Sauce at Walmart a few weeks ago. I tried it that night and wasn't too impressed. It had the heat, but it didn't have the sweetness I remember from the restaurant/take-out version of General Tso's chicken. Experimentation was in order! :)

I didn't really have time to spend on this, so I went for shortcuts today. I should have fried up some chicken pieces, but I didn't want to take the time, make the mess, so I reached for a (not too bad) shortcut. In the freezer I had a bag of Popcorn Chicken (also Walmart), so I used 8 or those. I also used some dried egg noodles...not Chinese, but still egg noodles, so sort of the same.  While the noodles were cooking (10 minutes on the stovetop), I poured a couple of tablespoons of the bottled sauce in a small bowl,  a couple of teaspoons of honey, a couple teaspoons of water and some garlic powder and mixed really well. I microwaved the popcorn chicken pieces for a minute and set them aside.  In a small iron skillet I heated a teaspoon of oil until it was very hot.

Now with the chicken at hand I poured the sauce into the skillet. It immediately started bubbling. I let it cook for about 30 seconds, and it was thickening fast, then turned off the heat. I immediately dumped in the chicken and stirred it around to cover completely and removed the chicken from the skillet to thicken and cool a little. While it was starting to cool I liberally sprinkled sesame seeds all over the chicken pieces.

About this time the noodles were ready, so I drained and rinsed them in a colander. I put a tablespoon, or so, of the noodle water into the skillet and mixed with the sauce still remaining there just to loosen it up.

I plated noodles with the sticky chicken pieces atop them. I topped the whole dish with some chopped green onion. Then I poured a little of the loosed sauce from the skillet over the chicken and noodles.

The sauce was much, much, more like I remembered. The honey did the trick! The frozen popcorn chicken wasn't bad, not crispy, but it did soak up the sauce nicely and had a good taste. The noodles were still warm and damp so they soaked up some of the sauce as well.

Mom, who's not a spicy food's fan, ate all the chicken and about half the noodles I gave her. I cleaned my plate! :)

Turned out to be a very good, and very easy, General Tso's chicken!

As an aside, I bet chopped up left-over chicken fingers (Zaxby's, KFC, Popeyes, etc) would be even better. Our only problem is when we get chicken fingers they all get eaten so generally there are no left-overs. :)

BBQ'ed Country Style Ribs

I'm going to cook country style ribs in my new Instant Pot for the first time today.  I got a BOGO deal at the local grocery, so I bought two packs of the ribs: 3 ribs in each pack ,which is just right for us. So, first pack is our test subject. Hopefully, I won't screw it up so bad I have to order pizza. :)

I've already cooked St. Louis style ribs, a pot roast, chicken and dumplings, Spanish rice, and baby lima beans in my new toy so I have a pretty good idea how to do this. Length of cooking time is really the only question. I googled it, of course, but the time to cook country style ribs seems to fall into two camps: ~10 minutes or ~45 minutes. I'm afraid 10 minutes won't get them done and certainly not tender. I'm also afraid that 45 minutes will overcook the ribs making them drier than I want...and also completely falling apart. 

Completely falling apart would work if I was going for pulled pork, and I really love my pulled pork, but that's not the texture I'm going for. I want the meat well done and tender, but still hanging together so I can get the ribs out of the pot in one piece for the next step.

I plan to put a dry rub on the ribs before they go into the pot, cook them, then put them on a baking sheet, slather barbecue sauce all over them and then put them under the broiler for a few minutes so the sauce will caramelize and really get tasty!

So, here's my plan:

1. Coat each of the ribs with a dry rub. I make my own.
   
2. Put the trivet in the pot with 1 cup of water (broth might be better, but I don't have any right now).
   
3. Put the ribs on the trivet, and pour some barbecue sauce over them. I use the bottled Kraft stuff because we all like the flavor of it.
   
4. Cook under pressure for 20 minutes (split the difference).
   
5. Do a 15 minute natural pressure release, then vent the remaining pressure.
   
6. Check for internal temperature with my instant read thermometer. For pork I look for 160 degrees, but with the 15 minute rest it might be a bit lower, but I'm not taking chances with underdone pork!
   
   6b. If the ribs need more cooking, I'll put them back under pressure for another few minutes followed by a quick release and check again.
   
7. Move the ribs to a foil lined baking sheet and slather on the bbq sauce.
   
8. Broil the ribs at 450 degrees in the toaster oven until the sauce on the ribs begins to caramelize and blacken. I actually like the slightly burned bits, but I only want a few spots to start to blacken. I'm not looking to really burn these ribs.

I'll let you know how they come out!

Whole Home Generator Update

Got a call from Ronco today. They will be out on Wednesday the 8th to setup and hand over the keys to the generator. What they really want is the ~$4,000 that is still owed them. :)

I hope the final step is an easy one. I'll post more after they finish on the 8th.