Anyhoo, if you've been reading my blog, you'll find that most of the food I post are red and filled with chilies. I absolutely love spicy food. Like fire-in-your-hole spicy. Bubs thinks that I must have burned off all the capsaicin receptors. They're the ones that make you feel the burning, crying, mouth numbing sensation when you eat spicy food. I like to snack on raw jalapenos, and it doesn't kill me. I give one to bubs and he'll be sweating out of his ears. Sooo.. here's radical health news for today!
Innovative Surgeries: Spicy foods into getting rid of your Muffin tops
I think a lot of people know that eating spicy food increases core body temperature and may cause you to burn more calories and yadayadaya. What's even more crazy is that at Brigham and Women's Hospital, they're doing surgical procedures that insert capsaicin (stuff in red pepper) to destroy some nerve fibers of the vagus nerve. Results on lab rats show significantly reduced visceral fat - you know those hateful beer bellies and muffin tops.
This is going to be the next new catchy 1-800 Get Thin jingle on the radio and soon you'll be singing ♩ ♫rub chilies into your spinal cord♬♪...Um.. maybe more catchy and witty than that :/
But on a more serious note, it'll fix the
Without further adieu, another one of my favorite spicy dishes.
Korean Spicy Braised Chicken - 닭도리탕
Adapted from Korean-cuisine
Ingredients
Seasoning paste
4 tbsp soysauce
3 tbsp Korean chili paste
2 tbsp Korean chili powder
1 tbsp sesame oil
1 tbsp honey
2 tbsp minced garlic
3 tsp minced ginger
3 tsp black pepper
8 tbsp water
2 tbsp rice wine or white vinegar
Pot Ingredients
2 lb chicken thigh (or drummettes or breast)
1/2 cup water
1 large potato
1 large carrot (or handful of baby carrots)
1 onion
5 cloves garlic halved
2 serrano chilies (or jalapenos for less heat!)
10 perilla leaves or green onions (optional)
Mix all the ingredients for the seasoning paste in a large bowl (so you can put your chicken in it). If you have Youndoo, which I used here and also most of the stews I make here, then instead of soysauce + honey, use 2 tbsp of regular soysauce and 2 tbsp of Youndoo.
Set the sauce aside so you can work on your chicken. Feel free to use chicken breast (skin, no skin). Cut them into about 2 inch cubes and cut out the fatty parts. Marinate it in the sauce.
Let the chicken sit in the sauce for at least 15 mins, so now we get the veggies prepared. Cut up the onions and potatoes to roughly the same size as the chicken bits. I used baby carrots because I'm too lazy to peel and cut up carrots :P And for the garlic cloves, just cut them lengthwise in half. Chop up your chillies finely and julienne perilla leaves if you're using them.
Preheat a big pot, add some oil and fry up your potatoes and carrots for about 5 mins and pour in 1/2 cup of water. Then add the chicken, onions, garlic and chilies. Stir it and bring to a boil.
Once boiling, put on the lid and reduce the heat to medium-low. Let it simmer for around 15 mins, occasionally stirring once or twice. Then take off the lid and let it simmer for another 15 mins so the sauce can reduce and thicken. The meat and veggies should be properly cooked through by now.
Top it off with some perilla leaves, green onions and sesame seeds!
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| Enjoy with a huge bowl of steaming rice! |
