[mojo]

Tex-Mex Roasted Chicken For The Microwave

Ingredients

1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon basil
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
1 (3 pound) broiler, skinned
2 cups coarsely chopped zucchini
1 1/4 cups unpeeled, seeded and coarsely chopped tomatoes

Directions

Combine first 6 ingredients; stir well and set aside.

Remove neck and giblets from chicken and discard. Rinse chicken and pat dry. Rub outside of chicken with spice mixture. Place chicken, breast side down in a deep 3-quart casserole. Cover with wax paper and microwave on HIGH for 8 to 9 minutes.

Turn chicken breast side up and microwave, covered with wax paper, on HIGH for 8 to 9 minutes.

Remove chicken to a serving platter. Reserve drippings in casserole. Let chicken stand covered for 15 minutes.

Add vegetables to drippings, tossing to coat. Microwave on HIGH for 3 to 4 minutes or until crisp-tender, stirring halfway through cooking.

Arrange vegetables around chicken.

[SEO]

Happy to see the 1^st Tex-Mex recipe in our omnilogy forum. (I hope we'll have everything good here. Maybe it's just a dream, but it's a good dream to have everything good in a place. And I'm happy to see a Tex-Mex recipe around!)

Thanks a lot for Mojo!

[mojo]

I've got quite a few of all sorts. Only thing is, when I come to what we know as Chinese, it's probably no where close to what the actual Chinese is that you folks know. Much of it depends on the local ingredients and what's available. Most likely in Hawaii, that means pineapple as an example. Somewhere in all this mess I have for source there probably is a Hawaiian attempt at Chinese food. 

TexMex is pretty much just a mixture of cultures, resulting in food that is slightly different than either, being a mix. But not far enough off to be unfamiliar to either. 

I don't know if you guys use a lot of microwave. I know MSL says he doesn't. Often finding Microwave dishes is a bit harder than a stove top or oven recipe. We do a bit here because it doesn't heat up the kitchen in the summer. Microwave meals are also a bit iffy. Wattage of the microwave, altitude where it's at, even the local ingredients don't always cook the same. It's more experiment sometimes to get it right.

What about grilling and smoking foods? Ya'll into that?

[MSL]

 About the microwave -- I don't, but all the Chinese people I know (at least 9 of 10 at minimum) -- they do. Most of the Chinese I know, even haven't at home electric ovens; they use microwave ovens. We have, because I'm trying to avoid waves/radiation as much as possible, but not everyone around keeps his/her health so strictly.
 (And this is why I do so:
1. I think I got enough radiation from Chernobyl (Bulgaria is close to Ukraine). More about the Chernobyl disaster: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chernobyl_disaster
2. When I came in China I had to have every year a new X-ray check (chest X-ray) for the working visas.
3. Later -- the Fukushima disaster during I stay in China, which is close to Japan... More about this Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fukushima_Daiichi_nuclear_disaster
4. The natural radiation and others that we don't know for sure.

 So, I decided in my life and in my future life to avoid as much as possible waves, rays, radiations and other shit like this. I hope I formulated it right. )

[SEO]

Grilled kebabs in China is a specialty of Uigurs (维吾尔族/维吾尔人) (a China's, a Kazakhstan's, a Uzbekistan's and so on Turkic-Islamic minority): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uyghurs
 
You can see some photos about them: http://cn.bing.com/images/search?q=Uighurs+kebabs&FORM=HDRSC2

Many Chinese (from all the nationalities) like to eat grilling food. That is why having a grilled food restaurant or fast food shop is usually a good business idea around. You can be an illiterate minority person, who has no idea what's the meaning of 'USA', 'Moscow' and 'Latin America' and who can't write a single word in a foreign language, but once you got enough capital to start a grilled kebabs place, you'll be richer than others, who spent years learning in universities and serving (being servants) currently of different companies.

Smoking meat: there is different smoking meat from different provinces. I'm not sure, if it's popular in every province, but I think it's not infamous. But I read smoked food isn't healthy and I don't eat it often. Just like once or twice a year, usually.

'Chinese' food? It's all depends of the region/province of China. A fast example: in some places they're Muslims and they can't stand pork, but in others they aren't Muslims and they can't imagine the life without some pork; another one: somewhere they prefer noodles, not rice and vice verse.

[Alexa]

I like grilling and smoking foods. Of course, I don't eat them every week, because I keep my health as I can.

So, 'Chinese food' is many kinds. One good example is the Sichuan cuisine, which is probably one of the most spicy (hot) in the world, not only in China. I met somewhere classification of the Chinese cuisines and it was in English. I'll find it and post a link here for you, Mojo. Here: http://feature.cucas.edu.cn/Articles/“Eight-Cuisines”:-Essence-of-Chinese-Food_272.html (take a look, I'm sure you'll like this article and the pics.)

[mojo]

Thank you all for the responses. You learn a little each day.

During the summer here, I often grill or smoke foods as the kitchen just gets too hot with the local temperatures. We eat a lot of cold foods such as the potato salad I posted as well as a macaroni salad I'll post some time in the future.

I'll also cover some smoking and grilling stuff. I don't know that it's suited for your particular tastes but I'll put a few up anyway.

[Alexa]

Put, please. Currently we have at least around 100 unique visitors daily, I'm sure it will suited some of their particular tastes.