Saturday, November 05, 2011

Steamed Chicken with Ginger



I'll keep this short and sweet..Here is my take on a classic Chinese dish. It's healthy and delicious and best of all it's quick and requires little to no effort to prepare. And it looks pretty. All you need is a steamer, or a steam rack with a wok or pot that's large enough to fit the dish when covered.

2 chicken breasts with the skin on and bone in
2 cloves of garlic, crushed (optional)
2 tablespoons of Chinese rice wine (optional)

Garnish:
1-inch piece of ginger, peeled and cut into long thin strips
Some coriander leaves about ¼ cup
1 green onion, finely sliced
1 red chili, sliced

Dressing:
3 tablespoons of good quality soy sauce
1 teaspoon of toasted sesame oil
2 tablespoons of cooking (vegetable/canola/peanut/sunflower) oil

Boil the water in the steamer or pot and then bring down to a simmer. Place the chicken breasts in a bowl or dish along with the crushed garlic and rice wine. Sprinkle with a pinch of salt and pepper, then cover and steam until the chicken is done for about 20 minutes.

In the meantime, get the ginger, green onion, chili and coriander ready. Peel and slice the ginger into really thin threads. You need a sharp knife to do this. Try to make them as thin as possible - biting down on thick pieces of ginger makes for an unpleasant eating experience.

When the chicken is done, set aside and let it cool for 5 minutes. Remove the breast bone from the chicken. You can use your hands to pull the bone apart, or if it's too hot to handle, use one hand to hold the breast down with a fork and with the other hand, remove the bone from the meat using a knife.

Slice the chicken breasts and transfer to a plate. Sprinkle with the sliced ginger, green onion, chili and coriander leaves and pour the soy sauce over the chicken.

Heat up the cooking oil and sesame oil in a saucepan. When the oil's hot, quickly drizzle it over the dish. You should hear the vegetables sizzle as they come in contact with the hot oil.

That's it...serve with a bowl of hot steaming rice.

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