Cooking Taiwanese style

Jimbeam3678

Jimbeam3678

Jimbeam3678

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After reading other peoples cooking experiences and asking more than my fair share of questions on here thought it was time I gave something back.

This dish is called '3 cup chicken' its the traditional dish of Taiwan and it just so happens my wife cooks it well!

First of all the ingredients are :-

Fresh Ginger
Fresh Garlic
3-6 chopped chillis depending on how hot you like it
2-3 spring onions chopped into thirds
As much basil as you like. I used two of those bags of it you get from Sainsburys
2 packs of chicken thigh/legs you can use chicken breasts if you wish
Sesame oil
Soy sauce and Sugar or you can use oyster sauce.
Rice wine (can use vodka)






First of all heat the sesame oil in a frying pan and then place the sliced ginger in and cook. The key here is to keep the heat on medium otherwise it will cook to quickly and taste bitter.

It should look like this.





Then throw in the chill and garlic and cook until browned.

Now put in the chopped chicken and white parts of the spring onion.
Once your chicken gets to this stage



You need to put a fair amount of soy sauce in followed by a teaspoon and a half of sugar in.
Should be looking something like this now



Now its time to put 2-3 desert spoons of rice wine/vodka in.


Now turn up the heat to full and put the green parts of the spring onion in along with the basil and mix in well for 2-3 mins.



Serve with rice or Udon noodles we chose rice


Hope you enjoy if anyone of you try it. Really is tasty something different and fairly easy to make.

If at any stage it starting to get slightly dry add a little water obviously not at the start with hot oil:p

Any questions just ask away.
 
That sounds pretty interesting - if only for the caramelised ginger and the huge amounts of basil :) Think I'll give it a try in the next few days.
 
Yum, that looks good, I think I'll give that a go at the weekend. When you say 2 packs, how many legs/thighs/breasts is that specifically?
 
FrenchTart said:
That sounds pretty interesting - if only for the caramelised ginger and the huge amounts of basil :) Think I'll give it a try in the next few days.
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It looks simple but as the name says it has 3 tastes going on in your mouth very good. The trick is at that start slowly cook the ginger don't rush it:)

Jokester said:
Yum, that looks good, I think I'll give that a go at the weekend. When you say 2 packs, how many legs/thighs/breasts is that specifically?
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I used 4 thighs and 2 V small chicken fillets. So I'd say 6 thighs , there is no exact science with it just taste towards the end and adjust if needed.

The soy sauce part just add enough so is sort of covers the bottom of the pan enough to create the base of your liquid.
 
OP, you're using the wrong kind of sesame oil.

You're using roasted. It should be unroasted. Roasted shouldn't be used to cook with, per se - only to add flavour at the end of the cooking process :)

I'd use either groundnut (peanut) or unroasted sesame oil if I were you. If you like the roasted sesame oil, add some at the end. The dish will have a much 'cleaner' set of flavours if you do this.
 
pmc25 said:
OP, you're using the wrong kind of sesame oil.

You're using roasted. It should be unroasted. Roasted shouldn't be used to cook with, per se - only to add flavour at the end of the cooking process :)

I'd use either groundnut (peanut) or unroasted sesame oil if I were you. If you like the roasted sesame oil, add some at the end. The dish will have a much 'cleaner' set of flavours if you do this.
Click to expand...

He isn't using the wrong oil that is how it is meant to be done. I always believed the above and that you only added toasted at the end, but if you look up 3 cup chicken recipes you'll find it used to cook with.

http://rasamalaysia.com/three-cups-chicken-recipe/2/ seems to be a fairly 'standard' recipe from reading a few.
 
pmc25 said:
OP, you're using the wrong kind of sesame oil.

You're using roasted. It should be unroasted. Roasted shouldn't be used to cook with, per se - only to add flavour at the end of the cooking process :)

I'd use either groundnut (peanut) or unroasted sesame oil if I were you. If you like the roasted sesame oil, add some at the end. The dish will have a much 'cleaner' set of flavours if you do this.
Click to expand...

To be honest it's my Mrs who was cooking, she's Taiwanese so since she was cooking her national dish I get my mouth shut.

She wouldn't dream of telling me how to do a roast dinner for example ,partly because they don't have oven over there :eek:

Like I said before if anyone tries it let me know what you think good or bad :)
 
I am going to make this in the week.

Would it make a massive difference if I used groundnut oil instead of sesame? I can always buy some, but I have groundnut already.
 
Crowort said:
He isn't using the wrong oil that is how it is meant to be done. I always believed the above and that you only added toasted at the end, but if you look up 3 cup chicken recipes you'll find it used to cook with.

http://rasamalaysia.com/three-cups-chicken-recipe/2/ seems to be a fairly 'standard' recipe from reading a few.
Click to expand...

3 Cup Chicken is traditionally a hotpot dish, not a stir-fry as adapted here. You might use roasted sesame in hotpots, but in stir-fried dishes? Well, I certainly wouldn't ....
 
pmc25 said:
3 Cup Chicken is traditionally a hotpot dish, not a stir-fry as adapted here. You might use roasted sesame in hotpots, but in stir-fried dishes? Well, I certainly wouldn't ....
Click to expand...

I know a few people in Taiwan who would beg to differ :p

The above recipe is near enough the traditional recipe according to my wife and mother in law.

I've literally just got off the phone from them and I mentioned this thread and apparently its the other way round it got adapted to a hotpot dish.

Stand to be corrected however:)

A few things have been tweaked here and there due to the necessary ingredients not been readily available in the UK.
 
PapaLazaru said:
I am going to make this in the week.

Would it make a massive difference if I used groundnut oil instead of sesame? I can always buy some, but I have groundnut already.
Click to expand...

Toasted sesame has a fairly distinctive flavour so you're almost certainly going to be better off using that rather than groundnut oil. I'm sure it won't "ruin" the dish though.
 
thail.jpg

Gave it a go last night, used pureed garlic and jarred ginger and oyster sauce. Was really tasty, so I'll do it again.
 
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