Cooking Tips - Steamed Chicken

Tong Kwai and Wolfberry(kei chi)



Steamed chicken is only for old folks, my younger son used to say
and he might be right.For almost all youngsters, what better way
to eat chicken than the fried crispy skinned ones like the KFC.
Also my normal way of steaming chicken, the old-fashioned way
as taught by my mother, is to include dried Chinese mushrooms,
'kum chum' and black fungus which even I myself don't like.
Another type is the steamed whole chicken which we Chinese used
to offer on our ancestor's tablet on Chinese festivals with green
vegetables and spring onions placed on top of the chicken. This
type of chicken usually ends up boiled with 'kai choy' and all
unfinished dishes of the festival with assam pieces. This way it
turns up a great dish and my 2 sons relish this dish very much.

A better and more nutritiuos way to steam chicken is to make it
simple, where less is more. Less, because the ingredients are only
tong kwai, kei chi, ginger. More as in more nutrition from the
herbs. Kei chi by the way is also known as wolfberry. I only knew
about this recently when I was browsing through a Chinese magazine
in my hair dresser's place. What a delight to find a recipe with
English translation but was stuck with the wolfberry. My hair
dresser translated it as kei chi in the Chinese version.

Tong kwai is a herb which I can personally vouch for especially
for women and no harm for men too. But a lot of people just
couldn't stand the smell especially my younger son. Whenever I
brewed the herbs he will say 'ma, you are not brewing the foul-
smelling herbs again?' I explained that even 'bah kut teh' has
tong kwai in it and you are not complaining.

Ingredients

tong kwai- just 2-3 pieces so that the taste will not be too
overwhelming.
kei chi - 1 tbsp.
ginger - several pieces.
soya sauce - to taste
salt - to taste
Chinese cooking wine - 1 tbsp.
kampung chicken.

Method

Just mix all ingredients into the chicken and steamed for
15-20 mins. Please note that chicken in pieces will cook
faster than a whole chicken thigh. You can plunge in a
chopstick if you are not sure. If the liquid is clear then
its cooked.