Kyle’s Cookbook: My first recipe

I wanted to share the first recipe I ever learned how to make; teriyaki chicken. This dish means a lot to me because it basically got me through college. I ate teriyaki chicken and another recipe, Russian dressing chicken, at least once a week. I decided I needed to learn how to cook when I moved into an off campus apartment my second year at Chapman University in California. My mom taught me how to make both of these dishes. Her cooking philosophy is “easy to make, but tastes good”. Also chicken is hard to mess up and is cheaper than most other types of meat and seafood. Both dishes take about an hour to make and only a handful of ingredients.

I wanted to share these simple, yet delicious recipes with all of you. If a novice, 18 year old Kyle could figure these recipes out, you can too.

Teriyaki Chicken – this is not an authentic Japanese recipe. I don’t even think teriyaki is Japanese, but it was a staple food growing up and I’m pretty sure everyone has had teriyaki at least once in their lives if not multiple times. What most people don’t know is that teriyaki sauce is extremely easy to make, all it is, is soy sauce, sugar, garlic, and ginger and you’re done.

What you’ll need:

• Couple pounds of chicken pieces (I prefer thighs and drumsticks I like my dark meat, but boneless skinless breasts work as well)
• Big pot
• ½ C sugar
• ½ C soy sauce
• 3 cloves of garlic
• Equal amount of fresh, peeled ginger

Instructions:

• Optional: trim the fat and some skin off of the chicken
• Add ½ C sugar with equal amount of soy sauce into a pot
• Dice up 2-3 cloves of garlic and add an equal amount of chopped up peeled ginger
• Mix it all together and then place 5-8 pieces of chicken skin side down in the pot
• Bring the pot to a boil, make sure to mix so it doesn’t burn, as soon as it boils turn down to medium heat and put the top on the pot – cook for about 8 minutes or so and then flip the chicken
• Cook an additional 10 minutes after that Note: If you are cooking chicken breasts or anything boneless cook for 5 minutes instead of 10 minutes because it will cook much faster and you don’t want to overcook the chicken or it will get pretty dry
• Optional: Preheat an oven to 350 degrees and line a pan with aluminum foil and spray with vegetable spray
• If putting in the oven, when the chicken’s internal temperature is 160 degrees pull it out of the pot and put in the pan. Place in the oven for 10 minutes and then it should be done. If not placing in the oven, the chicken is done at 165 degrees. Another way to check is to poke a hole in the chicken and press down, if the liquid comes out clear and is not bloody, it’s done. However the internal temperature is the best way to check.
• I like to serve this dish with some vegetables like some pan cooked zucchini or even corn. Rice is the most important part of this dish! After the chicken is done, use a mesh strainer and place it over a bowl and pour the remaining liquid from the pot into the bowl. The strainer will take out the garlic and ginger chunks, which added flavor to the sauce, but are now unneeded. Serve the chicken and spoon the sauce over the chicken and your rice and eat.

Russian Dressing Chicken – this dish is both sweet and tart with a subtle onion flavor. This is good comfort food and perfect on a cold night. The oven will heat up your kitchen and fill your house with great aromas.

What you’ll need:

• 2-3 lbs of chicken pieces
• 1 package of dry onion soup mix
• ½ C apricot preserves or marmalade
• ½ C Russian dressing

Instructions:

• Combine the last three ingredients into a bowl and mix well.
• Spray a 9”x13” pan with vegetable spray or use any baking pan and place the chicken in it, skin side up
• Pour the mixture from the bowl onto the chicken and place in a preheated oven at 325 degrees. Cook for an hour to an hour and a half, depends on your oven. The chicken is done when the internal temperature is 165. This is another recipe that is best served with rice.