Chinese Chicken Recipes for Busy People

No more school for another month, yay!  Finally, this semester was over.  I felt so exhausted this week trying to wrap up exams, presentations and papers stuff.  I didn’t really feel like cooking after I finished my class on Saturday.  I went to the Chinese grocery store and got a bunch of ready-made food for dinner.  I got half a roast duck and half a soy sauce chicken.  I had never made soy sauce chicken before, but I know it is a labor intensive dish.  I’ll be standing by the stove and rotating the chicken in a wok with soy sauce every few minutes until the whole chicken is fully cooked and got a nice dark soy sauce color, that’s like an hour or so.  No, thank you.  If I don’t have school, I may have more time and energy to cook something like this. For now, I’ll stick with something that can be done in 30 mins or so.  It’s great that I can get ready-made food like soy sauce chicken, roast duck and some other goodies from the store.  They are very yummy.  You can buy half or a whole thing, or even get a combo lunch box served with rice.  My favorite is roast duck and steamed chicken combo lunch box.  Most Chinese love these.  But to the Americans or non-Chinese, they may not appreciate as much because the chickens or ducks are sold with bones.  You know, most meat dishes served in America are boneless.  There is no way anyone can eat these with a fork or knife.  Besides, they may not feel comfortable or polite to pull a piece of bone from their mouth.  This was not how they were taught for table manner. They separate any bones first on the plate before eating the meat.  I never realized this until my coworker felt so embarrassed when he ate a piece of meat with a small bone, and he didn’t know what to do with the bone in his mouth.  LOL.  Stupid somehow, but it did tell a lot about the difference in cultures.

Half a soy sauce chicken

Half a roast duck

Roast Duck and Soy Sauce Chicken Combo with Rice

It’s a lazy Sunday.  I didn’t play golf.  I’m suffering from golfer’s elbow.  I didn’t hit the ball right. I hit the ground a lot before my club hit the ball, and now my elbow hurts like hell.  That’s the price of not being a good golfer.  It looks so easy when I saw professional golfers hit their balls on TV, it is really a very difficult thing to learn to swing the club right.  I’m resting at home today. I started my cooking early.  I made chicken on a stick for lunch and ate some of the leftover Singapore Noodles that I made last night.  I’ve been thinking about chicken on a stick for a while since I watched Andrew Zimmern’s Bizarre Foods episode in Japan.  He learned how to make the Japanese version of chicken on a stick.  I missed this dish too.  Instead of the Japanese version, I missed more of the Malaysian chicken on a stick, Chicken Satay that is served with peanut sauce.  Every time I had Malaysian food, I would order half a dozen of combo satays (6 sticks) that had 2 beef, 2 chicken and 2 pork.  They were served with peanut sauce and pickled cucumber.  What a great appetizer to start a meal. YUM.

Put seasoned chicken meat on a stick

Grill chicken on a stick

Chicken Satay with Peanut Sauce

Ingredients (Make about 6 sticks):

• Chicken meat, 1 pound (boneless, I used chicken fingers breast meat. You can use thigh meat too)
• Soy sauce, 1 tsp
• Ginger, 3 slices
• Garlic, 1 clove
• Chicken powder, 1 tsp
• Cooking oil, 1 tsp
• Bamboo skewers, about 6 or 7 sticks (or you can use the metal skewers)

Peanut sauce:

• Chunky peanut butter, 1 cup
• Brown sugar, 2 Tbsp
• Hot chili sauce, 1 tsp
• Garlic, 2 cloves, finely chopped
• Honey, 3 Tbsp
• Soy sauce, 1 Tbsp
• Hot water, ½ cup
• Lime, 1

Pickled Cucumber (Optional):

• Cucumber, 1
• Vinegar, 1 Tbsp
• Sugar, 1 Tbsp
• Salt, a dash
• Water, 2 Tbsp

Steps:

1. If you are using the bamboo skewers, soak them in water first.  They will not get burnt.
2. Finely chop 1 clove of garlic and ginger.  Put both in a big mixing bowl.
3. 1 tsp of soy sauce, 1 tsp of chicken powder into the bowl.
4. Cut chicken into cubes like 1.5 inches.  Put the chicken cubes into the mixing bowl.  Mix them well with the seasoning.  Add a tsp of cooling oil to the mixture.  Mix it well.  Cover the mixing bowl with a lid or plastic wrap, and let it marinated in the fridge for at least 20 mins.  I also tried the lazy person’s version of not cutting the chicken at all, ie just put the whole piece on a stick. They didn’t cook as nice as the ones that are cut.  See the picture.
5. Prepare the pickled cucumber if you are getting fancy:  Peel the cucumber, remove big seeds if there are any.  Cut cucumber into small cubes like 2 cm long.  Add vinegar, sugar, water, and a pinch of salt to the cucumber. Mix them well.  Let it get marinated for at least 20 mins in a refrigerator.
6. Prepare the sauce: mix all the sauce ingredients in a small serving bowl.  Cut the lime in halves and squeeze the juice in.  Mix it well.
7. When the chicken is marinated.  Put chicken cubes in the skewers.
8. Start the grill.  Cook the chicken for 5 -7 minutes on one side.  Flip it over to cook the other side for another 5-7 minutes or until it is fully cooked.
9. Serve hot with the peanut sauce.

It was a really nice day in NY.  I played a good round of golf and met an older couple. The wife was a soft talker.  She talked so softly, and so slowly, and she talked about boring stuff… She was like the Soft Talker in one of Seinfeld’s episode!  I have never met anyone like that.  I thought of my friends and some easy party food that I usually make.  I haven’t hosted a party for a long time.  I usually would make some dumplings and wings.  These were popular snacks.  For the wings, the Chinese BBQ sauce is the key. Char Siu Sauce is a Chinese BBQ sauce, which tastes totally different from American BBQ sauce.  It has a strong sweetness.  One way of doing it is to mix the Char Siu Sauce with the uncooked wings first, and then bake it.  But the weather is getting so warm that I didn’t feel like baking it and making the whole house feels warm tonight.  So I grilled the wings instead.  The result was even better. The wings were gone fast.  Everyone loved it.

Char Siu Sauce - Chinese BBQ sauce

Grill wings first

Mix half cooked wings with sauce

Chinese BBQ wings

Ingredients (Serves 2):

• Wings, 1.5 pounds
• Chinese Char Siu sauce or Chinese BBQ sauce, 1.5 Tbsp (I used the Char Siu Sauce here, it was yummy)
• Soy Sauce, 1.5 Tbsp
• Garlic powder, a dash

Steps if you are using a grill:

1. In a big mixing bowl, mix Chinese BBQ sauce, soy sauce and garlic powder well.  Put it aside.
2. Grill wings on a grill for 5 mins on one side.  Flip them over, and grill them for 5 minutes on another side or until they are kind of half cooked.
3. Remove the wings from the grill.  Turn off the grill.  Put the wings in the mixing bowl with the Chinese BBQ sauce and soy sauce.  Mix them well.  Let the wings sit for 10 minutes so that the meat is seasoned.  i would not suggest to mix the wings with the sauce first before they were grilled because the wings may get burned easily with the sauce on if it was cooked for a long time.  If you are cooking the wings in an oven, you can marinade the wings with the sauce first.
4. Put the wings back to the grill. Turn the grill heat to be medium or low.  Let the wings to be cooked on one side for 10 mins.  Use a brush to brush leftover sauce to the wings.  Then flip them over to cook for another 10 mins.  Brush more sauce to the wings while cooking.  

Steps if you are using an oven:

1. Mix the Chinese BBQ sauce with soy sauce and garlic powder in a big mixing bowl.  Put it aside.
2. Dry the wings wih a paper towel.  Add wings to the mixing bowl.  Let them marinade for 15 mins first.
3. Preheat the oven for 375F. 
4. Lay a shallow baking tray with aluminum foil.  Spray non-stick cooking oil on the foil. 
5. Put wings on the tray in one layer. 
6. Bake it for for about 20 mins on one side.  If there are leftover sauce in the bowl, use a brush to reapply the sauce to the wings.  Flip it over and bake it for another 15 mins or so on the other side or until it is fully cooked. 

Taro root is one of those funky things. They look very weird.  They are starchy like potatos.  My mom cooked a lot of taro roots when I was a kid.  She would peel a big taro root, cut it in big chunks and then steam them.  Sometimes we just ate it like that as a meal.  Sometimes, she mixed the taro roots with rice.  I also remember that she usually wore a pair of plastic yellow gloves when she peeled the taro root.  A lot of people have allergic reaction when they touch the taro root skin.  It was like an operation or something.  It was fun to watch.  These days, I could find peeled and cut taro root from the frozen section of a Chinese grocery store.  I don’t have to go through the pain of peeling off the skin.  I just recently found out that Taro root has great nutritious values including high in dietary fiber, Vitamin C, B6, and E.  This means that taro has antioxidant and reduces the risk of heart attack.  I love a lot taro-related food including Wu Gok (Fried Taro Puffs) which one of my favorite dim sum dish, and Taro ice-cream.  Yup, I’m not kidding. Taro ice-cream is purple in color, it’s funky and I loved it

Taro, peeled and cut

Season chicken meat

Add rice and taro first

Add Chicken and Mushroom

Taro Rice with Chicken

Ingredients:

•  Taro root, peeled cut in dices, ½ pound
• Chicken thigh meat, boneless, ½ pound
• Fresh Shiitaki mushrooms, about 10 (I used the fresh ones. You can use 5 or 6 dried shiitaki mushrooms instead)
• Uncooked rice, 1.5 cup
• Water, 2.5-3 cups
• Scallion, 3 stalks
• Chinese cooking wine, 1 tsp
• Soy Sauce, 1 tsp
• Oyster sauce, 1 tsp
• Fish sauce, 1 tsp
• Chicken powder, 1 tsp
• Garlic, 1 clove
• White pepper (optional)

Steps:

1. Cut shiitaki mushrooms into small pieces. I cut each into quarters. Put them aside.
2. Chop scallions into dices. Put it aside.
3. Wash the rice for couple of time in cold water.  Drain it well.  In a frying pan, spray non-stick cooking oil to the pan.  Then add the rice in it.  Add 2.5 cups of water, oyster sauce, fish sauce to the pan.  Mix it well.  Let the rice soaked in the water in the pan for 10-15 mins first.  Don’t turn on the heat yet.
4. Cut taro roots into small dices.  Put them in a bowl.  Put a wet paper towel to cover the bowl.  Then put the bowl in the microwave for 3 minutes on high heat.  This could help to cook the taro root a bit first.  Add the taro roots to the uncooked rice in the frying pan.
5. Finely chop garlic, put it in a bowl.
6. Cut chicken into small cubes.  Put them in the bowl with the garlic.  Add soy sauce, chicken powder, Chinese wine.  Mix it well.  Let it marinates for 15 mins or so.
7. Turn on the heat and let the rice cook in the frying pan. Use high heat until the water boils.  Turn the heat down to low or the minimum.  Cover the frying pan with a lid or a piece of aluminum foil. Let it cook for 5 minutes. 
8. Then add shiitake mushrooms, and uncooked chicken to the rice.  Add another half of a cup of water if the rice looks too dry.  Put a lid or aluminum foil on.  Let it cook for another 15 minutes or until the chicken is fully cooked.  Turn off the heat. Let the rice sit for 3 more minutes with the lid on. 
9. Then add a dash of white pepper, and chopped scallion and mix the rice well.  Taste it. Add a dash of salt if needed.

I was working late last night on school work. I flipped through the channels and happened to watch Andrew Zimmerman’s show.  He visited Tokyo and ate all sort of weird stuff.  I was so jealous.  I wish I could go visit Tokyo again. It is such a fun city, the culture, the trendy people, mega shopping malls, the food are so awesome.  Even though I had a crazy day and I felt like I have been working non-stop the whole day, I can’t help thinking about the wonderful Japanese food I tried when I visited Japan.  I’m not talking about sushi, but cooked Japanese food.  I made Oyakodon for dinner tonight.  It’s a Japanese chicken and egg dish served on rice.  I learned how to make this dish from some youtube video that I watched a while back. This was my second time of making the dish.  It’s so simple and yet very comforting.  The egg absorbed the sauce and it was very yummy!  It’s a perfect dish to make for a hectic day. LOL.  I cooked the whole dinner in less than 30 mins. There are a few more cooked Japanese dishes served on rice that I really like. I’ll make them sometimes.

Cook onion, garlic and chicken first

Add soy sauce, mirin, hon dashi etc to the pot

Hon Dashi - a Japanese fish stock powder

Add egg

Let egg fully cooked untouched!

Oyakodon served with rice

Ingredients (Serves 2):

• Boneless chicken meat, 1 pound (I recommend boneless thigh meat as it won’t get too dry after cooking it for a while)
• Onion, 1
• Egg, 2
• Garlic, 1 clove
• Soy sauce, ¼ cup
• Mirin, 2 Tbsp (Mirin is a kind of sweet rice wine, you can get it even from American grocery stores)
• Water, ¼ cup
• Chinese cooking wine, 1 Tbsp
• Sugar, 1 tsp
• Hon Dashi, 1 tsp (Hon Dashi is a Japanese fish stock powder, Most asian grocery stores have them)

Steps:

1. Finely chopped garlic.  Cut onion into strips.  Put it aside. 
2. Cut boneless chicken meat into small edible pieces.
3. Spray a little bit cooking oil to a frying pan.  Use high heat.  Add garlic and onion.  Stir fry it for couple of minutes.  Then add chicken to the pan.  Stir fry for couple of minutes.
4. Add soy sauce, mirin, cooking wine, sugar, Hon Dashi and water to the pan.  Turn the heat down to medium low. Put a lid on the pan, and let it simmer for 7 mins.  Stir occasionally.  If you don’t have a lid, put a piece of aluminum foil on top like what I did.
5. Taste the sauce and see if it is too salty or not.  Add more water or salt if needed.  
6. Beat an egg.  Pour it over the chicken.  Don’t touch it.  Put the lid back on and let it cook for another 3 or 4 minutes or until the egg is fully cooked.  Serve hot.

I made Chicken Curry on Tuesday night.  But I didn’t get a chance to write up the recipe till now.  That’s how I felt for a lot of stuff in life. I wanted to do things earlier but didn’t get a chance to.  I remember I got home like 7:15pm, and I had 45 minutes to make dinner before American Idol started at 8pm.  I’m a big American Idol fan. I can’t miss it.  I really wanted Chicken Curry for that night.  I haven’t had Chicken Curry for a long time since I had dinner with a few Indian buddies like 6 months ago.  Indian curries were so good.  Unlike most Chinese, I love curry.  I could have curry everyday.  My college buddy and I used to make Chicken Curry a lot back when we were in school.  We cooked a huge pot of curry, and we had that everyday for a whole week.  Of course, our Chinese style curry was nothing as good as the curry at the Indian restaurants.  I never had Indian food till I was in college, and it was fantastic.  I felt in love with Indian curry after that.  The curry that I made on Tuesday was more like Japanese style.  I only had 45 minutes to make the whole thing from scratch befoer American Idol!  Chicken cooks fast, but potato could take forever.  Well.. thanked God there was microwave!  I cooked the potatoes for 10 mins in the microwave first before I put them in the pot. I use 10 minutes to cut the chicken and veggie.  Cook the dish for 30 mins.  Heat up some ready-to-serve rice for 3 mins. I made it for the show by 8pm. It was a rush. But I was proud of myself.  The Chicken Curry turned out pretty yummy

Cut vegetables first

Add Chicken and spices

Japanese style curry gravy

Chicken Curry

Ingredients:

• Chicken, 2 pounds (I used boneless thigh meat, you can use breast meat or even chicken with bone-in)
• Potatoes, 2
• Onion, 1
• Carrots, 2 or 3
• Garlic, 2 cloves
• Ginger, 5 slices
• Nutmeg, 1 tsp
• Tumeric powder, ½ tsp
• Paprika, 1 tsp
• Garlic powder, ½ tsp
• Soy Sauce, 1 Tbsp
• Sugar, 1 tsp
• Chinese cooking wine, 1 Tbsp
• Curry gravy (I used the Japanese version, I put 3 gravy cubes. You can use 1 can of Chinese curry gravy or 1 tablespoon of curry powder)
• Water, 3 cups

Steps:

1. Cut onion into cubes or strips. I cut some into cubes and some into strips to give it a different texture.
2. Cut carrots into small pieces.
3. Finely chop garlic and ginger.
4. Peel and cut potatoes into big cubes.
5. Use a large frying pan.  Spray cooking oil. Use high heat. Put garlic, ginger, onion, carrots to the pot.  Cook it for couple of minutes. Then add the spices (tumeric powder, paprika, nutmeg and garlic powder). Mix it well.
6. Add chicken.  Mix it well.  Let it cook until the meat is half cooked.  Add cooking wine and soy sauce.  Cook it for another minute or so.
7. Add curry gravy, sugar and water to the pot. Mix it well.
8. Add potatoes.  Turn the heat to low, and let it simmer for 1 hour.  Stir occasionally.  If you cook the potatoes in the microwave for 10 minutes before like I did, you probably need 30 minutes cooking time instead of an hour.  Check the thickness of the sauce, add water if needed.
9. Add a pinch of salt if needed.

The weather is really crazy. It was freezing cold for the few days and all of a sudden it’s warm again.  I was thinking about making Lap Cheong (Chinese Sausage) with Sweet Rice.  But now the weather is so warm, I didn’t feel like having that. I needed something more refreshing.  I made some Chicken Chow Mei Fun.  Mei Fun is rice noodles.  I just found out from the package that they have lower calories than egg noodles.  Ya, I do care about calories these days.  I love mei fun.  It doesn’t matter whether it is Mei Fun in a soup, or Chow (stir fry) Mei Fun.  My favorite is Singapore Mei Fun.  I used to order Chow Mei Fun as lunch when I was in high school.  My good friend ordered the same thing. She munched a little bit, and she was stuffed, and she didn’t plan to finish it.  So, I ate mine, and I ate hers.   I was such a pig back then LOL. I have never resisted any Chow Mei Fun just like I have never resisted any fried chicken in my life. LOL…  I thought Chow Mei Fun was more like a Chinese dish, I was just surprised that a lot of my American friends love Chow Mei Fun too.  My ex coworkers and my ex boss would order House Special Mei Fun whenever we ate in a Chinese take-out place for lunch.  My ex boss said it was a good complete meal because there was some meat, some veggie, and some carbs all in the dish. I totally agreed.  Like fried rice, you can put whatever ingredients you like, and be creative.

NOTE: you can make a vegetarian version if you skip the chicken.  I make this once for my Indian coworkers, they loved it.

Mei Fun, about 100 calories per piece

 

 

Cook egg first. Then cut it into pieces

 

 

Cut Onion, Celery and Carrot into Strips Cook chicken, veggie first, then add mei fun

Add Egg back after the mei fun is almost done

Chicken Chow Mei Fun

Ingredients: 

• Chicken, 1 pound
• Onion, 1
• Celery, about 4 or 5 stalks
• Carrots, about 4 stalks
• Mei Fun, 1 pack, about 1 pound
• Egg, 1
• Garlic, 2 cloves
• Scallion, 3 stalks
• Fish sauce, 1 Tbsp
• Soy Sauce, 1 tsp
• Oyster sauce, 1 tsp
• Chinese cooking wine, 1 Tbsp
• Cornstarch, 1 Tbsp
• Water, 3 Tbsp

Steps:

1. Boil a big pot of water. When water boils, put the mei fun in the pot just like cooking any pasta.  Separate the mei fun with a fork or pair of chopsticks.  Let it cook in high heat for 3 mins.  Remove the pot from the heat.  Pour the noodles in a colander, and run it in cold water to get rid of extra starch.  Put it aside and let it drain.
2. Prepare the sauce first. Put the cornstarch, chinese cooking wine, oyster sauce, fish sauce and water in a bowl. Mix it well. Put it aside.
3. Cut onion, celery and carrots all into small strips.  Put them aside.
4. Finely chop the garlic. Put it aside.
5. Cut scallions into strips. Put it aside.
6. Cut chicken into small strips, put it in a bowl. Add soy sauce, and mix it well.  Put it aside.
7. Crack an egg and stir it well like making an omlette.  Put it aside.
8. Use a non stick frying pan. Add a little of oil. Use high heat.  Add the egg to the pan.  Let it cook untouched for a minute.  Flip it over to the other side and cook for another minute. Turn off the heat. Put the egg on a cutting board, and cut it into small pieces. Put it aside.
9. Spray a little more oil to the pot. Add chicken to the pot. Use high heat. Stir fry it, and let it cook for couple of minutes. When it is half cooked, add garlic, celery, carrots, and onion to the pot.  Stir fry for a few minutes.
10. Add the mei fun to the pot.  Add more oil if needed.  Mix it well.  Add the sauce to the mei fun.  Mix it well.  Let it cook for 3 minutes of so.
11. Add the egg to the pot.  Mix it well.  Taste it. Add a dash of salt if needed.
12. Add scallion to the pot. Mix it well and turn off the heat immediately.

 

 

 

 

The weather is getting nicer.  The other day, someone in the neighborhood was doing some BBQ, and it smelled so good.  I can’t help it. I had to use my grill as well. LOL.  I got some wings and fired up the grill.  I love BBQ. I liked to hang out with my friends for  BBQ when I was kid.  Each of us had our own BBQ stick, a long metal stick with a wooden handle. We sat by a fire pit.  We cooked our own food.  It was so primitive.  For each person, we usually prepared 1 piece of steak, 1 piece of pork chop, couple sausages, some fish balls, couple of wings, corn, mashmallows … tons of food.  We ate, we talked, we listened to the sound of the waves by the beach.  It was wonderful.  BBQ back then was a whole different experience to me than BBQ here.  When I got invited to someone’s BBQ party, the host usually had to stand by the BBQ grill and cook the food for all the guests.  Poor guy!  There was no fun for him!  While others were drinking beer, talking and having a great time, he was busy cooking and feeding the hungry crowd.  I would never want to host a BBQ party myself.  LOL. 

About 1.5 pounds of wings

Cook wings on a grill

BBQ Wings with Orange Teriyaki Glaze

Ingredients (Serves 2):

• Chicken wings, 1.5 pound
• Orange juice, 2 Tbsp
• Soy sauce, 1 Tbsp
• Oyster sauce, 1 Tbsp
• Ginger, 2 slices
• Honey, 2 Tbsp
• Sugar, 1 tsp
• Chinese wine, 1 tsp
• Cornstarch, 1 tsp
• Water, 2 Tbsp

Steps:

1. Finely chopped the ginger. Put it in a bowl.
2. Add orange juice, soy sauce, oyster sauce, honey, sugar, chinese wine, cornstarch and water to the bowl.  Mix it well.
3. In a small saucepan, pour source to the pan. Use low heat.  Stir until the sauce thickens.  Put sauce in a bowl.
4. Fire up your grill. Make sure you spray non-stick oil to the surface of the grill first so that food won’t stick.  Use medium high heat.  Put wings on the grill.  Cook it for 15 mins with the BBQ grill lid on.  Flip over to the other side, and put the lid down and cook it for another 15 mins.
5. When the wings look cooked, brush sauce to the wings.  Let it cook for a minute or so on each side.
6. Remove wings from the grill.  Brush more sauce on top of the wings.

I’m getting stressed out with the amount of work I have to deliver this week.   It’s not even funny.  Plus I got a final exam next week.  Back in my college days, we made Ginseng Chicken Soup all the time.  We were all foreign students. Our parents all gave us Ginseng and made sure that we had ingredients to make some Ginseng Chicken Soup once in a while.  Ginseng has the power of rejuveation and reduce fatigue.  So whenever our exams were approaching, we would make Ginseng Chicken soup to get the last minute energy boost.  One of my friend tried Ginseng Chinese Soup for the very first time, and he said he was wide awake the whole night, and he wasn’t tired. So he couldn’t fall asleep.  I’m totally the opposite now. I can fall asleep anytime. My brain is so tried.  I certainly can use a little bit of energy boost for this coming week.  I don’t even know if I would survive these few days.  I looked at the soup mix that mom gave me.  Besides Ginseng, she also put fish maws in it.  Fish maws are some funky stuff that Chinese cherish.  It’s basically gas bladder of large fish.  It sounds pretty crazy just thinking about it.  But it is one of those expensive delicacies.  It is high in collagen.  If you can afford making fish maw for daily consumption for two weeks or so, you can definitely tell the difference in your skin.   So combining the Ginseng and fish maw, this soup can boost your energy while keeping you pretty.  LOL.

Ginseng

Fish Maws

Put all ingredients in a crock pot

Ginseng Chicken with Fish Maw Soup

Ingredients:

• Ginseng, a handful
• Fish maws, 3 or 4 pieces
• Chicken, 1.5 pounds, I used about 6 chicken drumsticks.
• Dioscorea Opposita, a big handful (Optional, these are japanese dried yam, white in color, you can get them from Chinese grocery stores at the soup mix aisle)
• A lot of water
• Salt

Steps:

1. Pre-soak the dried fish maw over night first.
2. Add ginseng, fish maws, chicken in a crock pot.  Add hot water in it.  Leave about 1 inch room on top. Don’t over fill the water.
3. Turn the heat to be high. 
4. Set your timer.  After 6 or 7 hours, the soup is done.  Note I put all the ingredients in the crock pot, and then went to bed, and the soup is done the next day when I woke up.
5. Add a pinch of salt for taste.

TGIF   YAY.  I can relax a little bit.  I decided to make something I like.  I like chicken cutlets and I also like Chicken Marsala.  Hm.. may be I could combine them into Chicken Cutlet Marsala   Chicken cutlets are breaded, so they are not the most healthy thing on earth. I know… But since I use spray oil instead of regular cooking oil, I cut back a lot on the oil.   Besides, I rejoined the gym yesterday after 9 months of porkiness.  I went to the gym yesterday and I went to the gym today. I felt GREAT.  Plus I’m going to play golf tomorrow.  So, I think it was ok for me to have a little bit of Chicken Cutlet Marsala.   BTW, this is not difficult to make, just messy.

Mixchicken well with corn starch first, then add a beaten egg

Coat chicken with breadcrumb

Pan fried the chicken

Stir fry onion and mushroom, then add butter and flour to make a roux

Ingredients (serves 2-3):

• Chicken breast meat, 1 pound.  I used the chicken fingers. They were already pre-cut. 
• Breadcrumbs, 2 cups
• Marsala wine, 1/2 cup
• Egg, 1
• Cornstarch, 1 Tbsp
• Onion, 1
• Mushrooms, 1 pack. I bought the pre-cut ones. It was so convenient.
• Butter, 2 Tbsp
• All purpose flour, 2 Tbsp
• Water, 1 cup

Steps:

Note: I used two frying pans. One for cooking the chicken, the other for making the sauce.   If you only have one frying pan, remove the chicken to a plate when it is cook, and then make the sauce.

1. Beaten an egg. Put it aside.
2. Put breadcrumb on a piece of aluminum foil. Put it aside.
3. Cut a small onion into strips.  Put it aside.
4. If you have one of those spikey meat tenderizer tool, use it to flatten the chicken breast meat a little bit.  If not, just use the back of the knife to gentlely chop the meat a little bit. 
5. Put all the chicken meat in a bowl.  Add a tablespoon of cornstarch.  Mix it well.
6. Pour the beaten egg into the chicken meat.  Mix it well.
7. Coat each piece of chicken meat with breadcrumbs.
8. Put non-stick spray oil on the pan.  Use high heat.  Put breaded chicken on the pan.  Let the chicken to cooke for 3 mins.  Then flip it over and cook the other side for another 3 mins. Turn off the heat.
9. Use a separate frying pan. Add onion to the pan.  Cook it for 2  minutes.  Add mushrooms to the pan.  Cook it for 2 minute.
10. Add butter, and floour to the pan.  Turn the heat down to low.  Mix it well and let it cook for 1 minute. 
11. Slowly add the marsala wine to the pot, mix it well.  Add water.  Let the sauce to be cooked for couple of minutes.
12. Pour the sauce over to the chicken on the other frying pan.  Cover the pan.  If you don’t have a lid that is big enough, put a piece of aluminum foil on top (that’s what I did).  Turn the heat to medium low.  Let the chicken cook with the sauce for 3 minutes or so.  Taste it.  Add  a dash of salt if needed.