Ginger and green onions go great together, especially when they’re paired with chicken.  For example, many Chinese poached chicken recipes use ginger and green onions in the poaching liquid.  I usually use them as a condiment for chicken when I make ginger scallion dip (recipe here).  You could also make a simple stir fry with these healthy and fresh ingredients.

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When I was growing up, my parents used to throw a giant bbq every summer.  How I miss those bbqs, because I’ve never seen anyone serve anywhere near as much food (meat in particular) as they did.  I remember there always being hamburgers, hot dogs, sausages, beef short ribs, skewered fish/squid/beef balls, kebabs, and of course, chicken wings.  They would often throw in a few steaks, chicken breasts, salmon steaks and shrimp skewers too.  The beef short ribs and chicken wings were always my favourite.  I remember watching my dad brush honey onto the wings.  I’d get excited because that meant that they were almost done  🙂  I’ve never seen anyone else make wings this way, but I’m pretty sure it’s a Malaysian thing.  I use just a touch of honey for the subtlest sweetness because I think these wings are best when the flavour of the honey is barely recognizable.

Alternatively, you could bake the chicken wings in an oven until just cooked through, brush with honey, and finish them off on the grill.  Note:  I don’t own a bbq (yet) so I used my electric grill.  A grill pan would work better because electric grills have difficulty maintaining high heat consistently.  So adjust the suggested heat and cooking times according to your equipment.  Read the rest of this entry »

One of my family’s favourite Chinese restaurants in Markham, ON, has a stir fry dish where the chicken and peppers are cut into very small pieces.  I think this method enhances the flavour of the dry sauce.  This is my recreation of that chicken and pepper dish.  It is simple, colourful, and flavourful, and is best enjoyed with a hot bowl of white rice.

On a side note, my family always refers to that Chinese restaurant as “sketchy place”, because it’s such a dirty hole in the wall, but the food is unique, delicious and relatively low in price.  The best food often comes from the sketchiest establishments.  Someone will ask, “Where are we going for dinner tonight?”  The reply will literally be, “Sketchy place.”  We go there quite often and the family that runs the restaurant knows us well.

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This is served cold and can be eaten as an appetizer or part of the main course.

I made this several times using different concentrations of alcohol.  I tried shaoxing cooking wine, shaoxing cooking wine with 14% alcohol, and whiskey (40% alcohol).  In my opinion, the 14% shaoxing cooking wine was the best choice (strong enough to come through in the meat and not too strong like the whiskey was).  I’ve also found that it’s important to make the chicken noticeably salty (without overdoing it) to compliment the bitterness of the alcohol.

[I just found a recipe for Chinese drunken chicken served hot in a broth that uses mirin.  I can’t wait to try it.  I have a feeling it will taste even better than cold drunken chicken.]

Note that I prefer my chicken to be JUST cooked through so I’ve adjusted the cooking time in the recipe (to 12 minutes) for those of you who prefer your chicken a bit more well done than this.

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