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.

What the heck is brown sprouted rice? I didn’t really know, but my friend C was telling me about how much he loved it. So then I had to investigate. It is brown rice that is allowed to germinate by soaking the rice. The rice actually starts to sprout. If you look at it closely, you can see the little sprouts sticking out of one of the ends of the rice grain. It’s slightly creepy.

Ok, so what’s so good about sprouted brown rice? Well basically, it’s really good for you. While I love white rice more than just about anything in the world, it’s not particularly nutritious. Brown rice is much better for you. And brown sprouted rice is even better. The whole germination part basically makes the nutrients more available and more easily absorbed during digestion. Gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), is a naturally occurring amino acid created during the germination process. And there are claims from studies that say this stuff can help with things like lowering cholesterol and blood pressure, boosting the immune system, improving sleep, and inhibiting cancer cells.

Are any of these claims true? No idea. But seeing as how brown rice in general is better for you, and this stuff is supposed to be even better than regular brown rice, why not eat it? It tastes similarly to regular brown rice, but slightly more green. It’s hard to describe, but that’s the easiest way for me to describe it. And it is even more firm than regular brown rice. I’m not a health nut by any means. You can probably tell from the types of food I eat, but sometimes, I do what I can to be a teeny bit healthy.

Sometimes I get cravings for certain dishes. The other week, I desperately wanted to go to Tampopo, but it just didn’t happen. So this week, I was determined! Just before I headed out to G’s monthly movie event, since I was going to have to be in West Philly anyway, I stopped in at Tampopo 3. Tampopo tends to get mixed reviews. Some people love the ramen, some people hate it. Some people think their sushi is only ok. I don’t care about any of that because all I care about is their fresh tuna bi-bim-bob. It is possibly one of the most perfect dishes ever.

There is nothing in it that I don’t like. And the beauty of it is that nothing is cooked. Well, except the rice, of course. There is raw tuna, avocado, asian pear, cucumber, lettuce, and purple cabbage. These are all lovely things all on their own. But together, along with the zesty and slightly spicy and nutty sauce (which is technically cooked), it’s just perfection. Get it with brown rice, because brown rice is awesome, and it has a more firm texture that goes along really well with the other mostly crunchy ingredients. I literally left nothing in this bowl. And since they didn’t give me a spoon, I chopsticked out every little kernel of rice. I wasn’t leaving anything! It was a lot of work but totally worth it!