baked hoisin chicken

Hoisin Chicken with Broccoli: I chose something simple because I knew I might not have much prep time today since it was a holiday and we may be spending time away from home. We did end up dining out for lunch as tigergirl was on her way back to Tigertown (providing her own transportation in her own vehicle this time!). We made a stop at the market to pick up the necessary items for this week's meal before she hit the highway. I am happy to report that most of the cooking this week will be completed with items already in the pantry and icebox. I must add that I changed the menu by replacing the broccoli with fresh steamed pencil-thin asparagus, drizzled with melted butter and salt and pepper. I made this change when I realized we had asparagus in the icebox that needed to be cooked soon. The broccoli can be used with lunch salads during the week.

REVIEW:
Goal: Today's goal was to have a simple meal that had at least one course that the boys would eat.

Flavor:
Chef D thought that the asparagus had a good flavor. He thought the flavor of the chicken was missing something. He does not find hoisin a flavor to stand alone, but has found that it needs to have other flavors added to complete it. Overall, the meal was a mixed bag of flavors. The asparagus and white rice did not really complement the hoisin flavor as more asian-inspired components might have done.
I liked the peanut-like flavor provided with the hoisin sauce and thought the asparagus were yummy.

Texture:
Chef D was pleased with the texture of all items (chicken, rice, and asparagus).
I was really happy about the outcome of the texture of the chicken. I did end up using chicken breast tenders instead of chicken breast halves, though, since they were on sale this week at the market. I also pounded them a bit with the kitchen mallet. I halved the recipe and used 6 tenders with 1/2 cup of hoisin and cooked for 20 minutes. I steamed the tiny asparagus in a bamboo steamer in the wok for 2 minutes, then turned off the gas and they sat for about 4 additional minutes while we prepared our plates. That left them at that perfectly crisp stage that I love. The rice was fine cooked at it's usual 20 minutes.

Ease of Preparation:
This was a very easy meal to prepare and only took about 25 minutes of total preparation and preparation time for everything.

Recommendations for future use:
I will use this recipe again, but will research to find additional spices to add to the hoisin to make it a more complete flavor. Overall, it was a success at having a utilitarian meal providing protein, starch, and vegetable.

Rating: 3 stars
The boys ate the rice and freshly julienned carrots. Chicken nuggets from the freezer were added for D2, while einstein had a mozzarella stick and added some cinnamon to his rice.