Chinese Chicken Recipes for Busy People

I was planning to make Steamed Garlic Shrimp tonight.  I went to the grocery store and tried to get some jumbo shrimp for that.  Guess what? All the jumbo shrimp were all sold out.  How could that be?  Oh well… my dinner plan had to change.  I got some medium sized cooked shrimp. I was going to make Shrimp Chow Mei Fun instead.  Then when I got home, I really felt like making some Singapore Noodles instead.  Crap.  My mind changed too much, and I didn’t have all the ingredients to make the dish. I improvise. Hahahha..  I didn’t have Cha Siu (Roast Pork) and green peppers.  I added some bacon strips instead of Cha Siu, and I skipped the green peppers.  The result was still very yummy.  I had so many Singapore Noodles dishes when I grew up.  That was one of my favorite lunch dishes.  I like mei fun, and I like the curry taste.  Singapore noodles have my favorite combo.  I liked it so much that I could eat two lunch boxes of Singapore Noodles back then.  I could probably still eat this much, but I had to watch out for the amount of food I have these days. You know, old people have slower metabolism. Whatever I eat gets stored. LOL.

Mei Fun (rice noodles)

Cook roast pork (or bacon), carrot and onion first.

Add mushroom, celery.

Add noodles

Add shrimp and sauce

Singapore noodles. Yummy!!

Ingredients (serves 3 – 4):

• Rice noodles, 1 pack (about 1 pound). You can get this from any Chinese grocery store.
• Cha Siu/roast pork, ½ pound (I didn’t have it tonight. I used 4 pieces of bacon instead)
• Cooked shrimp, 1 pound
• Celery, 4 stalks
• Carrot, 3 stalks
• Onion, 1
• Mushroom, 1 pack
• Scallion, 3 stalks
• Garlic, 2 cloves
• Ginger, 3 slices
• Chinese wine, 1 tsp
• Oyster sauce, 1 Tbsp
• Fish sauce, 1 Tbsp
• Cornstarch, 1 tsp
• Chicken powder, 1 tsp
• Curry powder, 1 Tbsp
• Water, 5 Tbsp

Steps:

1. Boil a big pot of water.  Use high heat.  When the water boils, add the dried mei fun noodles in the pot.  Use a pair of chopsticks or a fork to separate the noodles.  Cook it for 3 or 4 minutes.  Turn off the heat.  Discard the hot water from the pot.  Add cold running water to the pot to rinse the noodles.  Put the noodles in a colander and let it drain well.
2. If you are using frozen cooked shrimp (which I did), defrost them first.
3. Cut carrots into thin strips about 3 inches long.  Put it aside.
4. Peel and cut carrots into thin strips about 3 inches long.  Put it aside.
5. Cut onion into thin strips, put it aside.
6. Cut mushrooms into slices, put them aside.
7. Finely chop garlic and ginger.  Put both aside.
8. Cut scallions into strips, put them aside.
9. Cut roast pork into thin strips about 2 inches long, put it aside. I used bacon as substitutes, I cut the bacon into thin strips.
10. In a small bowl, prepare for the sauce.  Mix oyster sauce, fish sauce, chicken powder, Chinese cooking wine, cornstarch, water and half of the curry powder to the bowl.  Mix them well.  The reason of only adding half of the curry powder is that I wasn’t sure if the curry powder will make the dish too spicy or not.  Different brand of curry powder have different spiciness.  I could add the rest of the curry powder later.
11. In a large non-stick frying pan or shallow non-stick pan, spray oil to the pan.  Add the roast pork (I added bacon), garlic, ginger, and stir fry for a minute or so.  Add the carrot, celery, onion, and mushroom, and stir fry it for 3 or 4 minutes.  Then add green pepper.  Add a pinch of salt.  Stir fry it for a minute.
12. Add mei fun to the pot.  Spray or add a little bit more oil.  Mix it well with the ingredients.  Let if cook for couple of minutes.
13. Add cooked shrimp and pour sauce to the noodles.  Mix it well.  Let it cook for 3 or 4 minutes.  Taste it.  Add a pinch of salt or more curry powder if desired.  Turn off the heat.  Add scallion.  Mix it well.  Serve hot.

I couldn’t think of a better way to start off the new year with friends or family for a Chinese Hot Pot dinner.  I did it with my coworkers last year. They never had Chinese hot pot before.  It was so much fun.  All you need is a portable stove, a big shallow pot filled with water.  That’s it.  You can have whatever meat, seafood or veggies as you like. You just need to slice the meat or fish, wash the veggie and that’s all for the prepartion.  When the pot of water is boiled. Everyone cooks his own food in the pot.  Since the water doesn’t have any seasoning, everyone needs to make his own dipping sauce. You can imagine this is a super healthy meal, no oil, no fuzz. 

Oh, I need to mention the rules:

1. You don’t put all the ingredients in the pot.  You cook what you want to eat yourself (ya, don’t worry about your bf or gf) a little bit at a time.  You eat it, you chat more, then you go back to cook more food.  Got it?
2. Use serving utensils/chopsticks to cook the food. No sticking your own fork or chopsticks in the pot unless no one cares about it.
3. When you put the food in the pot, you are responsible for keeping an eye on it.  If not, any food left in the pot is in shared pool.  Anyone can eat it. That’s right, you snooze you lose!
4. Make your own dipping  sauce.  Everyone has different likings. Don’t expect someone will serve you.

Chinese Hot Pot

Uncooked Ingredients Serves 5-6 (This is only a suggestion, you can really prepare whatever you like):

• Thinly sliced beef, 3/4 pound
• Sliced chicken, 1/2 pound
• Shrimp, peeled and devined, 3/4 pound
• Fish filet, 1/2 pound (can be any white fish like tile fish, tilapia, or even salmon)
• Oyster, 1/2 pound
• Squid, cleaned, 1/2 pound
• Dumplings or wontons, a dozen
• Tofu, 1 pack
• Fish balls, 1 bag (about a dozen)
• Japanese Enoki mushrooms, 1 bag
• Fresh Shaiitake mushrooms, 1 bag
• Noodles, 2 bag (could use udon noodles, ramen noodles, clear cellphane noodles or  shirataki miracle noodles)
• Leafy vegetables, a big bunch, washed (can be Chinese bok choy or others, or even regular lettuce)

Preparation (prepare each of them and put them aside):

1. For all the meat, slice them thinly.
2. For seafood such as fish or squid, cut them into big chuncks about 3 x 1.5 inches
3. Wash all the vegetable.
4. Cut Tofu into big cubes: 2×2 inches
5. For the enoki mushroom. Cut off the bottom root part of the bunch of mushroom.  For the shaiitake mushrooms, just wash them and keep them as whole pieces.

Setting the table for dinner:

1. Put the portable cooker (could be gas or electric) in the middle of the table.
2. Use a shallow pot and fill it up with 70% of water.  Put it on the portable cooker.
3. Put the food around the portable cooker.
4. For each person, place a plate and a small bowl (for dipping sauce), two pairs of chopsticks or forks (one for cooking, one for eating, see Rules#2).
5. Prepare a few ladles for scoping off the food. 

Setting the sauce station on a side table or in the kitchen(These are suggested sauce. You can use whatever). You can have:

• Soy sauce
• Oyster sauce
• Chinese BBQ sauce (very different from western BBQ sauce)
• Sesame oil
• Chilli sauce or hot oil
• Chopped garlic
• Chopped onion

Dinner time:

1. Everyone prepare his own dipping sauce first.
2. Put the tofu and a few fish balls in the pot.  These could be common food that are sharable to start with.  Use high heat of the portable cooker. Boil the water.
3. When the water boils, that means the fish balls are ready. Everyone can start making his own food. 
4. Have fun. Remember, you snooze you lose. Keep an eye on your own food!