Chicken Egg Rolls and Pizza Logs

 So last week we made chicken egg rolls and pizza logs, we make these about every 4 to 5 months. My husband is the best at rolling the egg rolls and I handle the pizza logs. 

Due to the amount of work and the mess when we make them we do it in bulk, I think this time we did 75 egg rolls and 96 pizza logs.

                                              

These are the wrappers that we use and they can be found in the freezer section of most Asian stores. If you can't find these the egg roll wrappers that you can find in the produce section of most major stores will also work, they will just look different and be a bit thicker.

For the pizza logs, you will need string cheese cut in half the long way, pepperoni, and spring roll wrappers. You could also use any veggies you would add to a pizza. If you don't have string cheese you can use shredded mozzarella but I find that the string cheese works better.

The pizza logs are easy, one piece of cheese, 6 pepperoni on a spring wrapper and roll. Seal with a egg wash and then fry. I like to cook all of them before I freeze that way I only need to make a mess with frying oil once, but you can freeze them un- fried To reheat from frozen you can use the oven, air fryer, or even microwave. 

Serve with pizza sauce on the side for dipping them in.

For the Chicken egg rolls, you will need ground chicken I used 2 pounds this time, 2 heads of cabbage sliced thin, a one pound of baby carrots chopped up in the mini food processor. I also like to season the mix with ginger and some oyster flavored sauce. Insead of cabbage and carrots you can use coleslaw mix.

Fry up the ground chicken in a bit of olive oil, remove from the pan. Add the cabbage and carrots and cook them down add the ginger and oyster sauce. Mix the cabbage mix with the chicken and let the mix cool. This time we lucked out as it was a very cold winter day so we set the mix outside to cool.

When you go to wrap them use about 2 TB of mix on a spring roll wrapper and seal with egg wash. And then fry. Same as the pizza logs you can re heat in the oven, air fryer, or microwave. 

He is the best at rolling the egg rolls.

I am in charge of the frying and this time I only burned myself once. 

Making Chicken Broth

  I started with one normal size pressure cooker a few years ago and when my crockpot met an unfortunate incident with the floor the husband bought me a even larger second one. Having two has made chicken broth day so much easier. 

 When it comes time to make chicken broth which happens every three or four months it is a whole day affair. But it doesn't take up much of my actual time, but it is a day that I need to be home to keep an eye on the pressure cookers as they do the work.

I like to use the cheapest chicken that has bones in it for making broth, this time around it was drumsticks.

I use carrots, garlic, onion, and mushrooms along with the chicken to make the broth. I do not season the broth when I am making it as I like to that when I use it. 

When it comes to the carrots if I am using whole ones I just give them a good scrub and don't peel. Often I use whatever sad looking carrots are in the fridge, which sometimes could be baby carrots.

The onions just get a quick peel and cut in half 

The garlic just gets the ends chopped off, I don't even peel it as I strain the broth.

As a family we don't eat mushrooms, they just don't appeal to us but when it comes to making broth I toss in a container, I think it adds something to the broth. 

All of this in then placed in the pressure cookers, I use enough of the mixture to fill the cookers almost to the top and then add water and a splash of apple cider vinegar  to break down the chicken bones. Set the pressure cookers on the chicken setting for one hour, and I let them naturally cool for about 30 min after the cycle finishes. Then strain and place the broth on the stove in my extra large pot that holds 17 quarts.  Then place the now mushy mix of  veg and meat back into the pressure cookers add more fresh veggies and chicken if you have them left from the beginning add water and repeat the process. I do this about 3 times just keep reusing the veg and chicken and I will have about 17 quarts of broth. This takes about 8 hours, during this time I leave the broth that is finished simmering on the stove and that reduces it some more. 

If I am doing this in the winter and it's a nice cold day, I will portion it out into the containers and then place out in the snow until the broth cools and then I freeze it. If it's summer time I will try my best to have a open freezer and place the broth in there, also a sink of ice helps to cool it quickly. 

Lots of wonderful chicken broth to use in soups, and other recipes. 

American Chinese Chicken

One of our kids favorite meals is what our youngest calls American Chinese Chicken, it is a meal that I only make once in a while so about every month and a half or when the youngest keeps on asking it shows up on the menu.

 

I started making it about twenty years ago, a friend used to make it and I learned from watching her that it wasn't really all that hard and way cheaper then getting take out,  especially as our family grew larger. Little did I know that just a few years later we would move the country and the nearest Chinese restaurant would be 30 minutes away and being able to make Chinese chicken would be handy. Today we live minutes from numerous Chinese food options but this has been and is still cheaper to make at home.

I usually serve this with homemade fried rice, and if I am feeling really motivated egg rolls.

1	cup all-purpose flour
2	tablespoons cornstarch
1 1/2	teaspoons baking powder
2	eggs
1/2	teaspoon vegetable oil
1	teaspoon sugar

This is usually enough for 2-3 pounds of boneless chicken

1. Mix up the batter

2. Start heating up your oil, I like to use a cast iron dutch oven on the stove top

3. Cut up your chicken breasts into bite sized pieces

4. I like to then add all the chicken to the batter and mix together

5. Take the chicken piece by piece and place in hot oil, enough to fill one layer of pot

6. In about      flip the chicken over then in about take out and drain

7. Repeat until all the chicken is cooked. 

While all this is going on I have rice cooking in my rice cooker, when it is done I place a bit of oil in the largest frying pan I have and fry up some diced onion, then add bag of frozen of peas and carrots, once they are cooked add the rice, some oyster sauce to taste.

I also make a dipping sauce for the chicken

In a small sauce pan mix together the liquid from a can of pineapple, 2 tablespoons cornstarch, 1/4 cup ketchup, 1/2 cup vinegar, 1/2 cup brown sugar. Bring to a boil while mixing and then then remove from heat to thicken.

Menu Plan Monday 1/21

This week's Dinner menu plan:

Sunday-  Chinese Chicken, white rice, fried rice, stir fry veggies, fresh veggies ( celery, carrots, broccoli) , and sweet and sour sauce.

Monday- Sloppy Joes, green beans, baked potatoes  sweet potatoes fries.

Tuesday- Baked Chicken, fresh veggies, rice, corn

Wednesday- Fridge Vegetable soup - made out of all the leftover veggies in the fridge. 

Thursday- Spaghetti and meatballs as we didn't get to eat it last week.

Friday- as always is pizza night, we use the frozen pizza crusts that you can buy from Sam's club bakery dept about 18 dollars for 16 full size pizza crust. The toppings each week vary based on the left overs in the fridge, some times there is ham or pepperoni or chicken. 

Saturday- This week is a bit busy so, sandwiches  leftovers, soup, etc.

This is linked up at menu-plan-monday

Chinese chicken

Well our kids only like one kind of Chinese food, and that would be sweet and sour chicken. This is not a real healthy meal, but it is a special treat that the kids and dh really enjoy. Since it is real expensive to order out all the time and we live in the middle of no where, I have learned to make it on my own. Here is the recipe for the batter :

1	cup all-purpose flour
2	tablespoons cornstarch
1 1/2	teaspoons baking powder
2	eggs
1/2	teaspoon vegetable oil
1	teaspoon sugar

And just enough water to make a smooth batter, I double this recipe for about 2 pounds of boneless chicken.


The first step is to cut up the chicken into bite size cubes

Then add the chicken and coat

Then fry, this picture is from awhile ago, today when I made it I used my fryer.

Then serve to the hungry hoards aka the family.

I serve this meal with fried rice, veggie tray, and sweet and sour sauce.