Hoisin Chicken and Rice Bowls

Hey! What in the world is that mess on the computer screen? Click on the picture and you'll see hoisin chicken rice bowl from My Kitchen Cafe. It looks much more appetizing when the picture is enlarged. This picture is, of course, before I added the rice.

I made quite a bit of changes to the original recipe. I added 1 small minced onion that I cooked until it was brown and caramelized. I roasted the red pepper and minced that as well. I'm still getting used to eating peppers, I'm not quite up to eating them in long strips just yet. The recipe called for 4 T of Hoisin sauce. I thought I had enough, but was 1/2 T shy. I used Peking Sauce to make up the difference.

We all thought this was a great dish. Blockette pretended that we were in China visiting Po from Kung Fu Panda
and Hoho, Lulu, Tolee, Rintoo, and Kailan from Ni Hao Kailan.Blockette loved this dish. She got to use her learning chopsticks my best friend Mrs Thunder was kind enough to share. When I was reheating the leftovers, Blockette started playing with her learning chopsticks. Guess she got a bit too rough and they broke. After that, Blockette wanted nothing to do with her rice bowl. She said the dish was yucky and refused to eat any of it. Lucky, Mrs Thunder has another pair for her so I can make the rice bowl again.

The next time we have this dish I'll add a few things. Mrblocko wished there was a bit of heat to the dish so I'll add a bit of red pepper flakes. I'll also add additional veggies like baby corn, pea pods and carrot coins. Not only will it be a bit better for us with all those veggies, but the dish will be more colorful too.

Hoisin Chicken and Rice Bowl from Mel's Kitchen Cafe
1 tablespoon canola oil
1 large red pepper, diced small
1 10-ounce package baby portebello mushrooms, diced small
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 average-sized boneless, skinless chicken breasts, diced small
1 8-ounce can water chestnuts, drained, diced small
2 teaspoons teriyaki sauce (you can find this by the soy sauce)
4 tablespoons hoisin sauce
3 cups of hot cooked rice
romaine lettuce leaves
sesame seeds
scallions, thinly sliced

Heat oil over medium high heat in a large saute pan. Add red pepper and mushrooms and saute for 5 – 6 minutes until tender. Add garlic and saute an additional minute. Add chicken to pan and cook for 6 – 8 minutes or until cooked through. Stir chicken and red pepper mixture occasionally while it cooks. Add water chestnuts, teriyaki sauce and hoisin sauce and stir to coat the chicken and vegetables. Continue cooking until heated through.