Soy Chicken

New on the menu: Soy Chicken. Yum!

 If you live in the Middle East like we do, you understand the need to be creative in the kitchen. The line "chicken or beef" as said by the cabin crew on your flight to and from any country in the Middle East is a very good indication of what you can expect here. Yes, it's mostly chicken or beef and if you've been living here for quite sometime, a decade and a half perhaps, well... it's understandable that you kinda grow tired of it sometimes.

This is not to say though that we don't have vegetable and seafood options (although seafood are quite expensive, I must say). But yeah... you get the picture. It's chicken or beef maybe five days a week so you really have to find ways to make it extra special specially if you have kids to feed. 

If there's one chicken recipe that I really really want to try out is that Soy Chicken I've seen in the Food Network. I actually don't know why I haven't tried it yet till now, but it looked so delicious and very easy to make. Last night I decided to give it a try, half way. Half way I said because I did not get to the part where the chicken was air dried and then deep fried. I'll do that part next time, when I've got a bit more time. In the mean time, let's have this version of half way through Soy Chicken. :)

Well, if the amount of dinner our Small Ate ate is any indication, I would say it really is so good. Usually when we prepare any chicken dish, the breasts were almost always left over. But this time, I even had to save a portion for our Little Oyen, or else there would be nothing left for her. And to think it was a 1.3kg chicken I cooked instead of our usual 1kg.

Ingredients:

1 whole chicken

1 cup soy sauce

2 tbs hoisin sauce

1 tb Knorr seasoning

2 tbs Apple Cider Vinegar

3-4 cups water

1/4 cup sugar

salt (to taste)

pepper

garlic powder (or minced garlic)

ginger powder (or minced ginger)

dried rosemary

Sesame oil

Sesame seeds

Spring onions, chopped

 

 Method:

1. Mix all ingredients except the chicken in a pan and bring to a boil on high heat.

2. When the sauce is boiling, lower the heat to medium and add the whole chicken. Simmer for 30-45 minutes.

3. Flip the chicken over and cook the other side. This should also balance the brown color of the skin. Cook for another 30-45 minutes.

4. Turn off the heat and let it cool. Once the sauce has cooled down, remove the chicken,set aside to cool down further.

5. Turn the heat again to medium and cook the remaining sauce until it thickens to desired consistency then turn off the heat.

6. Chop the chicken and transfer to a serving dish. Pour over the sauce. Drizzle with sesame oil and garnish with sesame seeds and chopped spring onions.

7. Serve with steaming hot rice. Enjoy.

Mommy Tip 1: I've also served the remaining sauce on the side in case people would want to mix it with their rice, which my kids did!

Mommy Tip 2: Light bulb moment, for a more special meal, serve with Bok Choy in Ginger and Garlic Sauce and Yellow Fried Rice. I think this is what I'll do next time. Yum!

You may also want to check these out:

Hoisin Chicken

Hainanese Chicken

Soy Sauce Marinated Stuffed Tilapia