Christine's Recipes Printable Version: Chicken

Showing posts with label Chicken. Show all posts

Asparagus, Chicken and Walnuts Stir Fry

Don't overcook the asparagus because you'd like to enjoy the crisp stems. You might replace with your favourite meat or just skip the meat if you feel like a vegan dish.

Prep time: 10 mins
Cook time: 10 mins
Yield: 2 to 3 serves

Ingredients:

60 gm walnuts
180 gm asparagus
150 gm chicken breast
1 tsp minced garlic
1 tsp Shaoxing wine
salt, to taste

Marinade:

1 tsp light soy sauce
½ tsp sugar
½ tsp cornflour / corn starch
sesame oil, to taste
white pepper, to taste

seasonings:

2 tsp fish sauce

2 Tbsp chicken stock

Method:

Heat walnuts in a small pan without any oil over medium heat until aromatic. Remove from the heat. Let them cool down. Mix chicken with marinade. Set aside.
Heat oil in a wok or a frying pan. Cook the chicken over high medium heat until chicken turns white and cooked through. Set aside.
Blanch asparagus in boiling water for about 2 minutes. Drain well and immediately soak in cold water until cold to touch. Drain well again. Cut them into 3 to 4 sections. Stir fry in the same pan with a little of oil. Add garlic and saute until aromatic. Season with salt and sprinkle wine. Quickly stir to combine well. Pour chicken stock and fish sauce. Cook further for another 2 minutes. Toss back the chicken and quickly combine well. Turn off the heat. Stir in the walnuts. Serve immediately.

Notes：

By soaking the blanched asparagus, you can keep its fresh green colour.
To get the best results, stir fry the thicker stems first, then add the thinner ones to cook together.

Spicy Lemongrass Chicken Wings

These chicken wings are perfect for any meals, Super Bowl, or as nibbles at party.

Prep time: 10 mins + chilling time
Cook time: 15 mins
Yield: 3 to 4 serves

Ingredients:

450 gm chicken wings
coriander, for garnish

Marinade:

1 onion, roughly chopped
2 Tbsp fish sauce
1 Tbsp light soy sauce
2 tsp dark soy sauce
1½ Tbsp palm sugar, grated
1 Tbsp oil
2 garlic
1 lemongrass, only the white part, roughly chopped
1 red Bird's eye chili, or to taste
2 Tbsp lemon juice

Method:

Cut the chicken wings into two parts at the joint. Blanch in boiling water to remove the blood. Drain well.
Use a food processor, process all the ingredients of the marinade into a paste.
Mix the chicken wings with the marinade paste well. Place in a plastic bag or a container. Transfer into fridge for at least 4 hours or overnight.
Remove the chicken wings from fridge and place at room temperature for about 20 minutes.
Heat oil in a frying pan or a grill pan. Cook both sides over medium heat until lightly brown and cooked through, about 7 minutes for each side. Dish up and garnish with coriander. Served hot.

Notes：

I used the Three Crabs Brand fish sauce, available at Asian grocers.
When cooking the chicken wings, don’t use too high heat, otherwise the chicken wings are easily burnt before being cooked through as sugar is added. You might like to cook with a lid on when cooking the other side in order to get the wings cooked through thoroughly. After a while, remove the lid and continue to cook until the water dries up.

Mushroom Chicken Pie

You can skip the steps for making pastry from scratch if you don’t have time. Simply use the ready-made short crust pastry from supermarkets. All you have to do is to cook the fillings and pop it into your oven.

Prep time: 30 mins
Cook time: 60 mins
Yield: 3 to 4 servings (7-inch round removable bottom mould)

Ingredients of pie shell:

160 gm plain flour / all-purpose flour
1/8 tsp salt
90 gm chilled unsalted butter, diced
1/4 tsp lemon zest
3 Tbsp iced water
2 tsp freshly squeezed lemon juice

Ingredients of fillings:

1/2 onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, crushed
50 gm bacon, diced
6 button mushrooms, about 85 gm
100 gm cooked chicken breast, diced
3 tsp corn flour / corn starch
160 ml chicken stock
85 ml whipping cream
1/2 tsp thyme
1/2 egg, whisked

To make pastry:

Sift flour and salt into a large mixing bowl. Add diced butter and stir with a knife. Rub the butter into the flour with your finger tips, lifting the flour from the bottom up on top, until the mixture looks like coarse breadcrumbs. Mix in lemon zest.
Add 2 tablespoons of the chilled water and lemon juice to flour mixture. Add the rest of the chilled water bit by bit until the mixture comes together into a ball. The dough should leave bowl clean.
Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface and lightly knead by hand until smooth. Don’t over knead the dough. Divide into two balls, one larger in size for making the base, with another one smaller for making the top. Roll into two disc shapes. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill in fridge for about 25 to 30 minutes.

To make fillings:

Heat oil over medium-high heat. Saute onion until softened. Add bacon and cook until oil is released. Saute garlic and cook until aromatic. Add mushroom and chicken. Sprinkle thyme and combine well. Cook until the mushroom turns soft.
In the meantime, mix 2 tablespoons of chicken stock with 3 teaspoons of cornflour. Set aside.
Pour the rest of chicken stock into the mushroom and chicken mixture. Bring it to a boil. Continue to cook for 2 to 3 minutes. Stir in the cornflour mixture and cook to your preferred consistency. Add whipping cream. Season with salt and pepper. Turn off the heat. Transfer the fillings into a large bowl and let it cool for a while.

To assemble and bake the pie:

Preheat oven to 200C/395F.
Remove the larger dough disc from fridge. Place on a lightly floured surface. Use a rolling pin to roll out into a circle slightly larger than the mould. Carefully line the mould. Trim the edge. Save the trimmed dough for decoration. Prick the base with a fork. Line with baking paper and place ceramic beads, or beans, or rice on top. Transfer to the preheated oven for blind-baking, about 15 to 20 minutes, until the edge becomes lightly brown.
Remove the pie shell from oven. Put away the beads. Roll out the smaller dough disc into a circle similar to the size of the mould. Spoon the fillings into the shell and cover with the dough disc. Crimp the edges to seal and score the top pastry. Cut two slits in the middle of the pie. Use the trimmed dough for decoration. Egg wash the pie.
Bake in the preheated oven, for about 20 to 25 minutes, until golden. Serve hot.

Chicken, Leek and Pea Pie (Maggie Beer's Sour Cream Pastry)

Gladly that I broke my routine and baked this chicken pie, instead of cooking rice, for our dinner the other day. Even though my husband is a rice lover, he’s pretty attracted by the delicious fillings. We could have all the proteins and vegetables we need in a pie. For myself, I love the pie crust in particular, that's made and adapted from Maggie Beer’s Sour Cream Pastry recipe. The sour cream made the pastry taste so wonderful, producing a soft and flaky texture, that you don’t want to miss any bit of it. What can beat a home-made pie? It smelt so good, when it’s baked fresh from the oven. The pie pastry and fillings can be made in advance, nicely kept for days in refrigerator. You can resemble and bake this pie on the go, then enjoy a hot delicious pie without waiting too long. This chicken pie is pretty versatile, suitable for summer or winter days.

Chicken, Leek and Pea Pie (Printable recipe)
By Christine's Recipes
Prep time: 10 mins + 20 mins for chilling
Cook time: 50 mins
Yield: One round pie dish/pan, 24cmx4cm in size

Ingredients of crust:

200 gm unsalted butter, cold and coarsely chopped
250 gm plain flour
125 ml sour cream

Ingredients of fillings:

250 gm chicken breast (or chicken thigh)
80 gm bacon, diced
1 leek, white and light green part, finely diced
2 tsp minced garlic
100 gm green peas, fresh or frozen
50 gm corn kernels, fresh or frozen
10 gm butter
18 gm plain flour
200 ml chicken stock
1½ Tbsp white wine
2½ Tbsp cream
2 Tbsp parsley, chopped

Ingredients of egg wash:

1 egg yolk
1 Tbsp milk

To make the pie crust:

Place butter and flour in a food processor, pulse to mix until it looks like breadcrumbs. Add the sour cream and continue to pulse until mixture just comes together. Gently shape into two discs. Do not over-knead. Wrap in plastic film and refrigerate for about 20 minutes.
Remove crust disks from the refrigerator. Roll out one between two plastic films to a 32cm circle, about 3mm thick. Carefully line the pie dish as the base.
Roll out another crust disk to a 25cm circle, as before. Keep it in plastic film. Put both pastry disks back to refrigerator for later use.

To make the fillings:

Dice chicken. Season with salt and pepper. Pan fry chicken over medium heat until cooked. Set aside. If using frozen peas and corn kernels, soak them in boiling water for 10 minutes. Drain well.
Add 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil and 10 grams of butter over medium-low heat. When the butter begins to melt, add leek, garlic. Cook until fragrant and the leek softened. Toss in the bacon, continue to cook for about 2 to 3 minutes. Stir and combine occasionally. Toss back the chicken. Pour in white wine, cook for 2 minutes. Sprinkle the flour, stir to combine. Add the stock and cream. Cook to reduce the sauce by more than half and thickened. Stir in peas and corn kernels. Taste by yourself. Season with salt and pepper if necessary. Stir in parsley. Transfer the fillings into a large bowl and let it cool down. Refrigerate it for 20 minutes.

To make the pie:

Preheat oven to 220C (425F). Prepare the egg wash: mix egg yolk and milk in a small bowl.
Remove both pastry disks and the fillings from the refrigerator and let sit for a while until they soften just enough to be workable. Fill the case with the fillings, topped with pastry. Crimp the edges to seal and score the top pastry. Cut a 1cm-slit in the middle of the pie. Egg wash the pie.
Bake in preheated oven for 10 minutes. Then reduce heat to 200C (395F), continue to bake for a further 35 to 40 minutes, or until golden and cooked through. If the top is browning too quickly and too much, loosely cover with a layer of foil until the dough is cooked through. Remove from the oven. Serve hot with salad greens.

Other delicious chicken pie recipes:

Chicken Pot Pie from Simply Recipes
Chicken Pie Recipe from Exclusively Food
Chicken, Leek and Fennel Pie with Cream Cheese Pastry from Citrus And Candy

Stir Fried Sugar Snap Peas with chicken

Peas are commonly used in Chinese stir fry. It’s not only because they have green fresh colour, but also they add more texture, and make the whole dish more enjoyable to eat. Sugar snap peas (aka sugar peas or snap peas) look similar to but actually differ from snow peas. They have round pods as opposed to the flat shape of snow peas. We’re not quite into eating them raw for their grassy taste. Stir frying sugar peas briefly over medium-high heat will bring up their natural sweetness, while their crunchy texture can still be maintained perfectly. This Stir Fried Sugar Snap Peas with chicken has a lot to offer in texture, crunchy sugar peas, with smooth cloud ears and crisp baby corns. The authentic Asian taste of this dish will surely win the hearts of those who like healthy, quick Chinese stir fry.

Stir Fried Sugar Snap Peas with chicken (Printable recipe)

By Christine's Recipes
Prep time: 20 mins
Cook time: 10 mins
Yield: serves 3 to 4

Ingredients:

170 gm sugar snap peas
150 gm chicken breast
½ carrot, sliced
6 baby corns, fresh or canned, halved if too long
5 to 6 cloud ears
2 tsp Shaoxing wine
1 tsp minced garlic
3 Tbsp chicken stock

Seasonings:

1½ tsp light soy sauce
½ tsp corn flour
½ tsp sugar
pepper, to taste

Method:

Soak cloud ears until softened. Blanch in boiling water for 2 to 3 minutes. Trim the roots. Cut into smaller pieces. Set aside.
Julienne chicken and mix with marinade. Set aside.
Remove the tissue running along both sides of the peas, from tail to top. Rinse and blanch in salted water for about 2 to 3 minutes, over high heat. Immediately soak in cold water until cold to touch. Drain well.
Heat oil in a wok or deep frying pan over medium-high heat. Add chicken and cook until its colour turns white. Set asid.
Use the same wok. Add more oil. Saute garlic until fragrant. Add carrots, baby corns and stir fry. Toss back peas. Sprinkle wine, pour in stock. Season with salt. Add cloud ears and cook until sauce dries up a bit. Add chicken and stir quickly. Pour in thickening and cook to preferred consistency. Serve hot.

Stir Fried Sugar Snap Peas with chicken02

Spicy Sticky Chicken Wings

Almost every kid I know loves eating chicken wings, no matter how they are cooked, pan-fried, deep-fried, baked or brined. All wings would be gone very quickly once they are served. Besides, I don’t know what magic ketchup (tomato sauce) has. Take my family as an example, anything with ketchup won’t stay on a plate for too long. It's easy to predict how popular it would be the combination of chicken wings and ketchup. So, whenever I have to bring something to a social gathering, with kids are attending there, I’d think of making chicken wings in the first place. This time I experimented a way to reduce most of the fat in wings, at the same time retain the most flavours to entertain their taste buds.

Spicy Sticky Chicken Wings (Printable recipe)

Ingredients:

8 to 10 organic chicken wings, or free range wings
½ tsp garlic salt
¼ tsp freshly grated black pepper

Seasonings:

3 tbsp tomato sauce (ketchup)
2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
Tabasco sauce, to taste
Water, to adjust

Method:

Rinse chicken wings and pat dry with paper towels. Remove and discard the tip of each wing. Cut them in half at the joint. Sprinkle garlic salt and pepper evenly. Set aside for 15 minutes.
Heat oil in a frying pan. Place wings on pan in single layer and cook on both sides in batches over high-medium heat until brown. The wings would release some oil. Drain and discard the excess oil.
Toss back the wings. Add seasonings, stir to combine, and reduce heat to low. Continue to cook, covered, add more water if necessary, until the wings are cooked through. Serve hot.

Note:

You can omit the Tabasco sauce in the seasonings if your kid is too small or you don’t like the wings spicy. Having said that the Tabasco sauce really adds the kick and make a big difference in taste.

Warm Handpull Chicken Salad with Sesame Dressing (Thanks to gourmettraveller88)

Not only is food blogging fun, but also does help me acquaint with many wonderful people with the same mind, same taste and same passion with foods. I met Janet on twitter and started to read her food blog, gourmettraveller88, regularly a few months ago. You can’t imagine how wonderful I feel, when I get to know a food blogger who came from the same home country, Hong Kong. We love the same old-fashioned and modern fusion Hong Kong cuisine. Janet is now living in Basel, Switzerland with her husband and a new-born baby.

Before she gave birth to her lovely son, Marc, her husband gave her a lovely present, helping her to publish her own cookbook, “Gourmet Traveller 88”. I’m so glad that Janet sent me a complimentary copy. In Janet’s cookbook, there are 7 sections, Chinese, Indian, Japanese, Korean, Thai, Vietnamese and Western, all recipes in each section were carefully chosen by Janet and her husband through months. I love Janet’s cooking passions, and feel she has her own style in creating dishes with simplicity, with creative ideas of whipping up her favourite dishes of different countries. Take this warm handful chicken salad as an example, Janet really knows how to tweak the dressing to go with the chicken and fresh veggies, that tastes very similar to the one that Japanese cold noodle salad often used.

Warm Handpull Chicken Salad with Sesame Dressing01

Warm Handpull Chicken Salad with Sesame Dressing (Adapted from Janet's cookbook gourmettraveller88) (Printable recipe)

Ingredients:

2 handfuls of chicken meat kept from the chicken soup (I used chicken breast.)
1 small cauliflower, wash and cut into pieces
handful of green peas, wash and drain (I omitted this.)
1/2 cucumber, peel briefly, seeds removed & cut into strips
extra virgin olive oil

Sesame Salad dressing:

1/2 cup water (I used hot water to dissolve the sesame paste easily.)
2 tbsp brown sugar
2 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp fish sauce
2 tbsp rice wine vinegar
1 tbsp ground sesame seeds (you can use black or white or both)
3 tbsp sesame paste chinese sesame paste or tahini
1 tsp sesame oil

Method:

With the chicken you saved from your chicken stock, hand pull the chicken meat into pieces, the texture by hand pull method is better than cutting with a knife !!!
Prepare the sesame sauce by mixing the above in a bowl and set aside.
Boil the cauliflower for a few minutes, not too long so they are still crunchy. (I added a bit of salt in the boiling water.)
Stir fry the green peas with a little olive oil for a minute or so and repeat the same for the cucumbers.
Let all cooked vegetables cool to room temperature.
Arrange the vegetables on a big round serving plate and the hand pulled chicken in the middle.
Garnish with some ground sesames and serve with the sesame dressing.

Warm Handpull Chicken Salad with Sesame Dressing02

Drunken Chicken (Variation)

（I’ve got a large amount of drunken chicken sauce left after trying Alvin’s recipe. I wonder how I should do with this leftover. I didn’t want to waste it, nor felt I had drunken chicken enough. So, I decided to make a second round of drunken chicken. This time I used chicken legs only and made it as an appetizer. This dish was served cold with sour and sweet cucumber. The texture of the chicken skin was smooth and the meat absorbed all the sweet wine flavours. It can be served as a refreshing appetizer in summer, or a side dish for meat lovers.

Drunken Chicken Legs (Printable recipe)

Ingredients:

3 to 4 chicken legs
3 cups drunken chicken sauce, refer to previous recipe
pinch salt
pinch pepper
Shaoxing wine, to taste
Sweet and sour cucumber (optional), for garnish

Method:

Rinse chicken legs and wipe dry with kitchen papers. Use a sharp knife to remove the bones inside. Or you might ask your butcher to debone for you. Keep the skin intact. Sprinkle salt and pepper on both sides. Wrap the chicken with cling film. Tie a knob on both ends (I learned this on MasterChef). Repeat this procedure to wrap the rest of the chicken legs (as the above pictures shown).
Place the chicken legs in a wok/steamer with boiling water filled. Steam over high heat for 20 minutes, or until cooked through. Remove the chicken from wok. Let cool down.
Heat drunken chicken sauce and bring it to a boil. Remove from heat and let cool down. Add more Shaoxing wine when it cools if necessary. Taste by yourself.
Place the chicken in the sauce. Cover and chill in fridge for at least 6 hours in order to let the chicken absorb all the flavours of the sauce.
To serve: remove chicken from fridge and the sauce. Slice thinly. Ladle source over the chicken. Served cold with sweet and sour cucumber or any salad you like.

Notes:

Use the good quality cling film that can stand for high heat preferably. Or use foil to wrap the chicken instead.
If you haven’t got any drunken chicken sauce left, you might like to cook some for making this dish. Refer to the previous recipe for making the sauce. Use half of the amount of all ingredients or adjust the amount proportionally according to the size of your container used for chilling. Make sure that all chicken legs can be completely covered in the sauce. Or simply get a ready-made drunken chicken sauce from any Asian grocery stores. Follow the instructions of the product to prepare the sauce for soaking chicken.
The leftover sauce can be stored in fridge for a few weeks, and served as dipping sauce for other dishes.

Laksa-Fried Chicken with Mint Sauce

This recipe was created by Adam Liaw who won the title of MasterChef, Australia recently, inspired by fried chicken stalls in Malaysia. The name of the dish, Laksa-Fried Chicken with Mint Sauce, really got my attention. I have ever thought that laksa could be used in frying chicken due to all my previous encounters of laksa in soups. Flipping through the pages of the MasterChef Magazine and browsing all the mouth-watering recipes, I felt this dish was a must to try first. (I made Alvin’s drunken chicken before buying this magazine.) It’s a big hit in my family when the laksa-fried chicken was served on the dining table before my family. My hubby even made a remark that this dish was even better than the roast duck we ate in a restaurant on the day celebrating my birthday.

Amongst all the MasterChef magazines I bought, this issue is very special, so to speak, it’s a celebration of the achievements of the top four finalists along the journey in the competition. To me, it’s quite amazing that you’ve found someone who you know via twitting/blogging was mentioned in a magazine right in front of your nose. Congratulations on the feature of your blog, Ellie.

Laksa-Fried Chicken with Mint Sauce (Printable recipe)
Adapted from Masterchef Magazine August 2010 issue 4

Ingredients:

1.6 kg whole chicken rinsed, patted dry, cut into 10 pieces (I used 4 chicken drumsticks and 4 chicken thighs with bone and skin on)
Vegetable oil, to deep-fry
75 g (1/2 cup) cornflour
75 g (1/2 cup) plain flour
90 g (1 cup) desiccated coconut
Fried long chilli, steamed rice and garlic chives (optional), to serve

Laksa Curry Paste:

5 dried long chillies, seeded, available from Asian grocers
2 tbsp dried shrimp, available from Asian grocers
2 long red chillies, seeded
1 tbsp fish sauce
2 onions, roughly chopped
5 macadamia nuts
2 cloves garlic
2 tsp finely grated ginger
2 stalks lemongrass, white part only, roughly chopped
1 tsp ground coriander
2 tsp ground turmeric
60 ml (1/4 cup) peanut oil (I used barn rice oil)

Mint Sauce:

1 tbsp finely chopped Vietnamese mint (or coriander leaves), available from selected greengrocers and Asian grocers.
80 ml (1/3 cup) rice vinegar
1 tbsp caster sugar
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp fish sauce
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1 red bird's-eye chilli, seeded, finely chopped

Method:

To make curry paste, place dried chillies and shrimp in separate bowls. Cover both with boiling water and soak for 20 minutes. Drain. Process chillies and shrimp with remaining ingredients in a food processor to a paste.
Place chicken pieces and curry paste in a large snap-lock bag. Seal bag, then rub chicken with paste to coat. Refrigerate overnight to marinate.
To make mint sauce, place all the ingredients in a screw-top jar and shake well to combine. Set aside until needed.
Preheat oven to 160C. Remove chicken from bag, leaving a coating of paste on the chicken. Fill a deep-fryer or saucepan one-third full with oil and heat over medium heat to 160C (or until a cube of bread turns golden in 20 seconds). Combine flours, coconut and 2 tsp salt in a bowl. Coat chicken thighs and legs in the coconut mixture, then drop gently in oil and fry, turning occasionally, for 8 minutes or until dark golden (it will not be cooked through). Drain on paper towel. (Remark: I removed the chicken from fridge, and let them rest at room temperature for 30 minutes before deep-frying.)
Transfer to an oven tray lined with baking paper and roast for 8 minutes or until cooked. Meanwhile, coat and fry chicken breasts for 8 minutes or until cooked through. Drain on paper towel and transfer to the oven tray to keep warm. Repeat coating with chicken wings, frying for 5 minutes or until cooked through. Drain on paper towel. Scatter chicken with fried chilli and season with sea salt. Serve with mint sauce, rice and garlic chives, if using.

Note:

Ask your butcher to cut the chicken into 2 thighs, 2 legs, 2 wings, and each breast in half on the bone. As I used drumsticks and thighs, I deep-fried them in batches, drumsticks first then followed by thighs.

Drunken Chicken (醉雞)

When Alvin placed his Drunken Chicken with Bruised Salad before the MasterChef judges, it’s amazing to watch how the judges were impressed by Alvin’s creation on TV show. The satisfaction shown through the judges’ facial and verbal expressions really got me want to try Alvin’s drunken chicken at that moment. The meat is succulent and penetrated with the rich flavour of Chinese rice wine. Best of all, it’s simple and easy to make. Yet, I never thought that mirin could be used in this famous Chinese dish. The mirin adds a bright touch to the chicken and enhances the flavour of the stock.

Alvin’s dishes always shine his cleverness of mixing sweetness, tang and heat as Matt Preston, one of the MasterChef judges quoted on the magazine,

“Alvin stole our hearts with this dish (in fact, it was George’s favourite of the series), which he put up at the start in the childhood memories challenge. At its best, Alvin’s food is loaded with crunchy textures and a delicious interplay of sweetness, tang and heat. This dish is no exception.” – Matt Preston

Follow Alvin’s thinking of how to incorporate childhood memories in cooking, I also added some wolfberries (杞子) that my mother used to put in this dish because my mother believes they are beneficial to our health, still keeping the traditional savory taste by adding a small amount of soy sauce. (Hop over to see how I made use of the sauce leftover - Updated on 11 Aug. 2010)

Drunken Chicken (Printable recipe)

Adapted from Masterchef Magazine August 2010 Issue4

Ingredients:

1.6kg whole chicken, rinsed, patted dry
1 L Shaoxing wine (Chinese rice wine), available at Asian grocery stores
500ml/2 cups mirin, available at Asian grocery stores
90gm/1/2 cup palm sugar, grated
200 ml light soy sauce (I added this in the original recipe)
30 wolfberries (I added this in the original recipe), rinsed
coriander/cilantro leaves for garnish

Method:

Place 3L water in a large saucepan and bring to the boil. Add chicken and blanch for 5 minutes. This removes any impurities. Remove chicken from the pan and discard water. Reserve pan.
Combine Chinese rice wine, mirin, sugar, 750ml (3 cups) water and soy sauce in the reserved pan. Stir until sugar dissolves, then bring to the boil. Add wolfberries. Reduce heat to low, return the chicken to the pan, cover with a lid and simmer for 45 minutes or until the juices run clear when the thickest part of a thigh is pierced with a skewer.
Remove the chicken from the pan. Cut into pieces. Divide and serve on plates with soup, sprinkle with wolfberries or coriander for garnish. Served with steamed rice, sweet & sour cucumber or any salad you like.

Shredded pork with Salted Vegetables Rice Noodle Soup

If you have traveled to or lived in Hong Kong for a while, you must have known this popular Shredded Pork with Salted Vegetables Rice Noodle Soup (雪菜肉絲湯米粉). The salted vegetables used in this noodle soup is called “雪菜/雪裡紅” (xue cai in Chinese), a kind of pickled greens made from mustard. It goes fantastic well with pork, usually cooked in soup, sometimes stir-fried. This time I also added some shredded chicken to increase more proteins and textures, as well as cleared away the leftovers in my fridge. This dish is my family’s favourite, quick lunch throughout the year.

Shredded pork with Salted Vegetables Rice Noodle Soup (Printable recipe)

Ingredients:

120 gm pork, shredded
120 gm chicken, shredded
500 ml chicken stock
500 ml water
50 gm salted vegetables (canned), available at Asian grocers
330 gm rice noodles
2 to 3 stalks baby bok choy
sesame oil, to taste
salt, to taste
red chili (optional), chopped

Marinade:

1 tsp light soy sauce
1 tsp cornflour
1/2 tsp sugar
1 tsp vegetable oil
pepper, taste

Shredded pork with Salted Vegetables Rice Noodle Soupt02

Method:

Follow the instructions of the packet, blanch rice noodles in boiling water until softens. Rinse with cold water to remove the starch outside, then drain well. Set aside. Soak salted vegetables in water with 1/2 teaspoon of salt dissolved, for 20 minutes. Rinse for a few times. Press all the excess water out from the vegetables. Cut into smaller pieces. Wash baby bok choy and cut into halves lengthwise.
Mix pork and chicken with marinade for 15 minutes.
In a large saucepan, bring chicken stock and water to a boil. Add salted vegetables, pork and chicken. When it boils again, add rice noodles. Again it boils, add baby bok choy lastly because you don’t want to overcook them and keep them freshly green. Season with salt and sesame oil. Sprinkle red chili if desired. Serve hot.

Braised Chicken Thighs with Button Mushrooms [Mother's Day Dinner]

I love cooking for the family, sometimes enjoy someone cooks for me in special occasions. On mother’s day, I tasted my daughter’s dish again. I was thrilled when she announced at our dinner table the day before mother’s day, that she would cook me a dinner. What a treat that I treasure the most. We, as a family, could stay comfortably at home, watching MasterChef and chatting over meals. Often times, I feel a simple dish is the best taste, and a simple lifestyle is the most enjoyable.

Braised Chicken Thighs with Button Mushrooms01

Adapted from: Braised Chicken Thighs with Button Mushrooms [Food Network]

Braised Chicken Thighs with Button Mushrooms (Printable recipe)

Ingredients:

1 Tbsp olive oil
6 chicken thighs, about 600 gm
1 Tbsp Essence, recipe follows
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
2 Tbsp butter
100 gm/3.5ounce button mushrooms, thinly sliced
1 yellow onion, sliced
1 Tbsp minced garlic
2 Tbsp all-purpose flour
2 Tbsp tomato paste
1 1/2 cups chicken stock
2 tsp dried rosemary
3 cups steamed white rice
2 Tbsp chopped fresh parsley leaves (optional)

Emeril's ESSENCE Creole Seasoning (also referred to as Bayou Blast):

2 1/2 tsp paprika
2 tsp salt
2 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp black pepper
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp dried thyme

Combine all ingredients thoroughly.
Yield: 1/5 cup

Method:

Set a 10-inch, straight-sided saute pan over medium-high heat and add the oil.
Season the chicken thighs with the Essence, salt and pepper. Place the chicken, skin side down in the pan and sear until golden brown, about 3 to 4 minutes. Turn the chicken over and sear on the second side for another 3 to 4 minutes.
Remove the chicken from the pan and add the butter and mushrooms. Saute the mushrooms, stirring occasionally, until browned and most of the liquid has evaporated, about 4 to 5 minutes.
Add the onions and garlic to the pan and saute for 3 to 4 minutes. Sprinkle the flour into the pan and cook, stirring often to make a light brown roux, about 4 to 5 minutes. Add the tomato paste, stock and rosemary to the pan, bring to a boil and reduce to a simmer.
Return the chicken to the pan, skin side down and cook the chicken for 30 minutes. Turn the chicken over and cook until the meat is very tender, about 30 minutes. Serve the chicken over rice and garnish with the chopped parsley.

Braised Chicken Thighs with Button Mushrooms02

Note:

As my daughter thought that the amount of the original recipe of Essence was too much, she reduced the amount by measuring with teaspoons. Her estimation was very accurate, leaving not too much of Essence unused after cooking. I love her frugal style of cooking.

BBQ Chicken Pizza (International Pizza-pie Incident)

Pizzas are one of the popular snacks in a party, especially those are straight from the oven. I’m not throwing any parties at home anyway. This is the post for joining an online pizza-pie party, that follows our first gnocchi party. It’s been a while that my family hasn’t eaten any pizzas. So it’s a good incentive to get myself motivated and bake some pizzas again. After a few email exchanges, the crews of our online party finally decided to name it as “International Pizza-pie Incident”. It’s so much fun that all the participants post their own recipes on the same day, as well as feel surprised to find out what kinds of pizzas others would have made.

Guess what pizza I baked......

For this pizza-pie incident falls on the same day of Penny’s birthday. Penny has put a lot of efforts and time to organize our party. I’d like to take this opportunity to say thank-you and wish her a “Happy Birthday”.

I made two different pizzas actually. The first one is our family’s favourite, BBQ chicken pizza, with thin and crispy base. To make the pizza special for celebrating Penny’s birthday, I stuffed extra Mozzarella cheese in the edge, adding richer cheese flavour, with a curl up edge that makes more rooms in the middle for more toppings. If any of our crews’ birthday in April that I don’t know before, this pizza is made for you as well.

The pizza dough is big enough for making two 10 inches pizzas. Apart from making a barbeque chicken pizza with cheese stuffed crust, I also baked a spicy Hawaiian pizza with homemade sauce. Considering this post is quite lengthy, I’d post another recipe in the next post.

BBQ Chicken Pizza (Printable Recipe)

Ingredients of pizza base (enough to make 2 pizzas, each about 25.5cm/10 inches):

2 cups bread flour
2 tsp sugar
1 tsp instant yeast or active dry yeast
3/4 cup warm water
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 tsp salt
1 Tbsp milk powder, optional

Method of making pizza base:

Add sugar into 3/4 cup warm water and mix until dissolved. Sprinkle yeast over it and let sit for 5 to 10 minutes, until it foams and bubbles.
I used a bread maker to mix all ingredients until dough is foam. If you knead the dough by hands, sieve the flour, milk powder and salt onto a clean surface. Make a well in the middle. Pour yeast mixture and oil into the well. Start from the middle to mix the flour into the liquid. Knead with clean hands until you get a smooth and springy dough.
Form the dough into a ball. You can get your dough fermented in any one of the following ways: (Method A) If you want a soft-bread-like pizza base, cover the dough with a damp cloth and put in a warm room for about an hour, until the dough has doubled in size. (Method B) If you like a crispy pizza crust. Place in a greased bowl and coat with a bit of olive oil on top. Cover the bowl tightly with a cling wrap and store in the fridge at least 24 hours, until the size is double. Then it’s ready for you to make pizza. (Note: I placed the dough in the fridge over 1 day. It can keep for a few days.)

Ingredients of BBQ chicken pizza (enough for 1 pizza, 25.5cm/10inches in size):

1 skinless chicken breast, about 160 gm
1/2 cups Barbecue sauce, or to taste
1/4 red onion, thinly sliced
3 to 4 button mushrooms, thinly sliced
100 gm Mozzarella cheese, for making edge, cut into 1-cm-thick sticks
250 gm shredded Mozzarella cheese, for sprinkling
olive oil, for drizzling
chopped sweet basil, to taste
baby spinach or coriander/cilantro, to taste
salt, to taste

Method of making BBQ chicken pizza:

Season chicken breast with salt on both sides. Place in a bowl, then coat chicken with 3 tablespoons of BBQ sauce, and marinate for about 30 minutes. Heat oil in a frying pan, cook chicken breast over medium heat, until cooked through. Let cool and cut into small cubes. Coat with 2 tablespoons BBQ sauce.
Preheat oven to 200C (395F). Remove the dough from fridge (if you use method A, in step 3 above). If you use method B, the dough is ready to be used when it’s doubled in size.
Punch the dough down with your hands and deflates the air out. Divide the dough into two parts (or as many little balls you like, if you’d like to make mini pizzas). Shape each part into a ball shape. Cover with a damp cloth and let rest for 15 minutes. (Note: if you don’t prepare to use the dough to make pizza right away, you can wrap it in a cling film and put in the fridge until you need it.)
Roll the dough out into a round disc, about 0.5cm in thickness. Place them on a slightly larger pizza pan (sheet pan), drizzled with olive oil. Place Mozzarella cheese sticks around the edge. Along the inner side of cheese sticks, damp the dough with some water, fold the outer edge inside as picture shown. (Note: be sure not to let any oil touch the surface of dough at this stage, the edge can't be sealed easily otherwise.) Prick the surface of dough with a fork.
Drizzle a bit of olive oil on the dough surface and spread evenly to avoid your dough from being soggy.
Spoon a couple of tablespoons of extra BBQ sauce on the dough and spread it evenly. Sprinkle on 1/3 of cheese, then diced chicken, red onion, mushrooms. Sprinkle the rest of cheese on top.
Bake in preheated oven for about 15 minutes, or until the base is golden brown, cheese melts, and toppings are bubbly.
Remove from the oven and sprinkle as many baby spinach or coriander as you like. Cut into wedges and serve hot immediately.

Some thoughts of fermenting experiments:

I tested two batches of pizza dough, that made with exactly the same ingredients and methods, except using different fermentation methods. For the batch of fermented dough in a warm spot after 1 hour, the base turned out very soft and spongy after baking.
For the other batch that fermented in fridge over 1 day, it’s much easier to stretch thin and didn’t shrink back easily when I tried to roll out and stretch it. The base turned out to be a very crispy crust. I love both ways. Just pick either way which you like or seems convenient to you.
You can use plain flour(all-purpose flour). If you like soft texture, highly recommend bread flour or Italian Tipo '00' flour. Try to roll out the base as thin as you can, then bake in oven for longer time to get crispy base if you like. Gluten-free flour can be used instead if you like.
Gluten-free flour can be used instead if you like without doubt.

Do head over and check out other crews’ pizza recipes:

Serpent pie with pizza sauce from Penny's Addictive & Consuming (host of International Pizza-Pie Incident)
Breakfast Pizza from Divina's Sense & Serendipity
Asparagus Pesto & Chicken Pizza from Mardi's Eat, Live, Travel, Write
Lángos from Trix's Tasty Trix
Poached Pear Pizza Pie from Conor's Hold the Beef
Wholemeal Spiced Veg Pizza from Shirley's Enriching your kid
Wild Little Plum Pizza Pie from Natasha's Five Star Foodie
Ozoz's Kitchen Butterfly
Pizza Pie, Pie Pizza and Pizza Cupcakes from Anges' Off the spork
Mushroom & Taleggio and Signore Lupo Pizzas from Joanne 's Second Helping
Pizza Pie with Lasagne Filling from Celeste's Berry Travels
One dough, four ways from Stephanie's Momofuku for 2
Shao's Fried Wontons for You
Chicken and Kimchi Pizza from Ahn's A food Lover’s Journey
Pizza Pie & Pie Pizza from Cherry's Sweet Cherry Pie
Tweet Inspiration: Irish Pan Pizza from Tracey's Tangled Noodle
Foie Gras a la Evelyne de Cochon and Pear & Fig Coconut Custard Pizza Pies From Evelyne's Cheap Ethnic Eatz
Roasted Vegetable and Goat Cheese Pizza from Jessica's Yum-O-Rama
Dessert Pizza: Strawberry Galette with White Chocolate and Basil Cream from Emma's Cake Mistress
Breakfast Calzone from Mark's Cafe Campana
Fast Fusion Pizza from Cool Lassi(e)'s Pan Gravy Kadai Curry

Coco-cola Chicken Wings

Coco-Cola (Coke) is always served on our dinner table, side by side with one of my loved one’s main course nearly everyday. I don’t quite understand why it’s so addictive. Some people can’t live without it. It’s not overstated if you know someone who is really addicted to coke. Not many people know what’s in coke and how it’s made. The flavour base for Coke is still one of the world's great trade secrets. That said, there’re only three people in the world know the formula of creating the unique flavour of it. Well, the cooking ingredients and method of this dish, Coco-Cola Chicken Wings has no secrets at all. That’s simple and easy to cook. You can’t taste any flavour of coke after cooking anyway. The chicken wings are tasty sweet, succulent, with rich soy sauce flavour though. The coke can tenderize the meat of chicken wings and add more flavours. Thus, I didn’t need to cover the chicken wings when cooking. The bones would easily come off otherwise. It’s not a pleasant looking if so.

Coco-cola Chicken Wings (Printable recipe)

Ingredients:

700 gm chicken wings
1/2 carrot, cut into chunks
1 stalk spring onion, sectioned
5 slices ginger
3 garlic cloves, smashed
1/2 cup Coco-cola

Seasoning:

2 Tbsp light soy sauce
2 Tbsp dark soy sauce
1 Tbsp rice wine
Pepper, to taste

Method:

Cut chicken wings into two parts, keep the wing tips intact. Blanch in boiling water for 2 minutes to remove any blood and fat. Drain well.
Heat some oil in wok (or pan), saute ginger, garlic and spring onion until fragrant.
Add chicken wings and carrot, saute and continue to cook until lightly brown. Pour in the seasoning and coke. Bring to a boil and continue to cook for 20 to 25 minutes, uncovered, or until sauce thickens and chicken wings are carmeralized. Add more water if necessary. Remember to taste by yourself while cooking in this step. If you’re satisfied, it’s done.

Roasted Chicken Drumsticks with Garlic and Sweet Potato

I cut my little finger accidentally last Friday when I was slicing onion for our beef soup noodles. It really hurt and my finger’s bleeding a lot. Luckily, my finger is getting better and better, close to completely recovered right now.

After cutting my finger, I didn’t really cook at all for the past few days. We just had some simple and quick dishes. The other day, we talked about how to have a better dinner without my cooking. Quickly, we came up with this conclusion: my daughter suggested herself to cook a main dish, my husband cooked a side dish. However, my daughter had no idea of what to cook. Coincidently, I found an easy and quick recipe of garlic-roasted chicken from Food Network. It appeared just in time as a life-line for us. So my daughter adapted the recipe and baked this heavenly delicious dish, roasted drumsticks with garlic and sweet potato using what we have got in our fridge.

I hadn’t used sweet potatoes to go with any sauce cooked with vinegar before. Before trying this dish, I had little doubt about how the end result would be like. Amazingly, I found out the taste was wonderful. The sweetness of sweet potato subtly blended with the tangy sauce went really well with the moist and succulent chicken meat.

Roasted Chicken Drumsticks with Garlic and Sweet Potato (Printable recipe)

Adapted from：Garlic-roasted Chicken [foodnetwork.com]

Ingredients:

680 gm organic drumsticks
1 golden sweet potato, sliced
1/2 red onion, cut into quarters
2 Tbsp olive oil
Kosher salt, to taste
freshly ground pepper, to taste
2 heads garlic
4 sprigs fresh rosemary
2 Tbsp white wine vinegar
1/4 cup chicken broth

Method:

Preheat oven to 200C (392F).
Rinse drumsticks and wipe dry. Generously sprinkle salt and pepper to all sides. Season sweet potato slices with salt and olive oil to taste. Separate the heads of garlic into cloves. No need to peel at this stage.
Heat oil in a skillet or frying pan over medium-high heat. Brown drumstick evenly, about 5 minutes.
Place sweet potatoes into a baking tray, arranged in a single layer. Add the drumsticks, garlic, onion and rosemary. Bake in preheated oven until drumsticks are done but still moist, about 15 to 20 minutes.
Remove baking tray from oven. Transfer sweet potatoes, drumsticks and onion on a warm plate, covered. Discard rosemary. Retain garlic in the tray (You might like to peel the garlic skin off at this stage. The skin of cooked garlic comes off easily. ) Pour chicken broth into tray, scrape up any browned bits with a wooden spoon from all sides. Add the vinegar and cook until boils. Then simmer until the sauce thickens slightly, about 2 minutes. Pour the sauce and garlic over the drumsticks. Serve hot.

Roasted Chicken Drumsticks with Garlic and Sweet Potato02

Notes:

I recommend organic drumsticks for this recipe if you can find some. It’s worth every dollar. The meat is heavenly delicious and tender. Or you might like to choose free-range drumsticks instead. It’s a good choice as well.
If you like to use chicken breast, get those with skin on for this recipe.

Stir-fried Chicken with Mango and Roasted Almonds

Chinese New Year has started last weekend. I bet you ate a lot if you managed to celebrate CNY with your family as we did. We really need a light meal to get certain balance. So I cooked this Chicken with Mango and Roasted Almonds, that used fresh mango, adding a kick of roasted almond flavour.

This dish was actually recommended by my friend SK. I owed her so much, gave me lots of Taiwanese basils she's grown, and this time passed me a large mango. No, it’s a very large, extra large mango from another friend who grows a big mango tree in her backyard. Once I went home, I weighted the mango. The net weight of it was 450 grams, only for the mango flesh. It’s very huge indeed. It’s a kind of Australian mango, named R2E2, very sweet and juicy. The texture of the pulp is perfect for stir-frying.

Ingredients:

1 or 2 mango(es), ripe but not overly ripe (I used about 480 gm of flesh)
200 gm chicken breast
50 gm almonds

Marinade:

2 tsp light soy sauce
1/2 tsp sugar
1 tsp cornflour
1/2 tsp Shaoxing wine
1 tsp water

Method:

Use a sharp knife to cut the mango lengthwise next to the seed into three parts (two halves and a middle part with the seed). Carefully cut parallel lines through the two halves of mango flesh down to the skin. Scoop out the flesh with a tablespoon. For the middle part, peel the skin and cut the flesh off from the seed. Then cut mango into strips, about 3.5 to 4cm in length. Or you might like to cut into cubes to your liking.
Rinse chicken and drain well. Remove fat. Julienne into 3cm strips. Mix with marinade for 20 minutes.
Place almonds in preheated oven at 180C (356F) about 10 to 12 minutes, or until fragrant. Make sure not to burn them. Let cool. Place in a plastic bag, pound into small pieces. Set aside.
Heat 2 tablespoons of oil over medium-high heat. Stir-fry chicken until done. Turn off the heat. Add mango, quickly combine all ingredients. Dish up and sprinkle roasted almonds. Enjoy!

Stir-fried Chicken with Mango and Roasted Almonds02

Notes:

You can cook this simple and delicious dish on the go. The key is to get really sweet and juicy mango. And the roasted almonds would bring this dish up to another level by adding very sweet fragrance, as well as crunchy texture.
If you can’t get very sweet mango, you might like to sprinkle a small amount of sugar to adjust.
My friend SK recommended slivered almonds initially. Unfortunately, I didn’t have any at home. Thus I roasted whole almonds and pound them into small pieces. If silvered almonds are used, just sprinkle over the dish after they are roasted.

My Sweet and Sour Tofu Recipe on Rasa Malaysia

This is my first guest post since I have been blogging for food and cooking nearly two years on my Chinese food blog, a few months later on this English one. Yet I didn’t post any recipes here at first, just focused on reading my favourite food blogs.

Bee from Rasa Malaysia is one of my favourite blogs that I’ve subscribed for a long time. When I first found her blog, I was impressed by her gorgeous pictures and attracted by her passion for Malaysian foods. I’ve tried many recipes from her blog that turned out to be hits in my family. As Chinese New Year is coming around the corner, Bee will be sharing a series of Chinese Recipes on Rasa Malaysia. She can be classified as an all-round Asian food blogger.

You might have heard or tried the Peking Pork Chops, or Sweet and Sour Beef, that are also my Aussie friends’ favourites. In Chinese cooking, we do use tofu a lot. Especially fried tofu is a very popular dish in South Asia. An idea just came up in my mind, why not combine those popular dishes into one? So here comes the Sweet and Sour Fried Tofu. I tried to use as many veggies as I could, including onion, green, red and yellow capsicum, going with Jasmine rice, sprinkle black sesame seeds on top, creating a colourful dish looked like a rainbow. I also name this dish as 彩虹炸豆腐 in Chinese, literally translated as “Rainbow Fried Tofu”.

For the whole recipe, please hop over to Bee’s blog. Many of you might have already known Bee’s food blog, Rasa Malaysia, because it’s one of popular blogs out there. If you don’t, do take some time to explore her blog, there are heaps of yummy recipes you can’t miss.

Her blog is long-hauling for nearly 5 years, well-liked by a wide range of readers. It took me a bit surprise when she asked me on Twitter if I’d like to guest post on her food blog. I really feel honoured and excited to share one of my favourite recipes with her readers. Many thanks to Bee for the opportunity.

Vietnamese Lemongrass Chicken Fillets

Chicken again? Yes, I love to have chicken for every dinner if I can, LOL…Some friends of my daughter have noticed that our family eats chickens quite often. As I got some fresh lemon grass in my fridge, it’s a good reason to cook a dish with lemon grass. I’ve been craving Vietnamese Lemongrass Chicken Fillets for a while.

Lemon grass is commonly used as a herb in Vietnamese cuisine. The fragrance of lemon grass is so sweet, with a citrus flavor, that would enrich the flavour of any kinds of meat, especially for pork and chicken. They can be easily found at any Asian grocery stores. To use the lemon grass, we only need the white stalk by removing the green leaves outside and the end. In order to bring up more flagrance of it, finely chop and/or pound it in with mortar and pestle. Sometimes I’m quite lazy or feel tired, thus I just throw the lemon grass stalks in a mini food processor and chop them for a few seconds. The sweet fragrance smells heavenly.

Ingredients:

380 gm boneless chicken thigh fillet
1/2 onion
1/4 green capsicum
1/4 red capsicum
3 Tbsp chicken broth
2 shallots, finely chopped
1 red chili, sliced

Marinade:

2 stems lemon grass (white part only)
1 Tbsp fish sauce
1 tsp sugar
1 Tbsp minced garlic
1 tsp cornflour
2 Tbsp water
1 strip lemon zest (yellow skin only), about 1x5cm
1/2 Tbsp freshly grated ginger sauce

Sauce:

1/2 tsp minced garlic
1 Tbsp chopped lemon grass (white part)
2 Tbsp fish sauce
2 tsp sugar
1/2 cup water

Thickening (optional):

2 tsp cornflour
2 Tbsp water

Method:

Remove the green leaves of lemon grass. Finely chopped and pound the white parts of lemon grass with lemon zest, then mix with other ingredients of marinade. Or to make the marinade easier, chop all the ingredients, except the cornflour, into a paste using a small food processor for 10 seconds or so. Scoop the paste out and add cornflour, mix well.
Rinse chicken thigh fillets and drain well. Trim excess fat. Coat the chicken in the marinade in a container, cover and place in the refrigerator for at least one hour, or overnight if you want the chicken absorbs more flavours.
Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a frypan over medium heat. Remove the chicken from the refrigerator, discard the marinade. Place the skin first (note: I used the skinless chicken fillets) on pan, and cook until both sides are lightly brown and cooked through, about 7 minutes on each side. Let the chicken rest in a warm plate for 5 minutes. Then slice them into smaller pieces.
Add some more oil to pan, stir fry onion until translucent. Add shallot and cook until fragrant. Toss in green and red capsicum to pan. Pour in chicken broth and cook until sauce dries up. Set aside.
Use a little sauce pan to heat a bit of oil over medium-low heat and saute garlic until aromatic. Be cautious and not to let garlic get burnt, the sauce would taste bitter otherwise. Pour in sauce and bring it to a boil. Add thickening and cook to preferred consistency. Remove from heat. Drain through a fine sieve into a little serving bowl.
To serve, place veggies on a platter, top with sliced chicken fillets. Put sauce side by side or drizzle onto the chicken fillets. Serve with lemon wedges, or with any salad if desired.

Notes:

If you like the sauce clear and thin, you don’t need to add any thickening to cook the sauce then.
If you don’t like to waste the lemon grass in marinade. Spoon them out and cook in sauce. For the sake of health safety, The sauce must simmer to boil for a while for the lemon grass has certain contact with raw chicken.

Baked Drumsticks with Soy Sauce and Honey

Most of the time when I prepare meals, I’d think of using chicken simply because chicken is one of my family’s favourite foods. It’s not expensive, a good source of protein, last but not least, it’s versatility. It could be roasted, broiled, grilled or poached, and combined with a wide range of herbs and spices, or whatever I can try.

Amongst all parts/cuts of chicken, drumsticks contain less fat and are cheaper than chicken breast. When it comes to baking, I like drumsticks. The meat of drumsticks is juicier. My family tends to prefer baked drumsticks to chicken breast. Previously, I grilled organic drumsticks, that was a hit in my family. This time, I also adapted the previous method, baked them after a brief pan-frying. This method shortened much cooking time. The browning of chicken skins was easier to be controlled. All the juice was coated inside and kept the drumsticks moist after baking. The marinade I used for the chicken is of oriental taste.

Grilled Drumsticks with Soy Sauce and Honey01

Ingredients:

900 gm free range drumsticks
1/4 lemon

Marinade:

3 Tbsp light soy sauce
1 tsp minced garlic
1 tsp minced ginger
1/2 tsp sugar
2 Tbsp white rice wine
2 Tbsp honey
white pepper, to taste

Method:

Rinse drumsticks and wipe dry with paper towels. Use a needle to insert drumsticks on all surfaces and help absorb marinade.
Mix marinade with drumsticks well. Cover and place in fridge for 1 to 2 hours. The longer the drumsticks are marinated, the richer the flavour they would absorb. Marinade for overnight if permitted.
Preheat oven to 180C (356F).
Heat 2 tablespoons of oil on a fry pan. Add drumsticks and cook until all surfaces lightly brown. Transfer to a baking pan. Bake for 10 to 15 minutes. Then turn the other side and continue to cook for another 10 minutes. Brush them with honey and bake for another 5 minutes until cooked through. Insert a needle in the thickest part. If clear liquid runs out, it’s done. Serve hot with lemon juice.

Grilled Drumsticks with Soy Sauce and Honey02

Notes:

Try to use free range chicken drumsticks. The taste is far better than those caged ones. If you can use organic drumsticks, it’s the best choice. It might cost a bit more, yet it’s worth every dollar.
Either place the drumsticks on the middle rack of oven, or in the broiler compartment. Keep an eye on them when baking because you don’t want your drumsticks get burnt before being cooked through.
As the power of every oven varies considerably, you have to adjust the time of baking.

Braised Five-Spice Chicken With Vegetables

The chicken in this dish tastes fantastic in the five spice sauce. When it comes to cooking this dish, it’s very flexible for using any Chinese vegetables you like. It’s quite versatile, suitable for going with steamed rice or porridge. You can cook the chicken in five spice sauce in a day in advance, cool it in the refrigerator, then reheat it and cook some fresh vegetables as you need it. The flavours will intensify overnight.

Ingredients:

250 gm chicken thigh (or chicken breast)
300 gm baby bok choy
2 cloves garlic, crushed
2 Asian shallots, sliced (available at Asian stores)
3 Tbsp vegetable oil
Spring onion, for garnish
red chili, sliced
salt, to taste (optional)

Seasoning:

1/2 tsp five spice powder
1/2 Tbsp fish sauce
1/2 Tbsp light soy sauce
20 gm raw sugar in pieces, chopped
white pepper, to taste
3 Tbsp water

Method:

Slice chicken crossways into thin 4cm (1 1/2inch) lengths. Prepare seasoning. Use teaspoon to mash and mix chopped raw sugar well.
Rinse baby bok choy and drain well. Wipe dry with kitchen papers. Cut into 4cm (1 1/2inch) sections. Separate leaves and stalks, set aside.
Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a wok (or frypan) over high heat. Add chicken pieces in small batches and cook until browned. Drain and set aside.
Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a saucepan. Add the garlic and shallots, then sauté for about 2 to 3 minutes, or until fragrant. Add the seasoning and stir well. Add the chicken and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat and simmer gently for about 15 minutes, or until the chicken is tender. Add the stalks of baby bok choy, cook until they begin to be softened. Then add the leaves. When the leaves of bok choy are cooked, it’s done. Season with salt if necessary. To serve, place baby bok choy on a plate, sit the chicken pieces on top and spoon on the sauce. Garnish with sliced spring onion and chili.

Braised Five-Spice Chicken With Vegetables Procedures

Tips:

The taste of fish sauce is salty and varies from brands to brands. You have to adjust the amount according to your preference.
While cooking the baby bok choy (picture shown above), some water will release. You might not like it dilute your sauce, thus wipe them really dry before cooking.
You can replace the baby bok choy with Chinese broccoli if you like its crisp texture.