Recipes

/

Home & Leisure

The Velvety Secret of Great Stir-Fried Chicken

By Wolfgang Puck, Tribune Media Services on

Published in America's Test Kitchen

Have you ever wondered why the stir-fried chicken you eat in Chinese restaurants often tastes better than anything you try to stir-fry in your own kitchen? The chicken in the restaurant version usually has a soft, tender, delicate flavor and texture that you just can't imagine achieving yourself.

Well, you can achieve it. And I'm happy to share with you the secret behind such sublime results: a technique Western cooks, when speaking of Chinese cooking, refer to as "velveting."

All you have to do is mix together some egg whites, cornstarch, oil and Chinese seasonings, coat the raw chicken pieces with it and let them marinate for at least half an hour. Then you cook them very briefly in oil, but only until they turn white. The result is chicken meat with an absolutely tender texture and a coating that is so soft it feels like velvet in your mouth. (The velveting process, by the way, also works well with thinly sliced pork or beef or with fresh shrimp.)

If you're concerned about using hot oil for precooking the chicken, you can substitute gently simmering water. The results won't be quite as velvety, but they will still be noticeably different from chicken that you just remove from the refrigerator, slice and stir-fry.

Speaking of the chicken, let me suggest that you start with the best quality poultry you can find, preferable free-range and organic. Do not start with frozen or defrosted chicken, which won't take as well to the velveting process.

As soon as the chicken has been velveted, you should continue with stir-frying so you enjoy the results at their best. At my Chinois restaurants in Santa Monica and Las Vegas, my guests enjoy velveted chicken in Kung Pao Chicken, a popular, spicy dish that pays tribute to the 19th-century Szechwan governor Ding Baozhen, who was known as "Kung Pao," the palace guardian.

Many people, by the way, also enjoy this classic stir-fry for the generous quantity of roasted peanuts it includes. In some traditional recipes, the nuts are fried before being added towards the end of stir-frying. But I like to roast them slowly instead, which browns the nuts all the way through instead of just on their surfaces. In the recipe's ingredients list, you'll find full instructions for roasting the peanuts, which you can do several hours ahead of time if you like.

Serve this great stir-fry for a special casual weekend dinner, along with steamed jasmine rice. And be sure to warn your guests that, like many Szechwan dishes, it includes hot red chilies that they should avoid actually eating -- especially if they want to appreciate fully the wonderful results of velveting.

CHINOIS KUNG PAO CHICKEN

Serves 4 to 6

CHICKEN

1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breast halves

2 egg whites

2 tablespoons Chinese rice wine

2 tablespoons peanut oil, plus more for cooking

2 tablespoons soy sauce

2 tablespoons cornstarch

1 teaspoon salt

Peanut oil, for deep frying

SAUCE

 

6 tablespoons light soy sauce

6 tablespoons rice vinegar

4 tablespoons Chinese rice wine

4 tablespoons sugar

4 tablespoons hoisin sauce

STIR-FRYING

8 small dried red chilies, stems removed and discarded, pods cut in halves

1-inch piece fresh ginger, peeled, thinly sliced, and smashed

2 garlic cloves, smashed

2 green onions, white parts cut into 1/2-inch pieces, green part cut into thin julienne strips

1/2 cup shelled and skinned raw peanuts, roasted in a 350 degrees F. oven until deep golden brown, about 20 minutes

4 tablespoons cold canned chicken broth plus 1 tablespoon cornstarch, stirred together until the cornstarch dissolves completely

First, prepare the chicken. Thoroughly trim the chicken breast halves. Cut them crosswise into slices 1/4 inch thick. In a nonreactive bowl, whisk the egg whites until slightly frothy. Add the rice wine, 2 tablespoons peanut oil, soy sauce, cornstarch and salt. Stir until thoroughly combined and the cornstarch has dissolved completely. Stir in the chicken pieces, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes or up to several hours. About 45 minutes before serving, remove the chicken from the refrigerator and allow to come to room temperature.

About 20 minutes before serving, in a large wok, heat 2 to 3 inches of peanut oil to a temperature of about 300 degrees F. on a deep-frying thermometer. Stir the chicken pieces in their marinade, then remove them from the marinade, letting excess liquid drip off, and very carefully add them to the hot oil, taking care not to splash. Using long cooking chopsticks or a wooden spoon, stir the chicken gently to separate the slices, and cook only until they turn uniformly white, about 20 seconds. Immediately remove them with a wire skimmer or slotted spoon and transfer to paper towels to drain.

In a small mixing bowl, stir together the sauce ingredients and set aside near the cooktop.

To stir-fry, carefully pour off all but about 4 tablespoons of oil from the wok, wiping the side of the wok with paper towels to eliminate any drips. Return the wok to high heat. As soon as the oil is very hot and fragrant, add the chilies, ginger, garlic and white parts of the green onions. Stir-fry briskly until the chilies turn dark red, 30 to 40 seconds.

Immediately add the chicken and continue stir-frying until the pieces are completely cooked and light golden, 1 to 2 minutes more. Stir in the sauce and cook until it reaches a boil. Add the peanuts, drizzle in the broth-cornstarch mixture, and stir gently until the sauce turns glossy and thick enough to coat the chicken, about 1 minute more.

Transfer the stir-fry to a serving plate and garnish with the strips of green onion. Serve immediately.


Comments

blog comments powered by Disqus
 

 

Comics

Candorville Andy Marlette For Better or For Worse Dennis the Menace Ginger Meggs Fowl Language