The Thousand Year Storm and Sweet and Sour Chicken

A friend of mine kept telling me about a recipe she pinned on Pinterest and how she tried it out and she and her family loved it. I had pinned the same recipe and back on July 31st, I decided to give it a try. I remember it was July 31st because of the madness that ensued that day. 

Let me first say that I must have been craving sweet and sour chicken something fierce that day because I hate cooking chicken. I mean, I really, really hate it. It's gross to handle and I hate slicing into it when I have to cut it up into bite-size pieces. Actually, I hate cooking any meat. I should cook more vegetarian meals, but I'm afraid the Hubs would have a cow and die. 

What was I saying? Oh yeah. Sweet and Sour Chicken. Here is the original recipe. Now, a couple of things. I did not have chicken breasts. I only had boneless skinless thighs. But chicken is chicken right? (seriously, chicken thighs suck for this! They tasted fine, though.)

So, I started to cut up the chicken. I had all my ingredients lined up. 

My music playlist was playing in the background. I'm pretty sure I was wearing my apron (this recipe involves cornstarch which is white and powdery and like all things that involve cooking, would have ended up all over my clothes). 

I started dipping the chicken in the cornstarch and eggs, as the recipe says to do. I think "huh. This is kind of more involved than I thought it would be. Oh, look, rain clouds. It won't rain, though. This is the desert. It never rains. Oh. Big fat raindrops are falling.....and it's over. Normal Monsoon!"  

La la la la......Then the Hubs pulls into the garage (he rides a motorcycle everywhere - even to the store when I ask him to go for a few things). And the sky opens up and it starts raining. Really raining for what seems like the first time all Monsoon season.

rain is kind of a big deal here.

I did stop dipping and dunking chicken long enough to go look at the rain. Then I'm dipping and dunking when the Hubs comes in and tells me the water isn't going anywhere, it's just making a little river on our street. Uh, okay. Dip, dunk. Dip. Dunk. I'm seriously beginning to hate this recipe. Cornstarch and egg was sticking all over my hands. I'm thinking "am I even doing this right?!" 

"Hey, babe!" The Hubs doesn't know my real name. At least, this is what I truly believe after almost 10 years of marriage and rarely hearing him call me anything but "babe." Anyway. "Hey, babe! Seriously, there's a small river here." So, I had to just go see, right?! I washed my hands first, by the way. 

what!

Uh....my daughter is on her way home from a friend's house. I ended up having to wade out in thigh-high water to go get her. But whatever. 

is this how it's supposed to look?

I kept expecting the rain to stop any second. After all, it rains really hard and stops after 5 minutes here. But the rain kept coming down and coming down. A couple of neighbors needed help. And I kind of gave up on the chicken. We browned it, like the recipe said and then put it in the casserole and covered it and put it in the fridge for "later." But, by the time we got back inside after the flood waters receded, it was way too late to go baking something for an hour. So we ate something else. I did throw the chicken in the oven the next night for dinner. I was worried it'd be soggy and gross from sitting in the fridge overnight. But you know what? It wasn't! It turned out very yummy. Except, I'll use chicken breast next time. 

finished product.

Some more pictures from what the weather people say was a 1000 year storm. 

my street after the rains finally stopped.

My street the next day.

Not a very good picture, but this is the willow that fell in our backyard. :( 

It was a ca-razy day! Over all, I thought the sweet and sour chicken turned out really good. And I think I accidentally discovered that it can be partially made ahead of time and cooked the next day. I might have to rename it to "Madness Chicken" or something....