Popcorn Chicken with Gorgonzola Dip

Thank goodness it is getting easier each day to wake up in the morning because of the weather.  Every morning, out of habit, I still swear to my bed who has just lost its owner that I would come back later for 20 minutes of indulgent comfort.  However, a quick glance at the blue sky through my kitchen windows with white airbrush-like jet lines is startling enough to perk me up.  It’s funny, no matter what kind of weather it presents outside, I am convinced that it is perfect weather for a cup of hot coffee, looking outside every day.

Let’s move on to food talk.  Today was my big grocery shopping day of the week.  Not that I do this once a week -I’m rather a daily shopper who finds herself wasting more money on unnecessary things if she tries to purchase for a week-long menu.- just it was a day that the store I have been a long-time customer had fresh vegetables, and I needed to buy a lot of other stuff in my “to-buy list”.

The problem at times like this is that there are too many choices as to what to cook with a refrigerator full of stuff waiting to be presented beautifully.  Should I make the Mexican Samosas that I was thinking of last night?  What about the spinach recipe which I luckily came across while reading blogs?  After thinking it over for several minutes in my head, I remembered the chicken stick recipe one of my girlfriends shared with me the other day.  Cut chicken breast into strips and fry after coating -this part is her very her own creation- in croutons.  That’s it!  Sounds like a recipe my son is going to dive into!

You must be wondering how chicken sticks turned out to be so popcorn-y like those.  Right before starting to cook, I was flipping through “”Food and Wine” magazine which I started subscribing to as a part of school fund raising program a friend of my son’s is involved in.  There I saw a super delicious looking chicken cooked Chinese style.  There, chicken was cut like these and obviously, it must have stayed with me subconsciously.  Oops!  I was supposed to cut it into strips!  Not small pieces!  You can’t cry over already cut chicken.  (Wish there was a way to patch them up though )  So this recipe came up by mending a mistake, and you know what?  It’s so easy and I’m loving it!

Popcorn Chicken with Gorgonzola Dip

What I love most about cooking tiny pieces of meat is that you don’t have to worry about not having them cooked through.  (I haven’t quite completely recovered from the traumatizing drum stick incident from the other day…) It takes only a few minutes on each side before they become golden brown and meat is well-done by that time.   Also being able to  consume the hole package in a bite works so well for my son with braces.

I often keep some kind of crumbled cheese in my refrigerator that comes in a plastic container with a resealable lid.  Gorgonzola, Bleu cheese and Feta are commonly placed in the dairy product isle of most supermarkets.  They are quite affordable and come in handy for topping off simple green salad, sprinkling over tomato sauce, etc…

American bread crumbs are almost interchangeable with Japanese Panko but more grainy and coarse.  I like having options on which one to use depending on the crunchiness you are looking for.
The chicken came out as juicy and tender as I hoped for.  It was hard to stop munching as I cooked.  That’s how my dishes, all the time, turn out smaller in portion than they are supposed to be.

Here’s our kitty, Genji, taking a cozy afternoon nap…
Just seeing his happy nappy face assures me that he trusts us 100% and likes being here.
He came from one of our neighbor’s when the mommy cat had babies.
His mom is an indoor/outdoor cat and we see her sitting in her driveway or sometimes strolling around the neighborhood.  It’s really nice to know that Genji has his mommy so close.  I wonder if they would recognize each other if they met after almost two years.  It would be nice if they did…

P.S.  You can now write comments in Japanese, also.
My apologies to those whose comments could not be shown correctly.
日本語書き込みもオッケーになりました。
これまで文字化けしてしまったコメント主さま、ごめんなさい。