Meat and Tater Tuesday: Szechuan Chicken Meatloaf with Grilled New Potatoes

I've been meaning to make this chicken meatloaf, from Cooking Light, for a while now. It's really unlike anything I've made in the past, and it sounded like a blend of flavors my family would love. I've never cooked with ground chicken, and I'm not a huge fan of ground meat in general, but I loved this dish. It was a perfect blend of meaty, sweet, spicy, and flavorful. The texture was perfect, too, though I'm curious to see how it reheats (Kevin is taking it to work tomorrow). I made some simple modification to the recipe, based on ingredients I had on hand, and adjusting it to my family's desired level of spiciness. I listed my mods below, in case you're interested in having this dish, the "Marji way." Oh, and the potatoes (courtesy of Paula Deen) were an afterthought, because I needed something on the side. This dish would have been perfect with corn on the cob, but we finished it last night, so we were veggie-less. Anyway, it was a success - I hope to make it again soon. By the way - it was a very easy dish to throw together. The cooking time (50 minutes to cook,and 10 minutes to rest) was a limiting factor, for working folks, but I'd highly recommend it on a night when you have an hour to make dinner.





My loaf pan was too big, so the loaf was sort of flat and wide. Next time, I don't think I'd use a loaf pan - I'll just form a loaf on a cookie sheet.

Szechuan Chicken Meat Loaf

Yield: 6 servings (serving size: 2 slices)

Ingredients

• 1 teaspoon dark sesame oil
• 2 tablespoons finely chopped green onions
• 2 tablespoons finely chopped carrot
• 2 tablespoons finely chopped celery
• 1/2 teaspoon minced peeled gingerroot or 1/8 teaspoon ground ginger (I used ground)
  
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 cup cooked long-grain rice (I used brown rice)
  
• 1/4 cup chopped water chestnuts (I omitted these - blech)
  
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose Szechwan hot and spicy sauce (I used Sriracha - it was so spicy, so only 1 tbl)
  
• 1 pound ground chicken or ground turkey (I used chicken)
  
• Vegetable cooking spray
• 2 tablespoons sesame seeds, toasted

Preparation

Heat oil in a small nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add green onions, carrot, celery, gingerroot, and garlic; sauté 2 minutes or until tender.

Combine green onion mixture, rice, water chestnuts, soy sauce, and Szechwan sauce in a large bowl; stir well. Crumble chicken over green onion mixture, and stir just until blended.

Preheat oven to 350°. Pack mixture into an 8 x 4-inch loaf pan (I used a 9 x 5 pan, and this led to a wide, flat loaf - oops) coated with cooking spray; sprinkle sesame seeds over top of loaf. Bake at 350° for 50 minutes or until meat loaf registers 160°. Let loaf stand in pan 10 minutes.

Remove loaf from pan; cut into 12 slices. Serve with Chinese hot mustard and sweet-and-sour sauce, if desired.

Nutritional Information

Calories: 163 (27% from fat)

Fat: 4.8g (sat 0.9g,mono 1.5g,poly 1.5g)

Protein:c18.1g

Carbohydrate:11.1g

Fiber: 0.5g

Cholesterol: 53mg

Iron: 1.4mg

Sodium: 404mg

Calcium: 22mg

Cooking Light, MARCH 1996


The Critique
WOW!!! There are few things that really knock my socks off but this one did. This could be one of my favorite meals that Marji has ever made for me. It's rare for me to have such strong feelings for something that she made that is not soup. But this is a hands down, 5 bowler. These smell like they're made in a high-end Asian restaurant that tends to have at least an hour wait to get in on a Tuesday. They tasted so perfect in every way that I would not dare to make any suggestions to mess with such perfection. I loved the sesame seeds on the top and the seasoning throughout the meat. I'm a huge fan of seasoned meats, especially with seasoned ground meat. The chicken tasted superb and to make it even better, it reheated perfectly! I couldn't ask for more. Definitely a very large 5 bowls.