Grab Your Chopsticks!

Preparation Time: 50 mins
Cooking Time: 20 mins
Difficulty: Easy
Serves: 4

Chicken & Mushrooms

Ingredients

350g chicken breast
1/2 tsp sugar
1 tbsp light soy sauce
1 tsp rice wine or dry sherry
2 tsp cornflour
6 chinese dried mushrooms
1 tbsp fresh ginger, finely shredded
salt and pepper
sesame oil
fresh coriander as garnish

Method

1. Cut the chicken into bite sized pieces and place in a bowl. Add the sugar, soy sauce, rice wine and cornflour. Coat the chicken with the mixture and marinate for 30 minutes.
2. Place the mushrooms in warm water and soak for 30 minutes.
3. Drain the mushrooms and pat dry with kitchen paper, remove the stems and slicy thinly.
4. Place the chicken pieces in one layer on a heat prood plate and place in a bamboo or other kind of steamer. Arrange the mushrooms and ginger on top of the chicken. Sprinkle with salt, pepper and sesame oil to taste. Steam over a high heat for 20 minutes.
5. Serve immediately garnished with coriander.

Result

A nice taste. We used shiitake mushrooms which were a bit bland. In the future I may use a different type of dried mushroom, or even fresh mushrooms.

Preparation Time: 20 mins
Cooking Time: 7 mins
Difficulty: Easy
Serves: 4

Chilli Chicken

Ingredients

350g chicken
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg white
2 tbsp cornflour
4 tbsp vegetable oil
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 cm fresh ginger, grated
1 red pepper, seeded and diced
1 green pepper, seeded and diced
2 fresh chillis, (seeded if you like less heat), and chopped
2 tbsp light soy sauce
1 tbsp chinese rice wine, or dry sherry
1 tbsp wine vinegar

Method

1. Cube the chicken and place in a bowl with the salt, egg white, cornflour and 1 tablespoon of oil. Coat the chicken in the mixture.
2. Heat the remaining oil in a wok and stir-fry the garlic for 30 seconds. Add the chicken and stir-fry for 3 minutes or until golden brown.
3. Add the peppers, soy sauce, rice wine, vinegar and cook for 3 more minutes. Serve immediately.

Result

Very nice. Halve the chilli or remove the seeds if you don’t like it hot!

Preparation Time: 15 min
Cooking Time: 15 mins
Difficulty: Easy
Serves: 4

Hoisin Chicken

Ingredients

4 large chicken breasts
cornflour
oil
1 teaspoon chopped ginger
2 onions
400g mushrooms
100g snow peas (mange tout)
1 green pepper
2 tablespoons Hoi Sin sauce
2 tablespoons rice wine
1 tablespoon soy
2 tablespoon vinegar
salt
1 cup water
2 chicken stock cubes

Method

1. Cut the chicken into strips or bite size chunks.
2. Cut the mushrooms, pepper and onion into chiunks and top and tail the snow peas if necessary.
3. Heat some oil in a wok or frying pan, then add the chicken and cook until golden brown, drain well.
4. Add extra oil to the pan and heat, add the ginger and onion and cook for one minute, then add the mushroom and pepper and cook for a further two mintutes.
5. Add the Hoi Sin sauce, rice wine, soy sauce, vinegar, salt, stock cubes and cornflour-water mixture. Cook for 30 seconds.
6. Return the chicken to the pan, and heat until the sauce thickens.
7. Serve immediately over rice or noodles.

Result

This is a really great dish, but watch how much vinegar you put into the food.

Preparation Time: 20 mins (including 10 mins soaking)
Cooking Time: 10 mins
Difficulty: Easy
Serves: 2 – 4

Yakitori

Ingredients

1kg chicken breast
1/2 cup sake (or chinese rice wine)
1/2 cup soy sauce (preferably Japanese)
1/2 cup mirin (or vegetable stock)
2 tbsp sugar
2 green peppers

6 – 8 skewers

Method

1. Soak the skewers in water for 10 minutes.
2. Cut the chicken into cubes, cut the green pepper into square pieces, and thread on to the skewers.
3. Fry or grill the skewers until the chicken is golden brown and cooked through.
4. In a pan, combine the sake, soy sauce, mirin and sugar and heat until it boils then pour over the skewers making sure that they are coated.
5. Serve plain as a snack or as a main meal with rice or noodles.

Result

A great taste, I have made this twice during the time that I first made it and the addition to the site!

Preparation Time: 30 mins
Cooking Time: 20 mins
Difficulty: Easy
Serves: 2

Tomato Wine Chicken

Ingredients

1kg skinless chicken breast
4 egg yolks
oil for frying
1/2 cup tomato sauce
1/2 cup red wine
Worcestershire sauce
Soy sauce

Method

1. Cut the chicken into cubes and coat them in a bowl with the egg yolk.
2. Heat the oil in a wok and deep fry the chicken until golden brown. Drain well.
3. Drain the oil from the pan and add the remaining ingredients. Heat until the sauce boils.
4. Add the chicken to the pan and mix well, allow to heat through and serve.

Result

An exceptionally nice taste. It should have served four but only ended up serving two!

Preparation Time: 15 mins
Cooking Time: 20 mins
Difficulty: Easy
Serves: 2

Chicken with Mushrooms

Ingredients

500g chicken breast
350g button mushrooms
4 teaspoons rice wine
2 teaspoons soy sauce
2 teaspoons cornflour
2 cloves garlic
1/2 teaspoon five pepper mixture
2 teaspoons sugar

Method

1. Cut the chicken into bite size strips or chunks, chop the mushrooms into halves or quarters if they are large.
2. Heat some oil in a wok and stir fry the chicken until it is golden brown, then add the mushrooms and garlic. Stir for 1 minute
3. Add the remaining ingredients and cook for a further 2 minutes on a medium heat.

Result

Nice! Add different varieties of mushroom for a varied taste.

Preparation Time: 20 mins
Cooking Time: 10 mins
Difficulty: Easy
Serves: 4

Chicken & Ham Rolls

Ingredients

2 Chicken Breasts
4 – 6 slices Ham
1 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp five spice powder
1 clove garlic
4 Spring Roll wrappers
flour
1 egg
2 tbsp milk
oil

Method

1. Remove any skin from the chicken breasts and pound until thin.
2. Spread with salt, pepper, five spice powder and crushed garlic.
3. Roll each slice of ham and place on top of the chicken, then roll the chicken breast.
4. Dip the rolls in flour and then in combined egg and milk, place chicken roll diagonally across the spring roll wrapper. Fold in the ends and seal with some of the egg mixture.
5. Deep fry the rolls in hot oil until golden brown. Drain on kitchen paper and serve hot, cut into slices, with a sweet and sour sauce.

Result

Really very nice, one of the best starters we have cooked.

Preparation Time: 20 mins
Cooking Time: 15 mins
Difficulty: Easy
Serves: 4

Chicken with Lychees

Ingredients

3 or 4 large chicken breasts
500g can lychees
1 red pepper
snow peas (mange touts)
oil
2 chicken stock cubes
salt
pepper
3 tablespoons tomato sauce
1 teaspoon sugar
cornflour or arrowroot
1/2 cup water

Method

1. Cut chicken breasts in half, and cut each half into thirds.
2. Remove seeds from pepper and cut into roughly square pieces.
3. Dust the chicken with cornflour, and shake off any excess.
4. Heat oil in a wok until smoking, and stirfry chicken pieces until golden brown.
5. Add the pepper and fry stirring for one minute.
6. Add the combined water, stock cubes, tomato sauce, sugar, salt and pepper.
7. Add the drained lychees and mix well. (You can add some of the lychee juice if you want, but not too much)
8. Cover and simmer for about five minutes.
9. Add 1 teaspoon cornflour to 2 teaspoons water and mix. Add to wok and bring to the boil.

Serve on top of rice or noodles.

Result

This is delicious, escpecially if you love lychees. A wonderful authentic Chinese taste!

Preparation Time: 15 mins
Cooking Time: 15 mins
Difficulty: Easy
Serves: 4

Lemon Chicken

Ingredients

4 large chicken breasts
1/2 cup cornflour
3 tbsp water
4 egg yolks
salt, pepper
oil

LEMON SAUCE

1/3 cup lemon juice
1 3/4 cups chicken stock
2 tbsp cornflour
4 tbsp honey
4 tbsp brown sugar
1 tsp grated ginger

Method

1. Combine the sauce ingredients and stir over a medium heat until it boils and thickens.
2. Flatten the chicken breasts a little by beating them lightly with a heavy object.
3. Combine the cornflour, egg yolks and water in a bowl and mix well. Coat the chicken breasts with the mixture.
4. Heat some oil in a wok or deep frier and deep fry the chicken until golden brown. (About 2 mins per piece)
5. Place the deep fried chicken on some absorbant paper and when cool, cut into slices.
6. Serve on top of noodles or rice with a liberal drizzling of the lemon sauce.

Result

This has to be one of the best dishes that I have made. It really has a great taste as the chicken and the lemon go so well together. Another idea that Caroline came up with for a previous Lemon Chicken recipe was to sprinkle some fresh lemon juice over the meal just before consumption! It really did jazz up the taste and gave the food even more of a lemony taste.