Tonight I was in the mood for some good ‘ol comfort food. For me, that’s pretty much anything with mashed potatoes and gravy. In this case is was sirloin beef tips in a mushroom and onion gravy. So much yum.  Happy tummy. Happy family.

Sirloin Beef Tips With Mushroom And Onion Gravy:

• salt and pepper
• garlic powder
• 6 tablespoons all purpose flour
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• about 1 lb.  sirloin steak, cut into large dice
• 1 medium/large onion, diced
• 6 tablespoons butter
• 8 oz.mushrooms, sliced
• 3/4 cup white wine
• 1  1/2 cup beef broth
• 3 tablespoons cornstarch

Mix the salt, pepper, and garlic powder together and combine with the flour. Heat the oil in a skillet. Dredge the steak pieces with the flour mixture.  Saute onions and cook until it is softened. Add the butter to the pan and then add the steak and saute until medium rare, about a minute. Then add mushrooms and cook until mushrooms begin to color, then remove the meat, onions, and mushrooms to a platter and keep warm.
Deglaze the skillet with the wine, making sure to loosen any browned bits, and let it reduce a little. Add the beef broth and bring to a boil, then return the reserved meat and vegetables back to the pan and simmer, covered, for about 1 hour, or until the meat is tender.Mix the cornstarch with a little of the cooking liquid to make a paste and add it to the simmering broth. When the sauce is thickened, serve the tips with rice or mashed potatoes, and a vegetable of your choice.

I made both of these recipes for dinner earlier this week. They both turned out really well. We ate all of the chicken, but the chow mein ended up being way more than two people need. So we still have quite a bit of that left in the fridge.  The chicken was pretty simple to throw together, which I love. I doubled the sauce ingredients, I like some extra saucy chicken.  The chow mein was pretty easy too. I got some Chinese noodles from the Asian grocery store, not exactly sure what kind they were, but they worked out alright. Hubs says the noodles were a bit too gingery, so may put less in next time. And maybe half the recipe lol. Other than that, dinner was a success! Definitely will be making these recipes again sometime, maybe even include them in this years annual Chinese Christmas stir-fry.

Kung Pao Chicken:

• 1 pound chicken breast, cut into small pieces
• ¾ cup corn starch + 1 tablespoon
• ¼ cup canola oil
• 3 tablespoons soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons sriracha
• 2 tablespoons rice vinegar
• 2 tablespoons sesame oil
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic
• 1 tablespoon water

Cut chicken breast into bite sized pieces, place in a large plastic bag with ¾ cup of corn starch, lightly shake until all of the chicken is coated well.

Heat a large 12 inch skillet or dutch oven over medium high heat, pour in just enough oil to cover the bottom of the pan.

Cook chicken in batches, take care not to over crowd your skillet. I cooked about 4 minutes on each side. Remove chicken from pan and place on a paper towel lined baking sheet in order to drain off as much oil as possible. Continue until all chicken is cooked.

Combine the next 6 ingredients in a small bowl or measuring up to make your sauce. Set aside.

Combine one tablespoon of water with one tablespoon of corn starch and mix well.

Drain off any oil that is in your pan and wipe clean, heat to medium, add in soy sauce mixture and corn starch mixture, add in chicken and stir until mixture is evenly coated and heated through.

Garnish with green onions, sesame seeds, and crushed red pepper if desired.

This past weekend, I ended up in a pinch to get a quick and easy dinner made. The sauce is supposed to be like the Spicy Garlic sauce from Buffalo Wild Wings. I’ve been wanting to try this out for a while now, so it seemed like a good time. I threw together the sauce really quickly and easily. I was pretty impressed that it really did taste like theirs. And it was super easy, so that’s a plus. I tossed some Tyson breaded chicken strips in it and we made wraps. It would have been better if I had had time to actually make my own chicken strips, but oh well. It turned out alright anyways.

1 cup Frank’s red hot sauce (I only had 1/2 cup of Frank’s so I used another 1/2 cup of other hot sauce)
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon sugar
 1 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon cayenne powder
1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1 egg yolk
2 teaspoons water
2 teaspoons cornstarch

In a small sauce pan combine first seven ingredients. Heat over medium heat until sauce begins to boil. Reduce heat and simmer for five minutes. Remove pan from heat and allow to cool for 10 minutes. Whisk egg yolk and water together. Add cornstarch and continue to whisk until cornstarch is completely dissolved. Slowly add warm hot sauce mixture to egg mixture. Continually whisk to create an emulsion. Cover sauce and chill until needed.

Makes 1 1/2 Cups