Tuesday, August 13, 2019

自製豉油雞和薑蔥蓉


Welcomed the man home from Tokyo with a dinner of soy sauce chicken (豉油雞), stir-fried choy sum and egg fried rice. I did consider prepping spicy food, but never mind lah, I had no time to boil up pots of dhal and curry this week. He can tank up on spices with the homemade sambal terasi.

The point of doing this dish, is so that I could make its dipping sauce- ginger scallion sauce (薑蔥蓉). The last time the man had this sauce, was in Hong Kong; it came with soy sauce chicken. That was a really good version. He asked me to replicate it and I duly ignored that request for four months. It isn’t difficult to fry up. It’s one of my favorite base for tossing noodles in. I simply forgot about it till today. Hurhurhur.

The secret to this dish is in the braising sauce. Use a top quality (or brand) of dark and light soy sauce. Always use fresh chicken. Frozen chicken lends a strange texture if it's braised or steamed. It doesn't taste as good as it should. If you must use frozen chicken, use pre-cut fillets, and try to remove the breast meat before continuing to braise the thighs. Bought two fresh chickens so that I could extract chicken essence from the second fowl. Double-boiled that. That went into a small pot of soup with fish maw, wolfberries and mushrooms. The man returned with a head cold; slurping a hot bowl with pure chicken essence did wonders for it.  #ImpieCooks2019

I've had quite enough of trotting out soy sauce chicken (豉油雞) on my dining table. Hahaha. I know I can do a decent version. Frankly, I don't like the Michelin-starred soy sauce chicken because it has too many herbs in there, and the herbal endnotes don’t appeal to me. Since chicken is the friendliest meat around, as much as I'm not keen on it, I should at least stock a few recipes of grilled/roasted for the man and the guests who take chicken.

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