The Pioneer Woman star, Ree Drummond, made some tasty meals for her family during a recent episode. She shared some of her cooking secrets and even revealed a lesson she learned from past cooking mistakes. Here’s a recap of The Pioneer Woman Season 39, Episode 12, titled “Family News.”
The Pioneer Woman cooks up her children’s favorite foods
Drummond made a special meal for each of her children. The Food Network star made orange chicken and peppers for Paige, French onion casserole for Alex, brownie cookies for Jamar, M&M cookies for Todd, and sloppy Joe sandwiches for Bryce.
Drummond starts the episode by declaring that all her children take after her. “They absolutely love food,” she says. The celebrity cook says she wanted to use this episode to make some of her kids’ favorite recipes and share what they’ve been up to.
Ree Drummond’s orange chicken and peppers
The starring meal of this episode is orange chicken and peppers. Drummond starts by making the glaze. She describes it as “citrusy and flavorful.” This glaze is a mix of orange juice, garlic, ginger, sliced green onions, chili sauce, honey, and soy sauce.
While the glaze heats up on the stove, Drummond prepares the chicken. She uses boneless, skinless chicken thighs for this meal. She places the chicken in a bowl and then adds egg whites, soy sauce, and pepper. Drummond says this mixture provides something for the flour to stick to.
Now that the mixture is ready, Drummond coats the chicken in flour. She mixes the flour with corn starch, which she says keeps the mixture “light and crisp.” Drummond also adds salt and pepper.
One trick Drummond says she learned from her past cooking mistakes is not to prepare all the chicken in the flour at once. She preps the chicken in about three or four batches so that it doesn’t become clumpy.
Drummond then carefully drops in pieces of the chicken in a pan of oil that’s 375 degrees. She advises home cooks to make sure the chicken pieces are not touching. This ensures they don’t stick together. Drummond recommends cooking the chicken for three minutes and then putting it in a paper-towel-lined pan.
She then cooks sliced mini peppers in the same oil and sprinkles them on top of the chicken. Next, Drummond places the chicken and peppers together in a mixing bowl.
Finally, she pours the orange sauce on top of the chicken. Drummond says it’s important to keep tossing the chicken and sauce until you can no longer see sauce in the bowl. All the sauce should coat the chicken. Drummond makes rice and then puts the chicken and sauce on top. She then sprinkles green onions on top.
What’s the Drummond family news?
Drummond shared that her daughter, Paige, found the love of her life, David. Paige and David were married on May 17. Right now, Paige is working alongside her father, Ladd, on the Drummond ranch.
Alex, Drummond’s eldest daughter, gave birth to her first baby, Sofia. Right now, she’s working for her and helping with photo and video shoots for The Pioneer Woman product line and magazine.
Todd and Bryce, Drummond's sons, are both students at Oklahoma State University. Todd is studying agriculture while Bryce is studying agribusiness.