Red Cooked Chicken and Fried Rice

Today was a "kitchen day" so after making my orgasmic Apple Dumplings (yeah I said orgasmic) I dove into my International Recipe Cookbook and picked China!

I made Red Cooked Chicken and Fried Rice.

What was fun about this dish was finding the ingredients I needed. Checked Walmart and the Commisary and yet I kept coming up empty handed.

I always wondered why I saw so many Korean places outside of the posts we're stationed at. Well friends, I no longer wonder, I appreciate it!

I found an amazing little Oriental supermarket and a semi - English speaking employee to help me find the ingredients I lacked. This dish has some authentic Chinese ingredients that you won't find in your average grocery store so I'll star them and at the end of my list I'll elaborate on what to look for.

How to do it:

4 lbs bone - in, skin on chicken pieces (I used boneless skinless chicken breast and it worked perfectly fine. I'm not a big dark meat fan so I stick with the boob. Gotta love the boob!)
2 TBSP olive oil
2 TBSP minced or grated fresh ginger
6 medium garlic cloves minced (it's about 2 TBSP worth)
1 TSP sichuan peppercorns*
3 star anise*
1/3 low sodium chicken broth
1/2 cup dark soy sauce*
1/4 cup Chinese rice cooking wine or dry sherry (I used the dry sherry and it worked just fine)
3 TBSP toasted sesame oil*
3 TBSP light brown sugar

- Sichuan peppercorn have a purple-ish- red husk and shiny black seeds, if you can find them without the seeds that's best. If not you'll need to remove the seeds.

- Star anise is a dried plant thing that looks like a star with a stem and seeds (see below)



 - Dark soy sauce. Now you're probably thinking, "Why is soy sauce starred? I know what soy sauce is!"

It's starred because it turns out there are 2 kinds of soy sauce, light soy sauce which is what we are all used to, it's thinner, more saltier, and used as a condiment. The other is dark soy sauce. This one is thicker, a bit more sweet, and is used to cook with. I was not able to find this anywhere except at my groovy grocery store. This is what you should look for:

If you're lucky on the back it'll say "Sweet Sauce" but don't count on it :P

- The sesame oil is starred mainly because I couldn't find it at Walmart but I did find it at the commisary because they have a nice Oriental section so you may want to check there first.

Ok onto the directions:

1) Heat your olive oil in a pot on med/ high heat(I used a spaghetti pot since it's nice and deep)
2) Pat your chicken pieces dry before putting them in the pot. Let them brown on each side.. you don't need to worry about them being cooked all the way at this point. It takes about 5-8 minutes per side.Once they are browned remove them and put them on a plate.
3) Remove all of the olive oil except about 1 TBSP from the pot (or add more if need be) and add your ginger, garlic, sichuan peppercorns, and star anise. Cook over medium heat until it starts being fragrant (takes only about 30 seconds).
4) Stir in your chicken broth, soy sauce, sherry (or rice wine if you bought that), seasme oil, and brown sugar.
5) Put the chicken into the pot, bring it to a simmer and then cover it and put it on med / low heat.
6) If you're using the chicken breasts like I did you'll leave the chicken on one side simmering for 10 minutes, flip them over, and continue to simmer them on the other side for another 10 minutes. The chicken should be cooked all the way through (mine were).

Fried Rice:

I don't have an actual recipe for this one because I've just played around with different ways to make it and this is the way my family liked it best.

4 servings of white Minute Rice
light soy sauce
1/2 of a medium onion
2 carrots
3 eggs
olive oil
salt

1) Cook your white rice according to the package directions (I always do it in the microwave because I'm lazy)
2) While waiting for the rice to cook, scramble the eggs and chop the onions and carrots.
3) Once the rice is finished, put it in a large skillet, douse the rice with olive oil, add in your veggies and eggs, and fry on med/ high heat.
4) Half way through the frying process add in soy sauce to get the brown color and finish frying the rice.
5) Let cool and add salt to taste.

I was honestly surprised at how good this was, not to mention not only did my husband love it but my kids ate it!! *insert shocked face here*

Don't be daunted by the list of ingrediants or the long directions list, in reality it honestly wasn't that hard to make at all!