Panda Express Mandarin Chicken and Fried Green Beans

I love this meal.  Here's the thing....... I am in love with rice.  It is so weird, because rice is really boring but I love it.  I would have it with every meal if I could get away with it.  If you want the yummy, sticky rice you need to buy Calrose rice.  Just put it in your rice cooker and 20 minutes later - sticky delishishness.  I usually make twice as much rice as we need and double the sauce so I can eat just the rice and sauce for leftovers, a couple of my kids like to do that too.  Then there's the green beans.  I haven't been the same since I had tempura fried vegetables.  I don't have a recipe for the green beans, I just let some frozen green beans thaw, dipped them in some tempura batter (which you can buy in the Asian section of any grocery store) and fried them up.  Fried carrots are my favorite, but I decided I was only going to do green beans tonight.  I served them with sweet and sour sauce and Sriracha sauce for dipping.  This is what Sriracha sauce looks like:

It tastes like liquid fire to me, but tasty liquid fire.  You can also find this in the Asian food section of any store.


Panda Express Mandarin Chicken
Don't know where I got the recipe but it's all over the internets

Ingredients:

2/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon vegetable oil
1 teaspoon minced fresh garlic
1/2 teaspoon minced fresh ginger
1/4 cup water
1 tablespoon cornstarch
6 skinless chicken thigh fillets (I use 4 boneless, skinless breasts)
Directions:

Combine sugar, soy sauce, lemon juice, oil, garlic and ginger in a small saucepan. Combine water with cornstarch in a small bowl and stir until cornstarch is dissolved. Add to saucepan and turn heat to high. Stir often while bringing mixture to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 4 to 6 minutes or until sauce is thick. Preheat your grill on high for the chicken. When the grill is hot, rub each chicken piece with oil and cook the chicken for 4 to 6 minutes per side or until done. Chicken should have browned in spots. When chicken is done, chop it into bite-size pieces. Pour the chicken pieces into a large frying pan over medium heat. Heat until chicken sizzles then reduce heat and cover chicken until ready to serve. Spoon chicken into a medium bowl, then pour all the sauce over the chicken and stir until well-coated. Serve with steamed white rice. Do a happy dance from the yummy deliciousness.