asian flavor Archives - The Midnight Baker

Asian Meatloaf

Judith Hannemann — Wed, 24 Feb 2021 00:00:06 +0000

If you’re tired of the same old same old when it comes to meatloaf, try this Asian meatloaf.

Meatloaf Makeover

Meatloaf is the number one comfort food according to most surveys since it’s retro and oh-so homey. For most, it was a childhood favorite and has remained so into adulthood.

However, like most things, it may need a bit of a makeover. That’s exactly what this Asian meatloaf is. It’s got mild Asian flavorings so nothing is too overpowering. It’s got an interesting texture too–from something you’d never think you’d ever add to a meatloaf.

I have to say that I like this version better than the original. See if your family agrees.

Turkey Or Chicken

This meatloaf can be made with either ground turkey or ground chicken.

I love turkey but to be honest, I’m not the biggest fan of ground turkey. Ground chicken tastes better–at least to me.

I also chose to use ground all-white breast meat chicken. Using the all-white breast meat makes this meatloaf lower in fat than it’s ground beef cousin. That’s not a big issue to me, but it definitely is for some.

Ground turkey lots of times contains fattier dark meat and skin, so does some ground chicken, so make sure to read labels if fat content is important to you.

Water Chestnuts? Yes!

Water chestnuts don’t add any flavor–because they really don’t have any–but they add an interesting crunch for a great texture.

You can buy them whole, sliced and now diced. Naturally, I wanted to save myself some work so I got the diced ones. They are available in the Asian aisle of the supermarket. They’re also nice in salads, for the same reason as here being texture so you might want to pick up and extra can for future use.

The Recipe

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Asian Meatloaf

Use turkey or chicken--either way, great flavor

Prep Time10

Cook Time1

Course: Dinner, Main, Main Course

Cuisine: American, Asian

Keyword: asian meatloaf, chicken meatloaf, lower-fat meatloaf recipe, turkey meatloaf

Servings: 6

Calories: 324kcal

Author: Judith Hannemann

Ingredients

1 cup panko breadcrumbs
1/4 cup milk
2 lbs ground chicken or turkey
1/4 cup onion finely chopped
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 clove garlic grated
5 oz water chestnuts diced
1 egg
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper

Glaze:

1 tbs brown sugar
1/2 cup ketchup or chili sauce
1 tsp chili paste or Sriracha

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

Preheat oven to 400F/200C. Line a baking sheet with parchment and spray with non-stick spray.
Place breadcrumbs in a large bowl and stir in the milk, making sure to coat the breadcrumbs. Let this stand for 5 minutes.
Add the ground chicken, onion, soy sauce, garlic, water chestnuts, egg, salt and pepper. Mix very well.
Mix glaze ingredients in a small bowl.
Shape the meat mixture into a loaf about 10-inches/25-cm long on the prepared baking sheet.
Brush the top with half the glaze. Bake for 30 minutes. Brush remaining glaze on top of the meatloaf and bake for an additional 30 minutes. Internal temp should be 165F/75C.
Let meatloaf rest 10 minutes before slicing.

Nutrition

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Spicy Orange Sriracha BBQ Chicken

Judith Hannemann — Tue, 29 Sep 2020 23:00:37 +0000

Do this spicy orange chicken on the BBQ or in the oven.

If You Love Spicy Orange Chicken…

Choose The Chicken

As far as the chicken is concerned, choose the smallest chicken you can find. Years ago, they used to call these “fryers” or “broiler/fryers” and they were around 3 pounds. This is why I recommend getting a whole chicken and cutting it up yourself. What’s sold as parts are often humungous and would take too long to cook. If you do choose parts, drumsticks or small thighs would be the way to go provided no one wants white meat.

Where I’ve used skin-on chicken, this will work (and maybe better) with skinless so the meat gets flavored. I have not tried this but I would imagine the cooking time would have to be reduced, especially if it was boneless as well.

To Grill Or Not To Grill

Some areas are lucky enough to be able to use their outdoor grills year round. In such a case, this is perfect for those folks. I don’t live in an area such as that being in the northeast. However, I’m still able to grill outside because my BBQ is on my deck.

But with the advent of indoor smokeless electric grills and air fryers, “grilling” indoors presents no problems either. However, your good old-fashioned oven works pretty well for this recipe too. Under those conditions, you can’t get grill marks, but you can brown the chicken first or pop it under the broiler at the end of cooking.

The Recipe

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Spicy Orange Sriracha BBQ Chicken

Do it outside or in the oven!

Prep Time10

Cook Time40

Course: Dinner, Main, Main Course

Cuisine: Asian

Keyword: asian-style orange chicken, easy baked orange chicken, orange marmalade chicken

Servings: 4

Calories: 550kcal

Author: Judith Hannemann

Ingredients

3 lb chicken cut up or equivalent pieces

Sauce:

1 cup orange marmalade
2 tbs Sriracha
2 tsp fresh thyme or 1 tsp dried
Salt & pepper to taste

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

For oven method: Preheat oven to 375F/190C. Line a large baking sheet with foil or non-stick parchment.
Place marmalade in a small microwave-safe bowl. Microwave on high 30 seconds or until marmalade is melted and can drizzle from a spoon. Mix in remaining sauce ingredients Reserve about 1 cup of the sauce for dipping/basting.
Lightly oil chicken parts. If you are doing this on an outside grill, grill the parts over direct heat for about 4 minutes in order to get grill marks. You may do this on a stovetop grill pan as well.
If you do the chicken in the oven, Brown in a large skillet.
Please note the above steps for browning/grill marks are not necessary—they are done for appearance sake.
For oven: Coat chicken with sauce and place on prepared sheet. Bake for 30-40 minutes or until temperature registers 165F/75C. For extra caramelization, pop under the broiler for a few minutes.
Outdoor grill method: Coat chicken with sauce. Cook chicken over indirect heat (place on unlit side of the grill) until internal temp is 165F/75C. Depending on the grill temp and chicken part size, this should take a minimum of 30 minutes.

Nutrition

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Chili Garlic Ramen Steak Bowl

Judith Hannemann — Tue, 04 Jul 2017 23:00:59 +0000

This ramen steak bowl is an easy way to use leftover steak or London broil. It’s an easy meal with an international flair. Quick to prepare too.

Have BBQ Leftovers?

I imagine most of us do after our 4th of July cookouts.

Leftover chicken is pretty easy to use–either in a casserole or just as is cold.

But what about steak? Reheating it in it’s present form makes it tough and for most of us, overdone. However, there are a couple of ways to dress up leftover steak, and especially London broil.

Your Gain Is Your Dog’s Loss

My dogs used to look forward to my holiday cookouts because when it came to hot dogs, burgers and yep, steak, they were the major recipients of this leftover food.

They began to get disappointed sometime last year when I discovered how to use my leftover steak and London broil.

The first recipe I discovered was Teriyaki Steak Salad since that’s the flavor I usually marinate a London broil. This steak was chili garlic flavored. That marinade was so good I made it again to use as the dressing in this.

Have Ramen Noodles?

I bet you do! I mean, who doesn’t have this guilty pleasure in the pantry.

For this recipe, you’re only going to use the noodles so you can save the flavor packet for another use. You won’t be making a soup with the noodles, but a hot salad of sorts.

I used some great Asian-style veggies in this along with the leftover steak. So this bowl is Asian style, but add what suits your fancy. For instance you can do a fajita-style bowl. Just make sure your sauce flavor matches the flavor you’re going for.

Now, when it comes to the steak, you toss that in the pan at the very end so it just gets warm. As you can see from my pic, it didn’t really “cook” and the meat is as rare as it was when I first served it as steak.

This really tastes great, gives your leftovers a new life and it cooks so quickly, you’ll have this dinner on the table in about 15 minutes! What’s not to love?

The Recipe

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Ramen Steak Bowl

This ramen steak bowl is an easy way to use leftover steak or London broil. It’s an easy meal with an international flair. Quick to prepare too.

Prep Time10

Cook Time5

Total Time15

Course: beef, Comfort Foods, pasta

Cuisine: American

Keyword: ramen noodles, steak bowl

Servings: 4

Calories: 258kcal

Author: Judith Hannemann

Ingredients

3 pkgs ramen noodles save the flavor pack for something else
2 ribs bok choy sliced thinly-include some leaves too
1/2 cup thinly sliced red bell pepper
1 cup thinly sliced leftover steak or london broil
10 snow peas
1 clove garlic finely minced
3 tbsp oil

DRESSING

1/2 cup unseasoned rice vinegar
1/3 cup soy sauce
a few drops about 1 tsp dark sesame oil
1 clove garlic finely minced
1 tbsp chili garlic sauce

Instructions

Place all dressing ingredients in a covered container and shake to combine; set aside.
Cook ramen noodles per package directions; drain and rinse.
Heat a large skillet or wok over high heat. Add the oil.
Then add the bok chop, red bell pepper, garlic and snow peas. Stir fry for about 2 minutes.
Place the steak in the wok and stir fry for about 30 seconds until just heated through.
Add the noodles to the wok and toss to combine.
Drizzle with dressing to taste.

Nutrition

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Crunchy Asian Burgers

Judith Hannemann — Tue, 07 Jun 2016 23:00:38 +0000

Juicy burgers with an Asian flair and a bit of crunch from water chestnuts!

Nothing beats a great burger done on the grill! And now that it’s grilling season, I’m making it my business to try many more of these dressed-up burgers!

This recipe isn’t new. I’ve made it quite a few times over the years and it comes originally from a Chinese cookbook that was published in the early 1960s. The book was my mother’s and when she passed away, I inherited all her cookbook collection. This was really a great cookbook too and it was written by an Asian man who funny enough was a professor of Asian culture. I misplaced the book and can’t remember the title or the gentleman’s name. Can’t find it in my bookcases so I have to search further for it.

Anyway, this burger is seasoned with soy sauce–naturally LOL. It also has minced garlic mixed in but the unusual ingredient here is water chestnuts. That’s what adds the earthiness and more importantly, the crunch.

I do quite a bit of Asian-style cooking so a can of water chestnuts is always in my pantry. They come whole or sliced. I prefer the sliced because I rarely have any dishes that would use the whole. However, you can always slice the whole ones, so that may be the best choice to keep on your shelf.

The original recipe called for dusting the shaped meat with cornstarch. This is a step I eliminated ages ago because it seemed to serve no real purpose except for making your hands gloppy from trying to coat the patties.

I always serve my burgers on kaiser rolls, and if you can get sourdough kaisers, they are the bomb with this burger (and any other). Top it all off with julienne green onions and you’ve got one terrific and tasty burger!

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Crunchy Asian Burgers

Juicy burgers with an Asian flair and a bit of crunch from water chestnuts!

Prep Time5

Cook Time16

Total Time21

Course: beef, GRILLING

Cuisine: Asian

Keyword: burger recipe

Servings: 4 -6

Calories: 591kcal

Author: Judith Hannemann

Ingredients

1 1/2 lb 80-85% ground beef see NOTES
8 oz can water chestnuts, diced
1/4 cup soy sauce
2 cloves garlic minced
4-6 kaiser rolls sourdough is best if you can get

Instructions

Mix all ingredients in a large bowl. Cover and refrigerate for about 30 minutes so the flavors blend.
Shape into 4-6 patties of desired thickness.
Grill until burger reaches desired doneness--a insta-read therrnometer works well here. As an example, I like my burgers medium and make them about 1-inch thick, so I grill about 8 mins each side.

Notes

Burgers shouldn't be made with extremely lean ground beef, i.e. 90%+. It will be dry because the fat is responsible for the juiciness. The leanest you can go is 85% but experts recommend 80% ground beef for burgers.

Nutrition

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