Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Balsamic Chicken Bento


Balsamic Chicken Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.
Balsamic chicken was adapted from Maki's recipe: I marinated chopped chicken thighs in equal volumes balsamic vinegar and shoyu. Instead of draining off, I just pan-fried the chicken for a few minutes until browned and let the associated marinade reduce during cooking. Sprinkle with sesame seeds after. The reduced sticky sauce is great with steamed broccoli and rice too. I made a batch of Thai purple and white jasmine rice (not the same as glutinous purple rice, or black rice, which I've used before and which turns a much darker black color). I mixed it with furikake to make an onigiri for my boy's bento. Topped with sweet potato / purple potato flowers, this bento now qualifies for Hapabento's May B.O.M.B contest! I also added steamed broccoli, raw yellow carrot spears and a radish. Fruit side contains strawberry, grapes and one of the last remaining Cara Cara oranges. I'm SO sad that they appear to be unavailable suddenly, and the last time I saw them they were $3 a pound! Oh well. I'll have to wait for the summer fruit production. Our tree is now full of apricots, which I hope will mature into bright orange fruit soon!

19 comments:

  1. Yummy! The flowers are such a nice addition to the already delicious looking bento!

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  2. Beautiful. :) I love how you've cut the radish.

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  3. Thanks a lot Jenn! And thanks for the twitter follow!

    Thanks hypothermya!

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  4. Wow, yummy chicken and pretty Spring bento! :D Do you use equal amounts of rice and water? The rice looks delish and I love the color!

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  5. Balsamic vinegar is a nice twist for adobo flavor. I will try this for sure!

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  6. Thanks Susan! I use the same amount of water as I would for regular rice, but we like our rice chewy. My mom would add more for softer rice.

    Thanks Debra, this was the first recipe of Maki's I think I ever tried, because I love the balsamic flavor. I hope you guys love it too!

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  7. I recently found your site and am enjoying checking out all of your different bentos! They are so cute and pretty!

    I was wondering if you could explain the logistics... Do you pre-steam all of the veggies for the week and save the leftovers, or do you cook and cut everything each day? Same question for fruit! I'm thinking about starting some bentos and trying to figure out how to do so efficiently!

    Thanks in advance for your help!

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  8. Hi Michelle!
    Thanks for coming by! Really appreciate your visit. Every day's bento is made with food cooked that day, unless I specifically mention frozen stash or previous day's leftovers. I steam, roast or fry veggies every day since I am cooking for 4. Even if you aren't cooking for a lot of people, you can still steam veggies efficiently in the microwave, or roast in a toaster oven. It only takes a few minutes and I think they taste better freshly cooked. I hope this helps, and that you get ideas to start making your own bento. When you do, please don't hesitate to share!

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  9. it turns out great! I love the way you did the raddish and the cute flowers! Alwys healthy and fresh! =D

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  10. It's all really pretty today.. I will look up the recipe for the chicken as well :)

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  11. Lovely radish! Chicken sounds yummy and everything is beautifully arranged. Love it!

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  12. Hi Sheri! Beautiful and delicious bento ... so good to see all the colors. Just fresh me up! Love the rice, so interesting :)

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  13. the orange and purple flowers against the purple-ish rice is so pretty! and at first glance i thought that interestingly-cut radish was a flying insect. love your garden themes!

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  14. Hi, I just learned about bento lunch and I want to learn some new ideas and tricks, I want my son who has neurofibromatosis to eat well and he loves edamame and california rolls so I wanted to try to turn his food into things so he would be willing to try it, and although I am not skilled yet, it is working...
    come visit
    http://nf1andpre-kwhisper.blogspot.com

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  15. Thanks Token!
    Thanks Angi, yes do try it and let me know how you like it!
    Thanks Pipaw!
    Thank you Lia! So sweet!
    Thanks a lot megan, garden themes do go well with veggie bento, don't they :)
    Nf1andprek-whisper, Good for you :)

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  16. I tried the balsamic/shoyu/sesame seed chicken recipe and it went down very well with my better half. He loved it!

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  17. Wow, that's great astrorainfall!
    Thanks for letting me know. I'm always happy to hear that folks have tried the recipes they see here and discover they like something new!

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  18. I LOVE those chopsticks! They are so pretty. The flowers are too. I love all of the bento boxes that you made that I have seen.

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  19. Kyra, I find my chopsticks at places like Ichiban Kan in Japantown. There are so many different ones, all so pretty. I'm happy you like my bentos. Thanks so much for your sweet comment! ^_^

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