Yellow Braised Chicken with Rice 黃燜雞米飯

[Publius]

It's like an overnight alien takeover, suddenly this dish is everywhere. Loved by students, migrant workers, office ladies, bachelors and bachelorettes, and pretty much everybody, 黃燜雞米飯 belongs to the venerable school of Shandong cuisine or 魯菜 -- although many people from Shandong admit they've never heard of it or only first tasted it in another province. Anyway, a restaurant based in Jinan, the provincial capital of Shandong, with only one dish on its menu has become a tremendous success, boasting more than 6,000 franchised locations worldwide. The dish has become a national favorite, copycats sprung up on every street corner. Anyone who's had a long day and can't decide what to eat, Yellow Braised Chicken will ride to their rescue. Its base flavor is palatable to everyone, yet you can order different levels of spiciness to your liking. And it's cheap and easy to cook. So, today let's try cooking it at home!

 

Main ingredient 主料:

chicken whole leg 雞全腿 .............. ×2 (500g) for 2 persons (chicken thighs 雞大腿 or chicken drumsticks 琵琶腿 are also good)

 

Auxiliary ingredients 輔料:

dried shiitake mushroom 乾香菇 .. ×5 (about 10g) (I originally used fresh shiitake mushrooms, which is okay; but the dried ones are better because of the stronger aroma)

(some restaurants will add potato or carrot or something else, because more vegetable = less meat = lower cost, but we're not going that route)

green bell pepper 青椒 ................... ×1 (about 150g) (the sweet type, not the pointy and slightly spicy type)

 

Condiments and other stuff 佐料:

ginger 薑 ......................................... ×1 thumb (about 30g)

garlic 蒜 .......................................... ×5 cloves (about 30g) (garlic is my addition, it usually goes well with poultry)

dried chili pepper 乾紅辣椒 ........... ×4 (about 2.5g) (the result is slightly hot 微辣, adjust the amount according to your taste, and it's totally okay to not use any chili)

sugar 糖 .......................................... as needed (rock sugar 冰糖 is the best for our purpose, followed by frosted sugar 綿白糖, have never used granulated sugar 白砂糖)

starch 澱粉 ..................................... as needed (I use corn starch, can also use potato starch, other types are not recommended)

salt 鹽 ............................................. as needed

chicken bouillon powder 雞精 ...... as needed (it contains MSG and salt and dehydrated chicken stock, if you prefer not to use it, no problem)

ground white pepper 白胡椒粉 ..... as needed

cooking wine 料酒 ......................... as needed (may come under different names, such as Shaoxing wine 紹興酒, 花雕, 黃酒, but essentially the same)

soy sauce 醬油 .............................. as needed (the regular type, which is the same as the light type 生抽, not the dark type 老抽, nor 味極鮮, which is for cold salad)

vegetable oil 食用油 ...................... as needed (100% peanut oil 花生油 is the best choice, blended oil 調合油 also good)

 

Here's all we need in two pictures:

 

Step 1:

Start your rice cooker. We don't need a recipe for cooked rice, right?

Meanwhile, re-hydrate the dried shiitake mushrooms with warm water. 20-30 minutes is all we need to make mushrooms mushy again (don't throw away the water; we'll make use of it later).

 

Step 2:

Chop the chicken legs into 2×2 cm chunks (use a cleaver or 斬骨刀, which is thicker and heavier; do not use a regular kitchen knife or 切片刀).

Put them in a bowl, add 4-5 slices of ginger, a small pinch of salt (<¼ teaspoon), 1 tablespoon of cooking wine, 2 teaspoons of soy sauce, 2 teaspoons of starch, blend well using your hand (抓勻), marinate for 20 minutes.

(1 tablespoon = 15 ml; 1 teaspoon = 5 ml)

 

Step 3:

Cut things up: shiitake mushrooms into slices; bell pepper into pieces or strips; ginger into slices; garlic peeled but no need to cut or smash; dried chili peppers into small rings and seeds removed.

 

Now we have everything ready. Step back and take a picture!

 

Step 4:

This is called 炒糖色, a rather descriptive name and a rather tricky process, in which the sugar is slowly heated to its melting point, then some more heat till it turns brown but not burnt. The browned sugar gives the meat ingredient a reddish lustrous coloring which looks and tastes better than simply using dark soy sauce. Browned sugar is also used in red-cooked pork 紅燒肉 (the difference between Huangmen and Hongshao is the amount of browned sugar and soy sauce). Here's how we do it:

Pour 2 tablespoons of cooking oil into the wok/skillet. Add 15 grams of rock sugar or 1 tablespoon of frosted sugar while the oil is still cool. Stir-fry with low heat. The sugar will begin to melt and turn yellow and give off small bubbles. Don't stop stirring, continue until the sugar turns dark brown and bigger bubbles start to appear. And now is the time!

 

Step 5:

Add in the marinated chicken, stir-fry with high heat until it's evenly coated with browned sugar and the chicken skin is curling up. Add in 2 tablespoons of cooking wine.

 

Step 6:

Add in ginger, garlic, chili pepper, 2 tablespoons of soy sauce, stir-fry for another 2 minutes.

 

Step 7:

Pour in hot water (and the water left from re-hydrating mushrooms) till the chicken is well submerged. Add shiitake mushroom, ¼ teaspoon of salt, ½ teaspoon of ground white pepper, blend evenly. Turn to low heat, put on lid, simmer for 20 minutes.

 

Step 8:

Open the lid. Turn to medium to high heat, let the broth thicken a bit. Add bell pepper and 1 teaspoon of chicken powder, stir a bit, bubble for 2 minutes.

 

Step 9:

Serve in a clay pot; or if you don't have one, any pot will do. (Some believe the authentic Yellow Braised Chicken is cooked with a clay pot. That franchise I mentioned even translated 黃燜雞米飯 as Claypot Chicken. But I just don't buy it.)

 

Step 10:

Eat.

Mmmmm yummy!

[ChTTay]

I like your pot lid. Not seen (or not noticed?) a wooden one round here before.

[Publius]

Haha, I haven't seen a wooden one for years! Even the traditional round bottom woks are nowhere to buy anymore. This wooden lid came with the handmade wok I ordered online. Glad you like it.

[Jim]

3 hours ago, Publius said:

Haha, I haven't seen a wooden one for years! Even the traditional round bottom woks are nowhere to buy anymore. This wooden lid came with the handmade wok I ordered online. Glad you like it.

One great memory of my time working in rural projects was staying at a village house up a mountain in Sichuan and watching the grandfather, a retired housebuilder and carpenter, making a perfect pot lid with a plane entirely by eye. He had his own coffin (also a beauty) that he'd made himself in the main room too.

[abcdefg]

Looks delicious! 黄焖鸡 is big in Kunming. 

 

I'm currently back in the US, or I would follow your recipe and whip some up tonight. 

 

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One episode of the 《天涯厨王》TV series dealt with finding a top recipe for 黄焖鸡。The traveling chef researched various approaches in a small town near Dali 大理 (Yunnan) and served on a panel of local contestants producing their versions of it. 

 

http://tv.cctv.com/2015/03/16/VIDA1426477693181371.shtml 

 

Not sure which episode. 

[Publius]

2 hours ago, abcdefg said:

Not sure which episode

Episode 8

But it looks so different from Yang Mingyu's version...