Three Cup Chicken (三杯雞 or San Bei Ji)

Do you remember those tiny little dorm fridges everyone used to have in college?

I don't know about you, but every single person in my hall during college had one of those mini-fridges.

They kept food just fine, but they never had a real freezer. At most, the tiny little compartment in the top corner of the fridge would hold a couple pints of ice cream. And it never kept it that cold.

Imagine my surprise when I walked into Bryan's dorm room and found a full size freezer. The freezer itself was bigger than my entire dorm fridge.

Turns out, his mother periodically cooked all his favorite Chinese dishes, pack them up in individual portions over rice, and shipped them all the way from California to MIT, packed in dry ice.

Thus the huge freezer.

It was always a huge treat whenever he was willing to share his mom's precious cooking with me. My favorite dish had 5-spice tofu, peanuts, and stir-fried Chinese vegetables.

When Glad FreezerWare asked Foodbuzz Tastemakers to design a "freezer-friendly recipe" to try out with these nifty new freezer-friendly containers, I immediately thought back to the scrumptious Chinese meals Bryan and I used to enjoy in his dorm room, compliments of his mom and the wonders of modern technology.

Knowing that simple home-cooked Chinese food freezes exceptionally well, I decided to make Three Cup Chicken, a fragrant and intensely flavorful Taiwanese classic that goes insanely well with rice.

Three Cup Chicken is a chicken dish where chicken is stewed in "three cups" of sesame oil, soy sauce, and rice wine (plus tons of aromatics). Of course, depending on how much chicken you're making, you may not necessarily actually need three whole cups.

I think it's a dish with a huge bang for its buck. The ingredients are inexpensive, the preparation is relatively short and easy, and the end product is so, so flavorful.

There is one catch, I guess.

You have to cut up chicken bones.

Sure, you could technically make this dish with boneless chicken breast, but it won't be nearly as good. There's something about the bone marrow infusing into the sauce, the fat in the chicken skin, and the tenderness of dark meat that make this dish much better with chicken leg pieces (or a whole chicken, for that matter).

I've found that you need a really, really sharp cleaver and you have to be really purposeful when you chop. We're not talking about a gentle chop. We're talking about a "hai-ya!" chop.

Hai -YA!

It takes a bit of practice. In the beginning I was just too timid, and thus I was unable to fully chop the bone in half. It's much better to aim once, swing hard, and (hopefully) make one clean break.

Be careful, though! You could still get small bone shards flying around.

Once the bone is broken, you can go back and gently cut the meat up into ~2-inch wide pieces.

Once you've chopped all your aromatics, the cooking part is actually pretty straightforward.

You can either brown the chicken first (gives a better char), or (if you're short on time or equipment), do it all in one pot. Since I was short on time, I decided to cook it in one pot.

Over medium high heat, stir fry garlic, ginger, and scallions (optional) in half of the sesame oil until everything smells gorgeously fragrant. Add chicken pieces and cook until they are no longer pink. Add rice wine, soy sauce, remaining sesame oil, and sugar. Bring to a boil and then simmer (uncovered) for about 15 minutes, slowly reducing most of the liquid.

Periodically check the flavor. If it's not salty enough, just reduce it some more. You can always add more sugar, soy sauce, wine, etc. depending on your preference.

At the end, add basil leaves and quickly stir until wilted.

And then serve! It's that simple!

I had cooked some other dishes on the side the same night, such as Yellow Chives with 5-Spice Bean Curd and Soy Sheets with Edamame and Mustard Greens. I'll post about those soon.

To make my freezer-friendly lunches, I lined the bottom of my container with a bed of rice. I then added my veggies on one side and my meat on the other. I poured some 3-Cup Chicken sauce over the entire thing.

Into the freezer they go!

The next day, I brought one of the containers to work for lunch. It was cool knowing that my other two containers would keep for awhile in the freezer, and I wouldn't have to stress about trying to finish the leftovers within a couple days (I get tired of eating the same thing too many days in a row, so that's a good thing!).

I heated the entire container in the microwave and voila, lunch was ready. I was surprised how well everything reheated. Aside from the 5-spice bean curd being just a bit drier, overall everything tasted just like it did the night before.

Because the lunch was frozen, I didn't have to fight for communal company fridge space when I got to work. Instead, I just kept it in my office until lunchtime.

It worked out well. I saved a bit of lunch money, and arguably ate a healthier lunch.

Now if only I could get that exact recipe from Bryan's mom so I can re-make that dish I loved in college.

Or maybe  I could convince her to ship me some directly in dry-ice?

;)

3-Cup Chicken (San Bei Ji)
derived from various sources
serves 4 | 25 minutes

1/4 cup sesame oil*
3-inch segment of ginger, sliced
10-15 cloves garlic
2-3 stalks of scallions, cut into 1-2 inch pieces
4 chicken drumsticks, cut up into pieces (other bone-in chicken works too)
1/4 cup rice wine
1/4 cup dark soy sauce (I used double black, but black should work fine too)
2 tablespoons sugar
1-2 cups Thai basil leaves

Over medium high heat in a pot that comfortably hold all the chicken pieces, stir fry garlic, ginger, and scallions (optional) in half of the sesame oil until everything smells gorgeously fragrant. Add chicken pieces and cook until they are no longer pink. Add rice wine, soy sauce, remaining sesame oil, and sugar. Bring to a boil and then simmer (uncovered) for about 15 minutes, slowly reducing most of the liquid.

Periodically check the flavor and turn the chicken pieces if they are not all submerged. If it's not salty enough, just reduce it some more. You can always add more sugar, soy sauce, wine, etc. depending on your preference.

At the end, add basil leaves and quickly stir until wilted.

Serve! Preferably with rice.

*Cooking notes
Although this dish is traditionally made with equal parts sesame oil, rice wine, and soy sauce, I personally found the dish to be a bit oily for my preference. I think I would reduce the oil by half (1/8 cup) the next time I make it. I'm sure it would still turn out fine.

I also think I did not reduce the dish quite enough. The liquid should be almost gone, saucy instead of soupy. Next time I will cook it uncovered and monitor it carefully (as opposed to trying to cook two more new dishes at the same time!)

Disclaimer
As part of the Foodbuzz Tastemakers Program, I received free Glad Containers as well as a stipend to cover the cost of the ingredients.

Hainanese Chicken Rice + Giveaway!

I almost never ate chicken growing up.

My mom doesn't like chicken, and thus we hardly ate chicken at home. Furthermore, there just aren't nearly as many Taiwanese dishes made with chicken. Chicken wasn't nearly as available in Taiwan as, say pork, which is an essential ingredient in so many Taiwanese dishes. In fact, Bryan's dad talks about how in Taiwan, his family ate chicken only once a year as a treat, on his father's birthday.

For most of my life, I didn't love chicken because I also associated it with the dry and bland meat that you see in a lot of places. It wasn't until recently (for example, when I started playing around with sous vide), that I realized chicken can be just as juicy, tender, and flavorful as any other meat.

The other day, a Singaporean friend came over and we cooked up a bunch of Malaysian dishes from a new cookbook that I recently received. Hainanese Chicken Rice is one of Bryan's favorite Malaysian dishes, so I immediately opted to try that recipe.

What resulted was seriously one of the best (and simplest!) chicken dishes I have ever made.

Before I go on with the recipe, let me just say a few things about the book. I received a free review copy of Flavors of Malaysia: A Journey Through Time, Tastes, and Traditions about a month ago.

I have very little experience with Malaysian food, so I invited my good friend Chia Chi, who is from Singapore, to come over and cook some dishes with me.  Aside from her lovely company and wonderful cooking skills, Chia Chi gave helpful insight regarding the authenticity of the recipes in the book.

The author, Susheela Raghavan, was born and raised in Malaysia and gives a lot of background about Malaysian food culture throughout the book. The book is full of information, over 300 pages filled with all sorts of Malaysian recipes, personal stories, and cultural insights. As Raghavan says herself in the introduction to her book, "This is not just a recipe collection, but a cultural and gastronomical journey through the centuries."

Accordingly to Chia Chi, all of the classic Malaysian favorites are in this book.  You've got a bunch of Indian-style recipes as well as Chinese-style recipes. There are all kinds of dishes, ranging from snacks, soups, salads, sauces, noodles, to all the various meats. There are separate sections for desserts and fusion cuisine, as well as sections highlighting certain festivals. The center section includes a collection of beautiful color photographs, all taken by the author herself.
  
The flavors of the dishes we made are pretty authentic, although the author herself says that she has toned down the spice levels to accommodate western palates.

Overall, we found the recipes to be very easy to follow.  The book is organized neatly with the recipe amounts listed on a separate column from the rest of the text. Her measurements are often given in ranges, which is very typical of Asian cooking (my mom never measured ANYTHING!). As an inexact cook myself, I appreciate the ranges. It tells me which parts of the recipe are more flexible and frankly, it makes me a lot less relaxed when I'm measuring stuff!

Chia Chi and I had no trouble following this recipe, and the Hainanese Chicken and Rice came out beautifully. The chicken was juicy and flavorful. Everyone who was there (even Bryan, my harshest critic!) thought the chicken was delicious.

The chicken rice was also fluffy and fragrant, although one diner commented that it did not have as strong of a chicken fat flavor.  I think that's mostly because I purchased an organic free range chicken which does not have as much fat as a typical supermarket chicken. On the flip side, the flavors of the poached chicken were very nice. I seriously think you get what you pay for when it comes to the inherent flavor of the chicken - organic free range has an edge.

GIVEAWAY!
The publishers of this book were kind enough to give me three books to give away! I will be hosting a new giveaway for the next three days (one book per day!) as part of a three-part Malaysian Food Series. Each day I will describe a different dish I made from the book.

To enter the Giveaway
Please leave a comment below telling me what your favorite Malaysian dish is. If you are not familiar to with Malaysian cuisine, tell me your favorite Southeast Asian dish, or Asian dish of you are not familiar with Southeast Asia.

Me?

My favorite dish is Popiah, a fresh spring roll filled with pork, cilantro, peanuts, sugar, hoisin sauce, vermicelli, bean sprouts, cabbage, and carrots. I first had it at a food stall in Singapore and fell in love! It wasn't until years later that my mom taught me how to make my own!

You may submit comments until midnight, Wednesday March 2, 2011, at which time I will do the drawing.

Update! Congratulations to the first Flavors of Malaysia cookbook winner - bunster10!

bunster10 said, "I've only had a few opportunities to try Malaysian cuisine. I think the last time I did was on a trip to Hawaii. We decided to try a Malaysian restaurant. I don't remember what the dishes were but they were all very tasty!"

There are still two books to give away. Click here and here to enter!

If you are interested in Malaysian food in general, check out Malaysia Kitchen for the World, a global initiative of the Malaysian government that aims to educate and inform consumers about Malaysian cuisine and Malaysian restaurants throughout the world.


Hainanese Chicken Rice
from Flavors of Malaysia: A Journey Through Time, Tastes, and Traditions

Chicken
1 4/12 lb whole chicken
1-2 T finely crushed fresh ginger
2 heaping T finely crushed garlic cloves
1/2 cup chopped scallions or spring onions
1/2 tsp freshly ground white pepper
12 tsp salt
2 tsp toasted sesame oil
2 tsp regular soy sauce

1. Rinse chicken and pat dry. After removing the "innards" pack, stuff the cavity with 1 T each of ginger, garlic, and scallions. Rub the whole chicken (including the cavity) with white pepper and salt. Set aside.

2. Bring 13 cups of water to a boil in a large pot. Lower heat and add remaining ginger, garlic, and scallions. Simmer for 5 minutes.

3. Place entire chicken into the pot, making sure it is fully submerged. Bring to a boil and then simmer for 45 minutes. Turn off heat, cover, and let steep for an additional 15-20 minutes.

4. Remove chicken from the pot, reserving the stock.

5. Allow to cool to room temperature (about 30 minutes). Alternatively, if serving cold, plunge the entire chicken into ice water and let sit for 20-30 minutes.

6. Brush the chicken with sesame oil and soy sauce. Set aside. Before serving, cut up the chicken into pieces.

Rice

1 T cooking oil

1 T sliced and crushed garlic cloves

1 heaping tsp crushed fresh ginger

Heaping 1/2 cup finely chopped shallots or onion

1 cup Jasmine rice, washed and rinsed

1 1/2 cup reserved chicken stock

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp toasted sesame oil

1 Pandan leaf, tined with fork and tied into a knot

1. Heat oil in a medium saucepan. Saute garlic and ginger for about 1/2 to 1 minute. Add shallots/onions and saute 1-2 minutes.

2. Stir in rice and saute until translucent, about 2-3 minutes. Add 1 1/2 cups reserved chicken stock, salt, sesame oil, and pandan leaf (see photos above for how to tie)

3. If you have a rice cooker: put the contents in a rice cooker and cook until done.
If using a stovetop: Bring to a boil. Lower heat, cover, and simmer for about 15 minutes (until all liquid is absorbed and rice is cooked). Remove from heat and let rice cook in its steam for about 10 minutes.

Soup
4 cups reserved chicken stock
1 tsp salt
1/4 to 1/2 finely ground white pepper
1 tsp white sugar
1 tsp chopped garlic cloves (optional)
1 tsp chopped or crushed ginger (optional)

Place all ingredients in a pot, stir and bring to a boil. Lower heat and simmer for 1-2 minutes. Garlic with scallions and serve.

Dip #1: Savory Chile Sauce / Sos Lemak
1/2 cup chicken stock
6 fresh red chilies (Fresno, jalapeno, Serrano, cayenne, THai, or cherry peppers), finely chopped
1 heaping T chopped or crushed garlic cloves
1 T chopped or crushed ginger
3/4 tsp salt
2 tsp white sugar
1 1/2 tsp freshly squeezed or bottled lime juice
2 tsp cooking oil or fat skimmed from boiled chicken stock

Dip #2: Pounded Ginger in Flavored Oil
4 heaping T chopped or crushed ginger
2 tsp toasted sesame oil
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp white sugar
1 tsp  freshly squeezed or bottled lime juice
1 tsp regular soy sauce
1/4 cup cooking oil

Dips
Combine all ingredients together and mix well.  Let stand 30 minutes before serving.

Put it All Together
Serve with chicken, soup, and the two dips.

Disclaimer
Time to time I receive free products, meals, etc. as a food blogger. I do not receive any payment for blog posts/reviews nor am I required to write a post when I receive free products, meals, etc. The views expressed in this post are completely my own. I was given a free review copy of the book.

Sous Vide Chicken with Pesto

We were curious. Very very curious.

We'd heard amazing, almost fantastically amazing things about sous-vide chicken. All over the internet, people raved about its unique, velvety, almost "melt-in-your-mouth" tenderness. They said it was nothing like normal chicken. "You'll never be able to eat normal chicken again."

This miraculous chicken was supposed to be juicy, succulent, flavorful, and moist.

Really? We were skeptical, yet intrigued at the same time.

Admittedly, the sous vide machine had already done wonders for scallops, not to mention the perfectly cooked steak, delicious custard-like eggs, and duck confit. Even the sous vide salmon I had made from a hacked water bath system had really incredible texture.

But chicken breast? Which is inherently bland, tasteless, and boring?


Just a tiny bit of background - cooking food sous vide is essentially cooking food in a vacuum sealed plastic bag in a precisely temperature-controlled water bath. If you want gory details (e.g., some history & science), visit this post, where I cook a multi-course meal, complete with Thomas Keller (French Laundry) and David Chang (Momofuku) recipes, completely using the sous vide technique.

Although the official instruction manual tells you to cook the sous-vide chicken at 146 ° F, I was pretty convinced (after poking around the internet a bit) that 140 ° F was the way to go if I wanted a juicier, softer result.

140 ° F is right on the edge of the danger zone (between 40 ° F and 140 ° F). Typically, if you cook at temperatures below 140 ° F, you run the risk of bacteria growth. This is why any meat cooked in that "danger zone" should not be cooked for more than 4 hours.

Making this chicken was really really simple. I basically vacuum sealed the chicken (after seasoning with a bit of salt & pepper), and dropped it in the machine for one hour. After it's done, remove from the bag, slice, and serve with your favorite sauce.

Verdict?
Sous vide chicken is definitely different from traditionally cooked chicken. It's much more plump, soft, and juicy. Because the water bath is held at a constant temperature, you can't really overcook the meat that easily.

However, I would hardly call it a transcendent experience.

Bryan's reaction?

"It's good, but not as amazing as people make it seem."

"Just tastes like really good poached chicken."

True. At the end of the day, it's still tastes like chicken. Sure, it's much juicier, and much more evenly cooked. It's definitely got better texture than traditionally grilled chicken, though some (like Bryan!) would argue that a good poached chicken tastes equally juicy and soft.

With the sous vide technique, however, there are some advantages.  I do like how you don't have to worry about it while it's cooking. If you leave the meat in the water bath for a little longer, it won't really overcook. It's best for dinner parties where you don't know exactly when the guests you will arrive, but you want the food to be perfectly cooked right after they arrive. Furthermore, unlike poached chicken, all of that chicken-y goodness stays right in the bag. The flavors won't dissolve into the water bath during the cooking process.


Sous Vide Chicken with Pesto
1 boneless chicken breast
salt and pepper
homemade basil pesto

Season the chicken breast with salt and pepper. Seal in a foodsaver bag and cook sous vide at 140 ° F for at least an hour. If using skinless breast, just slice and serve or brown the breast briefly (mostly for color). If there is skin, brown the skin in a hot pan with a little bit of oil for about 1-2 minutes until browned.

Top with homemade pesto and/or serve over pesto pasta.

For more general background of sous-vide as a cooking technique, please refer to this post.

Enjoy!

Related Sous-vide Posts
Bacon Wrapped Scallops - sous vide
Momofuku 48-hour Braised Short Ribs
Duck Leg Confit
Spaghetti Carbonara with Sous Vide Egg
Duck Fat Fried Potatoes
Sous Vide Salmon
Sous Vide Steak