The Waitakere Redneck's Kitchen: chicken

Saturday, September 10, 2011

Ayam Kapitan ~ Spicy Kapitan Chicken

I managed to borrow Australia Master Chef winner Adam Liaw's cookbook "Two Asian Kitchens" from our library. I quite like his cookbook and have already tried a few recipes from there.

Ayam Kapitan is not a dish I have eaten before but is quite well known in Malaysia. Loved the gravy. We mopped up the curry sauce with some freshly baked baquette.

Ingredients:
1½ kg chicken pieces
1½ onion, finely sliced
1 Tbsp cooking oil

200ml coconut cream
100ml water
¼ tsp salt

½ lime juice
2 lime leaves, to serve.

Bouncy Chicken MeatBalls

After successfully making bouncy meatballs from beef and pork, it was time to try with chicken. The recipe is basically the same.

For those who don't eat red meat you will be pleased to know that the chicken meatballs have just as much bounce and 'spring' but with a much softer texture. Handy to have in the freezer to add to that instant noodle meal anytime.

Bouncy chicken balls

Makes 48 balls (½ Tbsp size)

Ingredients
500 gm chicken breast, cut to smaller pieces

½ cup (125ml) icy cold water
1 Tbsp fish sauce
½ tsp salt
½ Tbsp sugar
½ Tbsp oil
2 Tbsp cornflour
1¼ tsp baking powder

dash of white pepper (optional)

chinese chicken meatballs

Spicy Yoghurt Roast Chicken

The colour of this chicken when roasted was just amazing. I got the idea for this combination of herbs and spices from the November issue of Taste magazine. We thoroughly enjoyed the flavours.

I prefer to use the rotisserie to roast the chicken since it is by far the easiest with the least amount of handling.

Spicy yoghurt rotisserie chicken drumstick

Ingredients
1.1 kg chicken

Marinade
100ml low fat greek yoghurt
1½ Tbsp lemon juice
3 cloves garlic, crushed
1 tsp salt
1 tsp paprika
½ tsp cinnamon
½ tsp chilli powder

Rotisserie Roast Chicken with Rosemary, Orange and Garlic

Lately our little rotisserie oven have been working overtime with us enjoying roast chicken several times a week. Yup, chicken was on special. The advantage of having a rotisserie oven means the meat can be plonked in, and in less than an hour the meal is ready without having to lift a finger to turn the chicken or baste it.

We like to use rosemary to flavour our meat as we have rosemary galore in our garden. I added the orange zest as I had an orange that needed eating so why waste the skin. Such a lovely meal served with gravy, a side of vegetables or salad and crispy potatoes.

Ingredients
1.1 kg chicken
1 tsp salt
5 sprig chopped rosemary
zest from 1 orange

Coca Cola Chicken

It's taken me years to pluck up the courage to try this recipe. I just couldn't get my head round how it would taste. A quick search on the net for assurance and it seems cooking with coke is quite common. Recipes galore on the net.

While the chicken was being heated up for dinner, Mr Redneck did a tasting test and pronounced "this chicken is very nice".

Joy......I can cook this again. Another quick and easy dish.

The taste is sweet but not overly sweet and is well balanced by the other ingredients.

Ingredients
1.5kg chicken pieces
1 can 355ml coke
2 Tbsp lemon juice
5 thin slices of ginger
2 clove garlic, chopped
4 Tbsp soy sauce
2 tsp dark soya sauce
1 red chilli deseeded
1 Tbsp cooking oil
sprinkling of salt to taste

Szechuan Chicken in Hot & Spicy Sauce

A delicious, spicy and aromatic szechuan dish. The hot and spicy sauce can be prepared ahead of time and kept in the fridge or freezer. Add some chilli oil to the sauce if you like it extra hot and spicy.

Ingredients
800 gm chicken pieces or 7 drumsticks
1 tsp ginger, chopped
1 clove garlic, chopped
1 Tbsp cooking oil
spring onion, finely sliced

Seasoning
4-5 Tbsp szechuan hot and spicy sauce *1
½ Tbsp oyster sauce
1 Tbsp shao hsing cooking wine
100 ml water

Method
1. Heat up 1 Tbsp oil and stir fry ginger and garlic until fragrant. Add chicken and stir-fry until golden brown.

2. Stir in seasoning, cover and simmer until chicken is cooked and sauce has thicken (about 10-15 minutes).

3. Serve sprinkled with spring onions.

Green Coriander Chicken

The aroma from cooking the paste was just heavenly. The green colour doesn't make the presentation look very appetising but the fragrance of the dish should whet one's appetite.

As with any dish, cook a few hours ahead for the meat to absorb the flavour.

Ingredients
1½ kg chicken pieces
1 onion, sliced thinly
1 Tbsp oil
250 ml water
1¼ tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
2 Tbsp lemon juice

Sweet and Spicy Sticky Chicken

Cooking this sweet spicy and sticky chicken is really simple as it does not involve a lot of preparation. The ingredients are common items most of us have in the pantry. We love the intense flavour of this dish.

I usually precook a meat dish at least an hour earlier and let it sit in the pot to let the meat absorb the flavour. That way you end up with a more flavoursome and better tasting meal.

Ingredients:
1½kg chicken pieces

1 Tbsp oil
1 Tbsp minced fresh ginger
2 clove garlic, minced
3 spring onions or bunch of chives, thinly slices

Sauce Mix
3 Tbsp brown sugar
1 tsp sugar
3 Tbsp fish sauce
3 Tbsp rice vinegar
1 Tbsp soy sauce
3 Tbsp water
½ tsp freshly ground black pepper
½ tsp chilli powder or chilli paste

Redneck Lemon Chicken

This is the Rednecks preferred Lemon Chicken dish which combines the marinade and coating of Sinner's previously posted recipe with lemon sauce found on the net at ‘CD Kitchen’.

We disagree as to which dish is best so one day we will cook both sauces and do a ‘taste test’. I hope the people who commented on Sinner's recipe will also try my version. As with all sauces the cook should taste and tweak to suit prior to serving. If it is not lemony enough add more zest or if it is too thick add more water.

Ingredients
6 pcs drumstick

Marinade
1 Tbsp chinese cooking wine
1½ Tbsp light soya sauce

Coating
100 gm cornflour
50 gm rice flour

Ayam Tempra ~ Tarty Spicy Chicken

A delicious nonya chicken dish that is spiced with chillies, sweetened with palm sugar and made slightly tarty with lime juice.

I prefer to cook dishes like these a few hours before the meal to let the meat absorb in more of the flavour.

Ingredients
1.4 kg chicken pieces, cut to bite size

Marinate
1 tsp belacan (shrimp paste)
1½ Tbsp palm sugar
3 Tbsp kicap manis
1 Tbsp water

Homemade Pure Essence of Chicken

As kids I remember my mother brewing this for us whenever we were studying for our exams. Nowadays whenever I feel lethargic or have trouble getting a good night sleep I cook this to boost my energy levels.

This is chicken essence in its purest form with no added water. When I first cooked this, Mr Redneck did not believe I could get a bowlful of soup with just placing some chicken on top of a bowl. Trust me...at the end of 3 hours you will end up with a bowl of very nutritional soup.

Pure Chicken Essence
Yield : 1 rice bowl

Ingredients
1 small skinny chicken or chicken pieces (1.2kg)

Utensils
chinese soup pot (fig 1)
rice bowl (fig 1)
metal rack or dish cloth
big stock pot

Method
1. Remove skin and all fat from the chicken. Cut the chicken into big chunks.

2. Lightly crush each chicken piece with a pestle or the back of a chopper (make sure you crush the bones as well).

3. Invert a rice bowl in the chinese soup pot (fig 2).

4. Place the crushed chicken on top of the rice bowl (fig 3). Cover with the lid.

homemade essence of chicken : step by step

Har Meen ~ Prawn Noodles

I was really looking forward to eating this har meen. The trick to a good prawn noodle is to have a very tasty and flavoursome prawn stock. It took me months of religiously collecting every bit of prawn heads and its shells to make the base.

For me this har mee recipe is an easier version as I used my homemade red curry paste which I have a ready supply in my freezer to spice up the dish . Instead of yellow fresh mee, I substituted with dried noodles as it is more readily available.

Yield : 2 bowls

Ingredients
1 tsp homemade red curry paste
2 cup prawn stock
1 chicken drumstick
12 raw prawns
¼ tsp salt
1 tsp soy sauce
fresh yellow noodle or dried noodle
handful ngah choy (bean sprout)
chives or spring onions
fried onions

Red Chicken Curry with Homemade Red Curry Paste

My lazy way of cooking curry is usually with a curry powder. But making the homemade red curry paste from scratch looked easy enough so decided to give it a try and it taste great. This paste have given the curry gravy such a nice reddish colour and smells divine. I like my curry with plenty of gravy and this was lovely with rice and there was plenty to dip with naan or roti chanai.

Ingredients
1.2 kg chicken pieces
6 potatoes (skin off)
2 big onions (blend to a paste)
2 Tbsp homemade red curry paste
150 ml coconut milk
200 ml water
1 tsp salt
dash of sugar
2 Tbsp cooking oil

Method
1. Heat oil in pan and saute potatoes for a few minutes. Remove and set aside.
2. Add onions and red curry paste to pan. Fry until fragrant .
3. Add chicken and cook for 5 minutes. Add potatoes, coconut milk and water.
4. Simmer on low heat until chicken and potato is cooked.
5. Add salt and sugar to taste.

Curry chicken with homemade red curry paste

Note :
1. If you are not too worried about cholestrol or calories, substitute the water for more coconut milk and omit the sugar.

Saturday, June 09, 2007

Crispy Fried Yam Ring with Prawns and Chicken

Yam Ring aka Taro Pot or Fatt Put (in cantonese) always has this 'wow' factor when served. It is a very popular specialty dish for occasions like wedding dinners or during chinese new year.

I have always thought it was a time consuming dish but having made this twice since, I have found it is easily done if the yam ring is prepared beforehand. Then just before serving all one has to do is fry the taro ring and the toppings.

The center filling is just a simple stir fry of any combination of your favourite meat or vegetables. For that special occasion more pricey and upmarket ingredients can be used.

Ingredients for yam ring
300 gm yam (skinned, steamed and mashed)
5 Tbsp wheat starch
5 Tbsp boiling water
½ tsp salt
1 Tbsp shortening
½ Tbsp sugar
¼ tsp five spice powder

Extra Crispy Fried Chicken

I love fried chicken wings but am not allowed to have any too often. Why....? Chicken wings are mostly all skin and if they are deep fried as well, there is a double dose of cholestrol. Just this once I am defying doctors orders.

This recipe is my all time favourite for fried chicken. The skin has that extra flaky coating that is really crispy and the meat juicy and moist.

Ingredients
Seasoning
6 chicken wings
¼ tsp salt
1 Tbsp oyster sauce
dash of black pepper

Coating
50gm cornflour
25gm rice flour
¼ tsp salt
dash of black pepper
¼ tsp garam masala (optional)

Beef & Chicken Satay with Peanut Sauce

Satay is an all time favourite with almost anyone. I decided to experiment and create my own combination of marinade and satay sauce. It also gave Mr Redneck a chance to test out the new barbecue. Needless to say he was pleased with the performance of the bbq - it passed the satay test without burning the sticks or the satay! The satay and sauce were good and Mr Redneck said it was by far the best and most authentic satay sauce I have ever made and it tasted like those we had from Malaysia.

Don't let the long list of ingredients deter you. The tedious part in making satay is the stringing of the meat to the sticks but Mr Redneck does a wonderful job of this.

Makes 21 chicken & 31 beef satay

Ingredients
600 gm chicken breast
400 gm porterhouse beef

Marinade
1 Tbsp ground coriander
1 Tbsp ground cumin
1 Tbsp ground fennel
1 tsp ground tumeric
3 stalks lemongrass, thinly sliced
1 Tbsp garlic flake or fresh garlic
1 Tbsp sugar
½ tsp salt

Method
1. Soak 50-60 satay skewers in cold water for at least 2 hours to prevent them from burning during grilling.

2. Cut the meat into small strips about 2" long and 3/4" wide.

3. Grind marinade ingredients until fine and mix with the meat to marinate overnight.

4. Thread 4-5 pieces of the meat onto the skewer.

Ayam Masak Sambal Kicap ~ Chicken in sambal sauce

Ayam Masak Sambal Kicap, another uncomplicated and mouthwatering spicy dish that can be prepared ahead of time to allow the chicken to further marinade in the sambal sauce. Make extra as this dish freezes well.

Ingredients
1.5kg chicken, cut into smaller pieces
3 stalks lemongrass, smashed

10 kaffir leaves, torn
8 Tbsp tomato sauce
3 Tbsp soya sauce
3 Tbsp kicap manis
salt & sugar to taste

Plum Sauce Roast Chicken

We love plum sauce. We use a lot of it for dipping or for marinating. This plum sauce roast chicken is another favourite easy and simple dish.

Ingredients
1.3 kg whole chicken
3 Tbsp sugar
3 pcs cloves
1 pc star anise
1 pc cinnamon stick

Kum Heong Kai ~ Golden Spicy Fragrant Chicken

A relatively simple recipe with very few ingredients yet producing a dish with very intense flavour. It is spicy but not 'hot'. This is the healthy version as I prefer not to deep fry the chicken.

Ingredients

6 drumsticks or 1kg chicken, cut to pieces
1 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp light soy sauce

1 tbsp cooking oil
5 garlic cloves, chopped finely
1 tsp coriander seeds or powder
2 sprigs curry leaves
1 tbsp curry powder
Salt to taste

Devil Chicken

This devil chicken is very fragrant, rich in flavour and use commonly available ingredients. A delicious easy to prepare chicken dish that goes very well with bread or rice.

Ingredients
1½ kg chicken pieces
1½ Tbsp tumeric powder
1½ tsp salt
1 onion, quartered
1 tomato, quartered