[Wordless Wednesday] 3 Cup Chicken - 三杯鸡

Three Cup Chicken - 三杯鸡

3 CUP CHICKEN
三杯鸡

(Serves: 2 | Preparation: 10 minutes | Cooking: 15 minutes)

Ingredients:
1/2 Portion of Chicken, cut into bite size
50g Fresh Ginger, sliced
Handful of Thai Basil Leaves (九层塔)
2 - 3 Dried Chilli (辣椒干), soaked till soften

Featuring Three One Pot Dish Recipes

Weekend is just less than an hour from now and here I am sharing 3 hearty one pot dish recipes which you might be interested to take a look. These are our all-time favourite dish and I hope it can help to give you some ideas while preparing a quick meal for your family during weekend or busy weekday nights. Moreover if you read through the recipe(s) the ingredients are pretty straight forward and I am sure you have most of them in your pantry to get you started with the dish too.

CLAYPOT CHICKEN RICE WITH SALTED FISH

I love Claypot Rice especially the burnt bottom of the rice which is crispy and flavorsome (but however it is very heaty to eat those) and I have also made a few version of claypot rice even with one using Happy Call Pan (recipe). The main ingredients are chicken pieces or chicken fillet seasoned with dark soy sauce plus preserved sausage and salted fish. Although we can make decent taste of claypot rice at home but it never beats those cooked using charcoal stove which gives it a better flavour.

Happy Call Pan Recipes - Baked Sweet Potato, Sizzling Tofu and Claypot Rice

It's Happy Call Pan(HCP) recipes again! As I have mentioned before this is an "IN" kitchen gadget which is it one of the hot discussion topic in forum and Facebook. With it's quick and easy pressure cooking method, this pan has won the hearts of many people especially homemakers who aim to cook healthier dishes for the family.

In this post I would be sharing another 3 recipes using this HCP to Bake Sweet Potato, cook Sizzling Tofu and our favourite Claypot Rice (without using claypot).

Preserved Sausage & Chicken Claypot Rice

Preparing "One Pot" dish is always the best and most convenient cooking method for working mum like me. Sometime when I am running out of ideas on what to cook or too lazy to do all the preparation/washing for cooking I will start thinking of my favourite one pot dish which is "Preserved Sausage & Chicken Claypot Rice".

This dish is preferred to be cooked in a claypot rather than rice-cooker or etc. Only with the claypot it will brings out the flavour and burning effect of the rice at the bottom of the pot which add on that special aroma to this dish.

Since now it is still within the Chinese New Year period (usually it last for 15 days), you can find all kinds of waxed meat/preserved sausages around some supermarket or those dried grocery stalls in the wet market. Out from the few range of "Preserved Sausage - 腊肠", I was attracted to this "XO Charcoal Sausage" which I wonder whether the sausage will have any "XO" liquor taste in it.

Ingredients: (serves 2 - 3)
1 1/2 Cup Uncooked Rice
3 Cup Water
3 Boneless Chicken Drumsticks with Thighs
1 Pair of Preserved Sausage
Some Shredded Ginger
A Few Section of Spring Onion

Marinade For Chicken:
1 Teaspoon of Light Soy Sauce
1 Teaspoon of Corn Flour
1/2 Teaspoon Sesame Oil
1/2 Teaspoon Cooking Wine
1/2 Teaspoon Dark Soy Sauce
Dash of Pepper

For Garnish:
Spring Onion, cut diagonal rings
Chilli, cut into rings

Method:
1. Rinse the uncooked rice a few times and soak it with 3 cups of water (usually the amount of water is twice the amount of uncooked rice) in the claypot for about an hour or so.
2. Washed, trim away the fats and skin of the chicken, cut into bite-size pieces and marinate it with the above marinade for at least 20 minutes.
3. Cut off a little slice from the top of the preserved sausage, peel off the outer layer of the skin (we always removed the outer layer of the plastic skin before eating), cut the sausage into 0.5cm thin slices and set aside.
4. Preheat a small saucepan and saute the shredded ginger and spring onion with 1 teaspoon of oil till fragrance, add in the marinated chicken pieces and fry for about 30 second on each side or till it turn slightly brown in colour.
5. Removed and set aside for later use.
6. Cook the rice over medium heat, when the water begins to boil, lower the heat and let it cooked till the water level is almost the same as the rice, arrange the sausage on top of the rice with the half cooked chicken in the center. (you have to work fast so that the water will not dry out before you finished add the ingredients)
7. Cover the lid of the claypot and simmer the rice and meat over very low heat for about 5 - 7 minutes till the meat is cooked through.
8. When done, garnish it with extra spring onion, cut chilli and drizzle of dark soy sauce and served hot.

Note:-
~ The reason that I pan-fry the chicken pieces is to shorten the cooking time and at the same time enhance the flavour of the chicken.

For those who love one pot dish, I am sure this will be a quick and easy dish for you. And instead of having this all-time flavour at those stalls outside, why not try to grab some fresh ingredients and prepare this dish for you and your family instead.

Simmered Bitter Gourd & Chicken In Casserole

This "Simmer Bitter Gourd & Chicken In Casserole" is one of our favourite dish and I will be very excited whenever my mum told me that she is going to cook this for dinner. Every since my mum started to look after my boy while I was at work, she was very keen in experiment new dishes from the "Taiwan Cooking Series" which she will never missed an Episode from her Mio TV. So today, I am going to try cooking this dish with some guidelines and instructions from my mum......... :)

As you can see from the photos, you only required very basic ingredients which you can easily grab from the supermarket or some of them are even available in your fridge/pantry. The KEY ingredients for this dish are "Bitter gourd/Bitter Melon - 苦瓜" and "Fermented Black Beans - 豆豉" which both combined to bring out a cross between bitter and salty fragrance. For the meat portion, you can either used chicken wing/chicken pieces, pork ribs or even deep-fried fish slices. After all cooking is something that you can play around with the ingredients to come out with different varieties of dishes according to your liking. So for the above main ingredients and seasonings, you can whipped up at least 3 different dishes using pork, fish and chicken.

In order to have some extra flavour for the meat, it's always good to marinate it at least 20 - 30 minutes before cooking. For this simmered dish, I have pan-fried the chicken wings till slightly golden before adding them to simmer so as to pretend them from breaking up easily during simmering. The adding of chilli is to spice up and enhance the flavour of this dish, but if some of your family members cannot take spicy food, perhaps you can consider to leave chilli out or add less.

Ingredient: (serves 2 - 3)
6 Chicken Wings
1 Medium Bitter Gourd
1/2 Tablespoon Fermented Black Beans(豆豉)
1 Small Red Chilli, cut into rings
2 Slices Ginger
1 Clove Garlic, finely chopped
1 Tablespoon Cooking Wine

Seasoning:
80ml Water
1 Teaspoon Oyster Sauce
1/2 Teaspoon Sugar
1/2 Teaspoon Dark Soy Sauce
1/2 Teaspoon Sesame Oil

Method:
1. Trim the chicken wings, rinse and wipe dry. Marinate the chicken wings with 1 teaspoon each of light soy sauce, oyster sauce, corn flour and some pepper and sesame oil. (leave it in the fridge for at least 20 - 30 minutes before cooking)
2. Rinse bitter gourd, cut into vertical halves, scrape off the white pith and cut into about 2" long vertical pieces. (Rub the bitter gourd pieces with 1 teaspoon of salt for about 30 seconds and rinse off as the salt will help to reduce the bitterness)
3. Heat 1 teaspoon of oil in the wok, pan-fry the marinated chicken wings on both side till slightly golden, removed and set aside.
4. Next add in the chopped garlic, ginger, chilli(optional) and fermented black bean, give it a quick stir and saute them till fragrance, add in the bitter gourd pieces.
5. Keep on stirring the bitter gourd mixture for a few seconds then add in the chicken and seasoning when the mixture comes to boil, lower the heat and let it simmer(remember to cover the pot) for about 10 minutes or so till then chicken wings are cook through.
6. Removed and serve warm with rice.


I must admit, this is a very tempting dish especially it's "Sauce". I can have two bowls of rice just with this dish alone whenever my mum cooked it. And now mum is kind of jealous that I can also whipped out the same dish as her :p

Bitter Gourds are very low in calories but rich with precious nutrients such as an excellent source of vitamins, folic acid, zinc and also it has high dietary fiber. This fruit is rich in iron which contains twice the beta-carotene of broccoli and twice the calcium of spinach. If you don't like to eat the fruit perhaps you can considering boiling some "Bitter Gourd Pork Ribs Soup - 苦瓜排骨汤" for this hot weather.....

Claypot Drunken Chicken

I have tried cooking a few kind of claypot chicken recipes and each one of it has it's own taste and speciality. Today this Claypot Drunken Chicken that I am going to share consists of Chicken pieces, mushroom, black fungs, wine and Egg. This can be serve as a one-pot dish meal which is full of nutritious source. We love the thick and creamy gravy which is great to be serve with steam rice.

Since this is called Drunken Chicken, it is bound to have some wine content. So if you are to share this dish with younger kid at home, you can either omit the wine content or reduce the amount used. This recipe call for Kampong Chicken which the meat is much sweeter and cooked resistance for stewing purposes.

Ingredients:
1/2 Portion of Kampong Chicken
10g Shredded Ginger
10g of Soaked Black Fungus
4 Medium Chinese Mushroom, soaked, cut into quarters
1 Egg
1 Stalk of Spring Onion, cut into section
1 Tablespoon Sesame Oil
1/2 Tablespoon of Oyster Sauce
1/2 Tablesppon Wolfberries
100ml Rice Wine
400 - 500ml Water
1 Tablespoon Corn Starch Solution

Method:
1. Wash and clean the chicken then cut into pieces then set aside for use.
2. Preheat the sesame oil in the claypot then saute the shredded ginger till fragrant then add in the chicken pieces and half of the spring onion sections then continue to fry for another 1 minutes.
3. Next stir in the oyster sauce to the chicken mixture till combined then add in the mushroom and black fungus.
4. Give them a quick stir then pour in the water and let the mixture simmer for about 15 - 20 minutes until chicken is well cooked.
5. Lastly, add in the rice wine and balance of the spring onion and wolfberries and bring it to boil then stir in the cornstarch solution to thick the sauce.
6. Remove the pot from heat and crack the egg in the middle, cover for 1 minute then serve with steam white rice.

Note:
a) You can replace the Kampong Chicken with 2 Large Drumstick with tight portion.
b) You can replace rice wine with Japanese Mirin or Sake but reduce the amount to 60ml.
c) You can add 1 tablespoon spoon water to 1/2 teaspoon of cornflour to make the cornstarch solution.


Related Post:
1) Claypot Chicken With Salted Fish
2) Claypot Minced Pork Rice
3) More Claypot Dish Link

Claypot Minced Pork Rice

For those busy and working mum when you just got home from works and the kids are waiting for their dinner. You might want to give this easy and nutritious dish a try. You can use any kind of minced meat like chicken, beef or pork according to your preference. If you want it to have taste and look green you can even add in a few bunch of those Baby Bok Choy(xiao bai cai) to make it a complete one dish meal.


This is a super easy to prepare one pot dish and it works well in cold raining evening....... Be creative and add in whatever ingredients that you prefer to make your home cook 1 pot rice dish.
Ingredients:
200g Minced Meat
1 Chinese Sausage
1 Egg
1 Cup Uncooked Rice
1/2 - 3/4 Tablespoon Dark Soy Sauce
Seasoning:
1/2 Tablespoon Light Soy Sauce
1 Teaspoon Sesame Oil
1/2 Tablespoon Cooking Wine/Mirin
1/4 Teaspoon Pepper
1 Teaspoon Cornstarch

Methods:
1. Wash and remove the plastic skin from the Chinese sausage then cut into thin slices and set aside.
2. Marinate the minced meat with seasoning then set aside.(or you can marinate it on the night before)
3. Wash and cook rice in a claypot with a few drops of oil over low-medium heat by absorption method.
4. Midway through cooking when the water starts to go below the rice level, arrange the sausage slices around the side of the claypot.
5. Drizzle the 1/2 to 3/4 Tablespoon of Dark Soy Sauce onto the rice.
6. Then spread marinated minced meat on top of rice, leaving a hole in the centre.
7. Cover and cook for another few minutes(3 - 5 minutes depending on the thickness of the meat you spread) until you see the meat turn white or half way cooked through.
8. Crack an egg or two into the centre and cooked(covered) for 1 - 2 more minutes, till the white is set but the yolk is still slightly runny.
9. Remove the cover, sprinkle some chopped spring onion, chillies and dried shallot on top of the meat and mix well before serving.
10. You can also serve it with an extra dish of cut chillies with dark soy sauce for dipping.

Notes:
a) You can use either pork, chicken or beef minced meat depend what you prefer.
b) The water used in claypot is 1 cup rice= 1 3/4 cups water
c) The reason to add oil into the rice it to prevent it to be too soft and stick to the pot.
d) Prepare some chopped spring onion & chili as garnish.
e) If you wish to add in green vegetables, add in at the same time with the egg and drizzle some sesame oil on it to that the vegetables will not taste blend.

Claypot Chicken & Sausage Rice

Last few days, I just bought a book that consists 38 recipes on making different type of Claypot Rice. Some are really very easy to make and all you need to do is just cooked the rice and arrange the prepared ingredients on top, covered and cooked over low heat for a few minutes. After which leave it on the stove covered for 15 minutes and you can enjoy a pot of yummy homecook claypot rice within 30 minutes