Oven-Steamed Fermented Bean Chicken

This is the 2nd dish I prepared for dinner yesterday....Hub's lunch for tomorrow.

I like to use the oven to 'steam' my food because it is so easy to clean up....or no need to clean up at all!!!! You can use it to 'steam' your fish too!!!

Here's a recipe I adapted from a dish I had at a Teochew restaurant in St Louis during my 3 weeks stay there when I first arrived in US...

What You Need

5 skinless, boneless chicken thigh, sliced

1 big thumb of ginger, julienned

1/2 cup black fungus, soaked & trimmed

1/2 cup wolfberries, soaked

2 tbsp fermented beans, lightly crushed

1/2 tbsp dark soy sauce

3 tbsp chinese cooking wine

2 tbsp water

What To Do

1. Preheat oven to 365 F
2. Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl
3. Pour all into a aluminum foil, make sure there is some water in the mix (add more than 2tbsp if need to) and wrap it up tightly
4. Bake for 30mins.
5. Serve!!!

Hainanese Chicken Rice

Made this for dinner, I used chicken thigh instead of whole chicken as I am only cooking for 2 of us...
What You Need:
Jasmine rice (For 2)
About 6 cloves garlic
2 thumb sized ginger
1 pandan leaves, tied into knots
About 4 chicken thighs

Blend this (to Paste)
4 cloves of garlic
1 thumb sized ginger
1 tbsp sesame oil
1 tsp salt

What To Do:

1. Boil chicken thigh in a pot of boiling water until it is cooked thoroughly, about 45 mins
2. In a saucepan, add 1 tbsp of oil & 1 tsp sesame oil. Fry the garlic and ginger till slightly brown, add in paste and stir well
3. Add rice and fry till slightly transluscent. Transfer mixture to rice cooker
4. Add in stock from step 1 to rice cooker till the desired water level (In my case to Mark 2.5 for 2.5 cup of rice). Add in pandan leaves and hit COOK button
5. Serve with chicken thigh and of course, chicken rice chilli!!!!

1. NOTE: To make the sauce to drizzle over the meat and rice, add 2 tbsp of light soy sauce, 1 tbsp sesame oil & 4 tbsp of chicken stock in a bowl mix well and drizzle!
2. NOTE: Do not waste the stock, add cabbage and carrots to make soup!
   

Korean Spicy Wings

I have no idea why I have not posted this in my blog before...I mean I make this almost every Sunday for my 'Family BBQ Day' and it is my all time favorite! Okok, I simply love chicken wings...grilled or fried ; p
Sometimes I use boneless chicken thighs for this recipe and it tasted just as good! Well, if you like Pizza Hut's spicy wings then you have to make this!

What You Need:

About 16 wings
3 heap tbsp of hottest Gochujang you can find (you can get it from any Korean grocer, it comes in a red tub)
2 tbsp mirin
2 tbsp sesame oil
1 tsp dark soy sauce
1 tsp sugar
3 cloves garlic, smashed & minced

What To Do:

1. Marinade wings with all the ingredients overnight or at least 6 hours
2. Grill them on BBQ pit or bake at 365F for about 15mins
3. If you are using oven- switch to BROIL(520F) and broil it for about 15mins turning the wings occasionally to get that charbroiled look
4. ENJOY ; P
   

Shrimp Paste Chicken

This is one of my favourite dish when I go for Dim Sum, it is also known as Har Cheong Kai. Try making it yourself, it's really easy ; )

What You Need

About 10 wings
1 tbsp of HuaTiao wine
2 tbsp Lee Kum Kee shrimp paste
1 tbsp sesame oil
1 tsp sugar
1 egg
3 tbsp tapioca flour
3 tbsp rice flour
2 cloves garlic, minced

What To Do

1. Mix all ingredients and wings together, leave it in fridge for at least 4hrs. Best overnight.
2. Take it out of the fridge about 1hr before cooking to bring the meat to close room temperature
   
3. Heat up oil in a wok and deep fry it till golden brown or cooked

NOTE: You can try using 1 tbsp LKK shrimp paste and 1 tbsp black shrimp paste(the rojak kind) for a more 'pungent' taste

Stew Chicken Wings

Made this purely from memory...saw the recipe in of the issue of Famous Cuisine and this is roughly how the recipe looks like.

Hub commented that it's really nice thus I have to include this in my blog so that I won't forget how to make it next time ; P

What you need:

Sliced ginger, about 6-7
6-7 pieces whole shallots, skinned
Shredded dried squid, about 1/2 cup
10 dried chillies, deseeded
12 to 15 chicken wing parts (preferably mid wings)
1 cup button mushroom
2 tbsp wolfberries

2 tbsp dark soy sauce
3 tbsp oyster sauce
6 tbsp cooking wine
1 tbsp sesame oil
1 tbsp sugar
3 cups water
cornstarch mix

What to do:
1. Marinate chicken with dark soy sauce and sesame oil and set aside
2. Deep fry dried squid till fragrant, dish up and set aside
3. Deep fry the shallots till medium brown, side aside
4. Pour oil away leaving about 1 tbsp in pan
5. Fry ginger, dried chillies and chicken till nicely browned
6. Add the rest of seasoning (except water and cornstarch mix), ingredients, shredded squid and shallots
7. Add in water and let it simmer till chicken is tender (about 20 mins)
8. Mix in cornstarch mix before serving

Honey Wings

A simple, delicious finger food for potluck or entertaining....

Here's the recipe:

12 wings
1 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tbsp dark soy sauce
1 tbsp apricot jam or marmalade
3 tbsp honey

Method
1. Marinade wings overnight
2. Preheat oven to 275C
3. Line wings on tray (lined tray with aluminium foil)
4. Pop into oven and bake for 15 mins
5. Switch the oven setting to BROIL (high) and broil for 10mins, turning it often to get even colour.

Pure Chicken Essence

Hub has been making this for me every month since we found out that I was pregnant. This chicken essence is supposed to be very nourishing and it taste great too!

We use a double-boil pot, invert a small porcelain bowl in it (you can see the base of the bowl in the picture below). Skin a whole chicken (without the head and butt), chop it up (smash the bones if you can) and place the chopped chicken into the pot. I like to add some wolfberries into it as well. DO NOT ADD WATER..

Transfer the double-boil pot into a big stockpot and fill it up with water until it reaches about half the level outside the double-boil pot. Boil for about 3 hrs. And this is what you will get at the end of 3 hours...
Exactly 1 small bowl of concentrated chicken essence full of flavor. The chicken pieces are very dry at the end of the cooking. U can discard them after the cooking process or sometimes I use them to make chicken porridge or if I am lazy to cook...I will add some canned stock to cook my rice and that's chicken rice for dinner ; p

Herbal Chicken

Made this for dinner, not a new dish but rather different modifications....Added dried shitake mushroom, black fungus, wolfberries and 1/2 Chinese rice wine. Great as "having guest over" dish ; P
Never fail to impress....You can find the recipe here.

Braised Chicken with Brown Sauce

Made this for dinner last night using my favourite Tanyu claypot for braising
; p

What You Need:

8 mid chicken wings

1 thumb sized ginger, sliced

1 tbsp oyster sauce

2 tbsp dark soy sauce

1tbsp sesame oil

1 tsp sugar

1 tsp salt

Seasoning:

2 tbsp Hua Diao wine (you can replace it with 1 tbsp of cognac)

1 bowl of water

2 tbsp corn starch + 2 tbsp water

What To Do:

1. Marinate chicken (except seasoning) for at least 2 hrs

2. Fry ginger slices with some oil, add chicken in (without the marinating liquid)

3. Fry until the chicken wings are brown

4. Add in marinating liquid and stir well, add in water and cover

5. Let the chicken simmer until tender

6. Add in Hua Diao and starch mix to thicken sauce

7. Serve!

Note: You can add in spring onion before serving; I didn't coz I don't really like the taste of it.

If you are using cognac or DOM, you may even want to omit the sugar as those 2 alcohol are quite sweet already.

Herbal Chicken

Always look forward to this dish my Mum make; this is the one dish that never fail if you have guests over for dinner. Cooked this a couple of times when I was in Perth and it makes a good ‘next day lunch’ as well plus it is also a good way of clearing bottles of chicken essence that friends or relatives buy for you when you are sick or have been hospitalised. This is the only way I will drink my chicken essence; in my dishes ; D
It’s really simple to prepare, all you need is chicken and a packet of Seah’s Emperor Herbs Chicken Spices…..Of course, I added other stuff….

Here’s the recipe

What you need:
6-8 chicken drumsticks or 1 whole chicken
1 packet of Seah’s Emperor Herbs Chicken Spices
½ cup of wolfberries
4-5 pieces of Dang Kwai
1 bottle of chicken essence

Method:

1. Open up the HDPE paper provided in the stew mix
2. Place the drumsticks in the centre of the paper
3. Rub the stew powder on the drumsticks
4. Add the wolfberries and Dang Kwai.
5. Tie the HDPE paper in a knot; lengthwise and breadthwise
6. Put the parcel in the centre of the aluminium foil provided and seal it properly.
7. Steam the chicken parcel for 2 ½ hours
8. Remove the parcel during the last half hour, open it up carefully & add in the chicken essence.
9. Tie it up again and steam it for another half and hour.

Note: If you don’t want to add the chicken essence, you can try adding 2 tbsp of Hua Diao wine before serving the chicken.

Claypot Chicken Rice

It's another 'work in' day on Sunday for Hub and I have to ransack my fridge to prepare dinner for him. Decided to cook claypot rice for him as I still have 2 chicken thighs in the freezer. I have cooked this many times since we got married and this is one of the easiest dish to prepare....
One-pot meal ; P

I was calculating the number of hours Hub worked a day....On a good day, he goes to work at 8am and comes home at 9pm; have his dinner, watched a bit of tv and he will start to work in the study room again around 10pm and crawl into bed around 2am....Gee, that's almost 17 hours of work on a good day!!! Well on bad days, he will wake up at 4am, goes to work at 5am and will only be back at 11pm!! Even on weekends!

I am really happy that Hub spends all his free time with me instead of going out with his mates. He is really a family man..... I am his only hobby....My poor Hub.... That's why I try to cook as often as possible so that he can have nutritious food prepared with love : )

Wanted to prepare this in a claypot but we were too hungry and I have to cook more rice....Sigh, can't fit that amount of rice in my new claypot....Well, as usual, I use my non-stick rice cooker. (Do not attempt this if you do not have a Non-Stick rice cooker unless you are prepare to spend 2 hours scrubbing your pot!!)

Here's the recipe:
2 Chicken thighs, cut into slices or squares
3 pcs of dried scallops (soaked in hot water and shredded)
About 7 pcs dried chinese mushroom (soaked in hot water and sliced)
1 thumb sized ginger, chopped

Seasoning:
3 tbsp oyster sauce
2 tbsp chicken marinade (Lee Kum Kee)
1 tbsp sesame oil
1 capful Stone's Ginger Wine (optional)
1 tbsp Hua Tiao cooking wine

Garnish:
A small piece of toasted salted fish (I usually use my small toaster oven to toast it)

Method:
Season the chicken with the seasoning except Hua Tiao wine and set aside, I use ginger wine as I ran out of ginger.

Do not discard the water you used to soak the scallop and mushroom, use it to cook your rice.
Add the shredded scallop with the raw rice into the rice cooker and cook it as you would for normal white rice. Fill in the water level to with tap water if the 'scallop/mushroom' water is insufficient.
This is how it look like when the rice is cooked.
In a saucepan, add 2 tbsp of oil and saute the ginger till fragrant. Add in the chicken and mushroom, stir it till almost cooked. Add in the Hua Tiao wine and scoup the chicken mixture onto the cooked rice. Like this,

Once you have added the chicken, cover it and hit the "Cook" button on your rice cooker and let it cook again. Once it is cooked, use your rice spatula and stir the whole mixture. Add in about 2 tbsp of cooking oil into the rice cooker and dark soya sauce (you can add more dark sauce if you like your rice dark like Happy Belly ; p) Stir the mixture evenly but be gentle so that you will not demage your non-stick rice cooker! Hit the "Cook" button again to get the crispy rice crust...

Add the toasted salted fish and Viola....This is the end product! According to Hub this is better than the famous Clementi claypot rice....Not sure if he really mean it or he is just grateful that I cooked dinner for him ; p

I will usually cook some green veg and soup to go with it but I only managed to pair it with canned soup last night. Sorry Hub, too last minute and I am not a magician....