Chicken – Page 4 – Writing With My Mouth Full

Sichuan Chicken

I was craving spicy Chinese food on my way home from work, so I picked up two packages of chicken breasts from the grocery store to cook a quick and spicy meal. I knew I had all the Sichuan ingredients that I needed to make the base sauce but I wanted to make the cooking quick and painless. I decided to use the cucumbers I had in the fridge instead of buying any more vegetables that won’t keep during the week and I skipped coating the chicken with egg whites and cornstarch. The result was a light stir-fry that satiated my craving and calmed my hungry stomach.

Ingredients:
8 boneless and skinless chicken breasts, cut into strips, patted dry with paper towel
2 cucumbers, peeled, seeded, cut into strips
2 bunches of scallions, chopped diagonally
1 tbsp Sichuan peppercorns
peanut oil

For the Sichuan sauce:
2 tbsps Shao Xing rice wine
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
2 dried chilies, chopped
2 tbsps sesame oil
1 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsps brown sugar
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
a small knob of ginger, peeled, shredded

1. Combine the Sichuan sauce ingredients in a small bowl and set aside.
2. Heat some peanut oil in a wok or a deep skillet. Cook the chicken strips briefly in the hot oil until they turn white. Remove the chicken and drain on paper towels.
3. Clean out the wok and add some more peanut oil. If there is water from cooking the chicken, let it evaporate by turning up the heat for a few minutes. When the oil is hot, add the Sichuan peppercorns and toast for a few seconds. Add the scallions and sauté until soft. Add the cucumbers and the Sichuan sauce. Stir to combine and let simmer for about 3 minutes.
4. Return the cooked chicken to the wok and stir-fry to combine and finish cooking. Season with more soy sauce as needed before serving with warm white rice.

Tandoori Chicken

I was like a kid walking down the aisles of Kalustyan’s, the specialty food store in Curry Hill here in New York City. I found myself subtracting from my cart when it was time to pay for my purchases because I got carried away and bought spices I knew I already had at home.

I buy my oriental spices from Asia Food and Market in Chinatown, but Kalustyan’s carries more of the South Asian and Mediterranean ingredients that are not well-stocked downtown. I picked up some powdered lemongrass and dried curry leaves for my signature dishes, but I also bought new stashes of spice I regularly use like cumin, cinnamon and turmeric. I like buying them whole because I find great pleasure in grinding them by hand using my mortar and pestle and lining them up as I do my mise en place before cooking.

I chose to do tandoori chicken after a good night of eating Bangladeshi food one night last week. We skipped the usual suspects of tandoori and brown curries and opted to try dishes I’ve never seen before that came in all shades of yellow. While eating, we noticed that we were eating the same food that the taxi drivers were enjoying. I wondered out loud why they would even have tandoori chicken on the menu if no one ordered it. I know it’s probably for the diners who want to see something familiar so that the other dishes don’t sound too intimidating. The next day, I thought I’d made my own chicken tandoori just to see if it’s really an easy recipe to do at home. It is and so you might not see me paying for tandoori any time soon.

Ingredients:
4 pieces of chicken legs, 3 pieces of chicken breasts
1 cup whole milk plain yogurt
a pinch of saffron threads, soaked in 2 tbsps hot water
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp coriander
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp hot paprika
1/2 tsp turmeric
1 tsp chili powder
1 small knob ginger, peeled, minced
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 lemon
oil, salt, pepper

1. Using a sharp knife, score the chicken flesh, each piece slashed two or three times. Sprinkle chicken with salt and pepper and transfer to a glass baking dish.
2. Combine all the spices in a bowl with the ginger and garlic. Add the saffron including the hot water and mix everything together. Massage the spice marinade on the chicken, enough to evenly coat every nook and cranny. Using a spatula, spread yogurt all over the spiced chicken pieces. Cover the glass dish and refrigerate for several hours up to overnight.
3. When ready to cook, heat a frying pan with some oil. In the meantime, preheat oven 350º. Remove the chicken pieces from the baking dish and fry them until brown on one side. (I scraped off most of the yogurt and removed the larger ginger and garlic pieces.) Turn and fry until browned on the other side. Transfer to a new baking dish and cook in the oven for about 15 minutes, or until chicken is cooked through. Squeeze some lemon juice on them before serving.

Chicken-Shank-Chorizo Casserole

La Tienda is my new favorite online store. When a package of cooking chorizo arrived in the mail last week, I knew I had to make a very hearty stew with it, I just didn’t know with what. At Whole Foods, I debated if I should pay $13 for two duck confit legs. The current state of the economy won out and I picked up four chicken legs instead for less than $4. I splurged on a $7 ham shank though because I didn’t want the good chorizo to be alone in the pot.

While cooking, the entire apartment smelled really good. Sautéing the chorizo with the garlic and onions was my favorite part, right after uncovering the pot after two hours of braising time. It was delicious with rice for dinner and it will be delicious tomorrow with pasta for lunch.

Ingredients:
1 ham shank
4 chicken legs
4 pieces of cooking chorizo, chopped
4 ribs of celery, chopped
4 carrots, peeled, chopped
4 small potatoes, peeled, chopped
1 large onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, crushed
4 sprigs of thyme
oil, salt, pepper

1. In a large Dutch oven, heat some oil and brown chicken legs on both sides. Remove them to a plate. Add a little bit more oil and brown the ham shank on all sides. Remove to the same plate.
2. In the same pot with the rendered fat, sauté the garlic and the onions. Add the chorizo and the potatoes and cook until slightly browned. Stir in the celery and the carrots with the thyme.
3. Add back the chicken and the shank. Add enough water to submerge the meats and let simmer. Season with salt and pepper. In the meantime, preheat the oven 350º. When the oven is ready, transfer the pot, covered, inside and braise for up to 2 hours. Carefully remove the pot from the oven and uncover. Stir and serve with rice, pasta or crusty bread.

Chicken Tinola, Filipino Chicken Ginger Soup

Tinola, or Filipino chicken ginger soup, is one dish that I don’t make often. When I was growing up in Manila in the, ahem, 80s, my father brought the farm from his hometown of Ilocos Sur with him. We had a backyard with a small fish pond and a chicken coop. Each week, we would either have paksiw, or fish soup with ginger, or tinola. Every Sunday, our family lunch consisted of a freshly-slaughtered chicken, all innards included, in a big pot of steaming soup.

Traditionally, tinola uses green papaya and the leaves from a Thai chili plant. For the sake of making it easier here in New York, I use chayote, which is readily available in Harlem, and watercress, which is plentiful in Chinatown. I’ve given you a recipe that calls for fish sauce, but salt will do just fine especially if your mother is allergic to fish. You can also use spinach salad leaves instead of watercress.

We still stay in that house whenever we go back to the motherland, but it has changed so much I can’t imagine that it used to have a guava tree and a large mango trunk out back, too. Twenty or so years later, the spirit that comes with eating tinola with the family is still there, no matter what vegetable I substitute.

Ingredients:
4 pieces of chicken back, some with skin on
2 finger-size gingers, peeled, sliced
3 chayotes, peeled, seeded, cubed
2 bunches watercress
1 small onion, sliced
2 garlic cloves, minced
fish sauce
oil

1. In a large Dutch oven, heat some oil. Brown chicken pieces, about 4 minutes per side. Remove from pot and set aside.
2. In the same pot, add a little more oil. Sauté garlic until light brown, ginger until fragrant and onions until soft. Add the chicken pieces back and add a few jiggers of fish sauce. Cook for 3 minutes or enough for the chicken to absorb the fish sauce essence.
3. Add 3 cups of water with the chayote and simmer, covered, for 25 minutes, or until chicken is cooked and chayotes are tender. Season with a few more jiggers of fish sauce. The broth should be gingery with a little bit of saltiness to it. Turn off the heat when done and submerge the watercress. The remaining heat should be enough to cook the watercress.

Chicken Afritada, Filipino Chicken Tomato-Bell Pepper Stew

We’re in a recession, right? Even the Swai fish price in Harlem is up a few dollars. For last week’s bento lunch, I used pork because buying for ten people was still under budget compared to buying enough fish that would feed the entire group. This week, I used chicken–and you know something’s off when I start buying chicken. I rarely order chicken from a restaurant menu (except for a good fried chicken, of course), but I do like cooking with it. I’m a sucker for the Dr.’s roast chicken anytime.

So with six chicken breasts and almost two pounds of peppers from my last few farmer’s shares, I turned to the Filipino cookbook I bought in Manila last August called Fiesta! Fiesta! Festival Foods of the Philippines for a tomato and bell pepper-based stew. The recipe’s most important step called for a store-bought Afritada mix (wenk, wenk) which I obviously altered in my version. Why go for a short cut when the real way is already easy?

Ingredients:
6 boneless chicken breasts
4 large red bell peppers, seeded, chopped
2 tomatoes, chopped
1 tbsp tomato paste
2 bay leaves
1 onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
oil, salt, pepper

1. In a large Dutch oven, heat some oil and brown chicken on both sides. Remove from pot and set aside.
2. Using the same pot and oil, sauté garlic until brown and onions until soft. Add the bay leaves and stir in tomato paste. Add tomatoes and bell peppers and cook until peppers are tender.
3. Add the chicken pieces back and add 4 cups of water. Lower the heat and simmer for 1 hour or until chicken is cooked and water is reduced to a thicker consistency.