Chinese Braised Chicken Recipes

Steps:

• Boil chestnuts, remove skins.
• Saute onions and ginger in oil, add chicken.
• Add soy sauce, salt, sugar, wine and water, braise over medium heat till half done (about 15 minutes).
• Add chestnuts, continue to braise until done.

Steps:

• Cut each chicken wing into 3 pieces. Discard wing tips or reserve for stock.
• Heat oil in wok or skillet and fry joints on high heat for 3-4 minutes, or until browned.
• Add soy, honey, wine or sherry, garlic and ginger, stir well.
• Reduce heat to low, cover and simmer about 30 minutes or until tender.
• Stir frequently towards end of cooking and make sure the sweet does not burn.
• Serve warm (the book says or at room temperature - I prefer them warm), either with white rice (serves 4) or as a main course for two (served with a cool beer in front of the TV).
• Note: This recipe can use a whole chicken, cut up, instead of only the wings.

Steps:

• Drain mushrooms, squeeze out excess water, discard stems and slice caps.
• Heat oil in a wok until it just reaches smoking point, add chicken, onions and ginger. Stir fry until chicken just changes colour, add soy sauce, sherry, sugar, five spice powder and water.
• Turn down the heat and cook gently about 15-20 min's until chicken is cooked through, add mushrooms, stir fry a few minutes more.
• While chicken is cooking, if making bean sprouts heat a small amount of oil in another pan, cook, turning and stirring occasionally until sprouts are just soft.
• Remove chicken from wok and keep warm, mix a little water with corn flour add to sauce and stir until mixture boils and thickens.
• To Serve: Place sprouts on a serving platter top with chicken and pour sauce over, serve immediately. Garnish with extra green onions if so desired.

Steps:

• Begin heating soy sauce and water over medium flame. Add ginger, sugar, cinnamon, and star anise.
• Bring mixture to simmer and add chicken. Reduce heat to very low and cover casserole dish/pot. Make sure heat is as low as can be without turning off; simmering soy sauce can easily become rapidly boiling soy sauce, which can easily become a big mess to clean up.
• Cook chicken for 15 to 20 minutes, depending on the size of the pieces. Cut one open to check for doneness. Ladle chicken from sauce mixture and serve as is. Or if you're handy with a cleaver, chop up those thighs into smaller pieces. Garnish with scallions.

Steps:

• Clean gizzards thoroughly, cut off tough tendon bits.
• Dry marinate with a little pepper.
• In a small sauce pan, heat the cooking oil on medium heat.
• Add ginger and garlic, stir fry till fragrant.
• Throw in the gizzards and increase heat to hot, stir fry till the gizzards just chnge color.
• Add in the 300 ml water, the five spice powder, the sweet soy sauce, and vinegar.
• Mix well.
• Bring to a boil.
• Reduce heat to a simmer and cook till the sauce reduces to about a third.
• Taste, adjust if necessary.
• Check that gizzards are tender yet crunchy.
• Serve hot, warm or cold with gizzards skewered with toothpicks.
• Note You can make your own Chinese Five Spice Powder by blending the following ground spices: 1 2/3 tbsp star anise 1 1/2 tsp fennel seeds 1 1/2 tsp cassia (in the USA cinnamon denotes both cinnamon and cassia which is native to China, professional bakers prefer cassia to cinnamon.) 1/2 tsp Sichuan pepper or black pepper 1/4 tsp cloves Stir-fried vegetables are enhanced by sprinkling about 1 tsp over them during cooking.
• Add a little salt, and you have a very good marinade for chicken, duck, pork and seafood.