Stir-fried Chicken Fillet with Thai Basil Leaves

Not long ago, I have tried a similar version of this dish using minced pork which you could refer to the recipe HERE. And for this "Stir-fried Chicken Fillet with Thai Basil Leave" dish, I replaced the minced pork with chicken fillet strips which brings up another flavour and texture to this unique Thai street food. I am sure it would be a popular choice for those who prefer lean meat such as chicken breast meat which is low in fat content.

Oven Baked Fried Chicken Bento

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Do you like fried chicken? I am sure most of you would rise up your hands and say yes. Recent years there so many fast food outlets such as "KFC", "Wendy", "Popeye Chicken" and etc selling fried chicken. And there are also frozen Fried Chicken that is available in the local supermarkets too. In this post, I would like to share with you some tips and ideas on how I made use of some CP Fried Chicken (Original Flavour) to prepare this cute little "Chicky Bento".

Fried Chicken is one of my boy's favourite deep-fried finger food that I would always prepared from scratch using chicken wings, seasoning, flour batter and etc. But with this CP Fried Chicken that can be easily grab from any supermarket it actually shorten my time on preparing these deep-fried stuffs for the family.

  The CP Fried Chicken (Original Flavour) are coated in a specially light and crispy batter that stays crispy on the outer skin even after 30 minutes or more. I choose the oven baked method to prepare these chicken as I find it more healthier than deep-fried with oil. To assemble the bento, here are the ingredients and steps:-

Ingredients:

1 Bowl of Cooked Rice
2 - 3 Pieces of CP Fried Chicken
1/4 Japanese Cucumber, cut into long sticks
1/4 Carrot, peeled outer skin cut into long sticks
Some Lettuce Leaves, optional
Some Fresh Fruit of Your Choice

Method:

1. Place the fried chicken in the oven toaster and toast it for about 15 – 20 minutes, turn occasionally to prevent it from getting burnt.
2. While waiting for the chicken to be done, cut the Japanese cucumber and carrot into long veggie sticks as side for the bento.
3. Assemble the bento accordingly; you can place the fried chicken (if too big pieces for the kid, you could cut it into bite size) together with the veggie sticks in a container.
4. Drizzle some roasted black sesame seeds on the rice if you preferred.
5. Serve the bento set with cut fruits immediately or packed it for your outing.


Do you want to have a piece of these "Mickey" face cutout dragon fruit for after meal dessert? I am sure most of the Disney fan kids would love this special treat which would change their mindset on eating fruits.To make this cute cutout from the dragon fruit you would need to have the mickey ring cutter shown HERE.(1st photo of the post)

Don't worry if you don't possess any of these bento items, you could always start off by using some simple tools that are available at Daiso (S$2 shop) or even some online bento site such as New Stylish Tokyo (http://www.nst.my/), Bento Craft (http://bentocraft.com/) and etc.

CP Food's Latest "Chicky" Products

Recently I have shared post on how to use some CP Thai Shrimp Cake to prepare 4 quick and easy finger food and one dish meal recipes. If you are interested to read more about this releated post, you can the link HERE. As for this post I would once again loves to share with you some simple ways of preparing different type of CP Chicken Products in less than 30 minutes.

These are the colleage photos of the ingredients and steps to prepare the "Claypot Chicken Rice".

Ingredients: (Serves 2)

6 - 8 Pieces of CP Charcoal-Grilled Chicken
160g (1 Rice Cooker Cup) Uncook Rice
320ml Water
Some Baby Bok Choy
1 Egg, optional
1 Teaspoon Sesame Oil
Dried Shallot and Chopped Spring Onion for Garnishing

Method:

1.Rinse the uncooked rice with tap water for a few rounds, drained well and add in suitable amount of water to cook the rice.
2. Place the claypot with rice over the stove, bring it to boil and low the heat to simmer the mixture till the water is half way dried off.
3. Next place the frozen CP Charcoal-Grilled Chicken starts from the middle and some baby bok choy along  the side.
4. Use can use two leaves from the bok choy to act as a base to support the egg before cracking it onto the rice.
5. Drizzle 1 teaspoon of sesame oil over the top of the vegetable and egg then cover and let it continue to simmer on very low heat for about 5 - 7 minutes till the chicken is heat through and egg is half way cooked.
6. Serve warm with dried shallot, chopped spring onion and drizzle of dark soy sauce according to your preference.

Note:-

~ You can also cook this dish using rice cooker. Just cook the rice as per usual then place the ingredient on top of the half-way cooked through mixture and let it cook and keep warm the the chicken is warm through.

This soft and tender CP Charcoal-Grilled Chicken is marinated in a distinctive Japanese-style sauce and slowly grilled over real charcoal fire. These pieces of charcoal grilled chicken is made using quality chicken leg meat that contins 0 Trans Fat and most important fact it contain no preservatives which most parents like us concern of.

This is one of our quick and easy one-dish meal for lunch busy busy weekends where my kid needs to rush for enrichment classes or when I am too lazy to cook 2 - 3 courses meal. So with a pack of these delicious and charcoal-grilled chicken you can either use it for making claypot rice like me or, microwave it till done and served with blanched noodles will be a great deal too.

This small bite-size CP Chicken Cake makes a great finger food for parties or gatherings which is easier for the guest to pick up and go. The ingredients of these chicken cakes consists of minced chicken meat and corn bits as well as some stands of vermicelli for extra crunch. You can either deep-fried, oven toast or microwave it but for me I prefer pan-fried which used lesser oil but it would give it a nice golden coating.

To have something refreshing to go with the Chicken Cake I came out with some "Century Egg Salad" which goes pretty well with it.

Ingredients: (Serves 2)
1 Century Egg, cut into small cubes
2 Small Shallot, thinly sliced
1 Small Red Chilli, roughly chopped
1 Medium Tomato, cut into small cubes
1/4 Japanese Cucumber, cut into small cubes
1/2 Tablespoon Frozen/Fresh Corn Kernels, optional
1 Teaspoon of Oil

Method:

1. Preheat a small saucepan with 1 teaspoon of oil and sauté the sliced shallot and chopped chilli till fragrant.
2. Toss in all the rest of the ingredients and give it a quick stir to heat them through.
3. Remove from heat and serve warm together with the Chicken Cakes.


Do you like fried chicken? I am sure most of you would rise up your hands and say yes. There are so many fried chicken fast food outlets around such as "KFC", "Wendy", "Popeye Chicken" and etc. But what about those frozen Fried Chicken that available in the local supermarkets, have you ever tried them before? Here, I have use the CP Fried Chicken (Original Flavour) to prepare this cute little "Chicky Bento" which I personally think that these fried chicken pieces taste just as good as those selling in the fast food outlets. For more details about this Chicky Bento, do check back for the upcoming recipe soon.

Thai Green Curry Chicken

Our family prefers Thai Green Curry when compared to their Red Curry even though sometime it might tends to be slightly spicy and it has that hint of sweetness that is not usually associated with red curries. Plus by adding some fresh Thai basil and kaffir lime leaves together with extra dose of coconut milk it actually lifts up the aroma and taste of this dish too.

Stir-Fried Pork With Basil Leave

Stir-fried Pork with Basil Leave (Pad Gra Prao) is one of the most common street/household food in Thailand. It’s usually served as a quick one-dish meal eaten with white rice and usually topped with an extra fried egg. And since I have some Thai Sweet Basil left over from preparing the Thai Green Curry (recipe HERE), I decided use them for this stir-fried pork with basil leave to go with the curry.

Thai Red Duck Curry

This Thai Red Duck Curry is one of my favourite curry dishes during my 2.5 years in Brisbane. I remembered we used to drive at least 3 hours once a month to and from our home to Chinatown in order to get roast duck to make this dish. And I must admit that duck meat definitely goes well with something sweet and sour like plums sauce so in this case this dish blends well with lychees and pineapples as one of the ingredients.

Seah's Emperor Herbs Chicken

Steam Herbal Chicken either with steam rice or blanched noodles where we could drizzle those delicious sauce over it. Whenever we unwrapped the chicken parcel, the dining room will be filled with wonder aroma of the herbs. And with the usual tight working schedule, preparing a simple and yet delicious meal is always something challenging for me. So often I would need to settle some of our meals with those quick and easy ingredients or products which can be easily purchase off shelf from the supermarket.

Since most of us are craving for herbal chicken, I decided to fix one over the weekend using one of my favourite Seah’s Emperor Herbs Chicken Spices. This is definitely a quick and easy meal and the main ingredients that you required would be either some chicken parts or the whole chicken plus a packet of ready spices. This recipe I only used half of the chicken for steaming while the other half for making “Chicken, Longan and Burdock Soup” (recipe HERE).

Ingredients:
1/2 packet of Seah's Emperor Herbs Chicken Spices
1/2 Whole Chicken, around 500g
Aluminum Foil and Wrapper(included in packet)
3 Red Dates, cut into thick strips
1/2 Tablespoon Wolfberries
1 1/2 Tablespoon of Drinking Water

Method:
1. Trim, rinse and use some kitchen paper towel to pat dry the chicken.
2. Rub the spices on the external skin and internal of the chicken.
3. Top with red dates and wolfberries then drizzle the water over the top.
4. Wrap the chicken with the wrapper(tie a knot) then follow by aluminum foil.
5. Steam for about 1.5 - 2 hours depending on your preference of the meat texture.

Tips:

~ The purpose of adding water is to have more gravy for the end product.

~ Red dates and wolfberries will further enhance the taste and fragrant.

~ For stronger taste, you can also drizzle a spoonful of D.O.M Benedictine Liquor over the pipping hot chicken before serving.

 

You can get this Seah's Emperor Herbs Chicken Spices at any leading supermarket or provision stalls near your area. And if you would like to try something different, perhaps you can try this less than 30 minutes oven baked "Salt-Roasted chicken Spices" too.

Seah's Singapore Chicken Curry

Singapore Chicken Curry is always one of the dishes that most Singaporean craves for when they are oversea for work purpose or studies. Like myself when I was away from Singapore, I always stock up more than a dozen pack with me during my visit home so that I can easily whipped up this all time favourite during special occasions or as when we feel like having some home cook dishes.

Inside my recent gift pack from Seah’s Spices (click HERE to read more), I have found a pack of the Singapore Chicken Curry Spices that I have not tried before. And since mum is craving for some Chicken Curry, we decided to give this new spice a try.

We bought some chicken wings, potato, tomato, onion and coconut cream to cook this dish. But as you notice from the photo above, there is a pack of coconut powder that comes with the curry spices which makes it easier for those who is overseas where coconut cream/milk is not easily found. But in Singapore we do prefer to add in either fresh or ready packed coconut milk/cream to enhance the flavour of the curry.

The method used here is slight different from the method shown on the package as mum preferred to stir-fry the ingredients a while to release the aroma of the onion and spices before adding water. So here goes our modify version of the Chicken Curry:-

Ingredients: (serves 4)
1 Packet of Seah’s Singapore Chicken Curry Spices
8 Chicken Wings
3 Medium Size Potato, cut into chunks
3 Medium Size Tomato, cut into wedges
2 Medium Onion, cut into wedges
800ml Boiling Water
100ml Coconut Cream

Method:
1.Wash and trim the fat off from the chicken wings and set aside.
2. Preheat a soup pot with 1/2 tablespoon of cooking oil, add in the onion and sauté till fragrant (about 30 seconds) then add in the chicken pieces and potato then continue to stir on and off for another 30 seconds or so.
3. Next slowly add in the curry spices and stir the mixture till well combined.
4. Add in 800ml or more boiling water to cover the chicken pieces when the curry comes to boil, add in the tomato wedges and slowly simmer over low heat for about 15 – 20 minutes till the potato soften and meat is cooked through.
5. Lastly, slowly stir in the coconut cream and turn off the heat when the mixture comes to boil.
6. You can served warm with steam rice or baguette.

Note:
~ If you prefer something more spicy or that nice red chilli oil colour on your curry, you can add in 1 teaspoon of Sambal Blachan together with the spices to make it extra spicy.


Although some of the pre-mix spices cannot whipped out the authentic flavour compare to those freshly grind spices but I am sure with all these ready made spices it actually helps to shorten cooking time for working mum like me or overseas friends who missed having those wonderful local dishes.

So if you wish to try out some of these spices, do come and join us on the Giveaway event HERE whereby you can win some Seah’s spices of your choice.

Steam Chicken Fillet With Huai Shan

Are you interested to try something simple, light and healthy but at the same time with those kind restaurant serving presentation to impress your family this weekend. If your answer is "Yes" then why not, try out this quick and simple one dish meal with Fresh Huai Shan, Chicken Fillet and Mushroom to conquer their taste buds.

For most of the frequent readers here, you will know that I love to use "Fresh Huai Shan" in my cooking especially - soup. Huai Shan benefits the spleen and stomach as well as strengthens the body.

There are a few types of Huai Shan various from Fresh to Dried type. In most supermarkets or wet market, you will find two type of fresh huai shan from either China or Japan. Japan Huai Shan will be much more expensive ranging from S$8.00 - S$10.00 per kilogram. Some people might find it difficult to handle fresh huai shan as it's kind of slippy and the gluey starch might make your hand itchy. Perhaps you can wear a disposal gloves or plastic bag before handling it.

This is a very nutritious and healthy watching dish that use fresh huai shan from Japan, lean chicken fillet and dried mushroom. The fresh huai shan slices and dried mushroom are pre-steam using chicken stock in order for them to absorb the flavour from the stock.

Ingredients: (Serves 2)
200g Chicken Fillet
100g Fresh Huai Shan(鲜淮山)
5 Small Dried Mushrooms
5g Wolfberries
80 - 100ml Chicken Stock

Marinade:
1 Teaspoon Light Soy Sauce
1/2 Teaspoon Ginger Juice
1/2 Teaspoon Cornflour
Dash of Sesame Oil

Method:
1. Remove the stalks from the dried mushrooms then soak them in hot water till soften.
2. Peel of the outer skin of the fresh huai shan, rinse then cut it into 0.5cm thick circle slices.
3. Place the fresh huai shan, soaked mushrooms and chicken stock in a deep plate, steam them for about 10 minutes.
4. Meanwhile, rinse and slice chicken fillet into strips then mix it with marinade.
5. When the huai shan mixture is done, lower the heat, slowly arrange the marinated chicken fillet on top of the huai shan with the wolfberries on top.
6. Steam the mixture for about 8 minutes or till done on medium high heat.
7. Serve hot on the plate itself or re-arrange it on individual serving plates.

After steaming, the fresh huai shan taste wonderfully soft and full of flavour due to the chicken stock, mushroom and fillet. This dish goes very well with either steam rice or porridge especially it's gravy which is so tasty and sweet.

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.....

Braised Chicken Wing With Arrowhead & Mushroom

After some "hit and run" introduction of "Arrowhead(Cigu) - 钱菇" on my previous post (Deep-fried Arrowhead Chips) as the Starter of the meal. Now we head over to the Main course for today which is this "Braised Chicken Wing With Arrowhead & Mushroom". Usually during Chinese New Year, most or almost all the Chinese Family will whipped up a few of their Special Dish to serve their guest. And they will always named them with Auspicious Word which brings luck, healthy or prospect in career.

Since this is one of our Chinese New Year dish, I named it as "搌翅高飞" which translated as "Spread your wings and fly high". This can be used for either moving up to a high level in your career or study because "翅 - Wing" comes from a similar meaning from the "Chicken Wings - 鸡翅".

Arrowhead(Cigu) which is one of the Chinese New Year ingredients that is available during this time of the year. You can either grown the corms to decorate the house during this festive season or you can use it to make into "Arrowhead Chip" or even more.... (click HERE to read more...)

The use of "Shiitake Mushroom - 香菇" here symbolised longevity and sizing opportunities.


This dish required 3 main and 2 side ingredients like what you have seen from the above photos. If you don't prefer Chicken Wings, you can swap it with chicken pieces instead. You can also replaced the dried Shiitake Mushroom with the fresh type or any mushroom of your choice......But if you are cooking this dish during normal days then I suggest that maybe you can replace the Arrowhead with Fresh Huai Shan which have the similar texture.

Ingredients:
4 - 5 Medium Size Arrowhead
5 Chicken Wing
6 Medium Size of Dried Shiitake Mushroom
1 Large Stalk of Spring Onion, cut into section
3 Slices of Ginger
3/4 Tablespoon of Oyster Sauce
1/2 Teaspoon Dark Soy Sauce
80ml Water

Method:
1. Rinse, clean and marinate the chicken wings with dash of pepper and 1 teaspoon each of light soy sauce, sesame oil and cornflour. Set aside in the fridge for at least 15 minutes.
2. Rinse and soaked the dried mushroom in hot water till soften, removed the stalk on top, set aside the mushroom water for cooking.
3. Rinse the Arrowhead, peel of the outer skin, cut it into halves or quarters depend on your preference.
4. Heat up a small heavy-duty saucepan with some oil, saute the marinated chicken wings on both side till slightly golden colour, dish up and set aside.
5. Next add in the ginger and spring onion continue to fry for 30 seconds till fragrant, add in the soaked mushroom (try to lightly squeeze dry the mushroom before adding in) and fry for another 30 second before adding in the Arrowhead.
6. Next add in the oyster sauce, dark soy sauce and chicken wings, give it another quick stir to combine all the ingredients before adding in the water.
7. When the mixture comes to boil, lower the heat and let it simmer for about 12 - 15 minutes till the chicken is done and the arrowhead is slightly soften.
8. You may wish to thicken the sauce with some cornstarch solution if you prefer.


Finally after 15 minutes or so of braising the ingredient, here comes our main dish for today; "搌翅高飞". Hope after eating this dish, we can climb up another level of our current life/career just the what it named for.... spread out the wing and fly high.......