I whipped up this super easy and tasty bourbon chicken dish after finding a random recipe online. I checked out the ingredients, I had most of them on hand, so I decided to try it out!
Here are the ingredients for this. As you can see, most of these things are standard items that nearly everyone should have on hand. The only things I had to pick up were apple juice and fresh ginger. And I cheated by using minced garlic.

Ingredients:
3 large chicken breasts
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 garlic clove, minced
1/4 tsp ginger
3/4 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
1/4 cup apple juice
1/3 cup brown sugar (I used light, but you could use whatever)
2 Tbsp ketchup
1 Tbsp cider vinegar
1/4 -1/2 cup water
1/3 cup soy sauce
This dish is super easy to cook. First, get your rice cooking, so will be done and hot when the chicken is done. Cut up the chicken into bite sized bits. Heat oil, add chicken, and cook until mostly cooked through. Remove chicken to a separate bowl. Add remaining ingredients in a large skillet one by one, heating over medium heat, until everything is heated through and dissolved. See how beautiful the sauce is? I think you can actually add some bourbon to the sauce if you want. I did not. Add the chicken back in and bring to a hard boil. Reduce heat and simmer for an additional 20 minutes. Serve over hot rice. I used a mix of brown and white rice. See how easy that is? It’s good too.

The only things that bothered me was that there was no veggies at all. But since you’re simmering this for 20 minutes, you really can’t add normal veggies, because they will get all overcooked and soggy and turn mushy. This probably calls for water chestnuts or something along those lines. But since I don’t like water chestnuts, I’m not sure what I would end up adding. But it definitely needs some veg. Also, the sauce isn’t thick or glaze like, and it ends up being quite liquidy. It would be nice if it was more of a thick sauce, so perhaps add some corn starch mixture? I’ll have to experiment more next time.

Here we have a two-for-one recipe special, a first ever on foodzings. Both of these dishes are so easy, that even I could make them. So we’ll start first with a cucumber side dish. It’s a tangy little banchan of freshly pickled cucumbers, with a bit of spice.

We start off with a few pickling cucumbers. Half them lengthwise, then slice them.

Throw them in a bowl along with some thinly sliced onion.

Throw a little salt over this and mix it around a little bit.

Chop up a sprig or two of green onion.

Throw these into the bowl, along with a bit of sugar. Mix again.

Then we only have two more things to add – kochukaru (korean chili powder) and white vinegar.

The more kochukaru you add, the spicier it will be. The more vinegar you add, the tangier it will be. Put in however much you like! That’s it!

Ok, moving right along to our second dish, sweet red bean buns. Correction, the easiest sweet red bean buns you will ever make. These are super tasty and super easy to make. Seriously, they don’t get easier than this. So if you like pastries, and if you like sweet red bean, then keep on reading. If not, then click away.

Here are the ingredients – crescent roll mix and a can of sweet red beans. Seriously that’s it. This is a two ingredient dish. I told you it was easy.

So you take a piece of the crescent, and spoon some sweet red bean in there.

You close it up so that it forms a little bun.

Place the buns seam-side down on a cookie sheet. How long to cook these? At what temperature? I have no idea. Just follow the crescent instructions and don’t burn them. The bottom has a tendency to burn, so keep an eye on them.

Eat them when they’re fresh out of the oven! Ok, so I don’t know if these buns are really korean, but since my mom is korean, and she made them, I’m going to call them korean. Or at least korean-esque. All I know is that they’re good and beyond easy!

You know when you go into Trader Joe’s, sometimes they give out little samples. Mostly, it’s some of their prepared food, such as frozen things that they heat up, or chocolate, or fruit, or things like that. Well over one weekend, they were giving out some pieces of brisket. The brisket was “Nana Rose’s Beef Brisket” and after tasting my little sample, I moved on. Then I eventually went to Genuardi’s to get other groceries that I couldn’t get at Trader Joe’s. And I saw these ladies buying brisket. This was the weekend before Passover, and I was in Wynnewood, so there was just tons of brisket buying to be had. Then I started thinking about the brisket from Trader Joe’s. And that’s when I decided to make one.

Making the recipe was a breeze and it tasted great. Not losing a finger in the process? That wasn’t so easy. While cutting the onion, I damn near chopped my finger off. I’m not sure what happened. It wasn’t difficult cutting either. In fact, it was super easy cutting. I only had to cut them into big chunky pieces. But something slipped, and I sliced right into the top bend of my left middle finger. Man, it was deep too. And it would just not stop bleeding. And this knife had onion all over it! I’d cut into my finger with onion. Grrr… I didn’t freak out. I just started rinsing it out and tried to clean it off a bit as my sink ran red. It was gross, like a horror movie. I grabbed a paper towel and started squeezing. You know, like you’re supposed to do… like they taught me in Girl Scouts, elevate and apply pressure. So that’s what I did… for a long time. It wouldn’t stop bleeding so I called my doctor’s office. They said if it didn’t stop bleeding in the next hour, to go to the emergency room. Thankfully, ten minutes later, it had mostly stopped bleeding. In hindsight, I probably did need stitches. But I’m pretty terrible about actually seeking medical attention for stuff like cuts and burns. So I just used tons of liquid bandage and put a splint on it. And lucky for me, it’s healing nicely and there’s no signs of infection. Stupid stupid evil onions…

I used my dutch oven, but I would have used my slow cooker if it was at my house. I cooked it for four hours and it was too long for me, too much of the liquid got cooked off. I would stick more or less to three hours.

Nana Rose’s Beef Brisket (from Trader Joe’s)
1 brisket
2 red onions diced
3/4 cup ketchup
3/4 cup beef broth
1 tbsp pepper
Salt to taste brisket
4 carrots cut into quarters (I used potatoes)

Sautee evil onions in pot, add brisket and seer on fatty side down until brown. Add broth, ketchup, salt & pepper, veggies, bring to a simmer. Transfer to baking dish and cover tightly and bake at 325 degrees for 3-4 hours (will break apart when fully cooked). Slice and return to sauce. Best when cooked day before and reheated.