Chinese Chicken Recipes for Busy People

I was staying up late last night doing my school work.  I had my TV on, and I was flipping channels.  I came across a show on TLC called “Hoarding Buried Alive”.  I cannot imagine how people can bury themselves literally with tons and tons of stuff.  The whole house was like a storage room.  A psychologist was there to help them.  It turns out that people were holding on and keep piling up stuff because every item represents a piece of memory to them.  It’s hard to let go a part of the memory.  I guess people use different ways to hold on to their memory.  For me, I’m not super neat, but I don’t pile up junk either.  Instead, I associate food with people, memory, all the good and bad times of my life.  A lot of food I like may not really taste super yummy, but it is the memory I associate with it that makes the food special.  Here is one of them – Cheung Fan, some kind of rice noodle that you can order at a Chinese Dim Sum restaurant.  The noodle itself doesn’t have much taste.  When you mix it with soy sauce, hoisin sauce and hot sauce, it would be yummy.  There was a street vendor near to my house when I was kid.  They sold breakfast food including Cheung Fan, Chinese Donut Sticks, Congee in the morning.  Mom would ask me to get some Cheung Fan, and Congee for breakfast. Usually there were like 10 or so people waiting in line to get them. I saw the owner put a thick, white, glue-looking mixing on a flat pan to make a thin layer.  Then he quickly put a cover on top.  After a few seconds, the white mixture was steamed.  It turned into a big flat piece of noodle.  He would cut it into 3 pieces, then quickly roll each piece into a long roll.  This whole process happened so fast.  I loved watching how the noodles were made and how fast the guy could do it.  He passed the rolls of noodles to his wife who took care of the customer’s orders.  She would hold a few rolls in her hand, use a pair of scissors and cut them into edible size like 2 inches long.  Put the noodles on a piece of non-stick paper or so, and sprinkled quickly some dark soy sauce, put some hoisin sauce and hot sauce on one corner, and then she put the whole thing in a small white plastic bag.  The noodles were soft and melt in my mouth. It was one of my favorite breakfast.

Of course, now we don’t have any street vendors making fresh Cheung Fan in US.  I can only buy a bag of ready-made Cheung Fan from the refridgerated section of a Chinese grocery store.  They were nowhere as good, but it was the memory that it reminded me that left a warm feeling.

Ready-made Cheung Fan. You can get it from a Chinese Grocery Store

Put a wet paper towel on top, and microwave it for 1 min

Pan fry the Cheung Fan just like what they do in Dim Sum restaurants

Cheung Fan with Soy Sauce and Hoisin Sauce

 

 

 

Ingredients:

• 1 package of Cheung Fan.  You can get it from the refridgerated section of a Chinese grocery store.
• Dark soy sauce, 1 Tbsp
• Hoisin sauce, 1 tsp
• Hot sauce, 1 tsp (optional if you like it spicy)

Steps:

1. Put the noodles on a plate.  Since they were refridgerated before, the noodles became harder and all turned into a big lump. It’s OK.  We’ll untangle them. Wet a piece of paper towel.  Put the wet paper towel on top of the noodles.   Then put it in a microwave on high temperature for 1 minute.  This will make the noodles softer.
2. Break the noodles by hand. Be careful, some part of the noodles could be hot.  Use a pair of scissors and cut the noodles into edible size like 3 inches long.
3. Use a large non-stick frying pan.  Spray non-stick cooking oil to the pan.  Put the noodles in the pan.  Spread them out in one layer.
4. Use medium heat.  Let the noodles cook for 2 minute or so.  Don’t touch it. This is not a stir fry dish.
5. Flip the noodles over to the other side.  Cook them for another 2 mins or so or until the noodles are soft.
6. Put them on a plate.
7. For the sauce, you can pre-mix the sauce together like I did, or you can add the soy sauce first, then put hoisin sauce and hot sauce on the side.

It was a delayed action that it took me this long to make this traditional Chinese vegetarian dish.  It is traditional vegetarian dish for Chinese New Year Day 1.  I really wanted to make this dish back then, but I got so tied up at work and stuff.  Mom used to make this on Chinese New Year Day 1. According to her family tradition, we should be vegetarian on that day to show some kindness of not killing any living thing for at least one day a year.  So she would make a huge amount of this dish and we used to have it for breakfast, lunch and dinner.  Ya, you can imagine how boring that day would be.  Even though I respected my mom’s tradition, it was really hard for a meat lover to have 0 meat for the entire day.  So after I complained a few times, she only forced us to be vegetarian for breakfast and lunch. 

Dried Gold Needle - high fiber edible flowers

Chinese Hair Vegetable

Fried Tofu

Tofu Skin Rolls

Putting all the vegetables in a pot

Chinese Vegetarian Dish with Hair Vegetable

Oh BTW, you may not have seen or heard a lot of these ingredients here. That’s ok, that means there are more new stuff for you to try out. Awesome

Ingredients:

Note I don’t really measure these. Just get a handful of each ingredient.

• Dried Gold Needles, a handful - these are edible, high fiber flowers.  They have a subtle sweet taste. 
• Hair Vegetable (Fat Choi in Cantonese) or Black Hair Moss, a small handful - these are wild moss grow in the Mogolian dessert.  So, it take a lot of manpower to harvest these, ie, expensive stuff.
• Tofu skin roll, about 3 long rolls – It’s very thin tofu product rolled into a long roll. 
• Wood ear mushroom, a small handful – OOPS, I forgot to add them. They are black fungus. I’m sure you’ve tried them before. They are used in hot and sour soup.
• Fried tofu, 1 pack
• Cellophane noodles, a handful
• Dried shaiitake mushrooms, 8-10
• Chinese Bok Choy, 3 or 4 leaves
• Water, 4 cups
• Oyster sauce, 2 Tbsp
• Soy sauce, 1 tsp
• Fish sauce, 1 tsp
• Chinese cooking wine, 1 Tbsp
• Sugar, 1 Tbsp
• Salt, a dash

Steps:

1. Soak dried shaiitake mushroom in hot water for 20 mins or so.  Cut them in halves if they are too big. Put them aside.
2. Soak the hair vegetable in water for a few minutes.  It will expand and get soft.  Drain well and put it aside.
3. Soak the dried gold needle flowers in water for a few minutes.  Drain well and put them aside.
4. Soak cellophane noodles in water for 10 minutes or so. Drain well and put them aside.
5. Soak wood ear in warm water for 10 minutes or so.  Drain well.  Just coarsely cut them and put them aside.
6. Cut fried tofu into halves. Put them aside.
7. Break tofu skin rolls with your hand into long pieces of about 3 inches each.  Put them aside.
8. Cut Chinese Bok Choy into pieces.
9. Use a big pot, put dried shiitake mushrooms, dried gold needle flowers, tofu skin rolls, fried tofu, wood ear mushrooms, water, oyster sauce, fish sauce, soy sauce, sugar, chinese cooking wine into the pot.  Ya, basically you can put everything except the cellophane noodles and bok choy and salt.
10. User medium heat.  Let it cook for 30 minutes or so. The dried shiitake mushrooms need a longer time to cook in order to be soft and tender.
11. There should be some water in the pot, not completely dry.  Add more water if needed.  Then add the cellophane noodles, let them cook for another 15 minutes or so. 
12. Taste it and see if you need to add salt, or more oyster sauce. 
13. Finally, add Bok Choy and let it cook for 3 more minutes. The sauce should be almost dried up.  See picture of the dish.

NOTE: If you are a real vegetarian, skip the oyster sauce, fish sauce and use soy sauce, salt, sugar and vegetable broth instead.

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 didn’t really feel like making anything fancy for tonight.  I wanted to make a simple meal, non-fattening, and yet fill me up.  And the most important thing, I didn’t want to wash a lot of dishes and utensils. LOL.  American Idol was on tonight, I had to make sure I got dinner and finished cleaning before the show started.  Plus, I have to do school work after that.  My assignment is due tomorrow and I haven’t even started.  I got some frozen shrimps that I cleaned the other day, udon noodles, veggies and some dried mushrooms. I could pull off a simple meal.

Japanese Dried Seaweed

Seafood Udon Noodle Soup

Ingredients (serves 2-3):

1. Shrimp, shelled and devined, 1 pound
2. Chinese bok choy, 4 leaves
3. Dried (or fresh) Shaiitake mushrooms, whole or pre-sliced, a handful
4. Udon noodles 3 packs (1 pack for regular serving. Guys may need 1.5-2 packs each).  Each pack of udon should come with a seasoning pack. 
5. Dried seaweed, a handful.
6. Scallion, 2 stems
7. Water, 9 cups

Steps:

1. Shell, devine shrimp. Put it aside.
2. If you are using whole dried shaiitaki mushroom, soak it in warm water for 20 minutes or so. Then slice it thinly.  If you are using pre-sliced dried mushroom, no soaking is needed as it is pretty thinly sliced.  If you are using whole fresh mushroom, slice it in thin pieces.
3. Cut bok choy into bite size pieces.  Put it aside.
4. Cut scallion into small pieces. Put it aside.
5. Squash or squeeze each pack of udon noodle while it is in its package. This could help to separate the noodle before you cook it.
6. Use a  big pot, boil 8 cups of water. Use high heat.
7. When the water boils, put the shrimp in.  Cook it for 2 mins or until it is cook.  Don’t over cook the shrimp, or it would get rubbery.  Remove the shrimp from the pot.  Leave the water in the pot. This would be great stock for the soup.
8. If you are using dried mushrooms, add them to the pot and let them cook for 5 mins.
9. Add noodles to the pot.  When the water boils, let it cook for another 2 mins.  Turn off the heat.
10. Remove the noodles from the pot. Distribute them into serving bowls. 
11. Put scallion pieces into each serving bowl.
12. Turn the heat back on to high, bring it back to a boil.  Add bok choy, seaweed and the seasoning pack that come with the udon.  Cook it for another 2 minutes. 
13. Taste it. Add a dash of salt if needed. Or add more water if it is too salty for your taste.

The first time I tried Beef Sukiyaki at a Japanese restaurant years ago, the waitress asked me if I would like it cooked in the kitchen or at my table. I chose the latter. I just wanted to see how it was done.  She brought the gas stove, a shallow pan, a large plate of raw ingredients to my table.  I saw her cooked the whole dish. My mouth was watery just watching it.   It was delicious.  I got hooked on Sukiyaki since then.  So whenever I tried out any new Japanese restaurants, I would order Sukiyaki, and I could tell if they serve authentic Japanese food or not.  You know, a lot Japanese restaurants are opened by Chinese, and they put fake stuff in it. LOL.   For example, instead of putting good cut of beef, they have London broil.  Instead of thinly sliced beef, the meat is like half an inch thick.  Instead of thick Japanese cellophane noodles, they put the skinny Chinese cellophane noodles.  Instead of using Japanese fresh shaiitaki mushrooms, they use Chinese dried shaiitaki mushrooms…. Ya, you can tell I have tried a lot of bad sukiyaki.  These days, I don’t go out to eat often, I started to make my own sukiyaki.  It probably costs me $25 or so to get all the good ingredients from a Japanese grocery store, but it’s all worth it.  I got the thinly sliced ribeye, tofu, mushrooms, veggies and Konnyaku noodles.  Konnyaku noodles are also called Shirataki noodles or miracle noodles.  It has zero calories.  I highly recommend Konnyaku noodles to anyone like me who craves noodles, and yet worry about the calories.

Beef Sukiyaki with Shirataki Miracle Noodles

Ingredients (Serves 2-3):

• Thinly sliced ribeye, 1 pound 
• Tofu, 1 pack
• Fresh Shaiitaki Mushrooms, 1 pack
• Enoki Mushrooms, 1 pack
• Chinese Bok Choy, 3 leaves
• Carrots, 3 sticks
• Onion, 1
• Garlic, 1 clove
• Scallion, 3 stems
• Konnyaku noodles (aka Shirataki noodles, or miracle noodles)
• Soy sauce, 1/2 cup
• Mirin, 1 Tbsp
• Sugar, 2 Tbsp
• Saki or Chinese Cooking wine, or white wine, 1 Tbsp
• Chicken Stock or water, 1 cup (chicken stock would make it tastier)

Note: If you don’t like beef, you can use other kind of meat like pork, or chicken.  You can also use all sort of other kinds of leafy veggies.

Steps:

1. Cut carrots, Chinese bok choy into bite size pieces.  Put it aside.
2. Cut onion into thin strips.  Put it aside.
3. Cut the root part of the enoki mushrooms, then break them into small chunks. Put them aside.
4. Cut tofu into big cubes (like 2 inches).  Put them aside.
5. Cut scallion into strips.  Put it aside.
6. Finely chopped the garlic. Put it aside.
7. Use a large shallow pan, or a frying pan.  Use high heat.  Spray cooking oil on the pan.  Lay beef slices in the pan. Let it cooked for a minute or so on each side. They cook fast since they are so thin.  Take it out from the pan when it is cooked. Put it aside.
8. Note that from this point onwards, you can put everything into the pan and cook them all at equal amount of time, or put them in at separate time like I did.
9. Put onion and garlic in the pan.  Stir fry it for couple of minutes.
10. Add carrots to the pan.  Add soy sauce, cooking wine and chicken stock to the pot.  Lower the heat to medium low. Put a lid on.  Let it cook for 10 minutes.  If you don’t have a big lid, just cover it with a piece of aluminum foil. That would work too.
11. Add shaiitaki mushrooms, tofu and sugar to the pan. Cover it and let it cook for 5 minutes.
12. Add noodles, and Chinese bok choy, mirin to the pan. Add the beef on the top.  Cover it and let it cook for another 2-3 minutes.
13. If the sauce gets too dry, you can add more water.  Taste it.  Add more soy sauce if needed.

I was so excited to visit the Nissin Ramen Noodles Museum in Japan last year. I love ramen noodles!

Fatty visited Nissin Ramen Noodles Museum

A lot of Ramen Noodles!

I ate so many Ramen noodles in my life that I’m really claiming myself to be an expert chef for cooking ramen noodles ;p LOL.  I take it seriously.  Mom may had cooked my Ramen noodles a few times, and she didn’t make it the way I like it.  I like it al dente!  If you undercook it, it’s like eating something fake, or plastic-like.  If you overcook it, it’s too soggy and it’s all gross IMHO.  If you add too much water for the soup, it doesn’t have much taste. If you add too little water, it gets too salty. It takes a lot of skills to make a good bowl of ramen noodles   I ate so much of these in my life because I grew up poor.  I’m still somewhat poor.. LOL.   It probably costs like 60 cents or so for a pack of noodles. Even if you make it fancy by adding some toppings on it, it is still like $1 or so for the meal. It’s a real poor man’s dish.  I remember I met some students from China back when I was doing my internship at a company.  The company subsidized all the students to stay in a hotel.  There was a pantry area in the hotel. We all gathered there for dinner.  I saw some Chinese guy there every night.  He would put the ramen noodle in a large plastic container, then add tap water in it, add the seasoning, and heat it up in a microwave.  YUCKY!  First of all, you can’t make good ramen noodles that way.  But the thing that really amazed me was that when his noodles were ready, he would open a jar of pickles and put one pickled cucumber in his noodles.  That’s his dinner!   He ate that every night.  He would have a few bites of noodles, and then had a small bite on the pickle as if it is something precious that he had to conserve.  Seeing that, I was like OMG and I thought I was broke!  There’s always someone that’s less fortunate!

Cooking Ramen Noodles

Ramen Noodles With Egg and Ham

Ingredients:

• Ramen Noodles, 1 pack.  I would recommend the Nissin Chicken noodles, or anything from Japan.  Nong Shim is also a good brand, they were made in Korea, and they are a lot spicier.
• Water, 6 cups
• Sesame oil (optional), a few drops

Steps:

1. Optional: if you are planning to add toppings to the noodles, you should prepare the toppings first.  Trust me, if you prepare the toppings after you cook the noodles, your noodles would turn so soggy that it may not look edible!  I like to add a cooked egg, a few pieces of ham or spam, or whatever leftover chicken etc.
2. To cook the noodles, add 6 cups of water in a pot.  Use high heat. Boil the water.
3. When the water boils, pour about 1.5-2 cups of water in a container. Save that for soup use.  You should have about 4 cups of boiled water in the pot.
4. Put the noodles into the pot.  Turn the heat back onto high.  Use a pork or a pair of chopsticks and give it a good stir. Make sure the noodles get separated easily.  Cook it for 2 minutes.  Turn off the heat.
5. Give the noodle a good stir, and discard the water.  Now you have drained noodles left in the pot.
6. Put the pot back to the stove.  Add the seasoning pack that comes along with the noodles in the pot.  Add the 1.5-2 cups of hot water to the pot.  Turn the heat back on to high.
7. Cook the noodles for 1 minute.  Turn off the heat.  Put the noodles in a serving bowl.
8. Optional: You can put a few drops of sesame oil to give it more flavor. 
9. Optional: put some toppings to the noodles.

Enjoy!  Eat it right away!

Somehow didn’t really feel like going out to get food today.  It’s one of those days that I would look at my pantry and see if there’s anything that can fill me up.  So I decided to make fried noodles.  This is not any fancy pan fried noodles that you order at a Chinese restaurant. This is another poor man’s food cos there isn’t much ingredients needed.  I had this as my breakfast occassionally when I was in middle/high school.  There were street hawkers selling fried noodles, congees and other goodies in the morning.  I would pay a few bucks for my fried noodles.  They put the noodles in a small white plastic bag, and stick a plastic folk in it, it’s totally unfancy.  I could put hot sauce or hoisin sauce in if I like.  I would eat that in the bus. By the time I got to school, I was done with breakfast.

Dried Noodles

Fried Noodles

Ingredients (serve 2 -3):

• Chinese dried noodles (prefer the skinny noodles, see the picture), 1/2 pound (which is half a bag)
• Ground meat, 1/4 pound (Optional. I usually use pork/beef, you can use chicken, or even turkey, or totally skip this)
• Carrot, 2 sticks
• Bok choy, 4 or 5 leaves
• Scallion, 4 stems
• Garlic, 1 clove
• Soy sauce, 1 tsp
• Chinese cooking wine, 1 tsp
• Fish sauce, 1 tsp
• Oyster sauce, 1 Tbsp
• Teriyaki sauce, 1 Tbsp
• Black bean sauce, 1 tsp
• Sesame oil, 1 tsp

Steps:

1. Cut the carrots into thin strips.  Put it aside.
2. Cut the bok choy into thin strips.  Put it aside.
3. Finely chopped the garlic.  Put it aside.
4. Cut the scallions into thin strips. Put it aside.
5. To prepare the sauce, add the following in a bowl and put it aside: oyster sauce, fish sauce, teriyaki sauce, and black bean sauce.
6. In a big pot, boil 8 or 9 cups of water.  Use high heat.  When the water boils, add the dried noodles.  Separate them with a fork or chopsticks.  Let it cooked for 5 mins or so. 
7. When the noodles are cooked. Turn off the heat.  Run it under cold water.  Rinse it with cold water for a couple of times to get rid of the starch.  Drain them well.
8. In a frying pan, add a tablespoon of cooking oil, or spray oil to the pan.  Use high heat. Add carrot. Stir fry it for 2 mins.
9. Add ground meat to the pan.  Stir fry it for a couple of minutes until it is cooked.  Add a teaspoon of cooking wine.  Add a teaspoon of soy sauce.  Mix it well.
10. Add bok choy to the pan.  Mix it well.
11. Add the drained noodles to the pan.  Turn down the heat to medium.
12. Add the sauce to the noodles.  Mix it well.  Stir fry the noodles for a couple of minutes. 
13. Add chopped scallion to the noodles.  Add a few drops of sesame oil.  Mix it well. Let it cook for 1 more minute.