Poultry – Page 8 – The Occasional Cook

Herbal Chicken Soup

November 14, 2010 7shasha7

Today The Hubby and I are down with fever. Though his broke yesterday night, mine continued. The worse part about my fever is that the temperature will shoot suddenly, and then I’ll automatically pop two Panadol Extra and five minutes later, I’m A-O-K. It’s some sort of crazy virus that refuses to leave my body.

Anyway, since both our throats hurt a lot, I though I’d make herbal chicken soup. I don’t particularly like chicken soup, especially the Malay-style version where they add in ‘rempah sop’ – powdered spices for soup, usually to make soto ayam. But I do like Chinese herbal soups. When the mood strikes. Like today.

So anyway, it’s dead easy to make this soup because the ingredients are packaged at the supermarket. All you have to do is buy and clean a chicken, dump it into a pot with water, pour all the ‘magic’ ingredients into the pot and simmer over a low fire for two hours minimum. I will only eat the dish when the meat has completely disintegrated from the bones and that they are super tender. But don’t forget the salt, or your soup will just taste of plain water (an often enough mishap each time I make soup).

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA — I bought a ready made packet with all the Chinese herbs like wolfberries, and that white stick like thingies. Then, I discovered I had this other packet which contains just the herbal seasoning in a bag, so I used both. I've used plenty of other brands, like those with ginseng in them too.

If you’re not Chinese and never made or had Herbal Chicken Soup, go try making one, especially when your throat feels as though a hundred thumbtacks are jammed inside. A few years ago, I even made a pot and slow cooked it on my stove for five hours. A great waste of resources but completely worth it. 🙂

Asian Dishes, Poultry

Teriyaki Chicken

October 11, 2010 7shasha7

I wanted to serve my Onigiri with some Japanese-inspired protein. Salmon was too expensive so the best bet was chicken. I got chicken fillets and proceeded to the bottled section for some ready made Teriyaki sauce or marinade. Unfortunately, not a single one of them was halal. Many had alcohol listed as the ingredient. I found one Made in Malaysia which did not have anything suspicious in it but as it did not have the halal logo, I felt uncomfortable.

Lucky for me, I had copied a recipe of Teriyaki marinade from all-recipes.com. Of course it had mirin and sake in it, both I omitted (duh) but the outcome was just as good. Oh, I added just a splash of distilled vinegar into the recipe.

Recipe

1. 1 tbsp fresh ginger, minced or pound fine

2. I clove garlic, crushed

3. 3 tbsp sugar

4. 2 cups soya sauce (I used a bit of light and a bit of dark soy)

5. a splash of vinegar

After marinading, place chicken pieces on a roasting tray and top with a slice of leek and then grill in the oven till done. Once chicken is done, spoon the drippings over the chicken and serve. Yummy! 🙂

Poultry

Oven Baked Fried Chicken

June 11, 2010June 11, 2010 7shasha7

I have been very very good the past three weeks as I’ve not eaten anything really deep-fried. But I miss fried chicken. I scoured the net for oven baked fried chicken and came across several. I decided to follow some bits here and there from what I’ve read and watched and decided to do it my way. My way turned out pretty good although, sigh, here it comes…bland. Again, not enough SALT on the meat. The coating etc was fine, but when you bite into the white flesh, you knowinstantaneously that it needs SALT. Anyway, since many of us Asians love to eat our chicken with chilli sauce, it wasn’t bad at all.

Recipe

1. In a flat dish, beat one egg and season with salt and paprika.

2. In another flat dish, add crushed cornflakes. Make sure they’re pretty fine but not powdery. Have a bit of crunch. Season with lots of herbs provence (mixture of dried herbs) and salt and black pepper.

3. Take a piece of chicken (skin removed) and dip in the egg mixture. After that, coat in the cornflake mixture and then place in the roasting tray lined with non-stick baking paper.

4. Bake in the oven for 40 minutes, turning them at the halfway mark.

5. Serve with salad, mashed potatoes etc.

The next time I make this, I’ll soak in buttermilk overnight first. It really does make the chicken white, softer and juicier.

Try making this healthier option when you can. 😀

Poultry

Chicken Piccata

June 9, 2010 7shasha7

The other dish we made in our mother and child cooking class was chicken piccata. This one, the kids all loved it! The Little Girl couldn’t wait to try it. Furthermore, it’s really a wonderful dish to make with children and I’m sure young teens will be able to handle this too.

All you have to do is get some boneless chicken thighs or breasts or whatever parts you like and coat them in plain flour.

Dip them in the egg mixture which is made up of three eggs, some parmesan cheese and a handful of chopped parsley.

Fry the chicken till they are done. Serve.

The use of parmesan cheese was indeed interesting. The Chef said it’s also lovely with fish fillet. Frankly, it was a bit too eggy for me, the smell of it turned me off. But once cooked and properly drained and cut into pieces, it tasted rather nice. I’m trying to find a way to modify this dish without frying or even using any eggs for that matter. But The Little Girl loved it so I suppose one day, I’ll have to make this dish again with her at home.

Middle Eastern/Turkish, Poultry

Za’atar Chicken

April 6, 2010March 3, 2021 7shasha7

I like to roast chicken. I can play around with the marinade. There is one which I quite like. It uses an Arabic wild thyme called ‘zaatar’. You can’t get it here but I’ve got a lovely aunt (who cooks really well) and when she was based in the Mid-East, managed to get me a packet. That one packet lasted me for years. Now that she’s back there, I need to remember to ask her to get me one more as I only have about 2 tablespoons left of the good stuff.

The flavour for this roast chicken is rather strong so it’s best to not to add too much of the zaatar until you get used to the taste. The marinade is simple – zaatar, olive oil, lemon juice and salt. Marinade for a few hours and then bake in the oven.