Home-made Chicken Essence

Sorry for my disappearance act! As much as I would like to keep up with my blog posts, I am unable to - first trimester had been a tiring period for me.  And yes, I moving on to my next stage in life - being a mummy to a little one (soon!).

Now that I am up and feeling a little more energetic, I bought a black chicken from the wet market and made myself some pure home-made black chicken essence to nourish myself and my LO!  This chicken essence is said to strengthen Mummy's body making her less lethargic.  Nothing beats home-made at this point - I cannot bear the thought of downing those dozens of store bought chicken essence because of the preservatives!

This home-made chicken essence is easy to make and is so yummy.  Just the use of a whole black chicken and some red dates, you are ready to make yourself this nourishing soup.  Easy huh?

You may choose to use kampong chicken if you cannot get black chicken.  Otherwise use black chicken as they are packed with more nutrients.

Home-made Chicken Essence

1 whole black chicken (You can ask the poultry seller to remove the chicken skin and chop into smaller parts for you)

4 big red dates, pitted and rinsed

1. Clean all chopped chicken parts, clean internal parts and wash off blood, scrap off transparent membrane from chicken skin with a knife. Clean and dry with kitchen towel.  Using either a chopper or pestle, pound the meat and bone of the chicken parts to break up and loosen the meat and bone a little so that chicken essence can be "forced out" more easily.

2. Place half of the pounded chicken parts into your double boiler, place red dates on meat and top with remaining chicken parts.

Look at the liquid gold collected at the bottom after 3.5 hours of double-boiling.

The hours put in on double-boiling and I got half bowl of this pure sweet and yummy chicken essence with no salt added! Drank up within minutes. Worth it :)

3. Place into your double-boiler and let it do its job for at least 3 hours.  Throughout the 3 hours, essence will drip down from the tiny openings into the bigger holder.  Enjoy!

Double-boiled Ginseng Chicken Soup

Finally found some time after so long to double-boil some herbal soup for our dinner on a weekend night.  Double-boiling soup is not difficult task, it is the time that you need set aside to be able to get a pot of nice and rich tasting double-boiled soup.  At least 2.5 to 3 hours of dedication and you will be rewarded :)

This time I bought one pre-packed Chinese herbal mix from the supermarket, grabbed a whole chicken thigh and off I went to make the soup. The good thing about double-boiling soup is that meat added will be soft and tender tasting still, even after hours of cooking. We wiped off the chicken thigh meat and soup in no time!

Double-boiled Ginseng Chicken Soup
300g to 350g whole chicken thigh
1.5l of water
Ginseng roots 人参
Honey dates 蜜枣
Red dates, pitted (optional) 红枣
Lotus seeds 湘莲
Liquorice 甘草
Indian bread 茯苓
Wolfberry 枸杞
Chuanxiong rhizome 川芎
Chinese angelica root 当归

1. Fill a big aluminium pot with enough water and bring to a rolling boil.
2. While waiting for the big pot of water to boil, remove fats and blood from chicken thigh. Snip off some chicken skins with underlying fats. Just leave some skin on. Rinse and clean meat and set in a dish. Pour hot water over chicken thigh to remove scums and excess oil.
3. Rinse all herbs.
4. Put 1.5l of water to boil in water boiler.

5. When big pot of water has come to a rolling boil, place in ceramic pot. Use a tong and place scalded chicken thigh into ceramic pot, place in rinsed herbs and finally pour in boiled water, place on ceramic pot lid and then main pot lid.
6. Bring big pot water to boil before turning down fire and let soup be at a gentle simmer for 2.5 to 3 hours. Remove as much oil from soup as possible.
7. Add salt to taste and serve immediately.

Benefits of Ginseng chicken soup
Improves stamina, complexion as well as rejuvenate the body.

Popcorn Chicken with Pineapple Cubes & Onions in Tomato-Chilli Sauce

Who would have thought of making a sweet and sour pork-like dish in all under 30 minutes? Mum taught me this - the easy and fast (not forgetting lazy!) way is replacing pork with frozen popcorn chicken.  Airfry them and coat them with the sweet and sour or spicy sauce that you have prepped and heated up and you get the dish served in no time.

Easy. No fuss and yummy.  We have got a can of pineapple and some onions, so I bought a pack of popcorn chicken and churned up this dish.  It went so well with rice.  Kiddos will love this too :)

Popcorn Chicken with Pineapple Cubes & Onions in Tomato-Chilli Sauce
(Serve 2 to 3)

200g popcorn chicken
1 large onion, cubed
3 or 4 slices of canned pineapple, cubed
1.5 tbsp oil

3 tbsp tomato sauce
1 tbsp sweet chilli sauce (optional)
1/2 tbsp sugar (do taste test and add more sugar according to taste)
1 tbsp water

1. Preheat airfryer for 8min at 200deg C.
2. Place frozen popcorn chicken into airfryer basket and put to airfry at 200deg C for first 7min then 180deg C for another 5 to 7 min till light golden brown and crispy.

3. In a pan, heat oil and add in onion cubes. Saute onions till fragrant then add in pineapple cubes and stir fry for about 30sec. Add in tomato sauce, sweet chilli sauce, water and sugar and stir to mix well. Let sauce come to a boil. Do taste test. Add more sugar if preferred, more water if a thinner consistency if preferred.
4. Place airfried popcorn chicken into sauce pot and mix well to coat sauce evenly.  Dish out and serve immediately.

Note: You may add cubed capsicums and cucumbers if you prefer more crunch and colour to this dish.

Braised Chicken with Bittergourd

This is a way overdue dish that I found still stuck in my draft.  If you have been keeping up with my blog, you will know that I am a lazy wife and cook who churn up only simple, fast and easy dishes. No need for much of cooking skills, and there you are, one pot dishes to get you over 1 meal.

Hubby and I love this braised chicken with bittergourd and we could just eat it with rice alone! Feel free to use prime pork ribs in place of the chicken meat and it will taste equally yummy too.

I over-braised it quite abit and got soft bittergourd, where they were not that bitter anymore and suits Hubby's taste.  Gonna cook this again!

Now, it is coming to the end of my 4 days' long weekend break and tomorrow is back to work tomorrow!!! Monday blues will soon set in *sob* Good luck to all who are like me hehehe!

Braised Chicken with Bittergourd
Recipe by Patsie Cheong from One Day One Dish 365 Selected Home-Cooked Recipes

Ingredients A
600g chicken meat ( I used thigh meat)
1 tbsp light soy sauce
1 tbsp corn flour

Ingredients B
2 tsp bean paste
2 tsp sugar
1 tbsp minced garlic

Ingredients C
400g bittergourd
60g carrot ( I used 1 whole carrot)
2 stalks spring onion  (chopped)
some windmill flour solution (I left this out)

Seasonings
2 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tbsp Huadiao wine (chinese cooking wine)
1 tsp dark soy sauce
1 tsp sesame oil
1 1/2 cup water

1. Cut chicken meat into small pieces and marinate with light soy sauce and corn flour.
2. Remove seeds from bittergourd and cut it into sections. Peel and slice carrrot and set aside.
3. Heat up 2 tbsp of oil and stirfry Ingredients B till fragrant.

4. Add in marinated chicken and Ingredients C, and stirfry till well combined. Pour in Seasonings and simmer till the meat becomes tender and cooked.

5. Stir in flour solution and serve. (I left this out)

Tips: Chicken can be substituted with roast pork as well..

Teriyaki Chicken Kebabs

Another item that I made for the family BBQ. I did not want the BBQ session to be laden with nothing but meat, Meat and MEAT! OMG... carnivore I am not! So made these teriyaki chicken kebabs and filled the sticks with colourful pineapple and vegetables!

Now, Im keeping this post short and sweet. Busy day at work today, gonna sit back and watch TVVvvvvvv!! :P

Teriyaki chicken recipe by Namiko Chen
(I marinated the meat using this recipe and made them into a kebab for BBQ)

• 1 lb (454 g) boneless chicken thigh with skin, rinsed and pat dry
• 
  

Teriyaki Sauce

• 2 Tbsp. soy sauce
• 2 Tbsp. water
• 1 Tbsp. sake
• 1 Tbsp. mirin
• 1 Tbsp. sugar
• ¼ onion, grated, including juice
• 1" (2.5 cm) ginger, grated, including juice
• 
  

1. 1. Cut each chicken thigh into 4 pieces. Prick the chicken with a fork so it absorbs more flavor.
   
2. 2. Combine the teriyaki sauce ingredients in a medium bowl or Ziploc bag.
3. 3. Add the chicken into the bowl and marinate for at least 2-3 hours in the refrigerator. (I left it in the freezer for 2 days and allow it to defrost a night before the kebab preparation.

Teriyaki Chicken Kebab recipe

Marinated Teriyaki chicken cubes

Pineapple cubes

Green & Red Capsicums, cubed

Onions, cubed

Satay sticks (soaked in warm water for 30min - prevent charred parts from the BBQ process)

1. Skewer a piece of teriyaki chicken cube 3/4 down the satay stick, and the sequence follows through as such, a piece of red capsicum cube, a green capsicum cube, 2 pcs onion cubes, then repeat one more time on same satay stick. Do the same for all other sticks till you use up all ingredients and you are ready to use it for your BBQ! Otherwise, clingwrap it and place in fridge till later use.

BBQ Chicken Wings

A way overdue post here. In fact I have so many in queue to posts and am way behind time! 

Held a mini BBQ session with our family some 2 weeks back during the Jubilee weekend. Booked a BBQ pit downstairs our place and BBQed to our hearts' contents.

For the first time, I took up much of the meat marinating works as I did not want to bog Mum down since she was in the midst of recovering just about 1 month after her operation.

Chicken wings are the must-haves during BBQ sessions. I looked through food blogs and decided to give this recipe by House of Annie a try. Guess what?? Good feedbacks! My 1st time, but definitely not my last time trying out this recipe. A keeper :)

Mid joint wings BBQed to its perfection.

(Credit to my BIL who insisted he had a part to play for the yummy wings hahaha!)

Barbecued Chicken Wings

recipe adapted from House of Annie

I doubled the marinate sauce and marinated 1kg of mid joint chicken wings with it

6 large chicken wings (Annie's advice: Can use up to 10 with the same amount of marinade)
1/2 tsp Chinese wine
1/2 tsp sesame oil
1 Tbsp light soy sauce
2 Tbsp dark soy sauce
2 Tbsp oyster sauce
2 Tbsp honey
salt and pepper to taste 

1. Combine all the ingredients and marinate the chicken wings for 6 hours, up to 3 days. I find a ziplock bag really handy for this purpose–just squeeze out all the air and massage the marinate into the chicken wings. Flip around once or twice before cooking.
2. Grill it on your barbeque until golden brown and cooked or bake at 425 F for about 20-25 min and finish with a 2-3 minute broil for added color.

Chicken & Beef Pies 鸡肉牛肉派

Not sure why but I have been craving for savoury meat pies in the past weeks. I am not one who craves for meat! So not me leh. I caved in. I made chicken pies and beef pies over Saturday and Sunday last weekend. Why 2 days? Because I prepared too much and got a huge portion of both the chicken and beef fillings! 

I took the lazy way out for my fillings by using store bought Campbells Mushroom Soup can for the chicken pie filling and beef broth for beef pie filling.

Did chicken pies many times but it is my first having potato cubes added. Love the colour combi.

I love using creamy mushroom soup as that alone is enough to give the filling its flavour. No need for anymore seasonings!

Minced meat always go so well with button mushrooms!

I must say I was shocked with the amount of pies I made in total. I freezed them when they cooled. Pop some into the toaster or oven to heat them up and then sink your teeth into them right after. YUMMY!

Hubby is a pie lover. He was all for it when I told him I would be making pies that very weekend. My forever supporter (and guinea pig)! :P

Be forewarned. Long long post ahead!

I cooked up my own filling for the chicken and beef pie. Pie crust pastry were made using Baking Mum's recipe and Christine's Recipes.

Baking Mum used a mix, refrigerate and use recipe. Plain yoghurtadded. Yields soft crusty pie crust. I like my pie crust this way. Downside is having a slightly sticky dough that must be refrigerated for at least 30min before using. Not that easy to handle and I needed plain flour to prevent sticking.

Christine used the rubbing-in method for the pie crust. I do not like getting my fingers all messy with the cold butter and flour, but I love how I can use the dough rightaway without refrigerating it. No sticky dough to handle. No need to sprinkle flour all over too.

Seriously, ask me which crust I prefer and I can't quite answer that. Both crust had different bites. Both are good. I can only say it depends on how much time you have for making the pies. Abit more time to spare? Use Baking Mum's. Looking for easy to handle dough? Go for Christine's one.

Never give me more than 1 thing to choose from. I can never decide on one.

Chicken, Potato & Mushroom Pie

Pastry by Baking Mum
200g butter
250g plain flour
110g plain yoghurt
1 tsp sugar
1 egg yolk
A pinch of salt

Put all the ingredients into the mixing bowl except yoghurt, and mix to a crumble. Add in yoghurt and mix to a dough. Dough will be very soft so need to keep it refrigerated for at least 30 mins.

The steps for the chicken pie will be as per normal. You can either do big pie or mini pie. Just need to roll out the dough, cut the size required and place in a pie dish (or disposable aluminium cups). Poke hole on the base using a fork and place ingredients on top. Cut another piece of dough to cover the top. Poke a few more times using fork on the cover of the pie and brush with 1 beaten egg. Baked in a preheated oven at 180C for 30 min. (I bake at 180deg C for 45 min.)  

Filling

350g Chicken breast meat, fats removed and cubed

5 small Brastagi potatoes, deskinned, boiled and cubed

1/2 can of button mushroom, thinly sliced

1/2 ricebowl mixed peas

1 red onion, cubed

1/2 yellow onion, cubed

1 can of Campbells Mushroom Soup

2 tbsp olive oil, or canola oil
Pepper

1. Heat oil in pan. Add in both onions. Saute till fragrant and translucent.

2. On medium heat, add in cubed chicken meat and stir fry till well mixed and meat half cooked. Add in mixed peas and sliced button mushrooms. Mix well till chicken meat is just cooked. Add in boiled potato cubes and give it a quick mix.

3. Pour in cream of mushroom and stir well to break down the coagulated mushroom cream to thoroughly coat all ingredients with it. Add a dash of pepper (more if preferred) and stir well. Turn off heat, scoop out into bowl and set aside for later use. (You can cook the filling a day earlier, cover with clingwrap when cooled and use it the next day.)

Black Pepper Ground Beef & Button Mushroom Pie

Pastry by Christine's Recipes
160 gm plain flour / all-purpose flour
1/8 tsp salt
90 gm chilled unsalted butter, diced
1/4 tsp lemon zest
3 Tbsp iced water
2 tsp freshly squeezed lemon juice

1. Sift flour and salt into a large mixing bowl. Add diced butter and stir with a knife. Rub the butter into the flour with your finger tips, lifting the flour from the bottom up on top, until the mixture looks like coarse breadcrumbs. Mix in lemon zest.
2. Add 2 tablespoons of the chilled water and lemon juice to flour mixture. Add the rest of the chilled water bit by bit until the mixture comes together into a ball. The dough should leave bowl clean.
3. Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface and lightly knead by hand until smooth. Don’t over knead the dough. Divide into two balls, one larger in size for making the base, with another one smaller for making the top. Roll into two disc shapes. 4. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill in fridge for about 25 to 30 minutes. (I did not refrigerate them and used the dough as it is.)

5. Preheat oven to 200C/395F.
6. Remove the larger dough disc from fridge. Place on a lightly floured surface. Use a rolling pin to roll out into a circle slightly larger than the mould. Carefully line the mould. Trim the edge. Save the trimmed dough for decoration. Prick the base with a fork. Line with baking paper and place ceramic beads, or beans, or rice on top. (I just poked holes on base and spooned in fillings, cover top with dough, poke holes on dough top. Brush top with beaten egg yolk and put to bake at 180deg C for 45 min.)  

7. Transfer to the preheated oven for blind-baking, about 15 to 20 minutes, until the edge becomes lightly brown.
8. Remove the pie shell from oven. Remove the beads and baking paper. Roll out the smaller dough disc into a circle similar to the size of the mould. Spoon the fillings into the shell and cover with the dough disc. Crimp the edges to seal and score the top pastry. Cut two slits in the middle of the pie. Use the trimmed dough for decoration. Egg wash the pie.
Bake in the preheated oven, for about 20 to 25 minutes, until golden. Serve hot.

Filling

300g ground beef

1/2 can of button mushroom, thinly sliced

1/2 ricebowl mixed peas

1 yellow onion, cubed

200ml of Campbells Beef Broth 

2 tbsp olive oil, or canola oil
1 tbsp abalone sauce or oyster sauce or simply use soy sauce
Ground black pepper

1. Heat oil in pan. Add in onions. Saute till fragrant and translucent.

2. On medium heat, add in ground beef and stir fry till well mixed and meat half cooked. Add in mixed peas and sliced button mushrooms. Mix well till ground beef is just cooked. Add a dash of black pepper and mix well.

3. Pour in 200ml of beef broth and stir well. Add oyster sauce/ abalone sauce or soy sauce. Depending on how spicy you want your beef filling to be, add ground black pepper accordingly. I used about 1.5 tsp of it though because I like it peppery! Stir and mix well. Taste test. If okay, turn off heat, scoop out into bowl and set aside for later use. 

Mushroom & Shredded Chicken Ipoh Hor Fun 香菇鸡丝怡保河粉

Running out of ideas to cook a simple lunch or dinner? Fret not. Try cooking this simple and fuss free mushroom and shredded chicken Ipoh hor fun. I like that there is no worries about stir frying anything and getting my kitchen all greasy, and a meal can be served all in 30 minutes!

I was brought up with a belief that these instant stock contains a significant amount of MSG, so I tried to avoid using them as much as I could. My office mate told me that certain instant stock were okay so I gave it a try since I was just gonna cook the Ipoh hor fun as a dinner meal for just two of us.  Not too bad though, at least I did not have to gulp down tons of water after the meal

Hubby asked me on the difficulty of cooking this dish and I gave a crisp reply of 1 out of 5 star - Easy! And so I conquered another hawker-centre-kind-of-food at the comfort of our own home. More to come!

Mushroom & Shredded Chicken Ipoh Hor Fun

Main Ingredients

1 packet Ipoh Hor Fun (rinse under running water to soften them)
1/2 chicken breast (wash and pad dry with kitchen towel, season with 1/2 tsp salt, a dash of pepper and 1/2 tsp sesame oil. Leave in refrigerator to season for 1 hour or more.)
1 small pack of chye sim vegetable (wash and cut into bite sizes)
4 dried Chinese mushrooms (add more if you wish) - rinsed and soak in water till softened, remove mushroom stems and set aside. Keep mushroom water.)

Gravy
240ml chicken broth (I used Swanson's instant chicken broth)
1/2 bowl of mushroom water
1/2 tbsp sesame oil
1 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tbsp dark soy sauce
1 tbsp light soya sauce
1/2 tbsp sugar


Thickening agent
1 tbsp cornstarch mixed with 2 tbsp water

Some pickled green chillies (Optional)

A dash of pepper (Optional)

1. Cook chicken breast meat to a small pot of boiling water. Remove and shred meat. Set aside.

2. In another small pot, blanch chye sim and set aside. Blanch rinsed Ipoh hor fun in same pot and portion them on serving dishes.

3. Pour chicken broth into saucepan, add in all gravy ingredients. Add in mushrooms and let gravy mixture comes to a boil and allow mushrooms to cook.

4. Remove mushrooms and set aside. (You may choose to leave it in) Add in thickening agent and stir to prevent clumpy starchy bits. Let simmer to thicken.

5. Place shredded chicken meat, chye sim and dried mushrooms on top of Ipoh hor fun. Spoon thickened gravy over noodles and ingredients. Place green chillies on side of noodles and add a dash of pepper. Serve immediately.

Claypot Chicken Rice

It was a lazy weekend and I just needed all the rest I could have. Sometimes I just do not have the mood to do anything but just laze around. Because I am a wife to a man, I need to do my part and feed the hubby as well. I still need to cook to fill our stomach, right? Well, not that we cannot eat out, but we just prefer home cooked food so here you are, another lazy one-pot dish from me, the lazy wife.

Claypot Rice 
(Serves 2)

1 cup rice
1 cup water
1 tbsp light soy sauce
1 tbsp oyster / abalone sauce
1 tbsp dark soy sauce
2 tbsp oil
a dash of pepper

Chicken marinate
1 tbsp oyster / abalone sauce
1/2 tsp ginger juice
1 tsp dark soy sauce
a dash of pepper

2 chicken thighs (deskinned, excess fats removed & chop into small pieces)
1 tsp salted fish (finely chopped) - you may add more if you prefer stronger salted fish taste
1/2 pc of a whole Chinese sausage (lup cheong), sliced thinly
4 pcs dried Chinese mushrooms (soaked till soft & halved) - reserve mushroom water for cooking with the rice
2 stalks of cai xin or xiao bai cai

Spring onions or Chinese parsley, for garnishing (optional)


1. Mix chicken with the marinate, cover with clingwrap and leave in fridge to marinate for 2 hours or overnight.
2. Soak rice in the one cup of water in a bowl for 30min to an hour.
3. Mix together light soy sauce, oyster/abalone sauce, dark soy and pepper in a bowl.  Set aside.
4. Heat a tbsp of oil in claypot and stir in salted fish bits and fry till fragrant and golden brown.  Remove just the salted fish and dish onto a small plate.
5. With the leftover oil from the salted fish in the claypot, pour in the soaked rice plus water and add in 2 tbsp of the mushroom water.  Put on claypot lid and let the rice come to a boil.
6. When rice has boiled,  place marinated chicken thighs on top sides of rice, chinese mushrooms, sausages, sprinkle salted fish all over , top with vege and cover.  Lower heat to small and let simmer for 8 to 10min.
7. Pour in prepared sauce all over top of rice and ingredients.  Cover and let it heat for 5min.  Serve immediately.  You may add more dark soy sauce if preferred.

Beer Chicken - Claypot Style

I was treated to a good one-pot dish meal in office last week by one of our nice lady. I love how simple and heart-warming this dish is, especially when beer is added!

The trips to Europe has kinda turned me into an alcoholic! I need beer even in my food???  Let's not sidetrack. Okay, I must say this is really one pot of comfort food. You get meat (chicken), potatoes and carrots all in that 1 pot. Good lot of gravy for pairing with rice too! Beer made up the gravy.  Sounds good? Cook it :)

I added a handful of black fungus to have more varieties. This is quite a versatile dish. You can add other ingredients too. Chinese dried mushrooms, canned button mushrooms, radish etc. It is really up to you. This is somewhat like the chinese version of meat stew.  Hubby savoured and enjoyed every spoonful of this dish.   Yeah!

Beer Chicken - Claypot Style 
(Serves 2)

2 chicken thighs (skin and big fatty lumps removed), cut to chunky pieces
3 Brastagi Potatoes, deskinned & quartered
1 big carrot or 2 small sized carrots, deskinned & cut into bite sizes
a handful of black fungus, soaked in water till softened, snip off hard areas, rinsed, drained and tear into bite sizes
1 onion, deskinned and quartered

1 can of beer (room temperature)
1.5 tbsp oil
Half tablespoon of old ginger juice
1.5 tablespoon oyster sauce / abalone sauce
1 tablespoon light soy sauce
1/2 tbsp Chinese cooking Wine / Hua Diao Jiu
1 tsp sesame oil (optional)
a dash of pepper

1 small piece ginger, sliced thinly
1 tbsp black soy sauce
1 tbsp cornflour (mixed with 1 tbsp water) - for thickening (optional if you prefer a more watery consistency)

Spring onions, 1 sprig cut into 1 inch length and another sprig cut into small pieces - for garnishing (optional)

1. Marinate chicken meat with ginger juice, oyster sauce, light soy sauce, chinese cooking wine, sesame oil and pepper.  Cover with clingwrap and eave in fridge to marinate for 2 hours.

2. Heat oil in claypot till hot and add in ginger slices and onion slices and saute till fragrant.

3. Place in marinated chicken pieces and sauce into claypot.  Mix well.

4. When chicken meat has turned white, add in potatoes, carrots and black fungus and mix well.  Cover and let the dish cook for about minutes on medium heat.

5. Pour in beer and stir well.  Cover and let it come to a boil.

6. Add black soy sauce and mix well to coat all ingredients. Put in the big pieces of spring onions then give a quick stir, cover again and let it simmer on medium low heat till potato and carrot and softened. (You may do a taste test at this stage, if it is bland - add in some light soy sauce or oyster sauce, whichever preferred)

7. Add in cornflour mixture to thicken the sauce.  Be sure to be stirring the dish while adding the mixture to prevent lumpy gravy forming.
8. Turn off heat, Sprinkle spring onions on top and serve with rice.