This is a very popular Chinese home-cooking dish, usually known as "Three Cup Chicken", as it is simply cooked in equal quantities of soy sauce, cooking wine, and sesame oil, plus a few other seasonings. I did cut back a bit on the sesame oil, although it still calls for quite a bit compared to how it is usually used.
A common variation on this dish is to add a good quantity of Thai basil to it at the end of cooking. I intend to try that, in Thai basil season, which this is not; I could not muster anything but some sprouting onions for greenery. We still enjoyed it very much.
4 to 6 servings
1 hour - 20 minutes prep time
Make the Sauce:
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup sherry OR Chinese cooking wine
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
2 tablespoons toasted sesame oil
2 tablespoons coconut OR brown sugar
chile-garlic sauce to taste, optional
Mix the above in a small bowl until the sugar is dissolved and set aside.
Cook the Chicken:
1 kg (2 pounds) chicken thighs or drumsticks, bone-in
2 2" pieces of ginger
3 to 5 cloves of garlic
1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil
2 or 3 green onions OR handful chopped cilantro
OR large handful cleaned Thai basil leaves
1 tablespoon sesame seeds
Remove the skin from the chicken pieces but leave the bones in. Put the skin in a large skillet and cook slowly over medium heat, turning occasionally, to render enough fat to cook the chicken, etc. There is more skin here than you need - only use some of it, or transfer it to another pan when it has rendered enough; then save the extra rendered fat for future cooking and use the crisp skin as you would leftover bacon (if this is something you wish to do).
Meanwhile, peel the ginger and slice it very thinly, then cut it into very fine matchsticks. Peel and mince the garlic.
Add the ginger to the chicken fat and cook gently, stirring occasionally, for 2 or 3 minutes then add the chicken and brown it on both sides. Mix in the garlic and cook for a minute, then pour in the sauce. Cover the pan and simmer gently for about 20 minutes. Uncover the chicken and simmer for a further 20 minutes, until the chicken is tender and the sauce mostly absorbed or evaporated. Turn the chicken 2 or 3 times as it cooks. If you are using Thai basil, stir it in until it is just wilted.
Transfer the chicken to a serving dish and drizzle the sesame oil over it. Sprinkle with the green onions or cilantro and the sesame seeds. Serve at once.
Last year at this time I made Vegan Scrambled "Eggs".
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2 comments:
I'm getting caught up on your recipes, as I haven't checked your blog in a month or so. There are quite a few in here that I'm eager to try! Especially at this time of the year when there's a dearth of domestic fresh produce, it's great to have some new ideas. This chicken recipe seems like it would be particularly good applied to grilled tofu. I'm not vegetarian, but members of my family are, so I'm always looking for new ideas. Thanks for the posts!
Yes, that sounds like a good idea! I may do that myself. I'm trying to eat more protein while not increasing the amount of meat and cheese I eat; tricky. Thanks for reading and commenting.
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