Chinese Chicken Recipes for Busy People

I saw an article on NPR that talks about meals for the lazy cook today. That’s for me! LOL.  Between my day job and part-time school, I don’t really have much time to cook complicated meals.  In the article, it mentioned about shredded salads that doesn’t need to be cooked.  Oh well, salad is certainly not my thing unless I’m desperate to lose weight.  But I do believe that lazy cook like me will find ways to cut short the cooking.  For example, I use ready made food from the frozen section of a grocery store sometimes.  Tonight, I got some ready made Eggplant Cutlets from Trader Joe’s.  I just needed to heat it up in a pan.  No big deal.  Meanwhile, I also lazy-ized my Garlic Shrimp recipe.  I used to make Garlic Shrimp with the shell on. But then it is too troublesome to peel the shell when I eat it.  So I made shelled garlic shrimp instead.  I got peeled shrimp from the grocery store, ie. I didn’t need to clean or shell it. I just need to butterfly it.  No big deal again.  I served the shrimp with the eggplant and some brown rice.  I heated up some pasta sauce to serve with the eggplant.  It was kind of a weird Chinese/Italian combo, but it was not bad at all.  In fact, the shrimp was so good that there was not leftover left.  The eggplant was ok. I finished it all as well. :p

Cut a slit on each shrimp, add chopped garlic and scallion on top

Steamed shelled garlic shrimp cooked in less than 10 mins

Ready-made frozen Eggplant Cutlet

Pan fry the frozen eggplant cutlets

Serving Garlic Shrimp and Eggplant Cutlet with Brown Rice

What the hail??!!  I mean hail, not hell.  It was rain and hail when I drove home today.  I couldn’t believe that. Why would we have hail in summer?  There were so many cars pulled over on the side of the highway.  I made it home safe.  I didn’t take a look at my car to see if the hail made any dents or not.  Oh well, I’ll find out tomorrow.  My dinner plan certainly had to change due to the weather.  I was planning to grill a bunch of chicken drumsticks, which would not work as it rained like crazy.  I looked for other ingredients I had in the fridge.  I decided to make Egg Foo Young.  I have not made this before.  Heheheh..  But this is one of those basic dishes that I can’t screw up much.  I had tried good Egg Foo Young, and bad Egg Foo Young before.  The good ones, of course, made from my mom.  The bad ones are from various Chinese take out restaurants.  Most take-out places deep fry the dish.  Not kidding.  It was like eating fried eggs in oil.  Yucky.  On top of that, they usually serve the egg with some brownish looking gravy that doesn’t have much taste but looks very pukey to me.  Sorry, I really couldn’t stand the visual part of the sauce, and I asked the chef to skip the sauce or I couldn’t eat it. LOL.  Anyway, those are all modified or Americanized Egg Foo Young.  The real Chinese version tastes much better. It is not deep fried and it doesn’t serve with any brown sauce.  Egg Foo Young dishes are like omelette except that is no cheese.  The most common Egg Foo Young is cooked with shrimp.  It’s another traditional Cantonese dish.

Beat egg and add chopped scallion

Cook shrimp first

Add egg mixture, then cooked shrimp to the pan

Stir a little bit

Shrimp egg Foo Young

Ingredients (Serves 2):

• Shrimp, ½ pound (I used the small ones.  If you are using big or medium size shrimp, you can cut them into smaller pieces first)
• Eggs, 4
• Scallion, 2 or 3 stalks (I used 3 tonight)
• Chicken powder, ½ tsp
• Oyster sauce, ½ tsp (optional. I added a little bit to make it yummier)
• Water, 2 Tbsp
• Salt, a dash
• White Pepper, a dash (I prefer white pepper. Black pepper is ok too)

Steps:

1. In a large bowl/container, add 4 eggs, a pinch of salt, chicken powder, oyster sauce, 2 Tbsp of water and white pepper.  Mix them well while beating the eggs.
2. Cut scallion into dices.  Add to the scallion dices to the egg mixture.  Mix it well.
3. Use a non-stick pan.  Spray cooking oil.  Cook the shrimp first.  Stir fry the shrimp for a few minutes or until it is cooked.  Dish it up on a container for now.
4. Spray more oil on the pan.  Add the egg mixture to the pan.  Then add the shrimp.
5. Stir a little bit as if you are making omlette.  Then let it cook untouched for a couple of minutes.  Flip the egg to the other side and cook it for another minute or so or until the egg is fully cooked, ie not more liquid comes out.  Serve Hot.

The weather is getting warm in NY.  I played a round of golf on Sunday, and the humidity was just too much, and I sweated like crazy.  Of course, it would be nothing compares to the humidity in Asia in summer.  I think the hot weather was making me lose my appetite.  I decided to make something more refreshing instead of having steaks or something too heavy.  I made Winter Melon Soup. I haven’t made this soup for years.  Winter melon has a very mild taste, almost like none.  Usually they are sold in pieces or portions because the whole winter melon is so big that no one would buy the whole thing.  Winter melon looks similar to a water melon except it is more elongated in shape.  I added some dried scallops and dried shiitake mushrooms to add some taste to the soup.  Both dried scallops and dried shiitake mushrooms have strong taste. I only used a few of them.  I had a big bowl of soup for dinner on Sunday night. It was light and refreshing.

Soak dried scallops and dried shiitake mushrooms first

Winter Melon

Tear dried scallops into small pieces after it is soaked

Put winter mellon, mushroom, dried scallop, chicken stock into a pot

Winter Melon Soup

Ingredients (serves 2):

• Winter melon, about 1.5 pounds
• Dried scallops, 3 pieces
• Dried shiitake mushrooms, 3 pieces
• Shrimps, about ¼ or 1/3 of a pound
• Scallions, 2 stalks
• Chicken stock, 6 cups (or you can use 6 cups of water and 1 tsp of chicken powder)
• Cornstarch, 1 Tbsp
• Salt, a dash
• White pepper, a dash (optional)

 Steps:

1. Soak dried shiitake mushrooms and dried scallops in warm water for at least 2 hours. You can soak them overnight in the refrigerator as well.  Then cut shiitake mushrooms into small strips, then dices.  For dried scallops, tear it into really small pieces with your hand. See picture.  Put these aside.
2. Trim off the green rough skin of the water melon, discard it, only use the white meat.  Cut the white part into 1 inch cubes. Put them aside.
3. Cut scallion into small pieces. Put it aside.
4. Cut shrimp into small pieces (I cut each shrimp into 3 pieces). Put them aside.
5. Use a big pot, add 6 cups of chicken stock (or water and 1 tsp of chicken powder) and water melon cubes, dried mushrooms, and shredded dried scallops.  Bring it to a boil.  Turn the heat down to medium and let it simmer for 45 minutes. 
6. Add cornstarch in a small bowl, mix it well with 3 tablespoon of water.  Add the mixture to the soup. This will thicken the soup a little bit.
7. Wait until the soup boils.  Add chopped shrimps to the pot. Let it cook for 3 or 4 minutes until the shrimp is cooked.  Taste the soup, add a pinch of salt and white pepper if needed.
8. Add chopped scallion. Mix it well. Turn off the heat.  Serve hot.

It has been a tough week for me dealing with a sick cat.  I’m sure it is tougher for him since he is the one suffering physically.  I really wish I could do something to help.  I didn’t really feel like making anything fancy for dinner.  I found some leftover rice, some roast pork and some shrimp. Hm.. I could make Yeung Chow Fried Rice.  That would be yummy.  Yeung Chow is probably the name of some place in China.  Ya, my Chinese geography is pretty bad.   Anyway, the basic ingredients for the dish are roast pork and shrimp.  If you have these two, you are good to go.  I made Yeung Chow Fried Rice for a gathering at work once.  I got some boneless spareribs from a Chinese take-out place and used that instead of the roast pork.  They tasted very similar.  My ex-boss was asking me for recipe, so I knew it tasted good.  hehehhehe… I put some carrots to add a bit of veggie there. Usually, you’ll find small peas in most of the fried rice dishes including this one.  But I really don’t like peas at all.  I usually picked all of them out whenever I had fried rice.  My friends teased me said I acted like a kid.  LOL.  Anyway, within 20 mins, I finished making the dish.  I also made some pan fried dumplings to go along with it. It was a simple and satisfying meal.

Basic ingredients for Yeung Chow Fried Rice

Cook the carrot, garlic, ginger first. Then add roast pork

Add rice, and then shrimp.

Add an egg, and then slowly fold the rice in with the egg.

Yeung Chow Fried Rice

 Ingredients (Serves 2):

• Leftover cooked rice, about 2 cups
• Shrimp, ½ pound
• Roast pork, 1/3 pound
• Onion, ½
• Carrot, 2 sticks (Optional. I put it in. You don’t have to)
• Peas, ½ cup (I didn’t put them in, but they usually appear in any fried rice dish)
• Egg, 1
• Scallion, 2 stalks
• Garlic, 1 clove
• Ginger, 3 slices
• Water, 2 Tbsp
• Chinese cooking wine, 1 tsp
• Oyster sauce, 1 tsp
• Salt, a dash
• White pepper, a dash

Steps:

1. Finely chopped garlic and ginger, put it aside.
2. Cut onion and carrots into small dices. Put it aside
3. Cut scallion into small pieces, put it aside
4. Cut roast pork into small dices. Put it aside.
5. Cut shrimp into smaller pieces.  I cut each shrimp into 3 pieces.  You can keep it as a whole instead if you prefer.  Put it aside.
6. Use a large non-stick frying pan, spray a little bit of oil.  Use high heat.  Put garlic, ginger, onion and carrots and peas into the pan.  Let it cook for 2 mins.
7. Add roast pork.  Stir it well for a minute.
8. Add rice.  Mix the rice well.  Add 1 teaspoon of cooking wine.  Depends on how dried the rice is, add 2 tablespoons of water to the pan.  Stir well.  Let it cook for 2 minutes or so.
9. Add shrimp to the rice.  Stir well and let it cook until it is no longer translucent. 
10. Dig a whole in the middle of the pan.  Put the egg in the middle and don’t touch it and let it cook for 20 seconds. Then slowly fold the rice in with the egg.  Mix it well.  Let it cook for a minute.
11. Add a dash of salt and white pepper and oyster sauce for taste.  If the rice is still too dry, add another tablespoon of water. Mix it well.  Turn off the heat.
12. Add scallion.  Mix it well.  Serve hot.

The weather is getting warm.  I lost a bit of appetite.  Maybe if I keep losing appetite for a while, it could be a good way to lose a few pounds. LOL.  The weirdest thing ever was that I wanted a salad!!!  I am not a salad kind of gal.  This was a very unusual thing.  My coworker used to tell me that if I didn’t find anything I would like to eat in the cafeteria, there was always salad.  So salad isn’t on top of my list if I have other options.  But today, I somehow wanted a salad.  I was also in a mood for some grilled shrimps.  Grilled Shrimp salad sounds refreshing for a hot humid day.  I also added some soybeans to the salad to make it more Chinese. LOL.  Soybeans are packed with tons of protein. They would be great for salad or fried rice.  The salad turned out to be pretty good.  I may put this as my regular meals.

Put shrimp on a stick first

Frozen soybeans

Stir fry mushrooms and soybeans

Grilled shrimp salad with soybeans

Ingredients (Serves 2):

• Shrimp, a pound
• 2 or 3 bamboo sticks.
• Mushrooms, sliced, 1 pack
• Soybeans, 1 cup
• Lettuce, 1 bag (about 9 oz)
• Baby carrots, a big handful
• Sweetcorn , 1/2 cup (optional)
• Extra virgin olive oil, 1 Tbsp
• Soy sauce, 1 Tbsp
• Honey, 1 Tbsp
• Vinegar, 1 Tbsp
• Chinese cooking wine, 1 tsp
• Sesame oil, a few drops
• Sugar, ½ tsp

Steps:

1. Cut baby carrots into small pieces.  I cut each carrot into 4 pieces.  Put it aside.
2. Spray a little bit of oil in a frying pan.  Put mushrooms and soybeans in the pan. Use high heat. Let it cook for 4 or 5 minutes.  Turn off the heat.  Put them on a plate and let it cool a little bit.
3. Make the dressing: Add olive oil, soy sauce, honey, vinegar, sugar, Chinese cooking wine, and sesame oil in a bowl.  Mix it well.  Add a dash of salt if desired.  Put it aside.
4. Soak bamboo sticks in water for a few minutes. Shell and clean shrimp.  Put them on a stick.  Then start the grill.  Spray a little bit of oil on the shrimp first before you cook it.  Cook the shrimp for 4 or 5 mins on each side or until it is fully cooked.  When the shrimp is done, remove it from the stick. Add a little bit of salad dressing to the shrimp. Mix it well.
5. To assemble the salad, put some lettuce on the bottom of a serving plate.  Then add some carrots, mushrooms, soybeans, and sweetcorn.  Add shrimp on top.  Drizzle some dressing over the lettuce.

Happy Mother’s Day.  It’s a nice day out there except a bit windy and cold, but still, it’s nice weather.  I made Soft Shell Crab last night.  I totally passed out after dinner.  It was a long day for me.  I had an in class exam yesterday, and I was just so happy that it was over even though I didn’t do too well.  I stopped by a grocery store and got food after that.  My buddy at the seafood counter was recommending me to get soft shell crab.  My first reaction was like: 1. I don’t know how to clean them, and 2, I don’t know how to cook them.  He said he’ll clean them for me.. Sweet .  Then he said “deep fry them”.  I was like “not good” because I’m on diet.  I’ve been trying hard to lose weight.  I’m not deep frying nothing.  So he suggested to coat them in some flour and pan fried them.  I’ve never cooked any crab in my life other than crab legs. But I felt adventurous yesterday, and there was always first time for anything.  It was kind of funky when I touch them as they were soft before they were cooked.  I coated them in cornstarch, and then pan fried them.  They turned out pretty good. It wasn’t as crunchy as if they were deep fried, but I was sure my body thanked me for doing the right thing.   Beside, the whole thing was edible.  I didn’t have to spend any effort to separate the shell from the meat like the regular crabs, or worry about the shell cut my tongue.  Ya. I didn’t have good experience with crab when I was a kid.  Just too much work for eating that little meat.

Coat Soft Shell Crab with Cornstarch

Add scallops to the pan

Pan Fried Soft Shell Crab and Scallops

Ingredients (Serves 2):

• Soft Shell Crabs, 2 (I made 1 per person, you can have more if you prefer)
• Scallops, 1 pound
• Cornstarch, 1 Tbsp
• Soy sauce, 1 tsp
• Vinegar, 1 tsp
• Sugar, 1 tsp
• Garlic, 1 clove

Steps:

1. Let’s prepare the dipping sauce first.  Finely chopped the garlic, put it in a small bowl.  Add soy sauce, sugar, vinegar to the bowl.  Put it aside.
2. Clean the soft shell crabs, and dry them with paper towel.   Coat them with a tablespoon of cornstarch.  Put them aside.
3. Dry the scallop with paper towel.  Put it aside.
4. In a large frying pan, put in some cooking oil or spray non-stick cooking oil.  Use medium high heat.  Ad soft shell crabs to the pan first since they take longer time to cook.  Let them cook for 3 mins.  Flip them over.  Let them cook for another 3 mins.
5. Then add scallops to the pan, and cook them for 3 mins on each side.  While the scallops are being cooked, flip the crabs over occasionally to check if they are golden brown in color.  Also check if they feel harder as they are cooked.  For the scallops, if they are fully cooked, they should be more white in color, and not translucent.  Add a dash of salt to the scallops.
6. Serve hot.  Serve the dish with dipping sauce on the side.

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.

Guess what I made last night for dinner?  I made a modified version of my Steamed Garlic Shrimp. I shelled the shrimp before they were steamed.  It was probably a lazy bum’s version since I didn’t need to peel them when I ate them.  Awesome.  It tasted really yummy.  The shrimp were big, and texture was really good.  I got them from a Chinese grocery store on Saturday.  You know, you could really get a good deal from most Chinese grocery stores.  They are usually cheaper and have more variety than American grocery stores.  For example, instead of paying like $10 or $11 a pound for shrimp, it would be like $8 or $9 a pound for the same kind of shrimp.  Besides seafood from Chinese grocery stores are fresher.   Anyway, if you cook this dish, you should make sure the shrimp are fresh and big enough, that’s my suggestion.  BTW, talking about big shrimp, this reminds me that I should show you guys this picture.   Last time I visited my mom, she cooked me all my favorite dishes.  And the shrimp dish was a huge surprise.  I couldn’t even put words to describe the shrimp. I had never seen any shrimp of this size.  This really put a new meaning to “jumbo”.  I wish mom will make me that shrimp again next time I visit her. LOL 

Really jumbo shrimp!

Have you tried any Chives dishes?  Chives are one of those things that either you love it or you hate it.  Some of my friends call them stinky vegetable because they have very strong smell.  I love them, I think they are yummy and have a nice aroma.  LOL.  I especially love the dim sum dishes such as Pan Fried Chives and Pork dumplings.   Whenever I go for dim sum, I would wait and wait until I get them.  Not all restaurants serve that, so I could end up waiting for a long time and finally gave up.  I went to a Chinese grocery store this afternoon. I passed by the seafood counter.  I got some squid and I thought it may go well with some chives.  Squid, on the other hand, is also another love or hate thing.  They look absolutely yucky to me.  My roommate back in my college days would never be able to try squid or calamari (if you have to give it a fancier name) because she couldn’t stand the look of it.  I remember one time I put some dried cuttle fish in the vegetable compartment in the refridgerator.  Cuttle fish and squid look similar BTW.   She would not use the vegetable compartment at all.  I found out the reason later, I thought it was funny.  Of course, after I cooked the cuttle fish, I never put any weird looking thing in the refridgerator just to be considerate.

Chives

Stir Fry Squid first

Add chives

Stir Fried Squid with Chives

Ingredients (Serves 2):

• Squid, 1 pound
• Garlic, 2 cloves
• Ginger, 2 slices
• Chives, a big bunch
• Oyster sauce, 1 tsp
• Fish sauce, 1 tsp
• Chinese cooking wine, 1 tsp
• Cornstarch, 1 tsp
• Water, 2 Tbsp

Steps:

1. Finely chop the garlic.  Put it aside.
2. Cut chives into 3 inches length.
3. The squid you get from grocery stores are usually cleaned already. I washed them again to make sure they are really cleaned.
4. Cut squid into about 1 inch wide or bite sizes.
5. Mix cornstarch with 2 tablespoon of cold water in a bowl.  Mix well. Put it aside.
6. Use a big pan. Spray cooking oil to it.  Put garlic and ginger to the pan. Let it cook for 1 min.
7. Add squid.  Add chinese cooking wine, fish sauce and oyster sauce to the pan.   Add cornstarch mixture.  Mix them well.  Stir fry it for 2 mins or until the sauce thickens.  The squid should curls.  That tells you it is cooked. 
8. Add chives to the pan.  Stir fry for 1 minute.
9. Taste it. Add a dash of salt if needed.

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!