Three Cup Chicken

Three-Cup Chicken is a common dish served at Taiwanese beer houses, which usually open late and don’t close until dawn. Because most Taiwanese people don’t like to drink without having something to eat, beer houses are popular gathering places where you can get cheap and delicious xiah jio tsai, which are stir-fried dishes that go well with beer. But Three-Cup Chicken isn’t just a popular dish at the beer house. It’s also a common home-cooked staple. This week I’d like to share with you my own recipe for the yummy, spicy, gingery chicken dish.

You will Need:

Ingredients:

Serves 4 people

2½ lbs. chicken thighs
2-inch chunks ginger (about 2 Tbsp.), sliced
8 cloves garlic, sliced
4 hot peppers, sliced
2 scallions, cut in half
1 Tbsp. vegetable oil
1⁄3 cup cooking wine
2 Tbsp. plus 1 tsp. soy sauce
4 Tbsp. sesame oil
2½ tsp. raw sugar
big handful of fresh Thai basil

Directions:

Roughly cut up all the chicken thighs. In a large cast iron skillet bring 1/2 Tbsp up to high heat. Sear the chicken thighs for two minutes until it's coated in golden brown and set it aside. Cast iron skillet is obviously not a traditional Chinese kitchen ware but it's a great tool that I've adapted from Maine cooking.  

Now in a separate large wok or a nonstick skillet on medium high heat, toss in the remaining ½ Tbsp. vegetable oil, scallions, hot peppers, garlic and ginger. Cook for 30 seconds to one minute until you can smell the spicy aroma in the air. De-glaze the pan with the cooking wine and place the chicken thighs in the wok along with the sesame oil, soy sauce and raw sugar. Three-Cup Chicken got its name because traditionally it calls for the same quantity of cooking wine, sesame oil and soy sauce. But I’ve found that sometimes the sesame oil can be overpowering, and it can also end up a little too salty.

Cook it until all the liquid has been cooked down, which will take you about 10 to 12 minutes. After the chicken is cooked, remove from the heat and throw in a big handful of fresh basil. Cover it up and allow the basil to infuse in the chicken for 1 minute. If you can’t find Thai basil, regular basil will do as well.

 Serve it with a bowl of rice or a glass of beer and enjoy this delicious chicken dish!

Taiwanese Beef Noodles

Nothing beats a hot bowl of spicy noodles when the weather turns cool. And I have never met anyone who doesn’t enjoy Taiwanese beef noodles, which happens to be my home country’s national dish. The smell of the spicy broth always reminds me of a Taipei night market on a cold winter night. It is believed that beef noodles were brought to Taiwan by Chinese Nationalist Party soldiers from Mainland China when Chiang Kai Shek and his Kuomintang army fled to Taiwan after Wold War II. There is actually a street in Taipei called the “beef noodle street” where you can find all kinds of noodle shops originally founded by retired KMT solders. Each one seems to claim to be the original one. This week I would like to share with you my own recipe for the famous Taiwanese beef noodles.

You will need:

Ingredients:

1 lb. beef shank
5 scallions
1 inch chunk ginger (about 1½ Tbsp.)
5 cloves garlic
1 onion
1 tomato
2 dried hot peppers
2 ~ 3 carrots
3 Tbsp. vegetable oil
2 Tbsp. cooking wine
5 Tbsp. soy sauce
1 beef bouillon cube
1 tsp. chili paste
1½ tsp. granulated sugar
½ cinnamon stick
5 cloves
¼ tsp. fennel seeds
2 star anise
½ tsp. Szechuan peppercorn
1 bay leaf
a pinch five spice
salt and pepper
3½ cups water
3 ~ 4 servings noodle or pasta
handful of bok choy or cabbage (optional)

Directions:
Cut the beef shank into large cubes and season it lightly with salt and pepper. Bring 1 Tbsp. vegetable oil up to high heat in a heavy pot. Sear the beef shank cubes until they have a brown coating (about 1 minute), then take them out of the pot.

Cut 4 scallions into strips and slice the ginger and garlic cloves. In the same pot on high heat, toss in a scallion, ginger, garlic and the dried hot peppers along with the remaining 2 Tbsp. vegetable oil and 1 Tbsp. soy sauce. Cook for one minute, then de-glaze the pot with 2 Tbsp. cooking wine along with the cinnamon stick, cloves, star anise, bay leaf, fennel seeds, Szechuan peppercorn and a pinch of Chinese five spice. If you don’t have all of the spices, you can also just substitute them with an extra 1/3 tsp. Chinese five spice.

Now stir in the carrots, onion, tomato and the remaining scallions, which are all cut in to big chunks. Place the beef back into the pot and add in the remaining 4 Tbsp. soy sauce, 3½ cups water and chili paste. Bring it up to a steady simmer and turn the heat down to low. Cover it up and let slowly cook for 1.5 hour.

Blanch a handful of greens of your choice and cook the noodles right before the broth is ready to serve. In the past, I’ve also substituted the Chinese noodles with pasta noodles, which tastes just as good. Or you can also check out http://thewayriceshouldbe.blogspot.com/2015/12/homemade-noodles.html for my homemade noodle recipe.

Serve the soup and beef over the noodles and enjoy it while it’s warm!

Sponsored by The Free Press

Homemade Noodles

Noodles is one of the staples in our diet. In fact, there is a saying in Chinese, "Grain in the South, Wheat in the North." In Southern China rice is commonly consumed, while in the north, noodles and buns are the common dishes. Here's a very easy homemade noodle recipe which you can use for soup dishes or stir fries.

You will need:
Serves 5 people

3 C AP flour
1 C cold water
1Tbsp vegetable oil
pinch of salt

Directions:

Mix all of the ingredients together, kneed for 3 minutes until dough is smooth. Cover it up and let it rest for 30 minutes.

After the dough has rested, roll it out as thin as you can. Dust the surface well with flour the do a tri-fold. Cut the noodle with a sharp knife vertically. If you have a pasta machine, roll it out to the 3rd setting and cut it with the fettuccine cutter.

Loosen the noodles and dust it well with flour.

In a large pot on high heat, boil 6 cups water. Cook the noodles for 30 seconds and immediately shock it in ice cold water.

Pour hot broth over the noodles and it's ready to serve.

Get the full recipe for Taiwanese Beef Noodle http://thewayriceshouldbe.blogspot.com/2015/12/taiwanese-beef-noodle.html