Chicken with Tomato Sauce

Chicken with Tomato Sauce produced one of the tenderest chicken I've had. It tastes kind like sweet and sour chicken, except in terms of texture, it is tender soft because of shallow frying for a short time vs. the crispy deep fried version. This recipe came from a Chinese cookbook.

Serves 2

Prep time: 15 minutes
Cook time: 15 minutes
Total time: 30 minutes

Ingredients:
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1/4 inch cubes
2 tablespoon egg white
4 tablespoon corn starch
2 cups peanut oil or vegetable oil
3 tablespoon and 1 teaspoon ketchup
2 tablespoon and 2 teaspoon sugar
2 tablespoon water
1 teaspoon sesame oil

Tips:

1. The key to this recipe is the tender texture of the chicken, so the shallow frying step will determine how tender the chicken will come out. If you get the oil temperature right, you are much closer to getting it perfect, therefore it helps to get a deep-fry thermometer. To use a thermometer, make sure the tip is inside the oil but doesn't touch the wok or pot, because the wok might be at a higher temperature than the oil.
2. The other key to the tender chicken is to cut the chicken pieces as evenly as possible, this ensures all the chicken pieces will be cooked evenly.
   
3. Once you master the shallow frying to produce extra tender chickens, you can apply this technique to other chicken dishes, or play around with the tomato sauce to adjust it to your liking.
   

Instruction:

1. In a medium mixing bowl, add the chicken cubes, egg white and 3 tablespoon cornstarch. Mix them well using a circular one direction motion.
   
2. To shallow fry the chicken, heat oil in a wok or a soup pot over medium heat to about 200°F. Add the chicken, and use a chopstick to gently separate the pieces. The oil temperature now shouldn't be above 175°F, if it does, remove the wok from heat until temperature drop down. Just when all the chicken pieces are turning white, quickly remove them with a slotted spoon and drain off the excess oil. The chicken should be white on the outside and still be pink in the middle.
   
3. Remove all the oil from the wok, and heat it over high heat, add the ketchup, sugar and 1 tablespoon water, stirring and bring to a boil, mix 1 tablespoon water with 1 tablespoon cornstarch and add it to the sauce. When the sauce thickens, add the chicken pieces and stir well, cook for 1-2 minutes then turn off heat. Check if the chicken is done by cutting into the largest chicken piece and make sure the inside is no longer pink. Mix in the sesame oil and serve.
   

Chicken Lettuce Cup

Chicken lettuce cup is a one dish healthy meal, it's got skinless chicken breast, bamboo shoots and water chestnut. Oh wait, did we forget lettuce? If we've got left overs, it keeps well in the fridge for another delicious meal. This dish came from http://hubpages.com/hub/Just-Like-PF-Chang-Recipes

Serves 4

Prep time: 45 minutes
Cook time: 10 minutes

Ingredients:
8 dried Shiitake mushrooms, soak in hot water for 30 minutes, woody stem removed, chopped
1 1/2 lb boneless, skinless chicken breasts, sliced into 1/2 inch cubes
Marinate:
2 teaspoons cooking sherry
2 teaspoons water
1 teaspoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon cornstarch
salt and pepper to taste

5 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 teaspoon fresh ginger, minced
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 green onions, sliced lengthwise into 1/2 inch slices
8 oz can bamboo shoots, drained, chopped into small pieces using a food processor
8 oz can water chestnuts, drained, chopped into small pieces using a food processor
2 small dried chilies (optional)
1 package of Chinese cellophane rice noodles (about 3-6 oz), cooked according to instructions on the package
1 iceberg lettuce, stem removed, and sliced into halves
Sauce:
2 tablespoons oyster sauce
1 1/2 tablespoons water
1 tablespoon cooking sherry
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon hoisin sauce
2 teaspoons cornstarch
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon sesame oil

Tips:

1. I went to 3 different western grocery stores, and between the 3 I was able to find oyster sauce and hoisin sauce, if you've searched and still can't find them, you can substitude:

• 2 tablespoon oyster sauce: 2 tablespoon soy sauce mixed with 1 tablespoon sugar
  
• 1 tablespoon of hoisin sauce: 1/2 tablespoon ketchup mixed with 1/2 tablespoon of molasses
  

Instruction:

1. Combine marinate ingredents in a medium mixing bowl, mix well with the chicken cubes and marinate for 15 minutes.
   
2. Heat 3 tablespoon of oil in a skillet or wok over medium high heat, add chicken cubes and stir fry for 3 minutes until the chicken is turning white and no pink is shown, remove chicken.
   
3. Heat 3 tablespoon of oil in a skillet or wok over medium high heat, add the ginger, garlic, green onions, and stir fry for a minutes until the flavor comes out, make sure the garlic doesn't get burned. Then add the chopped dried mushroom, bamboo shoots and water chestnut, stir fry until they are cooked thru (about 2 minutes). Add the chicken along with the sauce and mix everything well and let the sauce thickens (about 1 minute). Transfer to a serving bowl.
   
4. To eat, start with a lettuce leaf, add some cellophane noodles then top with the chicken mixutre, eat it like a taco.
   

Coke Wings

If you are tired of hot wings or are looking for a new way to cook chicken wings, why not give coke wings a try? It is cooked with coke so it has a sweet and tangy taste.


Serves 2

Prep time: 6 minutes
Cook time: 50 minutes

Ingredients:
2 inch ginger, sliced
5 clove of garlic, peeled
1 green onions, cut into 3-inch sections
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
6 chicken wings, separate at joints into 3 sections, discard the tip section
2 tablespoon cooking wine or dry sherry
2 tablespoon soy sauce
500ml coke, same amount in a coke bottle

Tips:

1. The tip of the chicken wing is actually pretty good for making a chicken stock
   

Instruction:

1. In a wok or a 6 quartz soup pot, heat oil over medium high heat, when the oil is hot but not smoking, add in ginger, green onion and garlic. Cook for 1 minute.
   
2. Add chicken wings and continue to cook for 1 minute. Splash in cooking wine, let the alcohol evaporate, then add in soy sauce and cook for 30 seconds.
   
3. Add in coke, make sure the coke will submerge all the chicken wings, bring to a boil and turn to medium-low heat to simmer without a lid for 30 minutes.
4. After simmering, turn the heat to high and constantly stir the chicken wings while the sauce thickens
5. Once all the sauce has thickened, transfer to a plate and serve

Grilled Chicken with Cumin

There is something about summer that makes me want to go out to our patio and light up our grill. I don't know what it is, but I really enjoy the grilling experience. Here is a Chinese flavored grilled chicken that is simple to make and low in fat, all it takes from start to finish is 30 minutes. This recipe idea came from my fiancee Renee and it was an instant hit.

Grilled Chicken with Cumin

Serves 2

Prep time: 15 minutes
Cook time: 15 minutes

Ingredients:
6-10 wooden skewers, soaked in warm water for 8-10 minutes
1.5 pound of boneless chicken thigh or breast, cut into 1-2 inch wide thick slices
couple sprays from nonstick cooking spray
2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoon cumin powder
2-6 teaspoon chili pepper


Tips:

1. Couple vegetables options that could be grilled and served with chicken is grilled mushrooms, grilled corn, grilled white peach (oh, it was so good), and grilled bell peppers.
   
   

Instruction:

1. Preheat the grill to medium high heat
   
2. Put the chicken pieces on the wooden skewers, spray with nonstick cooking spray
   
3. Put the chicken skewers on the grill, cook for 1 minute, sprinkle on the salt evenly on both side of the chicken by turning it once. Let it cook for 2 minutes, then rotate the chicken and sprinkle with cumin. Before the chicken is done (about 7-9 minutes total), sprinkle with chili powder and cook for 1 more minute.
4. Transfer to a place or tray and serve
   

Chicken with Spicy Sauce

Sichuan Provence in China is known for its spicy, numbing and flavorful dishes. Like I promised yesterday, here is a recipe that will use up the other half of our cooked chicken. I really like the simple steps to create this dish and the chicken comes out salty, sweet and spicy. This recipe and the chili oil comes from the cookbook "Land of Plenty", which is written in English.



Serves 4

Prep time: 15 minutes
Cook time: 0 minutes

Ingredients:
Half of a cooked chicken, about 2 pounds, cooled
1 teaspoon salt
8-10 scallions, white part only, thinly sliced
2 tablespoon and 2 teaspoon white sugar
6 tablespoon light soy sauce
6-12 tablespoons chili oil with chili flakes or store-bought chili oil
4 teaspoons sesame oil
1-2 teaspoon ground roasted Sichuan pepper (optional)

Tips:

1. The chili oil adds a smooth texture and a fiery flavor to the chicken, if you can't find chili oil in your local store, here is a recipe to make it at home.
2. If you don't have cooked chicken on hand, please cook the chicken according to my earlier post Cold Cut Chicken
   

Instruction:

1. Cut the chicken into slices and sprinkle with salt and ground Sichuan pepper if using.
   
2. In a small bowl, dissolve the sugar into the soy sauce, then add the chili oil and sesame oil.
3. Put the chicken slices, scallion slices and sauce in a large serving bowl, mix well and serve.

Chili Oil:
Makes 1 pint

1/2 cup chile flakes
2 cups peanut or corn oil

1. Put the chili flakes into a glass jar with lids.
2. Heat the oil over high heat until smoking
3. Remove oil from heat, let it cool for about 10 minutes, to 225-250 degrees. Pour onto the chilies, and stir couple times. Put lid on the jar and store it in a cool, shady place.

Cold Cut Chicken

This is a famous Cantonese dish, the finishing chicken comes out light, with tender meat and crispy skin. The dip for the chicken is packed with flavor which kicks the chicken up another notch. This recipe comes from Cantonese chef Hu's online posts.



Serves 4

Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook time: 50 minutes

Ingredients:
A whole chicken, about 4-5 pounds
2 tablespoon finely sliced scallion
2 tablespoon finely diced ginger
8 tablespoon peanut oil or olive oil
salt to taste, about 1/2-1 tablespoon
20 cubes of ice


Tips:

1. If there are left over chicken, there is another spicy dip that can be made to change things up a bit.
2. The finer dice of the scallion and ginger, the better. Just make sure they are sliced/diced and not chopped, as chopping would make them mushy.
3. It is very important to have the right water temperature when cooking the chicken, because we want to simmer the chicken so it has a tender texture.

Instruction:

1. In a deep soup pot that will fit a whole chicken. Put in enough water that can cover the whole chicken, bring to a boil over high heat. While water is boiling, clean the chicken, if using a whole chicken, take out the necks and organs from chicken cavity, you can keep them if you like. When water is boiling, submerge the chicken into the water. Cover, bring the water back to a boil, then reduce heat to medium-low, and simmer for about 40-50 minutes.
2. The water now should be around 175 to 185 degrees, another way to tell is there will be bubbles lazily rise to the surface. If using a whole chicken, every 15 minutes while simmering, take the chicken out of the water, and quickly dump the water inside chicken's cavity back in the pot, then put the chicken back in the pot. This is to help to keep the temperature inside and outside of the chicken the same.
   
3. The chicken is done when cutting through the thickest part of the chicken thigh and the meat inside is no longer pink.
4. While chicken is cooking, prepare the dip. Put the prepared green onion and ginger in a small bowl, add in salt to taste. Heat oil in a wok to 175 degrees over high heat and let it cool for a minute then pour it on top of the green onion and ginger.
5. During the last couple minutes of cooking, put ice and enough cold water to submerge the chicken in a deep bowl/pot.
6. When chicken is done, put chicken into the ice bath and run cold water on it until chicken is cold. Cut up the chicken and serve it with the dip on the side. Taste test with a small piece of chicken with the dip to see if more salt is needed.
   

Orange Peel Chicken

This orange peel chicken recipe is taken from the cookbook written in Chinese "Standard recipes for Sichuan dishes". I like the orange peel flavor in this dish and how the orange flavor is blended with sweet and spicy flavor. The chicken comes out very tender also. This dish can be served either hot or cold.


Serves 2

Prep time: 15 minutes
Cook time: 50 minutes

Ingredients:
Marinate:
1 teaspoon of salt
1 teaspoon of Chinese cooking wine or medium dried sherry
1 inch ginger, sliced
2 green onions, cut into 4 inch long sections, white part crushed
1 teaspoon of soy sauce
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1 pound of boneless chicken, cut into 1 inch cubes

Sauce:
2 teaspoon Chinese cooking wine or dried sherry
2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoon soy sauce 1 teaspoon sugar
4 cup chicken broth
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1 teaspoon Chinese black vinegar or wine vinegar 1 tablespoon sesame oil

Other:
15 whole Sichuan peppercorn optional
5 dried orange peel, cut into 2 inch squares or zest from 1 medium sized orange
6 whole dried chili, seed taken out, cut into 1/2 inch wide strips or 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1 inch ginger, sliced
4 cloves of garlic, sliced
4 green onion, cut into 2-inch length
1 cup peanut oil

Instruction:

1. Mix the marinate in a medium sized bowl then add the chicken cubes, marinate for 15 minutes
   
2. Meanwhile, prepare the other ingredients and sauces
   
3. When marinate is done, heat peanut oil in the wok till pretty hot but not smoking, put in the chicken cubes and fry till chicken pieces turns golden, use a mesh to scope out the chicken
4. Leave 1 tablespoon of the oil in the wok, put in Sichuan peppercorn if using and stir fry until the flavor comes out, discard the peppercorn. Put in the orange peel and dried pepper, cook until the oil turns red. Then add in ginger, green onion, and garlic, stir fry for a bit, then add in chicken, put in the sauces,cooking wine, salt, soy sauce, sugar and chicken broth, make sure the chicken broth will cover all the chicken pieces, use medium low heat to cook until all the sauces are evaporated and becomes thick, then add in vinegar and sesame oil
5. Transfer to a plate and serve either hot or let it completely cool and serves it cold