Chicken Chop with Butter rice

 

Chicken Chop 🐔

1. I used 4 chicken legs, freshly bought from wet market. Get the stall to debone the chicken legs or you can debone the chicken on your own. You can buy boneless chicken legs from supermarkets too. Used a knife to make cuts on chicken legs to even out the thickness so that it will cook more evenly. 
2. Rinsed and pat dry chicken legs. Season with sea salt and pepper. Leave it to marinate un-refrigerated for about 15mins. 
3. Heat up your non stick pan to high heat. Make sure it's hot enough before cooking chicken. Placed chicken legs into the pan, skin downwards. No oil is needed as there will be oil from the skin during pan-frying. Leave the chicken legs for 5 mins, till the skin turns slightly brown and flipped to the other side. 
4. Cook about 3 to 5 mins, before doing the second flip back to the skin downwards. After this second flip, lower to medium-high heat. Let the chicken skin sizzle for another 3 to 5 mins to golden brown and crispy. Check for fines of chicken by using a knife or fork to pork through. Remover chicken and set aside on plate. 

Chicken Chop sauce: 

1. Melt one tbsp unsalted butter in pan. Add 1 tbsp minced onion, sauté for a min, add 1tsp minced garlic and sauté till fragrant. Add 2tbsps of flour, stir and it'll clump together. Then add about 1.5 cups of chicken stock and stir till it’s smooth. 
2. Season with salt n black pepper and bring to a simmer. To darkened the colour of sauce, I added few drops of black soya sauce. You can add some dry herbs to enhance the taste (optional). Let it simmer for few mins and thicken. Mix 1 tbsp plain/ all purpose flour with some water and thickened the sauce if you like the sauce to be thicker. Drizzle sauce on chicken chop and serve the hot. 

Butter Rice🍚  (lazy mum’s method using rice cooker)

- Washed 2 cups of rice and put water as normal. I used Japanese Pearl rice today but you can also use the normal jasmine rice. Add about 2 tbsps of unsalted butter (cut into cubes and placed randomly on top of washed rice, a tbsp of salt, and cracked some black pepper. Also added about 1-2 tbsps of garlic powder. 

- I added some minced carrot and fresh corn together with the rice and press cook. Halfway cooking, give the rice a stir so that the butter n other ingredients can be mixed properly.

Crispy Fried Shallots

 

Method: 

1. Peel small red onions and set aside in a bowl. To prevent it from stinging your eyes, soak peeled red onions in water and leave in chiller for about 30mins. 
2. Drain water from onions in colander. Slice thinly and set aside. Sprinkle a little salt and mix well before frying. 
3. Heat wok with oil at high heat. Make sure there's enough oil to cover onions. Once oil is hot, add sliced shallots into wok and stir quickly to make sure it's evenly distributed. Lower heat slightly and stir occasionally to let onions fry evenly. Once onions starts to brown, lower heat further to prevent it from burning. Once shallots turns light brown, you can off heat to allow remaining heat to cook shallots. Let it continue to brown till crisp and remove immediately by using a sieve to sieve through the oil. 
4. Place fried shallots on kitchen towel on a big plate to spread out shallots and allow it to cool quickly. Sprinkle a pinch of salt and mix well. I place under a fan so that it cools faster. Store fried shallots in airtight container. If you make more, you can keep in the chiller for a few months. 

Sesame Chicken 🐔

 

Ingredients:

• 4 Big chicken drumsticks (chop them into small pieces)
• 2 tbsps of julienned ginger 
• 4 slices of ginger 
• 3 tbsps of sesame oil
• 2 tbsps of dark soya sauce 
• 2 premium light soya sauce 
• 3 tbsps of oyster sauce 
• Handful of spring onions cut them 3-4cm 
• 1 tbsp of Chinese cooking wine (Hua diao wine) 
• 6 tbsps of water 
• 1 claypot (optional) 

Method:

1. Marinate chopped chicken pieces with 1 tbsp of sesame oil, 1 tbsp of Chinese cooking wine, 3 tbsps of oyster sauce and 2 tbsps of light soya sauce. Set aside for 30mins to an hour. 
2. Heat up claypot in medium fire with sesame oil. 
3. Once pot heated up (estimate about 2mins), add in julienned ginger, sauté it till fragrant. Remove and set aside once ginger turns Golden brown and crisp. 
4. Add sliced ginger and sauté till fragrant. Add marinated chicken into claypot and give a good toss. Flip chicken pieces and fry for a good few mins till chicken is no longer pink on the outside. 
5. Add dark soya sauce, give a good toss again & cover for 4mins. 
6. Add water, toss again and cover let it simmer till it’s cooked. You may add more water if you like more gravy to go with your rice. 
7. Taste and adjust accordingly, if need be, add more light soya sauce or dark soya sauce. Drizzle a tbsp of Chinese cooking wine along the sides of the claypot, toss and garnish with spring onions. Off heat, topped with crispy shredded ginger and serve hot. 

Note: You can use chicken wings instead of big drumsticks and it’ll cook faster. Do adjust the seasonings accordingly to your taste. 

Rice with Oyster sauce chicken Drumlets, Broccoli and potato patty

 

Oyster sauce chicken Drumlets 🍗

Ingredients :

• 4 pieces of chicken Drumlets (you can use chicken midwings too) 
• 2 tablespoons of Oyster Sauce
• 1 teaspoon of light soya sauce 
• 1 tablespoon of shaoxing wine 
• 1 tablespoon of sesame oil
• 1 teaspoon of honey
• 1/2 tablespoon of ginger juice 
• A dash of white pepper 

Method :

Rinse Drumlets and Pat dry. 

Mix all seasoning and pour into chicken and marinate them well. Cover with cling wrap and marinate overnight.

Preheat airfry at 180°c for 5 minutes. Airfry at 180°c for 15-18 minutes turning intermittently after 6 minutes to ensure even colour. Remove and pack into bentos. 

Assembly of bento: 

• Place Japanese rice into bento. 
• Place drumlets, potato patty and lastly blanched vegetables. 

口水鸡 🐔 aka “Salivate Chicken”

 

Ingredients: 

• 1 packet of skin-on boneless chicken legs from Benja Chicken 
• 1 tbsp shaoxing wine
• 2 stalks of Spring onion
• 2 stalks of coriander (separate stem with roots from leaves)
• 1 thumb-size Ginger
• 6 cloves of garlic with skin (smashed)
• 1 Cucumber (sliced and soak in ice water for few mins. Drained and set aside.)
• Roasted sesame seeds
• Roasted peanuts (optional)

Spicy sauce (mixed together): 

• 1 tbsp Lao Gan MA spicy chili oil (store-bought)
• 1 tbsp Mala liquid seasoning (Knorr’s brand) 
• 1.5 tbsp Zheng Jiang old vinegar
• 1 tbsp Sesame oil
• 2.5 tbsps Soya sauce
• 3 tbsps Minced garlic
• 2 tbsp Chicken Broth (from poaching chicken) 

Method: 

1. Rinsed the chicken legs by rubbing some salt all over. Rinse off the salt completely. Bring half pot of water to a boil with garlic, ginger, spring onion, coriander roots with stem and Shaoxing wine. Make sure there is enough water to cover the chicken. Bring it to a boil and add chicken legs. Simmer for around 10minutes. Off heat and cover pot with lid. Let the chicken immerse in water for 20 minutes.
2. After 20minutes, remove chicken and soak in iced water. Turn over several times or until the chicken is completely cooled down. Cut chicken into pieces when it is completely cooled down. (A must to soak in iced water). Plate chicken and cucumbers on plate. 
3. Prepare the spicy sauce. Do adjust accordingly to your taste. Pour the chili over the chicken and ganish with coriander leaves, roasted sesame seeds and peanuts. Ready to serve!

This is a cold dish that can be prepared beforehand and chill in fridge. Pour sauce over chicken when ready to serve. 

Tofu Salad with refreshing Honey Yuzu Dressing

 

Ingredients: 

• A handful of cherry tomatoes
• Quarter-head broccoli (sliced into florets) 
• butternut squash cut into bite-sized pieces
• 1 generous pinch salt
• 1 tablespoon garlic powder
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 250 grams semi-firm tofu
• 150 grams romaine lettuce chopped

For the Honey Yuzu Dressing

• 2 tablespoons Pokka Yuzu Honey refreshing drink
• 1 tablespoon white vinegar/ apple cider
• 1 tablespoon honey

Instructions

• Place tomatoes, broccoli and butternut squash on a baking sheet. Add salt, garlic powder and olive oil and massage the vegetables with your hands. Roast vegetables  in the oven at 180 degrees for 20 minutes (I started with pumpkin first and added tomatoes and broccoli at last 10mins). Alternatively you can airfry vegetables at 190 degrees, which works fine too. 
• While the vegetables cook, slightly brown the tofu in a frying pan over medium heat, about 3-5 minutes. 
• Make the salad dressing by mixing yuzu juice, vinegar and honey in a bowl.
• Once the roast vegetables are done, place all the vegetables and tofu on a plate and drizzle with the dressing to enjoy.

Fried Korean Silver Fishes

 

Ingredients and method: 

1. Rinsed and drain dry 2 cups of Korean Silver fishes after thawing. Use kitchen towel to dry extra water from fishes. 
2. Marinate fishes with 1 tbsp of salt, 1 tsp of white pepper and 1 tsp of cooking wine. Set aside for 30mins. 
3. Prepare the batter. This is an estimation so adjust accordingly when mixing. Add 1.5 cups of Self-raising flour; 4 tbsps of sweet potatoes flour / crispy frying powder (Hup Loong Frying powder bought from wet market) and 1 tsp of baking powder. Slowly mix in ice water and create a smooth batter. Add 1/2 tbsp of cooking oil, 1 tsp of salt, 1 tsp of chicken powder and a dash of white pepper. Batter should be slightly thick with no lumps but not watery. 
4. Heat oil in a pot. Oil is ready when tested with chopsticks and you can see bubbles floating upwards. You can also test with some batter. Batter will puff up quickly once in hot oil. 
5. Coat marinated fish with batter and gently lower into hot oil. Fry a few pieces at a time for easy control. Deep fry fish fillets when crusts is form and light brown. Before removing, increase to high heat for few seconds and fry till its golden brown. Drain and served hot.