Mom’s Chinese Chicken Salad (手絲鷄沙律, Sau2 Si1 Gai1 Saa1 Leot6)

This recipe was updated on 15 Aug 2015. Some equipment was added and hyperlinks fixed.

My Mom would make her Chinese chicken salad for family gatherings, and since I have a very large family, there is no such thing as making just a little Chinese chicken salad. She would roast two chickens and hand shred the meat. Hand-shredding (手絲, sau² si¹) the chickens was an important step, since the Chinese believe that hand-shredding adds flavor to the dish (just be sure your hands are washed and clean!). All the other ingredients also require time to cut, chop, and crush in order to get to the finished dish. Note that making this recipe is a two day process.

I just recently asked my Mom for the recipe (which is found later in the post). The first time I made the dish, it didn’t turn out right. I used chicken parts and increased the amount of dressing. All wrong; since you need the gelatin from a whole chicken to flavor the dish, and just a small amount of dressing is required since the salad is almost “dry” when compared to the “wet” dressing used in most salads.

My second try was more successful. This version of the recipe is slightly different from my Mom’s original, with minor changes to the salad and dressing ingredients and quantities, and the taste was close to my Mom’s too. However, the quantity of salad hasn’t changed, so there’s still no such thing as just a little Chinese chicken salad.

Enjoy!

Soy Sauce Chicken (豉油鷄, Si6 Jau4 Gai1)

This recipe was updated on 16 Aug 2015. Some hyperlinks were fixed.

Poaching chicken is an easy and fast way to cook a chicken. While the Poached Chicken (白斬雞, Baak⁶ Zaam² Gai¹) with Ginger-Scallion Oil (薑蔥油, Goeng¹ Cung¹ Jau⁴) recipe uses water to poach the chicken, a soy sauce based solution is used to make this version of poached chicken. Usually dark soy sauce is used to give the chicken its color, but I tried using thick soy sauce (which has molasses) instead and I like the results better. The Poached Chicken (白斬雞, Baak⁶ Zaam² Gai¹) with Ginger-Scallion Oil (薑蔥油, Goeng¹ Cung¹ Jau⁴) recipe has instructions on how to cut and present the chicken. Just be sure you have a good sharp Chinese cleaver and a wood cutting board, and with a little practice, you’ll be able to cut chickens as if you worked in a Chinese delicatessen.

Enjoy!

Chicken with Dried Shrimp (蝦米鷄, Haa1 Mai5 Gai1)

This recipe was updated on 21 Apr 2015. Some instructions and ingredient quantities were changed.

Aside from the dried shrimp, this is a pretty standard chicken stir fry dish. Mushrooms are a common ingredient to include in this dish, but substituting dried shrimp gives the dish a different taste. Like mushrooms, dried shrimp tastes good with chicken and produces a different texture in the dish. Dried shrimp can be purchased at your local Asian market, usually in the refrigerator section.

Enjoy!

Chum Salmon and Snow Peas with Wood Ear Fungus (木耳荷蘭豆鮭魚, Muk6 Ji5 Ho4 Laan4 Dau6 Gwai1 Jyu4)

This recipe was updated on 25 May 2015. Some instructions were changed.

Here’s a quick cooking salmon dish with minimal preparation time. Chum salmon was available at my local Asian market, but you can substitute regular salmon if you can’t find the chum. The seasoning is very simple, in fact my usual cornstarch thickener isn’t used in the sauce so that the salmon is the dominant taste. The crunch in this dish comes from the snow peas and, to a smaller degree, the wood ear fungus.

Enjoy!

Basil Mussel Sausage Aglio e Olio

The basis of this dish is extra virgin olive oil and garlic. Whenever I’ve made this dish in the past, I would thinly slice garlic cloves to get the desired quantity (which is more than most recipes call for since I like garlic). At my local Korean market, minced garlic (mixed with a small amount of water) is available in containers up to 5 lbs. (2.3 kg), which is a lot of minced garlic! So I bought a 1 lb. (454 g.) container and used a small portion of that garlic for this recipe together with frozen mussel meat. Most recipes use fresh mussels in the shell to make this dish and the broth from cooking the mussels become part of the sauce. So to emulate that process, I thawed the mussels in white wine and then used the mussel infused wine in the sauce.

You can save some time by cooking the pasta while the other ingredients are prepared. I never do this since prep time always seems to exceed pasta cooking time for me, but for those of you that are speedier, you can use parallel processing to make this dish. Finally I used a wok to make this dish (which certainly isn’t a traditional Italian method!), but you can certainly use a pan.

Enjoy!

Chicken and Mustard Green Chow Mein (芥菜鷄炒麵, Gaai3 Coi3 Gai1 Caau2 Min6)

This recipe was updated on 29 May 2015. Some instructions and ingredient quantities were changed.

Mustard greens must be in season since they’ve been on sale at my local Asian market. Chicken and mustard greens is a combination that goes well together. Mustard greens not only add a crunchy texture to this dish, but also a distinctive taste to this noodle dish.

Enjoy!

Basil Lemongrass Chili Beef (紫蘇檸檬葉辣椒牛肉, Zi2 Sou1 Ning4 Mung4 Jip6 Laat6 Ziu1 Ngau4 Juk6)

This recipe was updated on 04 Jun 2015. Some instructions and ingredient quantities were changed.

I still have a lot of lemongrass left in my refrigerator after my purchase from my local farmer’s market for the Chili Lemongrass Squid (辣椒檸檬葉魷魚, Laat⁶ Ziu¹ Ning⁴ Mung⁴ Jip⁶ Jau⁴ Jyu⁴) dish. Another flavor that goes well with lemongrass is basil, and fresh basil leaves can be purchased at your local supermarket or if you’re fortunate enough, grown in your garden. The heat in this dish comes from dried red chilies, and the amount of dried red chilies to use is a personal preference, so feel free to use more or less. The sauce is based on fish sauce, which adds another flavor to the beef used in this dish. Soy sauce can be substituted, but the dish won’t taste the same.

Enjoy!