Stuck in a rut, and looking for something new and tasty to do with chicken?
It was Sunday, and I was tossing ideas in my head of what I should cook. I had taken out some chicken drumettes from the freezer the night before with some idea that I would cook it tonight for dinner. The whole morning, I tossed some ideas around in my head. What could I do with those drumettes?
Take a boring chicken and maximize the flavor with tons of aromatics and umami flavors…plus some delicious brandy.
I was at a friend’s house in Kuching a month ago and she served us a lovely chicken dish flavored with lots of lemongrass. It was cooked in homemade Chinese red wine, she explained, and she had added dark soy and shiitake mushrooms. It was delicious.
I decided that I would have to try to make it myself when I got a chance. However, I didn’t have any home-made red wine to use. What I did have was a bottle of really good cognac that had been left by the previous owner of our rental home. We don’t really drink too much liquor but I’ve always been able to use them in my cooking. Maybe this was a waste of really good cognac but let me tell you, this dish was the BOMB!
This super easy chicken soup will make you feel warm all over.
A few of our friends here hail from Sarikei, a town about 5 hours’ drive from Kuching. They are quite proud of their town, especially of some of their well-known food products such as mee sua noodles, Sarikei pineapples, and kompia bread. What really piqued our interest, though, was mention of the special “Sarikei chicken”.
This isn’t your grandfather’s Chinese Chicken Salad recipe…
…probably because your grandfather never heard of Chinese chicken salad in his hey day. The Chinese chicken salad that we’re familiar with – shredded chicken, raw lettuce, crispy fried noodles, and a sweet, sesame-based dressing – wasn’t popular until the 1970’s.
The Chinese in Asia typically don’t eat raw-leaf lettuce salads. They prefer their greens cooked. Chinese chicken salad as we know it was probably invented in California as a “fusion” of Oriental flavors with Western ingredients.