Chinese Chicken Recipes for Busy People

Rush rush rush… I rushed home after a long day, and got about 45 mins to cook and eat dinner before my conference call with my school mates at 8pm.  I could have been lazy and got pizza or take-out on the way home, but I talked myself out of it.  I really want to eat something healthy.  Actually, I was pretty of proud of myself today because I also talked myself out of having burgers and fries for lunch.  Instead, I got sushi at the cafeteria.  Despite that it was yucky (ya, what do you expect from a cafeteria??!!), it was still much healthier than greasy fries.   Tonight, I made Steamed Chilean Sea Bass.  It was sooooo good.  I’m not a big fish fan.  My mom made steamed fish for every meal when I was a kid, and I was sick of it.  She couldn’t go without fish.  Now that I realized how healthy it is and how easy to make it, I started to like it.  It took me about 20 mins to make the dish tonight!  I remember I asked one of my coworkers once how he keeps himself so lean.  He said he runs 6 miles per day, he eats fish and veggies , and no meat.  I can’t do the no-meat thing nor run 6 miles a day, but I could try eating more steamed fish.

Put ginger strips on the fish first

Add scallion after the fish is cooked for 10 mins

Steamed Chilean Sea Bass

Ingredients (Serves 2):

• Chilean Sea Bass, about 1 pound (or you can use whatever white fish)
• Ginger, 5-6 slices
• Scallion, 3 steams
• Soy sauce, 2 teaspoons
• Dark soy sauce (optional), a few drops

Steps:

1. You need to defrost the fish first if it is frozen.  I usually leave it out at the kitchen sink and let it defrost naturally a few hours before cooking.
2. Prepare a steamer.  Add enough water to the steamer.  Boil the water with high heat.
3. While you are waiting for the water to boil, put the fish on a plate/container that fits into the steamer.  Put it aside.
4. Cut ginger slices into thin strips.  Put the ginger strips on the fish.
5. When the water boils, put the fish in the steamer.  Use high heat.  Cover it and steam it for 10 minutes with the lid on.  Set your timer.
6. Now the fish is in the steamer,  you can cut the scallion into thin strips.  Put it aside.
7. When the time is up (ie, the fish is cooked for 10 minutes), put the scallion on top of the fish (see picture).  Put the lid back on.  Count 30 seconds.  Open the lid. Turn off the heat.  Take the fish out from the steamer. The 30 seconds is good enough for cooking the scallion.
8. There may be a lot of water coming out from the fish in the plate.  Disgard most of it and leave a little bit (like 2 or 3 Tbsp) left.  That could dilute the soy sauce that we are going to add in the next step.
9. Put fish on a serving plate if you prefer a different plate (whatever you like).  Then drizzle 2 teaspoons of soy sauce on the fish.  You can put less soy sauce if you prefer. Or you can mix 1 tsp soy sauce with 1 tsp of dark soy sauce, too.  Dark soy sauce gives a nice darker color.

MUST serve HOT!

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.

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!

I love dumplings. I can eat thirty of them each time. I’m not kidding.

I used to hang out with a bunch of foreign students when I was in college. One time one guy from Beijing decided to teach everyone to make dumplings. That could be one of those days that we were so bored and had nothing better to do. Anyway, we went out to grab the ingredients like ground meat and some other ingredients, I forgot. But I remember he said something about dumplings. He said people in China were pretty poor when he grew up. They didn’t have much money to buy meat. So in order to make that meat looked bigger, they made it into dumplings. They mixed the meat with some veggies, put it on a wrapper, fold the edges of the wrapper, squashed the meat in the middle to make it look like a pocket filled with stuff, something that symbolizes abundance. Interesting. I never thought of why dumplings are shaped the way they are. That was the day I learned how to wrap a dumpling. I forgot what ingredients or seasonings he used. We probably made more than 100 dumplings that day among the 6 or 7 of us. They were so yummy. I probably ate more than 30 or so as I said.

Dumpling Wrapping

Dumplings in Soup

Ingredients (make about 50 dumplings)

Dumplings:

• Dumpling wrapper (prefer the round ones, the square one are fine as well), 1 package
• Ground meat (I prefer pork, you can use chicken, beef or even turkey), 1 pound
• Shrimp, shelled, deveined, 1/2 pound
• Chinese bok choy, 3 leaves
• Shiitake mushroom (dried or fresh), 4 or 5
• Egg, 1
• Chopped parsley (dried or fresh), 2 Tbsp
• Oyster Sauce (I only use the brand Lee Kum Kee), 1 Tbsp
• Soy Sauce, 1 Tbsp
• Salt, 1/4 tsp
• Pepper, a pinch
• Chinese cooking wine (or white wine), 1 tsp
• Sesame oil, 1 tsp
• Sugar, 1 tsp
• Cornstarch, 1 tsp

Soup:

• Salt, a pinch
• Oyster sauce, 1 Tbsp
• Soy sauce, 1 tsp
• Water, 6 cups
• Scallion, 1 stem, chopped finely

Steps:

1. If you are using dried shiitake mushroom, soak it in the water for an hour.  When it gets soft, squeeze out excess water.  Dice the mushroom into very fine pieces.  Put it in a big mixing bowl.
2. Cut the cleaned shrimp into small pieces (like cut one shrimp into 3 or 4 pieces depending on the size of it).  Add it to the bowl.
3. Add the following to the mixing bowl: ground meat, chopped parsley, oyster sauce, soy sauce, chinese cooking wine, salt, pepper, sugar, cornstarch and sesame oil. Mix well.
4. Chopped the bok choy very finely. Add it to the mixture.  Mix well.
5. Add an egg to the mixture. Mix well.  Let it season for 20 mins.
6. To wrap the dumplings, prepare a small bowl of water.  Put about a tablespoon of mixture to a wrapper.  Put the mixture in the middle, make sure you leave some space on the edge.  Use your finger or the back of a spoon to dip some water to the edge of the wrapper.  Fold the wrapper in half to make a half moon shape.  Press down the edge to make sure it seals tightly.  This is the easiest way to shape a dumping.  If you are more skillful, you can make some crease on the edge to make the dumplings look fancier. Put all the dumplings aside.
7. If you are not going to cook all the dumplings, freeze the extra ones in the freezer.
8. Boil a big pot of water.  When the water boils, add the dumplings.  Boil it for 6 or 7 minutes, or until they float to the top.  Stir occassionally to make sure they don’t stick to the bottom of the pot.  Drain the dumplings and put them in a serving bowl. 
9. Use another pot to make soup.  Add water, oyster sauce, soy sauce and salt. Bring it to a boil.  Turn off the heat.  Add chopped scallion.  Pour the soup over the dumplings. 
10. You can also add some cooked noodles into the soup as well.

It’s not “damn tart”, it’s “dan tart”, Egg Tart.  “Dan” in Cantonese means egg.

I wasn”t crazy about Egg Tarts when I was young.  It was one of those food that I would eat it but I didn”t have any special craving for it.  One year my childhood best friend got a summer job in a bakery shop.  I visited her a few times that summer.  Every time I visited her, she was making egg tarts.  They smelled so good.  I saw her poured the liquid to the tart shells.  She said it was so easy to make egg tarts.  Of course, back then I had no clue how to cook.  Now I don”t live anywhere near any bakery that serves egg tarts.  And I do crave egg tarts once in a while, I don’t know why.   I probably crave the smell of it more than the taste.  Now I would order it whenever I have dim sum in a Chinese restaurant.  One time, I had lunch with my sister and a bunch of friends at a dim sum place.  We ordered egg tarts as desserts.  The waiter told us that their egg tarts were very special.  My sister asked him “How special?”  He said, “especially small”  What a surprising and stupid answer!  We all laughed.

Soft Egg Tart Filling

Chinese Egg Tart

Ingredients: (make 12-15)

Dough:

• Confectioners” sugar, 1 cup
• All-purpose flour, 3 cup
• Butter, 1 cup
• Egg, 1 beaten

Filling:

• Sugar, 2/3 cup
• Water 1.5 cups
• Eggs, 5 beaten
• Vanilla extract, a dash
• Evaporated milk or half and half, 1 cup

Steps:

1. In a  mixing bowl, add confectioners” sugar, flour, and butter.  Use a fork or two knives to cut the butter into small crumbs.  Mix well with the flour mixture. If you have one of those fancy gadget that can cut the butter into small crumbs, use that instead of a fork or knives.
2. Add egg to the mixture.  Mix well and form a dough.   The dough should be moist.  If it is too dry, you can add some more butter.  If  it is too moist, add some more flour.  Knead the dough a few times.  Form a big ball.
3. Shape dough into 1.5 inches balls.  Press it flat with a rolling pin.  Lay it on a tart mold/paper shell.  Make sure if covers the whole mold, ie bottom and side.  Finsih the rest of the molds.  Put them aside.
4. To make the filling, combine the sugar and water in a small saucepan.  Use low heat, cook until the sugar is dissolved.  Turn off the heat.  Let it cool (this step is important!).
5. Wait till the sugar mixture is cool.  Beat the eggs in a bowl.  Strain it through a sieve to remove lumps. Add the egg into the sugar mixture.  Mix well.  Add evaporated milk and a dash of vanilla.   You can strain the whole mixture through a sieve the second time to make sure the mxiture has no lumps.
6. Pour the mixture to the shells.
7. Preheat the oven to 400F.  Bake for 25-30 minutes in a preheated oven, or until they turn golden brown.

I LOVE Ma Po Tofu. Well, I should say I love any tofu. Tofu doesn’t have much taste by itself, so it absorbs whatever seasoning/sauce you add to the dish, which makes it yummy.

Mom used to feed us Tofu Fa and soy milk for breakfast when we were kids. Tofu Fa is basically silken tofu in a sweet syrup or brown sugar. It can be served hot or cold. I love having Tofu Fa for breakfast. I also remember mom brought me to the market (not grocery store) to buy tofu. I hated going to the market cos it smelled bad and the floor was always wet.  Anyway, those were the days.

I can’t get good Ma Po Tofu in Chinese restaurants in the US. One time I ordered it at my usual Chinese take-out place, and it had no meat in it. What a rip-off! I never order any Ma Po Tofu in any restaurants after that except my last reunion with my high school friends. But that Ma Po Tofu was too spicy for me.

Here is my version, not that spicy.

Ingredients:

• Tofu, 1 package.  You can get it from most grocery stores.  I like medium firm. You can get the firm or silken version as you like.  Silken tofu may be harder to work with since it breaks easily when you stir fry it.
• Ground beef or pork, 1/3 pound.  You can make it 1/2 pound if you like more meat, or cut it back.
• Oyster sauce, 1 Tbsp.  Lee Kum Kee is a good brand. I don’t use other ones.
• Cornstarch, 1 Tbsp.
• Chinese cooking wine (or white wine) 1/2 Tbsp.
• Black bean sauce, 1 Tbsp.  I use the Lee Kum Kee Garlic and Black Bean sauce.
• Garlic, 1 clove, chopped.  Skip this if you use the Lee Kum Kee Garlic and Black Bean sauce.
• Sugar, 1/2 Tbsp
• Soy Sauce 1/2 Tbsp
• Hot chili sauce or Chinese hot bean sauce, 1/2 teaspoon (optional, you can cut back the amount if you don’t like it spicy).
• Water, 3 Tbsp
• Scallion, 1 stem, chopped (optional, only for garnish)

Steps:

1. Cut tofu into big cubes.  Put it aside.
2. In a bowl, combine water, corn starch, oyster sauce, black bean sauce, and sugar. Mix well, put it aside.
3. In a pan, add 1 Tbsp of cooking oil.  Use high heat.  Add beef. Stir it and make sure it doesn’t have big clumps.   Cook it for 5 mins or so.   Then add cooking wine and soy sauce. Stir well, cook for another min.
4. Add tofu to the pan. Mix a little bit.  Be gentle, not to break the tofu too much.
5. Add the sauce.  Mix well.  Lower the heat to medium.  Add the hot chili sauce.  Cook for another 2 minutes or so until the sauce thickens.
6. Add scallion as garnish.

Remember to eat it while it’s hot!!

Nope.   This is my signature dish .  Super easy to make, and very yummy IMHO.

I invited friends over for dinner at my place, and I made this once.  Everyone said it was yummy, and would like to know what was in the sauce. I told them it was ketchup. No one believed me… LOL.  This is one of the dishes that you spend little effort and it guarantees good result.

This reminds me that I’ll post another shrimp recipe for Garlic Shrimp. That’s my sister’s signature dish.

Ketchup Shrimp

Ingredients:

• Shrimp, 1 pound (shelled, deveined). Prefer medium or large shrimp.
• Cornstach, 1/2 Tbsp
• Garlic, 1 clove, chopped
• Lemon juice, a few drops
• Chinese cooking wine or white wine, 1/2 Tbsp
• Ketcup, 2 Tbsp

Steps:

1. Add cornstarch to the shrimps. Mix well. Put aside.
2. In a pan, add a tablespoon of oil.  Use high heat. Add garlic. Cook it for about 10 seconds.
3. Add shrimps to the pan, distribute them evenly so that they don’t overlap with each other.  Let them cook on one side for a couple of minutes.  Don’t stir.
4. Flip over the shrimps to another side and cook for another 2 mins or so.
5. Add cooking wine and ketcup to the pan.  Mix them well with the shrimps (now you can stir )  Cook it for another minute or so.  The sauce should be thickened up and just enough to cover the shrimps.
6. Add a few drops of lemon juice. Mix it well. Done.

Remember to eat it while it’s hot!!

It’s all my coworker’s fault, he got me thinking about comfort food for two days now.  I really miss my mom’s cooking.  Besides Steamed Chinese Chicken, she also makes super expensive stuff like Shark Fin Soup, Fish Maw and Bird Nest Soup.  My mom has her funny philosophy. She could be feeding us cheap meals most of the time while we were kids, and yet once in a while (a very long while) we would have an expensive meal.  If you have ever been invited to a Chinese banquet, you probably have tried Shark Fin soup there.   If you order the soup at some fancy Chinese restaurant, it is very expensive.  I may have tried it less than a handful of times in some Chinese banquets when I was a kid.  I have never ordered it in a restaurant myself.  I know it would never be anything as good as or even close to mom’s.  Besides, I’m cheap, I’m not going to pay US$300 or so for a bowl of soup.  It’s expensive because it is rare, and the process of making the soup is complicated.  In mom’s version, she put Shark Fin, shredded Chicken and sometimes fish maw in it. It is high protein, and high collagen.  Last time I visited her, she fed me Shark Fin soup and Bird Nest Soup for breakfast. I couldn’t even tell you how expensive this two would be if you order them at a restaurant.  That was the most expensive breakfast I ever had in my whole life.  It was like a one time experience. 

Shark Fin Soup

Bird Nest Soup

Today, my coworker asked me when would I post receipes for Chinese comfort food.   I was like “hm.. do we have chinky comfort food?” LOL.  He was referring to dishes like Lop Cheung (Chinese cured meat sausage), Jing Yuk Beng (Steamed Minced Pork) etc.  Ya, those are good stuff.  And they also fit my category of the poor man’s food cos they are totally non-fancy family dishes.  To me, I would immediately think of my mom’s Steamed Chinese Chicken for comfort food.  This is one of the most common Chinese dishes.  If you have ever been invited to any Chinese banquet, like someone’s wedding, or birthday, Steamed Chinese Chicken would be one of the dishes, another one would be Steamed Fish.  Maybe I’ll post a recipe for Steamed Fish later.  Mom made Steamed Chicken probably once a week.  She used a wok to steam it.  When it was done, she put the cooked chicken on a round butcher block.  She put a newspaper on the floor, then lay the butcher block on it. She grabbed her Chinese cleaver, and cut the chicken in halves, and then raised the cleaver high in the air, and dropped it quickly to chop each piece.  The chopping was easier to watch than done.  Mom asked me a few times to cut the chicken when she was busy.  I tried to imitate her, but it would take me 2 or 3 cuts to separate each piece.  If I don’t get it in the first cut, then the second cut may not land in the same spot, which you can imagine some pieces were bigger, some smaller, some had a lot of broken bones….  These days, I would make a whole chicken sometimes, but I learned how to use a pair of scissors instead.   Here is a picture of the Steamed Chinese Chicken made by mom when I visited her last time.

Mom's Steamed Chinese Chicken

Ingredients:

• A whole chicken, about 3 or 4 pounds. You can substitute this with legs and thighs, or even breast meat. 
• Scallion, 3 stems
• Ginger root, a small piece, about the length of  your pinky
• Salt
• Sesame oil, 1 tsp
• Cooking oil, 1 Tbsp

Steps:

1. Prepare the dipping sauce ingredients: Cut the ginger root into thin slices first, then thin strips, then very finely pieces like puree.  Put it in a small bowl/plate.
2. Cut scallions into small pieces, and then chop it finely.  Add it to the ginger root.  Put it aside.
3. Rinse the chicken thoroughly, get rid of the internal organ stuff.  Use a few paper towel to pat it dry.
4. This step is optional.  Sprinkle a pinch of salt on the chicken.  Use your hands to rub it evenly on the skin.
5. If you are using a wok, put a metal or bamboo steamer stand in the wok.  Add water to about the level of the stand.  If you are using a steamer, make sure the steamer is big enough to fit the whole chicken. Otherwise, cut the chicken in halves before steaming.
6. When the water boils, put the chicken in a plate and then onto the steamer stand if you are using a wok.  If you are using a steamer, put the chicken in the basket.  Cover the wok/steamer with a lid.  If you don’t have a lid, you can use aluminium foil and cover it tight.
7. Steam for about 30 mins on high heat.  On the side, boil a pot of hot water just in case you need to add more water to the steamer/wok if the water level is getting low.  Check the water level after 15 mins.
8. Carefully remove the chicken from the wok/steamer. It would be steaming hot!  Let the chicken sit for 5 or 10 minutes.
9. Optional: Use a brush and brush a teaspoon of sesame oil on the chicken.
10. When the chicken cools down a little bit, you can cut it into pieces.  If you don’t have much experience using a Chinese cleaver to cut meat with bones, I would recommend you to use a pair of kitchen scissors instead.  It’s much easier with the scissors.
11. To prepare for the dipping sauce, heat up a tablespoon of cooking oil in a frying pan.  Use medium heat.  When you see steams/smoke, turn off the heat.  Add the ginger root and scallion mixture to the pan, you should hear a sizzling sound.  Add a generous pinch of salt to the mixture.  Put it in a dipping sauce bowl/plate.