Sichuan Orange Chicken and Awards to go around!
If you click here, you'll see that cook's Illustrated (aka America's Test Kitchen, Cook's Country) have decided it's not ok for us bloggers to post their recipes. Even if they can't copyright a list of ingredients, and you write it all up in your own words. Especially if you make modifications to the recipe! God forbid you try to mess with one of their "perfect" recipes! They test each one 100 times and "don't allow modifications." WTFever.
From what I've seen, most cookbook authors are cool with bloggers making and blogging about their recipes. They embrace it, even! I have bought at least 3 cookbooks lately because you guys blog about them, and I think "Hey, I want more--I'm getting the book!" I know others that have done the same thing.
Cook's Illustrated is like Fight Club, but for recipes, I guess. And I also guess they like PR--who doesn't? But guess what? People are talking about them today, except they don't have anything good to say. That's what happens when you have a "team" that scours blogs and makes offending bloggers remove their recipes.
So I'm being proactive and removing this one. If any of you have bookmarked it, please email me and I'll send it to you. Because that's not intent to distribute publicly. It's one friend emailing another friend.
And I'm not doing any more of their recipes. Or on second thought--maybe I will, with modifications, and not name them as a source, hehe. Because they don't want any good things said about them. And you know, it's Fight...I mean Recipe Club and all. shhhh.....
Easy. Faster than ordering take out. Better for you than greasy take out. Full of flavor.
Did I get you hooked in yet? No? Then take a look at this:
This one is delicious, a bit spicy (which you can control), and addictive. Like "keep picking from the pan" addictive. I'm not saying that I did that, of course. My husband did. :) Seriously! But I would have, if I wasn't already full.
Served simply with brown rice on the side. And yeah, yeah, I know--there's no green veggie on that plate. So sue me, hehe. But hopefully anyone upset that there's no green will forgive me when they taste this. It's just packed with flavor! There's fresh OJ, which isn't completely necessary, I suppose, but it's so good in this. Also some orange zest and hoisin sauce. That's the sauce for this dish--just three things! Did I mention quick and easy?
No, I'm not a freaky super-juicer. But my KitchenAid food processor with juicing attachment is. There is NO juice left in those!
AWARDS! VeggieGirl at VeggieGirl LyB at And then I do the dishes has awarded me the "I Love You This Much" award! Thank you, LyB! If you haven't checked out her blog yet, get your butt over there and prepare to get hungry! I'm feeling the love... HoneyB at The Life and Loves of Grumpy's Honeybunch And last, but certainly not least, Farida at Farida's Azerbaijani Cookbook has passed the "Yum Yum" Award along to me. Thanks you so much, Farida! You guys want yum? Go check out Farida's blog! Garrett at The Flavor of Vanilla All of these blogs are wonderful, so go check them out! So is every other blog I read regularly! I think every single one of you deserve an award for all of the hard work, So I've created a new award, and it's for each and every one of you! It's the "Hard Working Food Blogger" award. And every single one of you guys deserve it. It's created for all of you because you take care in what you post. You stop during cooking to take step by step photos. You set up shots and take 20 or 30 (or maybe even more) photos to find the one that's just right, which means you often eat cold food. You upload, edit and post photos that you secretly pray Tastespotting or Foodgawker or any of the others will publish. You try to write interesting and witty things about your food, and sometimes have no clue what to write. Then you hope that your readers will like what they see. I know all of this because I go through it every time I make food and a blog post. So take this award and post it on your blog if you like. Pass it along to anyone you want to. We're all hard working food bloggers and we are all deserving of a pat on the back. 
Passing it along to:
Patricia at Technicolor Kitchen
Rhyley'sGranny at Tea and Wheaten Bread
Kathy at Panini Happy
Meryl at Inspired Bites
This award goes to:
Sarah at Homemade
Lori at Made Healthier
Nikki at Canarygirl.com
Tiffany at Life After Gluten
And my recipients are:
Shaye at Smarter Than Pancakes
Renae at Renae du Jour
Katie at One Little Corner of the World
Amy at Delicious By Nature
Another quick note--summer is keeping me very busy. So keeping up with all of the blogs in my reader can be difficult. There's a lot in there, hehe! I am reading all of your posts, and can't always comment on each and every one, but I'm trying. By the time I finish going from the top of the list to the bottom, it's time to start all over again! :) Just didn't want anyone to think I was forgetting them. You guys are all very important to me. xoxo
Elle | Print Article | Share Article | Email Article | 51 Comments tagged chicken, cooking, main dish, new england, orange, recipe
Reader Comments (51)
This is my kind of recipe! Now I'm hungry...
Congratulations on your awards, Elle!! And thank you for passing one onto me :0)
That looks delicious. I'm making this on Saturday. THANKS.
Congrats on your awards! I hope you're enjoying your summer. This dish looks good. I especially like anything that can be described as addicting :)
Congrats on your awards. Well deserved.
I love any wok-y fast cook ups, especially during the week. This one is now on the to-do list.
I love the picture you took of the juiced lemons
Elle bless your heart for the award. I've been out of action for a few weeks. I am trying to catch up. Your Sichuan orange chicken looks wonderful Fabulous pics.
xx
Looks delicious! Who made the rule that there had to be something green on the plate? LOL. As far as I can see you have something red and that's close enough for me!
Gawd, I am so impressed by that juicer I can't even think of what else to say!
I really wish that plate had been on my dinner table tonight! I love me some orange chicken so this is right up my alley.
Congrats on the awards :). Sometimes I don't add the greens either, but red bell pepper is so darn healthy, it's ok this time :P.
Thanks for the award Elle, so cute! And I love your idea for the Hard Working Blogger award. :)
Szechuan spiciness is great. this looks yummy :) and u got that right about the sauce being so easy. can't believe it only takes 2 ingredients! mmmm. congrats on all your awards and yay. what a great new award. x
i don't know if i could accept a hard-working blogger award--i enjoy it too much to consider it work. :) seriously though, it's a great idea. and this is some great chicken. nicely done.
Congrats on the awards Elle! You always put a ton of work into your blog, so you totally deserve it.
Faster, easier, and healthy take out? This post is made for me. Thanks a bunch. Delicious :)
Congrats on your awards! You deserve them.
Now I don't usually like orange in savoury dishes but this looks so good I'll give it a go.
I'm loving how you've created an award, I have several in mind who it's perfect for (you of course being one but I can't send it back now can I lol).
xx
Indeedy, this one is a keeper. Beats the takeout any day.
Congratulations Elle on all your cool awards. Will we be asking for your autograph soon - will you even see us through your dark glasses ... hehe.
I've already tagged the sichuan orange chicken. I love the fresh orange juice in the recipe.
I was gonna ask if you were a freaky super-juicer! haha. Thanks for clarifying! :-)
This orange chicken looks awesome!! Love it already. Mmm.. i wish i could have a little bite. Congrats on the Awards!
Wow, Elle! You are so kind to me :) "I love you this much" too!!! LOL
Your recipe looks fantastic and so easy, too!! I was just saying to my husband today that we should make an asian inspired meal soon :) I guess we will tomorrow :)
Effing A woman! That is one freaking good looking chicken! And green onions are green veggies, right? lmao Your awards are so well deserved, my dear. Congratulations! And--Thank you so much for the award, too. The hard working blogger award is awesome. :D MUAC!
Definitely better than take-out! Yum!
Congrats!! This chicken looks so good, homemade is always better than take out. I'm filing this under 'have to make!'
Elle, Thank you so much for the beautiful award that you made. And your words that went with it were so heart-felt and meaningful. You sure do know just how we feel.
And I thank you very much for the one that you passed along to me. In addition to your thoughtful gift in passing it along to me, I especially love that it's origins are from Uruguay!
I do cherish them.
This chicken is making me hungry:) looks and sounds very delicious!
Congrats on your awards! You absolutely deserve them all!
Oh, wow, what a cute new award you've created! Very thoughtful of you!
Thanks so much for the award, Elle! My first one! You'll always have a special place in my heart :-)
Oh, you had me hooked alright! That is one great looking dish, and easy is definitely what I need these days!
wohohoho...yeah! i love spicy chicken!
You deserve the "hardest working most creative Mom of 4 on the planet" award, Elle!! Which, if I weren't so lazy, I'd create....
:-)
Mmmm...I love that cookbook! I have everything in my fridge for this recipe...dinner dilemma solved! Thanks, Elle!
congrats on all those wonderful awards! I love chinese food, that Sichuan Orange Chicken looks so good!
This Sichuan Orange chicken reminds me of the sichuan gong bao prawns on kevin's site and I'm drooling for all these sichuan dishes!
Thanks for the great comments, everyone! :)
This is comfort food for me!! :) Congrats
Lovely recipe orange and chicken sounds fabulous.
I guess that does sound easy to make and looks yummy too. I guess I'll have to break down some hoisin sauce!
I just finished stuffing my face with this a few minutes ago and I have to say it's my new favorite meal. I added some green peppers and we had it with brown rice. I'm gonna have a hard time staying out of the leftovers!!
*sneaks back into the kitchen to "clean"*
That chicken looks and sounds just...so delicious. And well done on your backlog of awards! :)
This orange chicken sounds really tasty!
April, hahahaha!! You crack me up! So glad you enjoyed it!
I tagged you for a music meme on my blog! :)
This looks awesome! Perfect for dinner tonight.
This looks so good - much better than take out!
Let's see...oranges, green onions, various peppers. Yep, sounds healthy enough to me! And naturally it looks delicious. Spicy orange chicken, yummm!
Thanks much for the award(s)! My first ones, yay! I'm really feeling the same way as you right now, so busy all the time. I've hardly had the chance to check blogs for the past couple weeks.
Thanks so much for the award! I've been (errr...) away from blogging for a bit and that really made my day! It's just what I need to get back in the swing of things. Really, what a wonderful surprise. :)
Thanks for the link Elle, very kind of you.
This isn't the first time I have heard of you/visited you. I may have to stop by far more often. :)
That chicken looks better than my lunch. Dammit.
I would'nt have even seen that you had to remove the recipe if I hadn't come back to give the link to a friend in IM! I have it saved in my documents anyways..so neener to the people with the stick in their arse!
You have extremely valid points Elle. I got the Dorie Greenspan book from the library and various others after seeing them on blogs. I like to preview them from the library then purchase if I think I'll reference it a lot. I won't mention who I WON'T be purchasing now because they may make me retract my statement! They who must not be named...
April--I love you. hehe!
I'm totally with you... no more recognition for CI... and I will not be buying any more of their cookbooks. Glad I don't have a subscription. They really shot themselves in the foot on this one.
Congrats on your awards!