I came back to say that the dish was well received and will be in regular rotation. I served it with jasmine rice & broccoli. It’s somewhere between General Tso’s and sweet & sour - not nearly as sweet as sweet & sour usually is, but sweeter than General Tso’s. Next time I think I’ll add a little vinegar to the ketchup.
Did it taste like ketchup?
Somewhat. The garlic, soy sauce and cayenne did change it some. I’ll be adding less ketchup and a little vinegar next time to alter it further. Definitely a good base to tweak as you see fit if that sort of flavor profile sounds intriguing to you.
Dammit. I had a couple breasts yesterday I turned into oven-baked breaded nuggets, which were fine, but, man, I wish I found that Bittman recipe before. I might have to buy more chicken today just to give that a shot.
As for the more general question, of what to do with chicken breast. yYes, it is a relatively boring piece of protein but it is versatile, healthy, and can taste pretty good, as long as you don’t overcook it.
My favorite use for chicken breast is generally in stir-fries. High heat, quick cooking times are ideal for this type of meat. My technique is to first chop the meat into little pieces, heat over a smoking hot wok quickly to brown the sides and cook the meat through, remove; then I proceed with the veggies, sauce, and add the chicken back in at the end. I find that in a home kitchen, if I try to do everything together, the heat isn’t high enough to sear the meat before the veggies start releasing their liquid and wetting things up. And if I do the meat, and then add the vegetables, by the time the vegetables are cooked, the breast is a little overcooked.
My absolute favorite stir-fry is Thai basil chicken. I could live on this stuff in the summer. This one you can do in one go: Chop up finely or pulverize to a paste a bunch of shallots (or sub with a little red onion) and garlic (maybe one shallot and four cloves of garlic for a pound of meat) along with as many hot peppers as you can handle. You want Thai reds here, but serrano will do. Put about two or three tablespoons of oil in a wok or cast iron pan. Heat. Add your shallot-garlic-chili paste. Cook for one minute or until fragrant and cooked through, but beware of burning. Add one pound of finely minced or ground chicken. You can use small pieces of cubed chicken, too, if you prefer. When the meat is almost cooked through, add 3 TB oyster sauce, 3 TB fish sauce. (or you could do a mix of oyster/fish/and soy.) Add one generous cup of fresh basil. Thai holy basil is traditional, Thai sweet basil or cinnamon basil works well, too, but your standard Italian sweet basil is fine. When wilted, it’s ready to serve. The dish should be spicy and pungent, with the notes of fish sauce, red chilies, garlic, and basil all working together in perfect harmony.
Also, a chicken chili always works for me.
This sounds totally awesome.
I forgot, you should also add a bit of sugar in at the end (like a teaspoons or two), but I generally don’t.
Here’s a link to an illustrated recipe.. You’ll notice that mine also has shallots in it as well as oyster sauce, but it’s not necessary. I’ve made it with only garlic and fish sauce, as well. I like the mix of oyster and fish sauce (and the oyster sauce usually has some sugar in it, so is part of the reason I don’t add sugar to the final dish.)
Oh, and it’s also traditional to serve it with a fried egg on top (which is how I like mine, too.)