Green Tea Asian Chicken Recipes

CANTONESE POACHED CHICKEN (BAI QIE JI)

Steps:

• Make sure your chicken is at room temperature (trying to poach a cold chicken right out of the refrigerator will result in uneven cooking or undercooking). Clean the chicken by rinsing it under cold water, paying special attention to the cavity. Any giblets should already be removed but there may still be organs on the inside that should be removed or sometimes stray feathers that need to be plucked. Experts recommend that it's not necessary to wash your chicken before cutting and cooking but in this case for a whole chicken (especially if you get it from a live poultry place or even from Asian markets), it's a step that shouldn't be skipped, in my opinion. When washing and prepping the whole chicken, be very careful about splashing water and contaminating surfaces with unwanted bacteria. Be careful not to break or trim away any of the skin on the chicken, as you don't want the meat exposed to the boiling water as it cooks. This will ensure a moist, silky texture in the final product.
• Fill a large stock pot with water, just enough to submerge the chicken completely. You can determine this by putting the entire chicken in the pot, filling it with water until the chicken is submerged, and then removing the chicken. Do not turn on the heat while the chicken is still in the pot! This method of ensuring you have just enough water to submerge the chicken (and avoiding any extra) will ensure you have a more flavorful stock to save at the end. We used about 18 cups of water to submerge a 4 pound chicken in a deep stock pot.
• Once you have your water properly measured into the pot, add 2 scallions and 5 slices of ginger, and bring it to a boil. Once boiling, slowly lower the chicken into the pot, legs down and head up. It's ok if the breast is peeking out of the water a bit. The water will cool down and stop boiling when you add the chicken, so bring it up to a boil once again, and do not walk away from the pot.
• Once the water boils again, IMMEDIATELY lift the chicken out of the water very carefully. You can carefully hook two wooden spoons under the wings to lift the chicken up. The goal is to empty any colder water that may be trapped inside the cavity. Once you've released that water, lower the chicken back into the pot, and bring to a boil again.
• When the water is JUST starting to boil, turn the heat down. Keep it at barely a simmer. There should be very little movement in the water, but it also shouldn't be still. Cover the pot, and keep the heat around the lowest setting so the liquid continues to simmer slowly. Cook for about 35-40 minutes, roughly 10-11 minutes per pound. Depending on the size of your chicken, it may take more or less time to cook it through. You can check to make sure the water is bubbling slowly/gently and not boiling too vigorously, but try to avoid uncovering the pot while it's cooking.
• Poke a chopstick or skewer into the thigh to check for doneness. If the juices run clear, it's done. Carefully lift the chicken out of the pot and transfer it to a large bowl of ice water. Cool completely.
• While the chicken is cooling, make the sauce. You have the option to make two versions-one with just scallions, ginger, oil and salt, and one with soy sauce. The plain version is more traditional, as it really lets the flavors of chicken, ginger, and scallion shine through. Judy loves to add soy sauce, and it's also a tasty option! Start with the plain version, and then scoop some of it out into another bowl and add soy sauce. Try both and see which your loved ones like best!
• When the chicken is out of the ice water, you can brush it lightly with oil or some of the fat floating atop the poaching liquid to give it that enticing, shiny look!
• To serve, carve your chicken into pieces that you can easily grab with chopsticks. Serve with your sauce(s) and some steamed rice.

GREEN TEA POACHED CHICKEN WITH GREEN TEA RICE

Steps:

• Bring water to a near boil, pour over tea, and let steep 1 minute. Strain tea into a medium pot. Add onion, garlic, lemongrass, ginger, and chile; let cool slightly, then add chicken. Bring up to a simmer over medium heat, reduce heat, and gently simmer until the chicken is cooked through and a thermometerinserted into the thickest part reads 160 degrees, about 7 minutes. Remove chicken from poaching liquid; strain liquid, discarding solids.
• Place 4 cups of strained liquid in a medium pot. Add rice, olive oil, 1 teaspoon of salt, and black pepper. Bring to a boil, cover, and reduce to a simmer. Cook until all liquid is absorbed and rice is cooked through, about 50 minutes. Remove from heat and let stand 10 minutes.
• While rice is cooking, remove chicken from bone and shred into large pieces. Keep chicken in remaining poaching liquid and reheat just before serving. Season with 3/4 teaspoon of salt, and black pepper. Serve rice with chicken moistened with some of the reserved liquid. Top with sliced scallions, cold cucumber spears, and a squeeze of lemon.

TEA SMOKED CHICKEN

Steps:

• Toast the Szechuan peppercorns in a dry skillet until fragrant, about 4 minutes. Cool slightly, and then crush in a spice grinder or mortar and pestle with the salt and five-spice powder until very fine. Rub seasoned salt all over the chicken thighs. Place in a bowl, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 4 hours or preferably overnight.
• Bring the chicken to room temperature about 30 minutes before cooking.
• Line the bottom of a wok, skillet or heavy pot with a double layer of aluminum foil. Mix the rice, tea and brown sugar together and mound on the foil. Set a steamer on top, and evenly space the chicken on the rack. Cover and cook over high heat. Hot smoke the chicken until smokey-brown colored and cooked through, about 12 minutes.
• While the chicken cooks, whisk the Shao-sing wine or sherry, soy, ginger, and sesame together in a small saucepan. Bring to boil over high heat, remove from heat and steep for 5 minutes. Brush over cooked chicken.
• To serve: Dice the chicken into very small pieces. Toss with the scallions and peanuts in a medium bowl. Cut the lettuce leaves into 40 squares or triangular scoops. Place a drop of Sriracha on top of each lettuce cup, and top with about 2 teaspoons of the diced chicken. Squeeze lime juice over the top, and drizzle the remaining soy-ginger sauce over the chicken. Serve.

THAI GREEN CURRY ROAST CHICKEN

Steps:

• Sit the chicken in a flameproof roasting tin or shallow casserole dish and stuff the lemongrass, lime halves and ginger in the cavity. Mix half the curry paste with the oil and use your hands to smear the curry paste all over the chicken and under the skin. Can be prepared up to a day ahead and left to marinate, covered, in the fridge. Take out an hour before roasting.
• Heat oven to 200C/180C fan/gas 6. Cover the tin with foil and roast for 40 mins, then remove the foil and roast for another 30 mins until the chicken is cooked through and golden. Lift the chicken, draining the roasting juices back into the tin, and sit on a board or dish that will catch the juices. Use a pair of tongs to remove the lime, lemongrass and ginger from the cavity and place them in the tin with the remaining curry paste and brown sugar.
• Place the tin back on the heat and sizzle everything together, squashing the lime with the back of a spoon until everything is sticky. Pour in the coconut milk and bring to a simmer, stirring well, then add any resting juices and the fish sauce. Simmer again briefly, then sit the chicken back in the tin and scatter with coriander, if using, and the chilli. Bring the chicken to the table and serve with rice and greens with the curry sauce spooned over, and extra lime wedges on the side for squeezing over.

ASIAN GREENS WITH CHICKEN

Steps:

• Heat 2 teaspoons olive oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Saute onions in hot oil until slightly softened, 3 to 5 minutes. Place chicken in skillet and season with garlic salt and black pepper. Cover the skillet with a lid and cook until chicken is browned on one side, 3 to 5 minutes. Turn chicken and season with garlic salt and black pepper on the other side. Transfer chicken and onions to a cutting board and chop chicken.
• Stir bok choy into the same skillet, reduce heat to low, cover the skillet with a lid, and cook until greens are slightly tender, about 1 1/2 minutes.
• Bring water to a boil in a saucepan; remove from heat. Stir couscous spice packet contents and 1 tablespoon olive oil into water; add couscous. Cover saucepan and let stand until water is absorbed completely, about 10 minutes. Fluff couscous with a fork.
• Spoon couscous onto plates, top with greens, onions, and chicken, respectively, and sprinkle tomatoes and Mizithra cheese over the top.

GREEN TEA ASIAN CHICKEN

Steps:

• Stir sugar into tea while hot; let cool. Combine, coriander, salt, black pepper, garlic, ginger and 2 tbsps of the canola oil.Place the chicken in a large ziplock bag and add half of the marinade. Seal the bag and let it chill for 1 - 6 hours.
• Heat the remaining marinade over medium high heat about 4 minutes or until reduced by one-third.
• Remove the thighs from the marinade and discard marinade in the bag. Heat remaining 1 tbsp of oil in a large skillet. Add chicken to skillet without crowding and cook until browned, 3 to 4 minutes on each side. Serve the chicken over the greens and drizzle with remaining sauce.
• Serve over mixed greens of arugula, spinach, cilantro and mint. Steam rice would be nice as well.
• NOTE: If using chicken breasts it will take longer to cook. Make sure they are completely cooked.

CHINESE GREEN TEA

Steps:

• Bring water just to a boil. Remove from the heat.
• Put the tea leaves in a strainer and put in the water to steep (or add tea bags if you are using them instead). Steep for 3-5 minutes.
• Remove tea and serve immediately in a teapot.

TEA-SMOKED CHICKEN

Steps:

• In a dry, small, heavy skillet toast peppercorns over moderate heat, shaking skillet, 5 minutes. Cool peppercorns and with a mortar and pestle or in an electric coffee/spice grinder coarsely grind. In a small bowl stir together peppercorns and salt.
• Pat chicken dry and rub inside and out with peppercorn mixture. Transfer chicken, breast side up, to a steamer and steam over boiling water, covered, 25 minutes, or until chicken is just cooked through.
• While chicken is steaming, line bottom and lid of a wok with heavy-duty foil. In wok stir together loose tea and brown sugar until combined well.
• Arrange a metal rack about 2 inches above tea mixture and transfer chicken, breast side up, to rack in wok. Heat wok, covered, over moderately high heat until wisps of smoke begin to appear, 2 to 3 minutes, and smoke chicken, covered, 6 minutes. Turn chicken over and smoke, covered, 6 minutes more. Remove wok from heat and let chicken stand, covered, 15 minutes.
• Transfer chicken to a cutting board and brush lightly with oil.