Poached Chicken Breasts - Week of Menus

From Week of Menus

Poached Chicken Breasts with Three Dipping Sauces
Serves 4 to 6

Ingredients
2 to 3 whole chicken breasts, bone in, skin on
5 slices of ginger
1 onion, or leek, or a few cloves of garlic (to flavor the water)

4 inches ginger root, peeled finely chopped (I use my mini food processor)
3 scallions, finely chopped
½ cup vegetable oil
¾ teaspoon salt

2 jalapenos, finely chopped (I use my mini food processor)
1 tablespoon sugar
¼ cup rice wine vinegar

5 scallions, finely chopped
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
¼ cup soy sauce (I prefer low sodium, Kikkoman green)

Method
Fill a large stockpot with water. The water should be at a level which will allow you to completely SUBMERGE your chicken underwater, with no problem. A large stock pot will generally be big enough.

Cover your stockpot and bring water, ginger, and onion/leek/garlic to a boil. In the meanwhile, salt chicken breasts liberally and give it a bit of a salt scrub. Rinse thoroughly and set aside, until water is fully boiling.



Once water is fully boiling, place chicken into the water, making sure that it is completely submerged in the water. Leave pot uncovered and bring chicken and water to another rolling boil again. While waiting it to boil again, you can skim off any scum off the surface of the water, if you intend to use the broth for rice porridge or something else. If you don’t want to use the broth for anything, go ahead and just wait for the chicken and water to boil again.


Once water is boiling, carefully stir chicken to make sure that the entire pot is evenly distributed with hot water. Cover pot with lid and TURN OFF stove. Do NOT remove lid of pot for the next 45 minutes, but you can even let it rest for 1 hour and 15 minutes.

While your chicken is enjoying a nice soak in the hot water, begin making your 3 dipping sauces.

For the ginger sauce, mix together finely chopped ginger, finely chopped scallions, oil and salt together in a bowl. Mix and set aside.

For the jalapeno sauce, mix together finely chopped jalapenos, sugar, and vinegar. Set aside.

For the scallion sauce, place chopped scallions in a bowl. Heat two tablespoons of oil in a small, fry pan or sauce pan. The oil should be hot enough that it shimmers or you can test by carefully putting one scallion piece in the oil to see if it sizzles. If the oil sizzles the scallion, then carefully pour the two tablespoons of oil over the scallions in the bowl and allow the scallions to be cooked by the oil. Add soy sauce and mix. Set aside.

Once the 45 or more minutes of chicken cooking in water is up, uncover pot, and remove chicken breasts from water and place in a bowl (in order to catch residual liquid). Allow chicken to cool enough so that you can handle it without screaming OUCH!

Once chicken has cooled sufficiently (30 minutes or so), begin cutting chicken as you wish. I don’t like skin so I removed skin, peeled breast off of bone and cut it into nice large cubes.

Serve chicken warm, room temp, or cold from fridge, with dipping sauces. Allow diners to dip however they please. Perfect with hot rice.

滷水包

滷水包 from:

http://oniyomeryori.blogspot.com/2012/04/blog-post_24.html

之前的滷水汁送給了朋友，她自己滷過，家人也大愛，其實滷水包就是她送的， 她送我原材料，我送她製成品，禮尚住來，哈哈！ 滷水汁可以一直重覆使用，10年，20年的陳年汁就是這樣來的，放涼後，拿掉蔥，放到凍箱急凍，煮時再室溫溶雪，每次再試味，加點蔥、香料、冰糖、水及醬油便成。鬼嫁家的瑞士汁就已經有4年歷史了～～ 相公問如果有天我們要搬到外國去，瑞士汁怎麼辦？ 當然是一起搬了！要問的嗎！！

調味：

蔥段     2條

滷水包      1包

醬油     1樽 （約500ml)

水     500ml

冰糖     3湯匙

材料：

牛腱 2條

鵝翼 2隻 (急凍的在街市凍肉檔有)

鴨舌 50g

雞蛋 1隻

製法：

1）  牛腱洗淨，切去外面的筋（如有的話，不切也沒問題）

2） 加入薑及蔥，凍水落牛腱，中火煮至水滾，以冷水洗淨備用

3） 雞翼、鵝翼及鴨舌如步驟(2)般跑活水，以冰水浸10分鐘，令皮急促收縮，更加爽口，煮完皮也不會爛

4） 大鍋或LC鍋加入所有調味料，（可以試味，再隨口味加糖或醬油，不過我沒再加）滾起後加牛腱、鵝翼和鴨舌，滾起轉小火，煮30分鐘，牛腱中途反轉一次，熄火焗20分鐘或過夜

5） 雞蛋滷4分鐘，弄碎蛋殼至有點裂紋，再以滷水汁滷過夜

6） 牛腱放涼後，切薄片，淋上汁便能吃

小貼士：

1） 除了以上材料，滷什麼也可以，鴨腎(30分鐘)、豆腐（40分鐘）、雞翼

2） 滷水放涼，材料浸過夜更入味

趁急凍滷水前，今天再滷雞翼，因為LC非常鎖水，只小火煮了5分鐘，熄火焗了40分鐘，非常入味軟滑，一點也不“老”或“鞋”，皮還有彈性呢(因為浸過冰水

Ah Leung's Secret "Master Sauce" recipe

鹵水

The "Master Sauce" - the initial pot:

- 2 cups of dark soy sauce

- 1 cup of light soy sauce

- 1 cup of sweet soy sauce (kecap manis)

- 3 cups of water

- 1/2 cup of Shao Xing rice wine

- 1 small whole onion, peeled and wedged

- 4 to 5 cloves of garlic, peeled and smashed

- 1 green onion, cut in about 1-inch pieces

- 3 to 4 inches length of fresh ginger, cut into thick slices

For the spices:

- 3 teaspoons of fennel seeds

- 3 teaspoons of cloves

- 3 to 4 whole cardamom - chop them into big pieces or crack them

- 20 star anises, break them up

- 2 sticks of cinnamon, hand-break them into small shreds

- 3 teaspoons of Sichuan peppercorn

- 2 to 3 pieces of dried tangerine peels (chan pei)

- About 3 big cubes (each about 2-inch x 2-inch x 1-inch) of rock sugar

(Note: you may also add cummin seeds, white or black peppercorns if you like.)

(Note 2: If you want to take time to cook, use whole spices. Don't use the powder form. The result from cooking with whole spices is so much better.)

Pour all the ingredients into a medium-size pot. Bring the sauce to a boil. Do an initial boiling for about 5 minutes. Then reduce the heat to a simmer. Let it bubble for about 3 hours. There... you have a pot of "Master Sauce" freshly made.

You may use the sauce for flavoring all Cantonese braised dishes (e.g. beef brisket, abalone, pork belly, etc.)... or use it to cook soy sauce chicken. Or use it to cook tea eggs.

For home-cooked soy sauce chicken... I only do split chicken breast with ribs and not a whole chicken. You may cook a small whole chicken with it. (I am not sure if the above portion is enough to cover the chicken, so adjust if needed). Bring the sauce to a high-heat boil. Add the chicken/breasts/thighs. Boil for about 13 minutes or so. Turn off the heat. Let the chicken/breasts/thighs continue to cook in the sauce for about 15 to 20 more minutes at least. Remove, chop up and serve with some braising liquid.

This pot of "Master Sauce" is like the mother dough of your sour dough bread. Filter out all the spices and residues. Save the liquid only in the freezer. (It won't even freeze up) Next time you make another round of soy sauce chicken: add more ingredients of everything. The soy sauces - probably use about one quarter of the portion suggested above. Spices - about the same. Rock sugar - only 1 cube.

Louisiana Seafood & Sausage Gumbo by Hollie

Recipe from Facebook, Hollie Phuong-Hong Nguyen

Louisiana Seafood & Sausage Gumbo. I always cheated, using pre-made roux (specific Louisiana brand only) when making this. Roux from scratch just never suits my palate 😃. I stock up on specific brand of roux and andouille sausages when I get a chance to go back to NOLA. They are a must for this dish for me 😃.

Update with recipe:

Savoie’s roux (light) (see picture)
Tony Chachere’s Creole Seasoning (see picture)
Homemade chicken or turkey neck stock
Gumbo filé
Frozen cut okras
Onions, chopped
Green onions, chopped
Celery, chopped
Louisiana crawfish tails
Shrimp, peeled
Richard’s Andouille sausage (see picture), cut lengthwise and sliced into 1/4” thick pieces.
Crabmeat
Scallops
Butter or cooking oil

Amount of ingredients use will depend on your servings, so use accordingly.

Follow instructions on the roux jar to add the amount of roux into your stock pot.

Since the roux is thick, you may want to dissolve it with some hot water or hot stock before adding it into the stock pot. That way, there are no lumps.

Season with the Creole seasoning.

Bring the stock to light boil.

Add the celeries, onions, and okras. People add green bell peppers, too but since I don’t like to eat them, I don’t put them in my gumbo.

In a skillet, add some butter or cooking oil (personal preference. I used butter). Sauté the crawfish tails. Add them to the pot.

In the same skillet, add some butter and sauté the sausage. Add the sausage to the pot. Cook on simmering low heat.

Add some gumbo file (about a tsp) if you want to thicken it more. But I find that to thicken your gumbo, add lots of okras. That’ll do it.

Taste your gumbo and see if more seasoning is needed.

Let it cook on low heat until all the veggies are soften and the seasoning is sipping through.

Add shrimp, crabmeat, and scallops just 5 minutes before serving. I sometimes add oysters, too if I can get some good ones. Basically, add your favorite seafood.

Add the green onions and serve with white rice.

Chicken Karaage

Recipe from Facebook,  A Taste Of Vietnamese Home Cooking, ‎Kieu Shafai‎

The secret to crispy and juicy chicken is to triple fry as mentioned in my recipe.

I combined 3 recipes to get it perfect for them. Thumbs up for sure!

Chicken Karaage recipe:

1 lb skin-on chicken thigh, cubed to 1 and 1/2”
1 Tbsp sake
1Tbsp mirin
1 tsp sugar
2 Tbsp soy sauce
1 Tbsp ginger, grated
4 clove garlic, grated
1 egg, beaten
Black pepper
potato starch
cooking oil, for frying

Combine sake, mirin, soy sauce, and sugar. Blend well until sugar is dissolved. Add ground black pepper, grated ginger and garlic. Mix well. Add chicken cubes. Mix well and let it marinate in the fridge for 30 mins.

When ready to fry, blend egg and add to the marinated chicken. Mix well. Place plenty of potato starch in a shallow container. Coat chicken cubes both sides and place them in a baking tray. Let it sit for 5 mins.

When oil is ready, add chicken and deep fry for 1 minute then remove the chicken to a rack and rest for 30 seconds. Return the chicken back to the oil and fry for 30 seconds, and then rest on a rack again for 30 seconds. Transfer the chicken back into the oil for one last 30 seconds.

Hawaiian Shoyu chicken

Shoyu Chicken #1

(by Marilyn Morikawa, page 61, who notes this recipe is used to feed hungry volunteers at Makawao's Hongwanji Mission Buddhist Temple.)

1 cup Kikkoman shoyu (soy sauce)
½ cup water
1 cup sugar
1 piece ginger, peeled and crushed
2 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
1 tablespoon oyster sauce (optional)
1 tablespoon Mirin (optional)
5 lbs. chicken thighs

Peel and crush ginger and garlic. Combine with all other sauce ingredients in a large pot. Add chicken. Bring to a boil. Lower heat to medium and continue cooking for 30 minutes or until done.

Shoyu Chicken #2
(by Leslie Frankel of The Pukalani Club House, page 62)

6 chicken thighs, bone in
1 cup shoyu (soy sauce, any brand)
1 cup sugar
1 cup water
1 tsp. sesame seeds
1 green onion stalk, chopped

Add shoyu, sugar and water together in a large pot. Add chicken to mixture. Bring to a boil on stove top, then reduce to simmer for 15 minutes. Remove from heat. Remove chicken from pot. Return pot to simmer and reduce remaining liquid for 10 minutes. Pour mixture over chicken; garnish with sesame seeds and green onions.

Adapted from Facebook, Bonnie Clyde

Shoyu (soy sauce. The best one is Aloha Shoyu, if you can find it. I found it in Tokyo Central and some 99 Ranch markets)

Sugar. Brown or white, both work. Mix it up 1/2 and 1/2 if Danger is your middle name and adventurous.

Mirin (Japanese rice cooking wine) You can substitute sherry for mirin.

Water.

2 Crushed gloves of garlic

I don’t know how to measure. You don’t want the Shoyu to overpower the marinade. It should taste lightly of Shoyu and sweet.

I’ve looked over some shoyu chicken recipes online and most of them...aren’t local style shoyu chicken.

Look for the ones from the state of Hawaii, not like AllRecipes.

You can marinate it for a couple of hours and throw it into a pan. I use the skin on, bone in thighs. Best flavor, hands down.

You can do this in a crockpot or oven but I find cooking it down in the skillet is the best way. You want to reduce the sauce so that it’s thick and bubbly but careful because it’ll burn quick.

Pro local Hawaii girl tip - make sure you spoon in that sauce on some rice.

INSTANT POT PORK SINIGANG

INGREDIENTS
2-3 pounds All Natural Boneless Chops and/or Boneless Loin Filet cut into 2 inch cubes
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1 TBL Olive Oil
1 packet of sinigang soup mix (found in Asian stores, Amazon, Walmart or Walmart.com)
32 oz of chicken broth or chicken stock
Approximately 32 oz of water
Spinach (1-2 bags or 4 if you are like my family and love it)
3 tomatoes (sliced)
1 large onion coarsely chopped
package of radishes (Taro Root or Gabi is traditionally used instead of radishes.)
2 TBL patis (fish sauce that can be found in the international foods aisle)
Juice from 1 lemon
salt and pepper to taste

DIRECTIONS

Using Saute function, add the olive oil to your Instant Pot. Add pork,salt, pepper, and garlic. Brown the pork to lock in the juices.

Press cancel to cancel saute function.

Next, pour in the chicken stock.

Seal Instant Pot and cook on MANUAL for 15 minutes.

Allow the pressure to naturally release for 5 minutes then quick release (move the knob to “vent”.) Make sure you stand back so that the steam doesn’t burn you.  let it naturally release for 5-10 minutes. (IP display will read "L 00:05"

Add the onion, radishes, tomatoes, half of the seasoning packet, fish sauce, and water. Do not overfill pot.

Reseal and manually cook for 5 minutes.

After timer goes off, allow pressure to release for five minutes. Then quick release.

Remove the lid.

Put Instant Pot back on Saute.

Add the lemon juice, rest of the seasoning mix, and the spinach. Allow to cook until spinach is slightly wilted.

Braised Ginger Chicken

From Facebook, VCG, Kat Nghi

Ga Kho Gung

2 lbs chicken thigh(cut into bite size)
1.5 cup coconut juice(fresh or can)
1/3 cup ginger(fine julienne)
1 tbsp Shallot
1 tbsp Garlic
1 tbsp Soy sauce
1 tbsp Oyster sauce 
1 tbsp Nuoc Mau (sugar+water)
1 tbsp sugar 
1 tsp Black ground pepper 
Optional: Red pepper+scallions

Clean chicken > brown chicken w/ oil over high heat, after chicken is brown add in coconut juice simmer for 20 mins over medium heat>then add all the ingredients in over medium-low heat for 15 mins.

Baked Mac N Cheese

Recipe from Facebook, Katie T. La

Mac n cheese

Cook 3-4 cup macaroni w 1 tsp salt till al dente (remove and drain right before it's edibly soft. Do not rinse)

Melt 1/2 a stick of salted butter 

Add 4 TBSP all purpose flour

Whisk constantly about 5 mins to make a roux

Add 2 cans (20 oz) evaporated milk

2-3 tsp dry mustard

Stir well

Whisk 2 large eggs in a separate bowl

Remove about 1/4 c of the milk mix and slowly pour into eggs while constantly whisking to not cook eggs

Whisk till eggs reach room temperature, then stir gently into pot until smooth

Add 20 ounces of assorted freshly grated cheese (mild cheddar, sharp cheddar, Colby, gruyere, etc)

Reserve about 1/4 c for topping

Stir to melt cheese

Add 3/4 tsp seasoned salt and 1/2 tsp of kosher salt (start with 1/4 tsp at a time and add more to taste. Don't undersalt. Once you add the macaroni, it'll reduce the saltiness level)

Add ground black pepper to taste

Add macaroni and stir

Pour into baking dish

Top with remaining cheese

Bake 15-20 minutes 

Optional: add fresh bacon bits and chopped scallions 
Optional: Add seasoned toasted breadcrumbs (2 TBSP butter, melted on stovetop, 1/2 Panko breadcrumbs, toast till golden)
Bake another 5 minutes

Lin's Spicy Pickled Radish

The ratio for the pickled water is 1:2:2

1 cup of sugar
2 cups of warm water
2 cups of distilled white vinegar

Mixed the water and sugar together to dissolve the sugar, add in vinegar. You can adjust the sweetness and sourness based on how you like it 

Select the veggies you want to use, cabbage, radish, carrots, cucumbers( cut some of the seeds out) jalapeños, etc, sliced it to bite size and sprinkle some salt on it, let it sit for about 30 mins so the water can come out from the veggies, this process helps to make the veggies more crunchy, then rinse the veggies a couple of times to get all the salt out

Put the veggies in a jar or bucket and add in a couple slices of ginger then pour the vinegar mixture over it, let it cool down then store pickled veggies in refrigerator for 1-2 days and it will be ready to eat.

Pickled Green Papaya and Red Cabbage

Light and crunchy, this pickle makes a refreshing side for Cambodian-style beef skewers, or for any grilled meat. The recipe is from Nite Yun, chef-owner of Nyum Bai restaurant in Oakland. True green papayas are only available at Asian markets (for more info, see note). If you can’t get one, use unpeeled Persian cucumber, cut into matchsticks rather than shredded (and skip the cabbage; it’ll make the cucumber look murky).

1 ½ lbs green (unripe) papaya, peeled and seeded

2 tbsp plus 1 tsp. kosher salt

¾ cup sugar

1 ½ cups rice vinegar

2 minced fresh red or green Thai chiles (optional)

¼ red cabbage, halved

Shred papaya into ribbons, ideally using a julienne peeler or a spiralizer* for long, crunchy strands. Alternatively, cut into matchsticks. In a colander, mix papaya with 2 tbsp. salt and let drain in sink 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, make brine: In a medium bowl, mix remaining 1 tsp. salt with the sugar and vinegar until dissolved.

Rinse and drain papaya, then squeeze out as much water as possible and add to brine. Stir in chiles, if using, and push cabbage into brine. Cover and chill overnight.

Remove cabbage and stir papaya to disperse color. Thinly slice cabbage and mix back in.

*How to Shred Green Papaya: Crunchy and delicately tart, green papayas are rock-hard, with dark green skin and bright white flesh; find them at Asian markets. For salads like the one here, they’re most easily shredded with light strokes of an inexpensive Asian-style julienne peeler. Bonus: the peeler works on carrots, beets, and more.