Chicken, celery and almonds (recipes)

Cafe Society
1

For some reason, I woke up this morning thinking about what I can make with chicken, celery and almonds (and a few more ingredients, if necessary). I looked online and came across “almond chicken.” Looks okay, and I think I’m going to try this recipe in a few days.

Apparently, it’s long been a popular dish in Detroit, where, to my horror, I’ve learned that they serve it not over rice but on a bed of shredded iceberg lettuce. What in God’s name is wrong with people?!!! :grinning:

So, you Dopers got any recipes with these ingredients? For health reasons, I no longer cook with butter, and I’ve never cared for cream, but feel free to post anything you like, with or without details.

2

Cook the chicken using your preferred method, chop it, cool it, and mix the three ingredients together as-is with a bit of mayo for binder, and it’d make a nice salad.

3

Ah, salad. Yeah, that’ll work. Swapping the almonds for walnuts and adding apple, it’d be a Waldorf salad, wouldn’t it?

I’m more interested in a hot dish to prepare a few days from now, maybe over rice or pasta, but, as I said, all posts are welcome and appreciated.

What else ya got?

4

Toasted almonds, slivered, really make a remarkable difference.

Make a stir-fry? Dice the chicken small, you will need some other vegetables, onions, celery stir-fried with a bit of oil in a hot pan. There are endless kinds of bottled sauces in the grocery store. Emeril, Iron Chef, and Lee Kum Kee make them. I use General Tso’s or Orange Sauce. Serve over rice with chopped almonds on top.

5

As others have mentioned various versions of stir fry work well with the option. Personally, I leave celery out of many stir fries, because I don’t like the fibrous texture, but still do so occasionally as the wife reminds me that fiber a pro not a con. We continue to argue, but the texture is still a no for me. :slight_smile: So in my stir fry, I make it a point to slice into pretty thin chunks, so it cooks faster, and is less ‘thready’.

One thing not mentioned yet, is that in addition to the power gained from toasting your almonds ahead of time, you can throw them in a food processor and use the resulting almond butter in a lot of options that would otherwise use peanut butter.

Something like this:

subbing in almond butter for peanut butter, and with stir fried veggies (say broccoli, celery, red bell pepper). Top the resulting combo with the toasted almond slivers/flakes (being extra careful not to burn ). Put the resulting mix on jasmine rice, or in romaine cups, or even whole wheat couscous and you should have a winner.

Of course, for me, no Thai dish (okay, no savory dish period) is the same without capsicums, so serrano thai or other chili peppers should be added to personal taste.

6

If you go to allrecipes dot com you can search by specific ingredients, including the ability to exclude items (such as cream) as you like.

7

Thanks to all for your ideas. A couple of the ingredients of the recipe I posted aren’t available, so I’m probably going to try it without them. A similar recipe doesn’t include those ingredients but calls for oyster sauce, which I think I can get.

Stir-frying was mentioned upthread. How many of you use the velveting technique when stir-frying? Do you feel that the results warrant that extra step?

8

Well, it’s served with rice on the side; the lettuce bed is more of a garnish for show, I think. Many Chinese places don’t even bother with the lettuce anymore; it’s just batter-fried chicken with a side of rice and some sort of sauce that must be flavored with almond extract-- otherwise I have no idea why it’s even called ‘Almond Chicken’.

I will ‘Nth’ recommend some sort of stir-fry. Maybe with a couple softer vegetables added like sliced green onions and red bell pepper as a counterpoint to the crunch of slivered almonds and celery slices.

I’ve tried it once or twice before with chicken, and it does give the chicken that sort of almost slimy softness that take-out stir-fried meat often has, but I don’t bother as a rule-- I don’t necessarily like the texture of velveted meat. I would never do it with beef- the cheaper cuts of beef that Chinese restaurants use may benefit from velveting, but when I make a beef stir-fry I’ll use some good sirloin or similar that’s already nicely tender.

9

I think chicken is tender enough as is. When I’m cooking steaks, chops, or kebobs I rub the meat lightly with baking soda and let sit 15 minutes. Rinse off, pat dry, and it’s ready to cook. I find it really works to tenderize red meat, beef and pork chops. Chicken, not really necessary (but chicken dries out if overcooked).

10

Thanks again, Dopers. You’ve given me some ideas!

I’ve also got my eye on a new-to-me fried-chicken technique that I’ll probably try this week. If the results are worth commenting, I’ll post something here.

11

For velveting, I have two reasons that I use the technique, either a) I want that greasy-spoon corner Chinese restaurant experience (and I do from time to time!) b) I have a piece of ‘woody’ chicken breast or lean center cut pork loin that could use a little help. So it’s fine technique, doesn’t take all that much time, but very situational.

Side note on celery and almonds with chicken - you could make a pretty awesome stuffing using those two elements as main flavors (and turkey/chicken stuffing is one of those places I like stuffing!) and serve it as a side with various options of baked/roasted chicken breast. Or stuff it in a whole bird of any sort. Or even slice a pocket in a large-ish chicken breast and fill before roasting backing (I’d want some extra moisture or fat to prevent excess drying though).

12

Yanno, the O.P. never specified if this is a boneless/skinless breast thing, or a whole roasted bird thing …

Either way, the dressing/stuffing idea is excellent, but I’d recommend baking it in a separate dish and serving as a side. That way, you can get a bit of crispy crunch on top.

Pro tip: sauté the veg first, separately, before stirring it into the bread. Bonus points for adding carrots and onion.

13

A-ha. I’ve velveted chicken a few times in the course of making General Tso’s chicken per recipe instructions, and I’m considering using the technique for other dishes/proteins, or at least trying it a couple of times to see what happens. There are variations; the one I’m considering is marinading in egg white, corn starch and wine and blanching in water. I’ve never liked the idea of boiling meat, but I’m considering trying it on beef, because most of the reasonably priced beef in my area is tough. Here’s a short video I’ve just come across. Does it look right to you?

14

Boneless and skinless chicken breast. If I had an oven, this thread would be about pizza! :grinning:

Sorry for the thread drift; I’m now asking about velveting beef.

15

Although I don’t use egg white the first version is very similar to what I do (I’m normally combining with a marinade, so I’ll add more flavor at that stage - beer, Shaoxing wine, mirin, or something similar works, and spices / sauces to taste.

I’ve seen lots of mentions of the baking soda option but don’t care for it myself. Friends who have used it do indeed feel it does a better job of tenderizing, but I somehow always get the off tastes lingering even with the most careful of rinsing. Could all be in my head though.

This site -

https://www.masterclass.com/articles/velveting-beef

mentions the cornstarch velveting and is very similar to what I do, along with complimentary seasoning suggestions for the slurry, including the egg white from your video, and sauces similar to what I mentioned.

Now personally, I don’t do the two stage cooking from the video either. I’m sure if you’re only going to add the meat at the last minute, having it cooked/par cooked can be an advantage, but I’ll generally slurry ahead of time and when ready to cook it all goes in the same pan later.

Before the stir fry, get the beef back up to room temp (or if doing a short slurry and it’s not too hot, leave it on the counter the whole time). Since I lack a gas stove, I cook in a large, well seasoned cast iron skillet, and do my hearty veggies first (broccoli, ginger, celery, etc), then remove to the side, cook the meat hot and fast, and take out, putting on top of the other veggies. Last, any delicate veggies, or ones I want to preserve a bit of crispness (those bell peppers for example) and scrap as much goodness from the beef onto them. Then it all goes back into the skillet to mingle, heat and finish, often with a bit of the reserve marinate and slurry to make the whole dish more flavorful and add the glistening shine from the oil (sesame or neutral) and cornstarch.

You do want to be a bit careful that you don’t damage your seasoning, but if you don’t let the final stage go on too long (just enough to make sure no raw elements from the slurry remain, and to heat the cornstarch enough to thicken) it should be fine.

Again, lots of additional things you can do to customize the dish. The aforementioned toasting of slivered / sliced almonds to top, almond butter or peanut butter in the slurry if well blended, lots of extra capsicums, finishing oils, such as a sesame chili oil, or even adding a fried egg (chicken on chicken as it were).

16

This probably isn’t interesting for anyone but me, but I thought I’d cap off this thread by saying that today I made the recipe that I posted upthread and it was an outstanding lunch. As I skipped the snow peas, water chestnuts, bamboo shoots and green onion (which would’ve made it even better), I added regular onion toward the beginning. In particular, marinading the chicken with corn starch (it’s not quite velveting) worked very well and is something I’ll be repeating in the future, because it’s a simple step and it gave the chicken a nice breading that even browned a little and was very nice with the ground almonds. Here’s the link again in case anyone wants to try making it: