Meat + Poultry

The juicy ground pork and fragrant Chinese chives are such a classic combo for dumplings!

A French beef stew made with red wine, tender beef, mushrooms and carrots in a rich and glossy sauce. It is comfort and decadence in every bite. Serve with mashed potatoes, egg noodles or crusty bread.

Chicken is marinaded in a tasty mixture of miso, Dijon mustard, honey, garlic, soy sauce, mirin, paprika and s&p. Although you can stop there — why would you? — when you can brush these MISO HONEY MUSTARD CHICKEN SKEWERS with a mouthwatering sauce of melted buttahhh, mayo mustard and chopped fresh parsley for a very irresistible finishing move.

One day I was craving a peanut butter sauce to eat with my dumplings and this EASY SPICY PEANUT BUTTER SAUCE FOR DUMPLINGS was created and tweaked until it is now my go-to. I love it with noodles as well!

My family loves these Beef Rolls with Enoki and Veggies. Since there is protein, veggies and mushrooms all bundled together, it is the perfect standalone, well-rounded meal which makes me love it even more. They are soo good — with all that sauce — served on rice! Once the bundles are prepared, they cook in a matter of minutes right in the pan along with the sauce. Faster than the time it takes to cook the rice. Dinner is served!

This 10-MINUTE CREAM CORN CHICKEN RICE is my take of a popular homestyle Cantonese dish (粟米雞粒飯) but my version takes only 10 minutes to make! You also won't be needing a knife or chopping board, either. Sound good? GOOD.

This SPEEDY CHICKEN KATSU DINNER features juicy chicken cutlets served with freshly steamed rice, crunchy shredded cabbage dressed in a 5-minute sesame dressing, and sweet-tangy tonkatsu sauce. This is a meal I can throw together in 30 minutes!

These SHANGHAI SPRING ROLLS are exactly the kind I grew up eating so they are, hands down, my favourite type of spring rolls! My paternal Shanghainese grandmother used to make it and my dad makes it. We usually make a big pot of simple meatless congee to go with it for a weekend lunch everybody looks forward to!

May I interest you in an epic recipe perfect for the holidays? Actually, it is ideal for any dinner party at any time of the year, for that matter. Yes? I’m so glad! Because today I’m sharing this recipe — the second of my six-recipe collaboration with All-Clad Canada — a succulent Whole Roasted Duck with Plum Butter Glaze + Slaw made with All-Clad Canada’s Large Roaster with Rack. This was such a fabulous meal that everyone loved. I highly recommend this recipe if you’re into impressive, delicious, and NOT the same-old-same-old!

Refreshing and delicious recipe featuring bouncy noodles loaded with a variety of crisp veggies and shredded chicken, all tossed in a Chinese-style creamy, savoury, spicy and tangy peanut butter sauce.

Do you like the sound of juicy chicken with crispy skin, slathered in a zippy sauce? If so, I have this fantastic 6-ingredient, 30 minutes recipe for you. This easy and flavor-packed GINGER APRICOT CHICKEN recipe came about when I craved a tasty dish to appease my bored taste buds shortly after starting my first Whole30 so this recipe provides options for regular preparation or soy-free / gluten-free versions. This recipe has since become one of our family weeknight favourites!

This recipe was inspired by our recent trip to Miami, Florida. The hotel we stayed at was beyond gorgeous and the weather was even more so, especially after months living in the tundra known as winter in Toronto.  Guys, it was a real difficult winter.  So our escape down south was well anticipated.  Except it didn't turn out to be the vacation I pictured...

Cauliflower has been having quite a moment in the sun.

Have you seen all the clever and creative uses of cauliflower lately?   The popular ones that spring to mind are cauliflower steak, cauliflower pizza crust, cauliflower buffalo 'wings', cauliflower tater tots and even using cauliflower as a smoothie ingredient to provide bulk without the added sugars of bananas and other fruits (can't say I'm sold on that one ... yet).  

So despite it's pale and unexciting appearance, turns out this cruciferous veggie kinda has superpowers!  And cauliflower RICE, for me, is the most super-y-est of them all because of it's ease of preparation (including how much faster it is to cook versus rice), superior nutritional value over rice, it's versatility and above all, how satisfyingly well it stands in for rice.

I am super excited to share this recipe as a follow-up to last week's Everyday Veggie-Loaded Ragu share.  For forever, it was a no-brainer to make a lasagna later the same week I make up a big batch of my go-to ragu.  I literally don't know a single person who doesn't like lasagna, do you?  But when we began limiting dairy and gluten consumption (among other things) at the end of 2016, it seemed our lasagna days were over.  Bye bye.

Or so I thought.

Does the internet really need another 'spaghetti sauce' recipe? For a year and half since I started this blog, the answer to myself was consistently NO. Yet here it is.

The selfish part of me doesn't want to publicly share how ah-mazing beef cheeks are for braising!  Beef cheeks are at once lean and tender.  When slow cooked or pressure cooked, it is extremely flavorful and yields lusciously to your fork.  Or should I say, spoon because that's the utensil to use for this dish.  It's how wonderfully tender it is!  

You might not guess from miso's intense brininess and gochujang's spicy pungency, that they would mellow out to result in a tender braised pork dish that is rich and deeply savoury yet well-balanced. Serve with rice, pasta or other carb-y side of choice to enjoy the saucy goodness.

I'm so happy to kick off the new year with a recipe I'm rather excited about as it uses an amazing and wildly flavorful ingredient that is a relatively recent discovery for me - tamarind.   I didn't grow up with tamarind, but I have made up for that lost time by how much I love it now.  Are you thinking what even is tamarind anyway? 

If you've been the New York City, then you've seen the plethora of street food carts selling pretzels or nuts or bagels that fill the streets with their amazing aromas.  But I don't waste my money there.  

Beef Stroganoff is a Russian dish and I'll be the first to admit to know nothing about Russian cuisine or whether my version is authentic.  Probably isn't?  I use flank steak in mine which deviates from the sirloin, tenderloin or chuck I typically see in recipes. After having tried all of those cuts for Stroganoff at some point in the past, I stand by flank steak as the ideal cut to use in this recipe.  When sliced uber thin, the melt-in-your-mouth flank pieces are at harmony with the sauteed soft mushrooms and tender egg noodles.      

[ October 2018 ] This recipe was updated with improvements! I switched to using roasted chickpeas for an amazing gluten-free alternative for the breading! (see image above) Note the use of store-bought, snacking kind of roasted chickpeas (like Watusee Foods roasted organic chickpeas; not sponsored) which I blitz into a coarse crumb in a blender or food processor. They also have ready-made chickpea crumbs if you can find it (I don’t have access to that in Canada). Home-roasted chickpeas would likely be too moist to achieve the same results.

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This one's a home run at my house!  And I am willing to bet it would be at your's too, if your peeps like crispy little chicken sandwiches on warm soft brioche buns served with a good schmear of creamy tartar-y sauce goodness.  The best part about it is, it's a lightened up (healthier) version that is EASY to make (less than 30 minutes) with NO COMPROMISE in taste! What is this voodoo magic, you ask? Read on friend…  

This is, hands down, one of our favourite dinners of all for adults and kids. The aromas of ginger, garlic and scallions permeate every component of the dish, resulting in something far more than the sum of its parts. It is really, really spectacular. I'm talking about CHINESE CHICKEN RICE. Made simpler and easier for a weeknight hit.

This recipe is a supplement to my previous post "Simple Beer Braised Pork" as one of a few ways to transform a single braised pork shoulder into several different meals that can be made in less time, by freezing portions of pork to defrost and use as needed on busy weeknights.  See also my recipe for "Pulled Pork & Brussels Sprouts Fried Rice", another versatile dinner idea that can be assembled in a jiffy once you have portions of the braised pork tucked away in your freezer.  

You need a good fried rice in your weeknight repertoire. You really do. I wrote up this recipe as a supplement to my previous post "Simple Beer Braised Pork" as one of a few ways to make a single braised pork shoulder and turn it into multiple delicious meals by freezing portions of it to pull out as needed on busy weeknights. (See also my post "Pappardelle with Pulled Pork & Wilted Spinach" for another scrumptious meal idea). 

What if I told you that all you need is half an hour of active prep time (excluding oven time) for this beer-braised pork, which can then be turned into 3 or 4 different dinners? Do the work upfront say, on a Sunday and reap the rewards on hectic weeknights. I think you maybe definitely should read on. 

Are these not the cutest little parcels you want to treat your family and friends to?  I came up with this recipe when I had leftover Korean-style braised beef shortribs in the freezer that wasn't enough for a full meal so I had to think of a way to stretch it into one.

When the weather is cold, I turn to hearty chilis and stews to warm up.  I'm also lazy. And stews and chilis are wonderful one-pot meals loaded with meat, beans and lots of veggies! This recipe has no actual heat (spiciness) so who knows if it should still be called a chili. Feel free to enlighten me on this in the comments. Regardless, if you are unlike me and have no young children to worry about, by all means add a tsp of chili flakes when the turmeric goes into the pot.

This is an essential weeknight recipe that I default to again and again because it is so easy to prepare and because of how much my girls love them!  Think 4 ingredients, 15 prep time, 25 mins bake time. There is no reason to buy packaged nuggets ever. EVER.  I also make this recipe regularly with ground turkey with wonderful results too but of course it will be a tad less juicy. I always make a double-batch and freeze a portion of uncooked nuggets for future school lunches.

Apr 2017:  I have added gluten/grain-free AND dairy-free alternatives.  Hurray!  Nuggets for everyone!