Up until last year, Saturday evenings were red-letter events. We have a tight circle of friends with whom we had dinner every Saturday. We’d take turns hosting the dinner parties but it was always a potluck arrangement. Then, in October 2004, right when the construction of the new kitchen wing began, our househelp disappeared on us. Although it was hard work hosting the dinner parties after that, we still did it. In fact, in 2004, the Christmas party was held in our house.
Months later, two more of our friends lost their househelp. After that, the dinner parties started getting few and far between. What can I say? Hosting 20 people in the house, including young children, for dinner and after dinner chat and play is not exactly a walk in the park. What we did was to meet elsewhere. Dinner in restaurants, picnics on Sunday afternoons, movies…
For the first time in a long time, we’re having a dinner party tonight at a friend’s house (about 10 minutes away) and I cooked this platter of sweet and sour chicken thigh fillets for our contribution to the potluck dinner.
When I cooked this dish before, I used chicken breast fillets and chicharo (snow peas or snap peas). I’m not particularly a fan of chicken breast meat or any white meat for the matter. That goes for my husband and kids as well. Chicken breast is always the last to get eaten in our house and only in cases of sheer hunger. So as not to be wasteful, when I cook a whole chicken, I cut off the breast, boil it separately and flake the meat to make chicken salad. It’s always a good idea to have a jar of chicken salad in the fridge for sandwiches.
When I decided to bring sweet and sour chicken for tonight’s potluck dinner, I used the tray of chicken thigh fillets that I had thawed earlier in the afternoon. When I sampled the cook dish afterwards, I knew I made the right decision.
If you want to cook this dish, chicken thigh fillets are available in supermarkets. You don’t have to do the deboning yourself. Just cut each thigh fillet into about six pieces.
You will find the recipe for sweet and sour chicken fillets here. You may substitute sweet peas for the chicharo, like I did.
[tags]chicken+recipe, recipe, food, cooking, Food+and+Drinks[/tags]
same in this house breast stands unwanted so i use it for something else.
if chickens were female humans, i bet every male would be in a mad scramble for the breasts. hehehehehe