Chicken

Learned a lesson today. Don’t be lazy with meal-planning before you buy groceries. There’s a few reasons for this:

   A) You don’t buy more than you need. Meaning less waste
   B) You don’t have to go out again for more groceries
   C) It’s productive

Well, I got lazy and didn’t meal-plan. So this time I’m falling under reason B. I got a whole bunch of good things and then forgot a whole ton of other stuff. And I’m not going back to the grocery store. No way. So I’m just making something else instead…I’ll figure it out. But there’s something I’m craving…I’ll make it eventually. Lesson learned, I meal-planned as soon as I got back =P

But anyway, I ended up throwing this chicken dish together quickly one weeknight. I ran out of leftovers, saw chicken thighs on sale and figured what the heck, I’ll give it a shot. So I mixed up a pretty simple marinade, chopped an onion and added some black bean & garlic paste (Plus some leftover cashews). It’s always nice to keep the fridge stocked with a few different pastes just for nights like that.

Chicken in Black Bean Sauce

Time: 20 minutes
Serves 4

Ingredients:
– 1.5 lbs chicken thighs, cubed
– 1 medium onion, chopped
– 2-3 cloves garlic minced
– handful of cashews
– 2 tsp Black Bean/Garlic sauce

Marinade:
– 1.5 tbsp soy sauce
– 1 tsp ShaoHsing rice wine
– 1/2 tsp sesame oil
– 1/2 tsp sugar
– Few grinds of fresh black pepper
– 1/2 tsp corn starch

Method
1. Mix marinade and chicken, set aside for 10 minutes
2. On high heat, add about 1-2 tbsp oil and stir-fry garlic for 30 seconds until fragrant. Add chicken in, stir fry until just barely cooked, then add onions.
3. Stir-fry to combine, add black-bean/garlic sauce and a little water. Add cashews. Stir-fry for another couple minutes. Serve with rice

I ended up cooking for a few friends last weekend but I was a little late getting everything plated so didn’t have enough time to get any pictures in of that. But there was something new I tried making and I’ll be definitely making it again soon. Just a little hint but it uses long hot peppers, something I definitely don’t use very often.

Aside from that, chicken’s been on sale lately so I took the opportunity to stock up for the next few weeks. Not to mention try a bunch of new dishes in the meanwhile!

One thing that’s always interested me about Asian cooking is that there are a bunch of staple sauces that always seem to be mixed together to generate flavor, rather than different herbs and spices (though there’s tons of different spices too!). I’ve got roughly a dozen different bottles of sauce which I use to varying degrees with some sugar and corn starch and for the most part, that’s that! Just running them off : 2 different soy sauces, oyster sauce, sesame oil, hoisin sauce, a couple bean pastes, mirin, rice wine, sriracha…I think that’s all of them!

But anyway, I got my hands on some sichuan peppercorns recently. Never really used these before but I hear they’re pretty essential in some Northern Chinese cooking. So after roasting a few, and grinding them up, I was ready to go.

This recipe was adapted from Grace Young’s Breath of a Wok.

Sichuan Peppercorn Chicken

Serves 4
Time 20 minutes

Ingredients:
– 1 lb Boneless chicken thighs, cubed
– 1 tbsp canola oil
– 8-12 dried red chilies
– 1 tsp grated ginger
– 2 garlic cloves, minced
– 1/2 tsp ground sichuan peppercorns
– 1 scallion, chopped

Marinade:
– 1 tsp ShaoHsing rice wine
– 1 tsp cornstarch
– 1/4 tsp salt
– 1/2 tsp ground white pepper

Sauce:
– 1 tsp dark soy sauce
– 1 tbsp ChinKiang/Balsamic vinegar
– 2 tsp sesame oil
– 1 tsp sugar
– 1/2 tsp Chili sesame oil
– 2 tbsp water or chicken broth
– 2 tsp rice wine
– 1/2 tsp salt

Method:
1. Combine marinade with chicken and set aside. Combine the sauce.
2. Add oil to a wok over high heat, add chilies, then add the chicken. Let cook undisturbed for a minute, then stir fry for 1-2 minutes to velvet the chicken. Remove and set aside.
3. Add ginger, garlic, ground pepper, and scallion to the heated wok. Quickly stir fry for a few seconds, then add the chicken back in. Add the sauce in as well, stir fry another minute or so. Remove the chilies and serve.

In the search for good and quick recipes, the best resources haven’t really been from cookbooks, but from various Internet sources. It seems to me that there are a ton of cookbooks out there that get a little too fancy for their own good (lots of extra and somewhat unnecessary ingredients). Sometimes, the simpler you get (Mark Bittman definitely has it right!) is better anyway (And you don’t need to have 100 different things in your cupboard too!)

One of my favorite sources for Chinese food has been hzrt8w at eGullet. The best thing about hzrt8w’s posts are the intricate detail and descriptions. It really makes it easy to duplicate and alter to specific tastes!

Chicken with Cashews was one of those dishes I never really liked all that much. I found it a little bland most of the time and the cashews really didn’t do it for me. But I decided to give it a shot again after taking a look at hzrt8w’s take on it. Spicy and salty, exactly what I think I was looking for.

As is with most of the recipes I find, I usually alter them slightly just for my tastes. Which means more garlic, less oil, less soy sauce, broth instead of water, and maybe a little more chili to kick things up a bit! I think next time I might throw in a couple dried chilis and try to work in some vegetables. But I think as is with many Chinese dishes, this dish was meant to be served with vegetables on the side. I did that with some blanched Yu Choy and Oyster sauce.

Spicy Chicken and Cashews

Serves 4
Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients:
– 2 – 2.5 lbs Chicken Breast, cubed
– 10 ounces raw (unsalted) cashews
– 2 tsp corn starch mixed with 1/4 cup Chicken Broth

Marinade:
– 2 tsp Corn Starch
– 2 tsp white pepper
– 1/2 tsp Hot sesame oil
– 3 tsp sesame oil
– 2 tsp soy sauce
– 2 tsp ShaoHsing rice wine

Sauce:
– 6 cloves garlic, minced
– 2 tsp Chili Bean Sauce
– 2 tsp Brown Bean Sauce
– 6 tsp Hoisin sauce
– 2 tsp White vinegar
– 1/4 cup Chicken Broth

Method:
1. Mix marinade and chicken together, set aside for 30 minutes to an hour.
2. Add the cashews into a wok/pan over medium heat for a few minutes to roast slightly. Remove and set aside.
3. Add 1 tbsp oil to the wok, add chicken and cook over high heat until just underdone, there should be no pink visible. Remove and set aside.
4. Add 1 tbsp oil to the hot wok and then add the sauce. Give it a quick stir and let sit for 30 seconds to 1 minute. Add in the corn starch mix and stir again.
5. Add the chicken and cashews back in, bring to a quick boil to finish cooking the chicken and then serve over hot rice with a side vegetable.