This week we tried out another Blue Apron dinner: General Tso’s Chicken: We were really happy with this meal. It was outside of our comfort zone and we would not normally cook it, and it tasted better then we expected. We expected it to be unhealthy, like the normal Chinese take-out version of this, but because our chicken wasn’t fried, it was tastier and healthier. The dish also allowed you to determine how spicy you wanted the chicken to be, which is very helpful when you’re in a family with very differing tastes. The only thing that we thought could of been improved on was that there wasn’t enough bok choy. In fact, we needed to add our own spinach to barely gather enough greens.
The main ingredients were: chicken breast, scallions, daikon radish, baby bok choy and corn starch. For the sauce, Blue Apron gave us Sambal Oelek (no idea what this is but its spicy), garlic, sesame oil and soy glaze.
First we had to prepare all the ingredients: mince the garlic, chop the scallions, chop ends of bok choy, slice radishes and chop the chicken into bite-sized bits. This took a REALLY long time: partly because the chicken was almost frozen (note to self: make sure you let Blue Apron ingredients thaw before you start prep). The we cooked the rice. Then we made the sauce for the chicken in a pan. What was cook is that the sambal oelek is spicy/sweet and you add however much you want in (depending on how spicy you want it). We chose a medium amount. Then we had to cook the chicken (after coating the chicken in corn starch). Blue Apron says to use the same pan as the sauce–but this was taking a long time (and there were 2 of us) so Max handled the sauce and Alex started the chicken in a separate pan. Once the chicken was cooked through we combined it with the sauce. Then we used the “chicken” pan and cooked the bok choy in it. As noted above, there wasn’t nearly enough bok choy!!! We added some extra spinach and a splash of soy sauce (Blue Apron just said to cook it in olive oil).
This was a super fun meal to make, the kind of meal you would expect from Blue Apron. It wasn’t something you make eveyday but was still delicious! (Just make sure you have A LOT of time to do this…or use lots of pans.)
