Chinese Chicken Recipes for Busy People

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.

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.

I had lunch with my buddy the other day. He retired and I haven’t seen him for a while.  It was great that we got a chance to catch up with each other.  He told me all the good stuff that he has been doing since he retired.  And I told him all the crazy life, school and this Chicken blog.  He didn’t know about this blog.  I told him I put some of the pictures of the dishes on Facebook sometimes.  Then he said, “Oh. That Chicken Soup doesn’t look too good”.  OH thanks!!!  Of course, he can be frank with me, we are friends.  And I responded that Gogi berries Chinese Soup is very traditional Chinese soup.  It may not be attractive to non-Chinese, but it is certainly good stuff, trust me.  Anyway, I felt that I should put something here that looks more edible. HAHHAHAHA..  I presented to you my Chicken and Sweet Corn Soup tonight.  It’s so easy to make, you can’t screw up.  You can use chicken breast meat, or ground chicken.  BTW, have you ever wonder why it is not easy to find ground chicken in American grocery stores?  They sell ground beef, ground pork, ground turkey but not ground chicken.  Oh well… the Hong Kong Style Chicken and Sweet Corn Soup uses ground chicken meat instead of shredded chicken meat.  You can still use shredded chicken meat if you prefer.  It’s not gonna change the taste of the soup. LOL.

Poach chicken first.

Shred the chicken. You can chop it more after that

Add a can of cream corn to the pot

Chicken and Sweet Corn Soup

Ingredients (Serves 2):

• Chicken breast or ground chicken, about less than 1/2 pound. I used 4 chicken finger sized meat.
• Sweet corn cream style, 1 can
• Egg, 1
• Chicken bouillon cube, 1 or chicken powder, 1 tsp 
• Cornstarch, 1 Tbsp
• Water, 4 cups
• Scallion, 1 (optional)
• Salt, a dash

Steps:

1. Beat an egg.  Put it aside.
2. Mix 1 tablespoon of cornstarch with 2 tablespoon of cold water. Mix it well. Put it aside.
3. Chop some scallion for garnish.  Put it aside.
4. We’ll poach the chicken first.  Put chicken breast meat in a large saucepan.  Add 2 cups of water.  Use medium high heat.  let it cook for 3 mins on one side.  Flip the chicken strips over to the other side, cook it for another 3 mins.  Turn off the heat.  Remove the chicken from the pot.  Put them aside.  Save water in the pot.
5. Let the chicken cool a little bit. Then shred them with your hands.  If you like them really in small pieces, you can coarsely chop it after it is shredded. That’s what I did.  Put it aside.
6. Add a can of cream corn to the pot. Ya, just add it to the water there.  Add 2 more cups of water to the pot.  Mix it well.  Use medium high heat and let it cook until it boils.
7. Add chicken meat and the cornstarch mixture and chicken bouillon or chicken powder to the pot.  Let it cook until it boils. The soup should be thickened.  Add a dash of salt.
8. Add the beaten egg to the pot.  Stir the soup a little bit while you add the egg.  Let it cook for a minute. Turn off the heat.  Put chopped scallion as garnish.

I looked around at people I know, everyone works like crazy to make a living in this economy.  I know I age fast with the stress I have.  I used to pluck my white hair whenever I see it.  Now, I got so many that I don’t even care. My vision is getting worse.  I do feel my body is getting old.  Can I do something about it?  Yes, I can  exercise more to keep my mind and soul young. But it’s just hard to find time.  Also diet is important.  One thing I know I’m missing all these years in my diet is soup.  Soup is a very important part of Chinese diet.  I’m not talking about Wonton Soup or Chicken and Sweet Corn Soup.  I’m talking about traditional Chinese soup like Ginseng Chicken Soup that takes a few hours to make.  All the good flavor and nutrients of the ingredients are released in the water after the cooking process.  Growing up, my mom made soup almost every day.  We would have a bowl of soup at the end of each meal.  It was like taking daily supplement in an organic way.  All these years, mom has been telling me that I need to make soup, but I kept telling her I have no time.  She said I can cook it in a crockpot and it didn’t take much effort.  I felt guilty that I have not done anything with the soup mix that she packed for me.  I promised her that I would do so.  After I hang up the phone with her on Saturday night.  I put a soup mix package that she gave me with Gogi Wolfberries in a crock pot. I added some chicken drumsticks in it.  I filled up the pot with hot water. I put the lid on.  I turned the cooking temperature to be high. And I went to bed.  6 hours later when I woke up on Sunday morning.  The soup was ready!  I just made the soup while I was sleeping!!! How cool was that!  Mom was right again. It was effortless.  The soup was delicious.  I ate everything including the Gogi berries.   Gogi Wolfberries are getting more traction these days as Westerners recently discovered the nutritious values of these little guys.  Gogi berries have amazing anti-aging power, improve your vision and boost your immune system.  They are packed with tons of antioxidants.  I will put Gogi Chicken Soup as part of my regular meals instead of wasting money on buying anti-aging creams that don’t work. LOL.

Chinese Soup Mix:

You can get a pack of Chinese soup mix from a Chinese grocery store that contains Gogi Wolfberries.  They are inexpensive.  Or you can buy separate ingredients from the store.  I would suggest to include these 3:

• Gogi Wolfberries  – They are tiny dried berries, red in color. They are great for anti-aging and vision
• Dioscorea Opposita – It’s a kind of Japanese Yam, white in color. Use the dried ones here.  They are also pre-sliced. They are good for the immune system.
• Dried Logan fruit (aka dragon eye fruit) –  They are dark brown in color when dried.  They are rich in Vitamin A and C. Good stuff for improving vision and immune system.

Chinese Soup Mix with Gogi Berries

Mom's Chinese Soup Mix including Gogi Berries (red ones), Dioscorea Opposita (long, white slices), dried Logan/Dragon Eye fruit and other good stuff

Gogi Wolfberries Chinese Chicken Soup for Anti-aging

Ingredients:

• Dried Gogi Wolfberries, 2 Tbsp
• Dioscorea Opposita, a big handful
• Dried Logan fruit, a small handful
• Chicken, 1.5 pounds. I used 7 drumsticks, or you can put 1/2 a chicken, or breast meat or dark meat. Or pork, if you prefer that.

Steps:

1. Boil a big pot of water.
2. Put soup mix in a colander or strainer.  Rinse it under water.
3. Add the soup mix in a crock pot. 
4. Add chicken to the crock pot.
5. Add hot water to the pot. Leave about 1 inches room on top.
6. Put the lid on. Turn the temperature of the crock pot to be high.  Set your timer to 5 or 6 hours or so.  The soup will be done.  You don’t have to do anything while it cooks.
7. Add a pinch of salt for taste when it is done.

What can you get for $5?  I mean for food.  You can get 5 Mac Doubles, or a foot long from Subway.  I love MacDonald, but I couldn’t have 5 burgers for a meal.  Not that I can’t finish it, but the calories and fat will kill me for sure.  The subway foot long is fine, it just doesn’t have enough meat that I prefer for a sandwich.  I watched the talk of Jamie Oliver on the TED conference and it was inspirational.  He’s doing his best to help America fight obesity.  We got to stop eating bad food and start cooking.  That sounds all good.  But for people who have crazy life/work (I’m sure one of them), where do we get time to cook every night?  I know I don’t.  So there were days that I ordered take-out or pizza. Bad bad bad.  Jamie Oliver’s talk stuck in my head since I watched it.  I talked myself out of getting take-out for tonight.  But I don’t really feel like cooking from scratch either.  I found a happy medium.  I went to Trader Joe and got some ready-made food.  Of course, they were not as good as home-made dinner, but certainly much healthier than fast food. I got a bag of Teriyaki Chicken, a bag of grilled eggplant and zucchini, and a bag of cooked brown rice.  $10 for the total for 2 or 3 servings.  So you do the math. It’s less than $5 per person.  I put the chicken in the microwave and heat it up for 2 minutes, then finish it on stove top.  The same thing for the veggie.  As for the rice, I just heat it up in the microwave for 3 minutes. So dinner was ready within 10 minutes.  Not a bad alternative.  I could probably make home-made dinner for 4 times a week, for the rest of the week, I’ll try some Trader Joe’s dinner.  I’ll try not to order take-out or pizza from now on.

A quick Teriyaki Chicken Dinner from Trader Joe's

Another snow day here.  It felt cold and uninviting outside.  Any home made comfort food would help to bring some sunshine to these days.  So I decided to make Chinese Lo Shui Chicken Drumsticks.  Lo Shui literally means old water if I translate it.  It is the same thing as braising except the sauce get reused.  If you cook the meat or tofu or whatever in the sauce (or lo shui) for the first time, the meat absorbs the taste of the sauce, the sauce also absorbs the flavor of the meat or whatever you put in the pot.  When you reuse ths sauce or lo shui the second time for cooking, it adds extra flavor to the meat you are going to cook.  See how it works?  See why it is called old water?  I don’t  know how many times you can repeat this. I usually repeat it two or three times. Then I use the leftover sauce as seasoning for stir-fried or soup noodles. Try it, it’s really yummy. BTW, making Lo Shui dishes is so easy.  You put everything in a pot, set your timer, stir it occasionally. That’s it.  I enjoy any one-pot cooking.  That’s the lazy Fatty speaking. LOL.  But seriously, who has time for crazy preparation these days?

Star Anise Powder, add a nice aroma to the dish

Making Lo Shui Chicken

Chinese Lo Shui Braised Chicken Drumstricks

Ingredients (Serves 2):

• Chicken drumsticks, 6 (slightly more than a pound)
• Garlic, 1 clove
• Ginger, 2 slices (Optional)
• Soy Sauce, ¾ cup
• Chinese cooking wine, 1 Tbsp
• Dark Soy Sauce, 1 tsp (Optional if you have it, it would give a nice darker color for the sauce)
• Oyster sauce, 1 Tbsp
• Star Anise, 4 pieces or 1/2 tsp if you use the powder
• Chicken powder. 1 tsp (or chicken bouillon, 1 cube)
• Sugar, 1 Tbsp
• Water, 4 cups

Steps:

1. Cut garlic into small pieces.
2. Add all ingredients to a pot, including the chicken.  Make sure there is enough sauce covering the chicken.  Add more water and soy sauce if needed.
3. Use high heat.  Bring it to a boil.
4. Turn the heat down to medium low.  Cover it with a lid and let it cook for 40 mins.  Turn the chicken occassionally so that all the sides are cooked with the sauce.  

I highly recommend this dish.  They are so good, they fall off the bone!

You can put the sauce or lo shui in the refridgerator/freezer and save it for next time.  BTW, you can lo shui a lot of things other than chicken, such as pork, beef, tofu, or eggs.  When you reuse the sauce for the second time, there may not be enough sauce, so you can add a little bit more of each ingredient and water.  Trust me, the same dish tastes and looks even better the second time.

Kung Hei Fat Choi again It’s still the week of the Chinese New Year. Yay, we celebrate it for a week. LOL.  I missed the Chinese New Year banquet at work.  So I decided to make myself a special dish – Chinese Drunken Chicken – to make up my loss.   This dish is so easy that you would not believe it.  You steam the chicken, make a wine sauce, soak the chicken in the wine sauce overnight. That’s it.  I made it once when I was in college many many years ago.  My American roommate tried it, and she loved it. I was so surprised. I assume most Americans don’t like steamed chicken meat or anything that doesn’t look cook.  My friend said her ABC brother (American born Chinese if you haven’t heard of the term before) doesn’t like steamed chicken because of the same reason.  Oh well.. to them, I can only say they are missing a lot of good dishes.  I’m making this dish because I want to start off a new year with healthy food.  Fatty needs to lose weight, no more excuse.  Traditional Drunken Chicken is made of whole chicken (with skin and bone). I’m showing you a fast + healthy version with boneless skinless chicken breast meat.

Put chicken breast on a foil ready for steaming

Make pouch for steaming

Creative steaming rack using two pairs of chopsticks

Soak chicken in wine sauce

Drunken Chicken, yummy

Ingredients (Serves 2):

• Chicken breast meat, 1 pound (I used boneless Chicken finger meat just for convenience, you can use thigh meat, or even a whole chicken with bone and skin, that’s the traditional)
• Chinese cooking wine, 1/2 cup (If you have the Chinese Rose wine, that’s the best)
• Fish sauce, 1/4 cup (sorry, no substitute here)
• Salt, 1/2 tsp
• Sugar, 1 tsp
• Water, 1 to 1.25 cup

Steps:

1. We are preparing to steam the chicken.  If you have a steamer, that’s perfect.  I don’t have anything fancy, so I’m getting creative to make my own steaming device.  LOL…  Put chicken meat in a big piece of aluminum foil (see picture).  Then fold the edges to make a pouch.  Use a second piece of aluminum foil to wrap around the pouch. This will prevent water from getting into the chicken during steaming.
2. Put enough water in the steamer.  Use high heat, boil the water first.  In my case, I put two sets of chopsticks in a pot as a steaming rack.
3. When water boils, add the chicken in the steamer and steam it (with a lid on) for 25 mins.  Set your timer.   If you are not sure if you have enough water in the steaming, check it after 15 mins or so.
4. Take the chicken out.  Be careful it is extremely hot.
5. Cut the chicken into bit size pieces.
6. Now make the wine sauce.  We need a container with a lid because we will be soaking the chicken in the sauce overnight in the refridgerator. 
7. Mix the wine, fish sauce, sugar, salt and water in a container.  Taste it. It should be slightly salty, not too salty.
8. Put the chicken pieces in the wine sauce.  Make sure the chicken pieces are fully submerged in the sauce.  Add a little bit of water if needed, and adjust the taste.
9. Leave the chicken in the container covered in the refridgerator overnight, a good 24 hours would be even better.

Serve COLD.  YAY, this is one of weird cold dish. But if you are not ready to eat cold chicken, you can put it in the microwave for 30 seconds to make it room temperature.