Chinese Take-Out

Beef Lo Meain

Every so often we like to pick up some Chinese take-out. Fortunately, we like the food made by our local restaurant. Unfortunately, I never know what to do with all the condiment packets they throw into the bag. Today I decided to do some research, and here are some ideas for using up the hot mustard packets. (We usually don't have a problem eating the duck sauce the night we have it, and I just add the soy sauce packets to our normal dinner recipes as needed.) FYI, there's about 1 1/2 teaspoons of sauce in each packet.

Here are three ideas from this site.

Peanut Noodles: Combine 1/4 cup peanut butter with a packet each of duck sauce, soy sauce, and hot mustard. Toss with noodles. Supposedly this is super good chilled.

Chicken Salad: Combine shredded cooked chicken with some mayonnaise and a packet each of duck sauce, soy sauce, and hot mustard. Stir in some chopped green onion and stuff the mixture into a baguette.

Surprisingly, this combination works and is really tasty!
Chicken, mayo, hot mustard with Swiss cheese, lettuce and tomato slices on rye bread.
(I left out the duck sauce and soy sauce because it was rye.)

Simple Marinade: Combine the duck sauce, soy sauce and hot mustard and use for a marinade for a chicken breast.

Here are a couple from this site.

Deviled Eggs: Replace standard yellow mustard with Chinese mustard for some extra heat.

Tuna Salad: Mix the mustard with canned tuna, chopped red onions, and gherkins for a spicy tuna salad. [Note: I just added the mustard to our normal tuna + Miracle Whip + pickle relish mixture. Wayne likes jalapeño slices on his tuna sandwich.]

Camping Barbecue Sauce: Combine duck sauce, soy sauce, mustard and ketchup. Start with one of each, then add extra ketchup as necessary.

It looks like marinades are the best use for leftover mustard packets. Here are a couple more from this site.

Sweet and Hot Chicken Skewers with Honey Mustard Dipping Sauce

3 packets Chinese hot mustard
2 packets duck sauce
1 packet soy sauce

1 tsp rice vinegar (or white vinegar if rice vinegar isn't available)
1 clove minced garlic
1 lb boneless skinless chicken breast cut into 1 inch cubes
1 crown broccoli cut into florets and slightly steamed
1 onion cut into wedges
melted butter for basting

Add condiment packets, vinegar, and garlic to a large plastic bag or sealable container.  Add the chicken cubes and toss to coat.  Marinate for at least 2 hours.  Alternating chicken and vegetables, poke onto skewers and grill for about 15 minutes, turning and basting with butter every 4 minutes.

To make dipping sauce:

Mix together 3 packets of hot mustard, 2 tsp honey, 1/4 cup mayonnaise, and 1 Tbsp either coconut water or regular water (optional).

I marinated the large chicken piece, grilled it, and served with the dipping sauce as garnish. It was really good. The leftover sauce was delicious as the spread for a ham sandwich.

Sesame Beef Skewers

3 packets of soy sauce
1 packet of hot mustard
1/2 tsp sesame oil
1/2 tsp lemon juice
1/8 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp rice vinegar (or white vinegar)
1 clove minced garlic
1 lb 1 inch beef cubes (sirloin works great)
6-10 button mushrooms
1 onion cut into wedges
1 green bell pepper cut into 1 inch pieces
melted butter for basting

Add condiment packets, sesame oil, vinegar, lemon juice, and garlic to a large plastic bag or sealable container.  Add the beef cubes and toss to coat.  Marinate for at least 2 hours.  Alternating beef and vegetables, poke onto skewers and grill for about 15 minutes, turning and basting with butter every 4 minutes.

For the sauce:

Mix together 3 packets of soy sauce, 1/8 tsp ground ginger, and toss in a few sesame seeds for fun.