Savoury Chicken with Water Chestnuts
This is one of those staple Chinese food dishes I cook. It’s filling, appetizing, and pairs well with most other Chinese dishes I throw together. The beauty of it is, I can cook this dish whilst working on two or three other dishes simultaneously.
Ingredients
- 30 ml peanut oil
- 600 g chicken breasts or thighs, or combination
- 3 spring onions chopped
- 2 cloves garlic crushed
- 1 slice fresh ginger root chopped fine
- 250 ml soy sauce
- 30 ml rice wine can substitute dry sherry
- 30 ml light brown sugar
- 5 ml salt
- 375 ml water
- 225 g water chestnuts sliced
- 15 ml cornstarch
Servings:
Units:
Instructions
- Place the wok or large pan over a medium flame
- Heat the peanut oil
- Fry the chicken until golden brown, turning over on occasion
- Meanwhile, slice the spring onions
- Crush the garlic
- Chop the ginger
- Add the spring onions to the wok
- Add the garlic to the wok
- Add the ginger to the wok
- Fry everything for 2 minutes
- Add the soy sauce to the wok
- Add the rice wine (or sherry) to the wok
- Add the brown sugar to the wok
- Add the salt to the wok
- Stir everything together really well
- Add the water to the wok
- Bring the mixture to a boil
- Lower the flame to simmer level
- Cover the wok
- Simmer for 20 minutes
- Slice the water chestnuts
- Add the sliced water chestnuts to the wok
- Cover the wok
- Simmer for another 20 minutes
- Thoroughly mix the cornstarch with a small amount of water
- Temper the cornstarch mixture with some of the sauce from the wok
- Stir the cornstarch mixture in to the sauce in the wok
- Keep the wok at a simmer, stirring frequently, until the sauce clears and thickens
Recipe Notes
You can use chicken breasts, thighs or any combination you choose. I generally plan on 150g of chicken per person. I also frequently use the flattened chicken breasts you can purchase at most supermarkets as they cook more evenly and are easier to handle.